Other News

Former US Vice President Al Gore has arrived in the UK to address how the perils of climate change can be overcome as he promotes his new documentary An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. The film is a follow-up to his blockbuster 2006 global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth. It was a massive box office hit. His new film hammers home the same message as his first film. He was Vice President…
Read More »

Scientists from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team have developed a simple method to convert used cooking oil into biofuel. Bizarrely, the system uses reusable carbon material derived from old rubber tyres. The Oak Ridge team’s approach combines modified, recovered carbon with sulphuric acids, which is then mixed with free fatty acids in household vegetable oil to create…
Read More »

The Canadian government is set to invest $2.6 million (€1.8 million) into Sustane, a Halifax, Nova Scotia based waste-to-energy company. Sustane claims to have developed a new process which converts municipal solid waste into clean burning fuel and other recycled products. The investment will be used to scale up Sustane’s technology, supporting the creation of a demonstration facility…
Read More »

The Biofuels International Conference, a world leading biofuels event, will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 and 5 October 2017, covering the whole biofuels supply chain. The show will focus on all the new developments and the latest challenges. Topics covered in the seminars include global policy uncertainty, reintroducing E10, RED II and the future of the bioethanol market. For the…
Read More »

Renewable diesel producer Neste has published its financial results for the first half of 2017. The Finnish company reports a continuation of its ‘solid’ performance alongside record sales volumes in renewables. These results have come despite the uncertainty in early 2017 surrounding the US Blender’s Tax Credit. "Neste's solid performance continued in the second quarter. Oil…
Read More »

A team of chemists have discovered a new way to produce carbon-based liquid fuels from CO2. The new additive, identified by a team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), selectively converts CO2 ­fuels containing multiple carbon atoms, a step towards producing renewable liquid fuels which are not derived from coal or oil. "The results were quite shocking," says…
Read More »

Helsinki airport has been awarded the international Airport Carbon Accreditation certificate (ACA) to verify its carbon neutrality. “The ACA certificate awarded to Helsinki Airport is an important milestone in the implementation of Finavia’s accelerated climate programme at our airports.  Our climate programme comprises a number of different measures, but Helsinki Airport plays a…
Read More »

Scientists from Sandia National Laboratories are working to see if one of California’s most polluted lakes can be turned into a profitable source of algae biofuel. The 350-square-mile Salton Sea in Southern California has elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus due to agricultural runoff. Algae thrives in these conditions, something which causes a host of environmental problems. The team…
Read More »

Greenbelt Resources Corporation has received “Eco Friendly Technology” registration for its ECOsystem process. Greenbelt claims that the certification gives the company a greenlight to offer its waste-to-energy process as a solution available to address Indonesia’s food waste challenge. Indonesia is the world’s second biggest ‘food waster’ after Saudi…
Read More »

Algal biofuel production is “neither environmentally nor commercially sustainable”, claims a marine biologist from Swansea University in an article appearing on The Conversation. Professor Kevin Flynn claims the hype surrounding the potential of third-generation algal biofuel has been ‘misplaced’. He notes that millions of dollars and euros have been spent on trying to…
Read More »

EU ethanol production is expected to grow in 2017 and 2018, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s EU Biofuels Annual 2017. This growth will come despite bioethanol consumption being in decline since 2011. “In 2014, the sector benefitted from low feedstock prices and restrictive measures on bioethanol imports, and as a result EU bioethanol production rose to about 5.3…
Read More »

The UK government is set to announce a ban on new diesel and petrol cars and vans in the country from 2040, according to the BBC. A £225m fund to help tackle emissions from diesel vehicles, as part of a £3 billion package on air quality spending, is also set to be announced, the BBC claims. Following a legal battle, the government was ordered by the High Court to produce new plans to…
Read More »

A researcher at Queen's University Belfast has discovered a way to convert aluminium foil waste into a biofuel catalyst, which could help to solve global waste and energy problems. In the UK, around 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging is wasted each year - enough to stretch to the moon and back. Most of this is landfilled or incinerated as it's usually contaminated by grease and oils, which…
Read More »