Other News

Indian state Gujarat’s Energy Development Agency (GEDA) has given approval to private groups for setting up biomass power plants in 25 districts of the state. The approvals amount to a combined generation of 317MW of energy. ‘The first of its kind power plant in the state that uses 300 tonnes of biomass a day such as fuel cotton stalks, sesame stalks and groundnut shells is proposed to come…
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The world’s first legal bio-fuelled flying car is set to journey 3,600 miles from London to Timbuktu. The Parajet Skycar is a dune buggy with a fan motor and paragliding wing attached. While on the ground, the Skycar runs off a biofuel-powered engine capable of taking it from 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds with a top speed of 108mph. The expedition will travel through France, Spain, Morocco, Western…
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Canada-based biofuels and biochemicals technology Enerkem has announced that its first commercial-scale plant located in Westbury, Quebec, is entering start-up phase and will soon begin production of the company's clean conditioned synthesis gas. The company’s Westbury plant will process treated wood from used electricity poles. At full capacity it will produce 5 million litres of…
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Texas-based GreenHunter Biofuels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GreenHunter Energy, has received approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sell GreenHunter Biodiesel to the on-road market in the US. This approval by the EPA improves GreenHunter Energy’s biodiesel distribution capabilities in the US, and further enhances the company’s strategy of diversifying risk by…
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US-based Liberty Green Renewables Indiana plans to build a 28 megawatt biomass-to-electricity plant on 110 acres northwest of Milltown, Indiana. The Crawford County plant will cost $80-90 million (€57-64.5 million). Funding for the project is expected to come through equity investments, bank financing, local tax abatement and federal New Markets Tax Credits, which the company plans to seek.…
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Nigeria-based Global Biofuels is establishing the first of a number of refineries for the production of bioethanol from sweet sorghum. Ethanol will be blended with petrol to make E10. Global Biofuels is planning to establish the project in nine Nigerian states. It expects to start production in December 2009, with an initial production capacity of 27 million litres a year. The company will…
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The Rees Labor Government in Australia is set to approve a AUD$400 million (€208.7 million) expansion of an ethanol plant owned by the Manildra Group, the largest manufacturer of ethanol in Australia. The plan for expanding ethanol fuel production at the Shoalhaven Starches Plant is due to be approved this week by Planning Minister Kristina Keneally. The approval will allow the Nowra, New…
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The Philippines Department of Energy (DoE) will accredit five biofuels manufacturing facilities in 2009. The DoE says the new plants will ensure adequate local supply biofuels and meet the mandated higher biofuels blend. ‘Alternative fuels are currently in various stages of development and uses as it will become more crucial to the country’s energy mix,’ the DoE says. Energy Secretary…
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Portugal-based biodiesel producer Gleinol is set to install a unit to produce biodiesel in Castelo Branco using oil-producing plants from Angola. Gleinol has set up partnerships in Africa and in Brazil to obtain raw materials for the project, José Luís Brito, Gleinol director, comments. Gleinol started out with a production area of 700 hectares in Angola, which recently increased to 13,000…
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The US will fall short of the Renewable Fuels Standard, the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) warns. The country will only blend about 30 billion gallons of fuels like corn-based ethanol and advanced fuels into petrol by 2022, 17% short of the US mandate of 36 billion gallons by that year, the EIA forecasts. ‘The key risk factor is the rate of development of cellulosic…
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The Philippines-based San Carlos BioEnergy will start commercial operations of its P2.5-billion (€38.9 million) integrated ethanol distillery and co-generation power plant by mid-January. The project responds to the country’s 5% ethanol mandate to commence in February. San Carlos BioEnergy started testing and commissioning of the plant in December. The plant, located at the San Carlos…
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Cuba will install a modern biogas industrial plant in central Cienfuegos province in 2009. The plant will generate electricity using the excrement of pigs from the General Swine Complex in the town of Palmira, and forms the beginning of a national programme. It is estimated that only 50% of more than 700 biogas plants in the country are in operation, but efforts are being made for their…
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Iowa State University has received a $2.37 million (€1.74 million) grant from the Iowa Power Fund to replace natural gas usage in ethanol plants with biomass gasification technology. The project will examine the production of ethanol from syngas. It will also study more efficient burners to use the syngas production from biomass gasification for thermal energy or for combined heat and power…
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