Other News

A $1.8 million (€1.3 million) federal grant has been awarded to Clinton, North Carolina, for its water and sewer equipment at the city's cellulosic biofuels refinery. The $200 million investment, which looks set to produce 20 million gallons per year of cellulosic biofuels, is expected to start production in October and be fully operational by the end of 2016. The ethanol plant will use the…
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The EU Energy Council is expected to reach political agreement on measures to incorporate indirect land use change (ILUC) into EU biofuels policies on 13 June, which would effectively bring a close to almost two years of investment-blocking policy paralysis in the low carbon fuels sector. This is according to a statement from the UK's Renewable Energy Association (REA). Both the Environment…
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New research suggests that waste coffee could be used to power vehicles, help improve the sustainability of biofuels and respond to the issue of climate change. Researchers at the University of Bath have released a report published in the ACS Journal Energy and Fuels, detailing findings which show that waste coffee grounds have more potential for creating biofuels than originally thought. With…
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Energy company Maple Energy produced almost 3 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol at its Peru-based biofuel plant between 1 January and 31 March this year. This is according to a company update, released by Maple on 11 June. Almost 160,000 tonnes of sugarcane was harvested and processed for this ethanol. The average ethanol yield during this period was approximately 20.5 gallons per net tonne…
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Amyris, a renewable energy provider, has designed microorganisms that convert plant sugars to a molecule called farnesene. Farnesene is then converted into a pure hydrocarbon through a secondary process. The resulting product, farnesane, can be blended with Jet A/A1 at 10% blends, in accordance with the revised ASTM standard. Amyris is currently producing renewable farnesene from sugarcane at…
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Methes Energies, a renewable energy company, has chosen Genscape as its Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) provider for Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) verification. In a statement Methes said 'Genscape's robust programme is registered with the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and ensures our RINs will maintain a high standard for quality and reliability while providing the flexibility to…
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Zimbabwe's government has scrapped plans to increase the mandatory threshold for ethanol blending and will maintain the current levels, as a result of the disappointing sugarcane output. Initially, the government planned to increase the mandatory blending of petrol with ethanol to 20% by April this year from the current E15, reporting this would save $72 million (€53 million) in fuel…
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Defense Logistics Agency Energy, in coordination with the Navy, has released a solicitation seeking biofuels on a large scale for operational use. The Navy is seeking at least 37 million gallons of biofuels as part of its F76 marine diesel and JP5 shipboard jet fuel supply. Previously, biofuel blends of this nature were used only for the military's testing and certification purposes. The news…
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Clinton, Mississippi, has received $1.7 million (€1.3 million) to build a water and waste water infrastructure to aid the new Chemtex cellulosic biofuels plant. This project will use energy grasses to produce up to 20 million gallons per year of ethanol and bio-based chemicals in a bid to lower levels of greenhouse emissions. Its feedstock, Arundo Donax, which was approved in June 2013, will…
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EU energy ministers have agreed to limit the production of biofuels made from food crops to 7%. The ministers' compromise is welcomed following last year's deadlock when European Union governments failed to agree on a proposed 5% cap on the use of biofuels based from crops used in transport fuel. The 7% compromise includes a 0.5% target aimed at second generation biofuels, but this is non-binding…
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A research project, initiated at Qatar university (QU), is looking at the use of biofuels sourced from indigenous natural resources. QU vice-president for research Dr Hassan al-Derham hopes that the project, led by Qatar Biofuel project manager Hareb al-Jabri, contributes toward attaining the Qatar National Vision 2030. The project aims to produce clean and environmentally-friendly alternative…
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An Taisce, The National Trust for Ireland, has raised serious fears over the European Union's 'unsustainable' biofuels policy. The National Trust says that under the current EU policy, 70 million hectares of land will be needed to grow a sufficient amount of materials to reach the targets set. Ireland is also reliant on imported used cooking oil (UCO) as a source of biofuel, which currently makes…
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As research into alternative energy has grown, Japan is now looking to replace crude oil. Makoto Watanabe, a phycologist and professor at the University of Tsukuba's Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, believes algae is the best alternative to algae. Watanabe works with two species of microalgae, the photosynthetic Botryococcus braunii, and Aurantiochytrium, which feeds on organic…
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