Other News

US-based marketer and producer Pacific Ethanol has increased its Q3 sales and lost more money due to higher demand for ethanol and more expensive corn. Shares of Pacific Ethanol dropped $0.17 (â?¬0.14) to close at $0.91 after the company reported a hefty loss in early November. The company lost $54.9 million in the quarter ended 30 September, compared to the loss of $4.84 million, or…
Read More »

Vital Renewable Energy Company (VREC), a new Brazilian company, has secured funding amounting to $1 billion (€799 million) for ethanol and electricity generation projects in Brazil. The funding was completed by an international consortium of private investors including Paladin Capital Group, Vision Brazil Investments, Leaf Clean Energy Company, Petercam Asset Management and PCG Clean Energy…
Read More »

The federal government is raising the target for the amount of ethanol used in the US petrol supply to 11.1 billion gallons. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set its 2009 Renewable Fuels Standard at 10.21%, equating to 11.1 billion gallons of ethanol. The 2008 RFS was 7.76%, or an approximate 9 billion gallons. The US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 formed a…
Read More »

Agribusiness US Sugar has entered into an agreement with Illinois-based renewable energy company Coskata to explore building a 100 million gallon a year cellulosic ethanol facility in Clewiston, Florida. The facility would be the world's largest second generation ethanol facility. It would convert left-over sugarcane material into ethanol, and would help Florida meet its aggressive second…
Read More »

Dominican Republic-based W2E Resources will construct a plant to produce ethanol and electricity, transforming solid waste, including sugarcane bagasse, at a cost of around US$200 million (€158.5 million). The company is undertaking the environmental impact study and engineering of the final draft, with construction expected to begin early next year, and around 24 months for the plant's…
Read More »

Cambodia opened its first ethanol factory to generate biofuel from cassava flour on Monday 17 November. The plant has a capacity of 36,000 tonnes a year. ‘This factory will become the market place of cassava product for local farmers,’ Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen comments. The project, with $40 million (€31.5 million) investment from MH Bio-energy Group of South Korea, has already…
Read More »

Ethanol producer VeraSun Energy expects to report a Q3 net loss of approximately $464 million (€367.6 million). The figure is more than four times the number quoted in an earlier announcement that accelerated the company's fall into bankruptcy protection. The second largest US producer, with about 13% of the nation's ethanol capacity, filed for bankruptcy protection in early…
Read More »

Arizona-based food processor Tyson Foods and technology provider Syntroleum have broken ground on a joint-venture (JV) biodiesel plant that will turn animal fat into high-quality diesel and jet fuel. The $138 million (101 million Euro's) Dynamic Energy plant in Geismar, Louisiana, is scheduled to produce 75 million gallon/year (284 million litres/year) of the renewable fuel by 2010. Tyson…
Read More »

US-based White Mountain Group is expected to inject US$16 million (€12.6 million) worth of investment into Australian Biodiesel Group (ABG) in exchange for 51% of ABG's issued share capital. White Mountain will provide US$6.2 million to install a new processing and refining plant to be located on current ABG premises. Another US$3 million will go to securing a technology licence for the…
Read More »

German bioenergy company Verbio has restarted its 100,000 tonne/year bioethanol plant in Zorbig in Germany's Saxony-Anhalt state as prices have stabilised and demand improved. 'In a generally declining market, the price of bioethanol has stabilised,' says Klaus-Dieter Bettien, general manager of the Zorbig site. Demand was rising, partly due to an increase in bioethanol blending…
Read More »

Germany-based biofuel producer Verbio has reported higher profits with the aid of growing biodiesel exports, but made losses on bioethanol. ‘About 40% of biodiesel production was exported, largely to east Europe,’ the company says, adding that Germany's increased taxes on biofuels resulted in a large cut in sales by all producers inside Germany. It estimated sales by all producers of…
Read More »

Boeing and Air New Zealand have announced that they will conduct the first flight test of second generation sustainable biofuel in an airliner on 3 December. The planned test will be carried out using an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 flying from Auckland, New Zealand. During the flight, one of the jumbo jet's four Rolls-Royce engines will run partly on jatropha-based biofuel. Successful biofuelled…
Read More »

Carotech, one of Malaysia’s largest producers of palm methyl ester, has signed a RM200 million (€43.9 million) contract with Trafigura Beheer, Amsterdam, for the export of its refined and distilled palm biodiesel to the US and Europe. ‘Trafigura has been our customer since 2007 and this agreement is important to us as it would take up more than 50% of our capacity and provide certainty to…
Read More »