Other News

Japan Airlines completed a 90-minute flight powered by fuel with a 50% biodiesel blend on 30 January. The flight is the first to use camelina oil, which made up 84% of the biofuel blend. The remainder was less than 16% jatropha oil and the rest algae oil. The camelina blend was used in the No. 3 engine made by Pratt & Whitney. The Boeing 747-300 aircraft took off from Haneda Airport in…
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Biodiesel producer Bionor will invest US$209 million (€163 million) in a project to produce 300 million litres of biodiesel a year in the state of Paraiba, Brazil. The investments are scheduled for the first half of 2009, with land purchase and the installation of the first seedling nursery and a laboratory already defined. The project will use the oleaginous plant gentle-pinion as…
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UK-based food waste recycler Prosper de Mulder (PDM) has announced plans to spend £110 million (€123 million) over the next three years on waste to energy plants. The company will construct five new food waste-to-energy plants using both biomass and anaerobic digestion (AD) technology. PDM will secure 17,000 tonnes a year of waste from UK supermarket Sainsbury's 283 nationwide stores by…
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Nebraska, US-based ethanol producer Green Plains Renewable Energy has acquired a majority interest in Houston-based biofuel terminal operator Blendstar. Green Plains acquired 51% of Blendstar from Bioverda U.S. Holdings for $9 million (€7 million). Blendstar currently operates terminal facilities in Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Nashville, Knoxville, Louisville and Birmingham. Additionally,…
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California-headquartered Sirona Fuels has acquired producer Blue Sky Biofuels. Blue Sky Biofuels’ Oakland, California-based biodiesel refinery is permitted for 15 million gallons a year and is currently producing ASTM-spec biodiesel from recycled cooking oil. Sirona has implemented plans for the rapid expansion of its used cooking oil collection business, and by the end of 2009 expects to…
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Sierra Leone has launched a $200 million (€154 million) renewable energy project, which includes the production of ethanol. The project’s sugarcane plantation will take 20,000 hectares of land and the ethanol plant will produce more than 1.2 million litres of ethanol a year. In addition, a 30MW power plant will also be in operation. The project’s funding has been approved and construction…
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The Netherlands-based biodiesel producer Solarix, the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and technology company Yellow Diesel have received a €1 million subsidy for developing new biofuels from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, as part of the EOS KTO programme (short term energy research). The funding forms part of a €1.5 million R&D project for synthesising and commercialising a new…
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The first industrial biodiesel production plant in Latvia opened on 22 January. The plant constructed by BDI – BioDiesel International is located in the port area of Ventspils with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes. The plant will use vegetable raw materials coming from the Baltic states, the Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It is also capable of processing used cooking oils…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to assist the ailing ethanol industry by improving efficiency. The USDA will research, develop and promote best practices to improve efficiency at corn-based ethanol plants, which have suffered volatile corn prices and low demand for a fuel more expensive than petrol, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says. VeraSun Energy, the second-largest US…
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The sale of petrol with 7% ethanol content is anticipated for March in Costa Rica following a pilot plan conducted in the north-western area Guanacaste. Biofuels in the country will use a number of feedstocks. Ethanol is made from sugarcane and cassava, while biodiesel is extracted from oil-producing plants such as castor bean and jatropha. Roberto Dobles, minister of the environment and…
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US ethanol producer Poet may bid on plants owned by VeraSun Energy during an auction to be held in March, CEO Jeff Broin says. Earlier in January VeraSun obtained approval from a judge to auction seven of the eight ethanol plants it had bought from U.S. BioEnergy in 2008 for approximately $700 million (€527 million). Poet first expressed an interest in making investments in ethanol production…
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Second generation ethanol company Verenium has announced plans to build its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Highlands County, Florida. The company has entered into long-term agreements with Florida agri-business Lykes Bros to provide the agricultural biomass for conversion to fuel. Verenium also announced that the Highlands Ethanol project has been awarded a $7 million…
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The decision by the German government to raise taxes on biofuels and to reduce blending rates in fossil fuels will mean more biodiesel plants in the country will face closure, a German biofuels industry association says. Europe’s largest biodiesel industry has been operating at under 60% of its 5 million tonne a year capacity, Johannes Lackmann, CEO of German biofuels industry association VDB,…
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