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Aug 7, 2009
Guardian Energy to resurrect ethanol plant
In the US, the Minnesota-based Guardian Energy has agreed to purchase a 100Mgy corn ethanol plant in Janesville, Minnesota from the financial services company AgStar Lending Group. Guardian Energy hopes to close the deal by 15 September. The Janesville plant has passed through a string of owners since planning originally began in 2004. The plant was originally built by US BioEnergy, which…
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Jul 22, 2009
The Aussies go bananas for fuel
A project in Australia’s Queensland is looking to generate power from bananas. Horticultural organisation Growcom intends to generate power from biogas from the 30% of harvested bananas in Australia which are deemed unsaleable and wasted along with leaves and plant stalks. Growcom’s Banana Waste 2 Energy (BW2E) project aims to capture the energy in banana waste for on-site power generation…
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Jul 23, 2009
Uganda to produce bioethanol from cellulose
Uganda may be producing bioethanol from non-food crops within a year, say scientists. A research programme led by the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) is using a wide range of cellulosic feedstocks such as elephant grass, cassava and wood. The production of ethanol from cellulose is more difficult than from food crops, since it requires the complex carbohydrates in cellulose…
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Jul 23, 2009
Mid-America Agri Products goes bankrupt
Mid-America Agri Products, the owner of a 44 million gallon per year bioethanol plant, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing unfavourable conditions in the bioethanol market. The plant had been operating at full capacity for less than a year. The plant closed in January, originally planning to reopen, but it has now laid its workers. City officials are hoping bioethanol production will…
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Jul 24, 2009
British Government urged to keep biofuels tax break
A parliamentary motion has been tabled urging the British Government to review its proposal to remove the tax incentive on biofuels. At present, biodiesel is taxed at £0.20 (€0.23) per litre less than fossil diesel. The government proposes to remove this incentive in 2010, instead fining oil companies whose fuel contains less than 5% biodiesel, generating revenue for the exchequer on two…
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Jul 24, 2009
New Zealand biofuels producers join forces
Two New Zealand-based research companies have joined forces in an effort to improve the economics of algal biofuel production. Many industries, including dairy, meat and paper, produce nutrient-rich wastewater that must be cleaned before it can legally be discharged into the watercourse. As part of this cleaning process, ‘settling ponds’ are used to remove organic sludge from the…
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Jul 24, 2009
Chicken-derived biofuel set to take flight
Biodiesel could be economically produced from processed chicken innards, say scientists in Nevada. ‘Chicken feather meal’ is a gruesome by-product of the poultry industry, consisting of chicken feathers, blood, and innards processed at high temperatures with steam. 11 billion pounds of this is produced every year in the US alone. Because of its high protein and nitrogen content it is often…
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Jul 27, 2009
ZeaChem expects high second generation yields
Colorado-based cellulosic ethanol specialist ZeaChem is on track to achieve yields of over 2,000 gallons per acre per year at a demonstration plant under construction in Boardman, Oregon, US. This yield is comparable with algae, but with fewer technical challenges to surmount. By contrast, the highest attained yields of ethanol from corn are about 450 gallons per acre per year. The…
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Jul 27, 2009
US commits to second-generation feedstocks research
The US Department of Energy (DoE) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are together planning to award $6.3 million (€4.4 million) in research grants towards the development of second-generation feedstocks for conversion to bioethanol. The joint programme will award seven grants, initially for a maximum of three years. Energy secretary Steven Chu recently highlighted the benefits of…
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Jul 27, 2009
Biofuels market to top $280 billion by 2022
The world market for biofuels is set to rise from $100 billion (€70 billion) to over $280 billion by 2022, according to a report by the Pike Institute. The report predicts that the increasing number of countries introducing biofuel consumption mandates and the higher production capacity from improved second-generation feedstocks will drive a worldwide annual growth rate of 15% between 2009…
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Jul 27, 2009
Italians to produce biodiesel from seaweed
Italian biodiesel producers currently producing from food crops are working together to substitute seaweed for first-generation feedstocks. The eight companies involved in the €10 million scheme currently produce diesel from crops like corn and rapeseed. They hope to be able to produce fuel from seaweed commercially within five years. ‘The initiative aims to substitute or integrate the raw…
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Jul 28, 2009
Pakistan salt flats ideal growing land for biofuel algae
Pakistan’s 27 million acres of saline land provide an ideal medium to cultivate algae for biofuel production, according to Ehsan Ali of Mie University of Japan. Various organisations are already aiming to produce biofuel from jatropha and castor oil cultivated in Pakistan, but the use of algae as a feedstock would have numerous benefits for the country, Ali said in a recent seminar. In…
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Jul 28, 2009
Areva and Astonfield team up to develop Indian biomass
US-based Aston Renewable Resources has signed a deal with French nuclear power expert Areva to contribute €100 million to the development of biomass plants across India. Astonfield will contribute about €60 million to the project, which is rumoured to include 10 planned biomass facilities with a capacity of about 10MW each. Construction of the first facility in West Bengal state is…
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Jul 28, 2009
Global biofuels market to grow by 12.3% a year until 2017
The global biofuels market is set to grow by an average of 12.3% a year between 2007 and 2017, according to a report by industry research specialists RNCOS. Global ethanol and biodiesel production will grow at 6.04% and 5% a year respectively between 2008 and 2019. In the near future, the increase in biofuel production will largely be driven by ethanol from Brazil and the US, which pledged to…
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Jul 29, 2009
Greenfield to produce bioethanol from radioactive Chernobyl sugar beet
Irish green energy specialist Greenfield Project Management plans to produce bioethanol from sugar beets grown in Chernobyl soil too radioactive for food crops. Despite official warnings, many local people continue to grow food in the soil around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The radiation concentrates into roots and stalks which, after harvesting, are ploughed back into the soil,…
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Jul 29, 2009
Valero making profits from VeraSun plants
All seven bioethanol plants US oil refiner Valero purchased on the bankruptcy of VeraSun are now running at capacity and making a profit. Valero bought the plants in March after VeraSun Energy was bankrupted by contracts locking the producer into paying above market price for corn. Four of the plants remained operating throughout the bankruptcy. Two were restarted by Valero. The seventh, a…
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