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Two US senators have introduced legislation to eliminate the renewable fuels standard (RFS) corn ethanol mandate. Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) introduced the 'Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2015' last week. 'The federal mandate for corn ethanol is both unwise and unworkable,' says Senator Feinstein. 'Roughly 40% of corn in the United States is currently used for…
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Biodiesel exports from Argentina reportedly rose 40% on the year in 2014 to almost 1.6 million tonnes, according to Reuters and the Federal Statistics Agency. Total production rose 29.4% to 2.58 million tonnes. Tax on biodiesel exports were cut by the Buenos Aires government last year as a way of boosting the sector, which had been affected by European biodiesel import tariffs.
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Fire crews were called to the main building of the REV Biodiesel facility in Gilbert, Arizona on Monday morning after reports of smoke. The smoke was reportedly caused by plastic heating up in a small storage container. Workers near the facility were advised to stay inside while the smoke was cleared. No injuries were reported and the biodiesel company was able to resume working once the…
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The Port of Rotterdam has announced that the throughput of biofuels was 15% lower in 2014 than in 2013, representing a decrease of 3.8 million tonnes. This, the port says, is primarily due to a decrease in imports of biodiesel from Indonesia and Argentina as a result of extra import duties and taxes on dumping. Declining imports have been compensated by the growth of domestic production. The…
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Edinburgh, Scotland-based Celtic Renewables has become the first in the world to produce biofuel capable of powering cars from residues of the whisky industry. The company now plans to build a production facility in central Scotland after manufacturing the first samples of biobutanol from the by-products of whisky fermentation. Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research…
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Major biofuels producer Archer Daniels Midland has slowed its North American biodiesel output, reports Reuters. In a move that signals the industry's ongoing uncertainty over the US renewable fuels policy, production at ADM's Velva oilseed processing facility has been 'temporarily' shifted from biodiesel to other products. Production at its other North American facilities has also been cut,…
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The transition from a promising bench-scale lab concept with minimum funding, to obtaining funding to prove out a feedstock in a full-scale operation, often requires a creative solution to reduce feasibility testing costs and technologies. Many concepts, like new methods of processing a feedstock into biofuel, never make it to market because commercial-scale proof-of-concept testing is out of…
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Ethanol producer Aventine Renewable Energy has installed a $2.4 million (€2 million) Valicor corn-oil separation system at its Nebraska Energy plant in Aurora, Nebraska. 'By investing in this system we are adding to our revenue stream and diversifying beyond ethanol production in Nebraska,' says Mark Beemer, Aventine president and CEO. The system began operations in early January. Since corn…
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Calgren Renewable Fuels has opened a new manure-to-ethanol plant in California's San Joaquin Valley, located in one of the top dairy producing counties in the US and also one of the country's most air-polluted areas. The Calgren Ethanol Biodigester sits around 60 miles south of Fresno and will help reduce emissions and dependence on fossil fuels in the area while contributing to efforts in…
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The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will award start-up private company Renergi with $5.2 million (€4.5 million) in funding for the design and construction of a pilot-scale biofuel plant in Perth. ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht explains that the project would result in simple, cost effective production of renewable energy from biomass: 'Renergi was created out of Curtin University to…
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In the US, the Iowa Biodiesel Board (IBB) has registered its support of legislation that would raise the state's fuel tax. A provision of the legislation would give a partial exemption to the new tax for diesel blended with at least 11% biodiesel (B11). The proposed tax increase (HF 351 and SF 257) is $0.10 a gallon for both diesel and petrol as part of a plan to address Iowa's infrastructure…
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The Energy Department's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has chosen seven projects across the US to receive up to $10 million (€8.8 million) to support innovative technologies and solutions to help advance bioenergy development. These projects will support BETO's work to develop renewable and cost-competitive biofuels from non-food biomass feedstocks by reducing the risk associated with…
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