Other News

V8 Supercar champion and Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Winterbottom is the face of a new advertising campaign encouraging motorists to increase their use of biofuels in Queensland, Australia. Minister for Energy and Biofuels Mark Bailey joined Winterbottom to launch the state’s Palaszczuk Government’s new E10 OK biofuels education campaign at the RNA showgrounds on Monday. Bailey said the…
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In the US, Iowa State University and Chevron U.S.A have developed the BioCentury Research Farm, a biofuels pilot plant, as a joint project. The project’s aim is to develop and demonstrate an advanced biorenewables technology called solvent liquefaction. The process converts biomass such as quarter-inch wood chips into a bio-oil that can be processed into fuels or chemicals and a…
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Global Bioenergies and Clariant have started isobutene production from a wheat straw hydrolysate in the industrial pilot of Pomacle Bazancourt. The project combines Clariant’s proprietary process, allowing for the conversion of agricultural residues into sugar-rich hydrolysates, with Global Bioenergies’ proprietary process for the production of isobutene from various industrial-grade…
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US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Texas-based Mard, formerly known as KiOR, and its former CEO and president Fred Cannon non-disclosure of key facts regarding the company’s technology. The charge, filed on 26 September, states the company and Cannon failed to disclose important assumptions about the yield that KiOR had claimed to have achieved through its proprietary…
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AIM-listed Velocys, a UK-based gas-to-liquids (GTL) has announced that the construction of its Envia GTL plant in Oklahoma City, US, is complete. The plant will convert landfill gas into fuels and chemicals. On-site loading of catalyst into the Fischer-Tropsch reactors has been completed by Velocys with support from its internationally-recognised partner, Mourik. Pre-commissioning work, including…
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Solenis, a leading global producer of specialty chemicals, announced today a global price increase on all process and water products effective 15 October, 2016, or as customer contracts allow. The price adjustments will be 2 to 4% dependent upon products, services and geographic region. "Inflationary pressures associated with energy, transportation and labour, combined with investment cost for…
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Germany-headquarted bioethanol producer CropEnergies has announced that it is ready to operate its bioethanol plant in Wilton, UK, at full capacity. The facility named Ensus, based in the north east of England, has been mothballed since February 2015. Work was halted after bioethanol prices dropped amid sluggish European markets and low oil prices. However, after carrying out a number of…
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Industry experts have outlined their 2030 biofuels vision at the 9th Biofuels International Conference. By 2020, the EU aims to have 10% of the transport fuel of every EU country come from renewable sources such as biofuels. However, many industry heavyweights have criticised the EU for not coming up with a post-2020 plan. Speaking to Biofuels International at the sidelines of the Biofuels…
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The Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) has called for a worldwide ban on biofuels production, claiming that it contributes to world food shortages. Using crops to produce fuel in a bid to reduce dependence on fossil fuel is a failed initiative which should be abandoned immediately, ICST’s Shahid Rasheed Butt told the Daily Times. He said in a statement that imposing a ban on…
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GreenWood Resources, a global timberland investment and asset management company based in Oregon, has licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology based on the discovery of a gene in poplar (Populus trichocarpa) that makes it easier to convert poplar trees into biofuels. GreenWood plans to commercialise the technology to select and breed better varieties of poplar with less lignin…
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Airliner KLM has signed a three-year biofuel offtake agreement with biojet fuel specialists SkyNRG and AltAir. As part of the agreement, KLM will purchase sustainable jet fuel for all flights departing from Los Angeles, US. The fuel, produced by AltAir Fuels and supplied by SkyNRG, is made from used cooking oil and delivered via the airport’s hydrant system. This is part of a new era for…
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The US Department of Agriculture has provided $16,893 (€15,000) to Advanced Biofuels USA, a Maryland-based non-profit educational organisation, for a feasibility study of producing bio-jet fuel from energy beets grown on the eastern shore of Maryland. The study will look at the technical and economic aspects of a project being developed by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES),…
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Edeniq, a US cellulosic and biorefining technology company, has announced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Pacific Ethanol’s Stockton, California, plant using Edeniq’s Pathway Technology, allowing the facility to generate D3 cellulosic renewable identification numbers (RINs) for its cellulosic output under the renewable fuels standard (RFS). “This…
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