Other News
Chemical producer DuPont Industrial Biosciences and agricultural specialist Archer Daniels Midland Co. have developed a method of producing furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) from fructose.
The firms said the new breakthrough process had potential to open up a "vast landscape of bio-based materials offerings".
The technology has applications in packaging, textiles, engineering plastics and…
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Biotech specialist Novozymes has cut its long-term growth expectations as the prolonged oil price slump is delaying the development of the advanced biofuel industry and hurting sales to other sectors, the firm said.
Novozymes, which makes enzymes that speed up or improve chemical processes in a variety of industries, now expects organic sales growth of 6-7 % a year from 2017 through 2020, down…
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US ethanol producer Poet said it plans to add 25m gallons of annual ethanol production capacity at three of its plants in the course of 2016.
Poet Biorefining – Hanlontown in Iowa; Poet Biorefining – Hudson in South Dakota; and Poet Biorefining – Caro in Michigan, each filed separate expansion permits within their respective states and will soon be producing at the level their…
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A shareholder group of the Swiss agribusiness Syngenta are opposing the company’s planned sale to ChemChina and have called for a change in the company’s leadership.
According to Reuters, the managing director Folke Rauscher of the shareholders who represent about 10% of Syngenta’s capital is calling for a “comprehensive renewal” of the group’s board of…
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Kakira Sugar Works, a Uganda-based sugar giant, said it will start commercial output at its $37m (€34m) ethanol plant by the end of July.
The sugar firm hopes to produce 20m litres of ethanol using 74,000 tonnes of molasses — the by-product of sugar production — annually.
Speaking to local news agency The Independent, Kenneth Barungi, the assistant general manager, said the…
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The UK Government is preparing to consult on legislative changes to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) this year.
In correspondence published this week, Patrick McLoughlin, the UK's Transport Secretary, set out plans to decarbonise the UK's transport sector in a letter to Energy and Climate Change Committee chair Angus Brendan.
This includes plans for a proposed trajectory for…
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The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) group said it has filed a motion to intervene to support the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a challenge against the US biofuels standard from the country's biofuel and agricultural groups.
AFPM, which represents oil companies, stands by EPA's authority to reduce biofuels requirements from volumes established by Congress in…
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The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has predicted that ethanol production will average 970,000 barrels per day in both 2016 and 2017 in the US.
The organisation published the information in the January issue of its 'Short-Term Energy Outlook'.
The EIA has increased its prediction for 2016 when compared to the 960,000 barrel per day prediction included in the December Short-Term Energy…
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President Barack Obama used his last State of the Union address to make an economic case for action against climate change and call for accelerating the US away from "dirty energy" like coal.
Earlier in the week (12 January, 2015), the President broadly touted job growth in renewable energy industries and said making "technology work for us" to solve urgent issues like climate change is among the…
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The number of car manufacturers approving the use of E15, a fuel blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline, for their vehicles, continues to grow, according to an analysis by the Renewables Fuels Association (RFA).
RFA estimates that E15 was unequivocally identified by car manufacturers as an approved fuel for slightly more than 60% of model year (MY) 2015 vehicles sold, equating to some 10.7m…
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CropEnergies, a Germany-based ethanol producer, said its revenue for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2015/16, decreased by 11% to €558m, compared to the same period last year, due to the temporary closure of its bioethanol plant in Wilton, UK.
However, in a statement, the firm said that its profitability improved significantly due to favourable proceeds for bioethanol.
Earnings…
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Second-generation biofuel crops like the perennial grasses Miscanthus and switchgrass can efficiently meet emission reduction targets without significantly displacing cropland used for food production, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Illinois and collaborators published their findings in the inaugural edition of the journal Nature Energy.
The researchers call it the…
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The Governors' Biofuels Coalition, a US ethanol lobby group, has appointed Missouri Governor Jay Nixon as its chairman.
Nixon replaces Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who led the Coalition from 2014 to 2015.
The trade association also announced that Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts will become vice chairman of the group for 2016.
"For more than 20 years the Governors' Biofuels Coalition has worked…
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US-based biofuel and agriculture groups have asked a US court to a review the US Renewable Fuel Standards for 2014, 2015, and 2016, according to a court filing on Friday, kicking off a widely-expected legal battle over the controversial program.
A spokesman for Biotechnology Innovation Organisation told media agency Reuters that groups representing biofuels manufacturers and corn and sorghum…
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Shell India Markets, the Indian arm of Royal Dutch Shell, has announced plans to build a five tonne/day biofuel demonstration plant using IH2 technology on the site of its new technology centre in Bangalore, India.
IH2 technology is a continuous catalytic thermo-chemical process which converts a broad range of forestry/agricultural residues and municipal wastes directly into renewable hydrocarbon…
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