Other News

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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The European Union (EU) has granted £5 million (€5.1 million) to a Scotland, UK-led project to develop marine-based biofuels. The Scottish Association for Marine Sciences in Oban will lead development work with partners from Ireland. They will look at the viability of using marine biomass from seaweed and algae as an alternative to agri-fuel production from land-based plants. The…
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President-elect Barack Obama has elaborated his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan with a target to further expand the US’ renewable energy sector. ‘To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient,’ Obama said on Saturday 3 January. Next…
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A partnership between General Atomics and Eastern Kentucky University could provide the basis for a new and sustainable fuel production industry in Kentucky. With the establishment of the Eastern Kentucky University Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuel Technologies (CRAFT), researchers will examine the potential for a cellulose-derived biodiesel industry in the state. By using algae…
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ExxonMobil has begun mixing petroleum-derived and renewable diesel fuels at its 15-acre Spokane Terminal in Washington. The facility is ExxonMobil’s first biodiesel blending facility in the US. The $3.1 million (€2.35 million) blending operation was build after the 2006-announced Washington state law that requires 2% of diesel fuel an oil company sells in the state be biodiesel. The…
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Pennsylvania, US-based Thar Technologies plans to build a biodiesel plant in Rajasthan, India, using the region's karanj and jatropha crops. Karanj is a herb commonly found in India. The region has a policy to give 30% of wasteland to private companies seeking to grow the two biodiesel feedstocks. Thar plans to grow some of its own feedstock and buy the rest from area farmers. The company…
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A total of 8,900 biogas plants will be built in 2009 generating 2,700 megawatts (MW) of electricity worldwide. Globally, Asia is leading with 34% of total capacity and Europe with 26%, followed by NAFTA and others, a survey conducted by Helmut Kaiser Consultancy in November says. Biogas from by-products and combinations is the most efficient form of renewable energy and therefore not affected…
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