Hippo Valley Estates, a sugar producer based in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, has announced it has reached an ethanol production capacity of 41 million litres per month and is now applying for a licence to supply the local market. Zimbabwe requires a monthly supply of 50 million litres of petro, of which 7,5 million litres is ethanol under the country’s E15 blending mandate. Hippo... [Read More]

Dutch grain trader Nidera has suffered a loss in biofuels and ceased working in the business due to the actions of a ‘rogue trader’. The company declined to provide a figure of the suffered losses, but said Nidera will still post a profit for the fiscal year ending this month. CEO Ton van der Laan says the company nonetheless suffered significant loss and the... [Read More]

Wood-based BioVerno diesel by Finland’s UPM has been found to significantly reduce harmful tailpipe emissions, the company reports. A number of engine and vehicle tests have been carried out across key research institutes, such as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, University of Vaasa in Finland, and at FEV, internationally recognised vehicle engineering company... [Read More]

The Biofat project, a microalgae-to-biofuel FP7 demonstration project, has confirmed algae’s potential as a sustainable biofuel source with low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The project has concentrated on improving and demonstrating sustainability in the process, considering both environmental (e.g. use of marine strains to limit freshwater use) and economic (e.g.... [Read More]

In the US, California's Air Resources Board (ARB) has listed biodiesel as the lowest-carbon fuel in the state’s revised Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS). The new standard affirms biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% and often by as much as 81% when compared with petroleum, giving biodiesel the best carbon score among all liquid... [Read More]

Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers and external collaborators have synthesised and characterised a new DNA-templated gold nanocluster (AuNC) that could resolve a critical methodological barrier for efficient biofuel cell design. Ligands, molecules that bind to a central metal atom, are necessary to form stable nanoclusters. For this study, the researchers chose... [Read More]

Chemical engineers from Iran have found a way to produce biodiesel from castor oil without the need for extra petrochemical methanol using a biorefinery set-up. Producing biodiesel from vegetable oils is not completely renewable, as the standard transesterification process requires the use of methanol, which is usually produced from petrochemical sources. The researchers,... [Read More]

  The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) will lead a $13.5 million (€12 million) multi-institutional research effort to improve sorghum as a sustainable source for biofuel production. Funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the five-year grant takes a comprehensive approach to better understand how plants and microbes interact and to learn which sorghum... [Read More]

Scientists have mutated variants of a certain fungus to double the production of endoxylanase enzymes, which are used in bioethanol production. The discovery comes as part of a hunt for more cost effective methods to convert biomass into ethanol, particularly in the form of easier production of enzymes used to fire the conversion process. These enzymatic catalysts are... [Read More]

The Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung prompts the country’s relevant agencies to undertake measures to boost the production and consumption of E5 and E10 ethanol-blended petrol. The Southeast Asian country has had an implementation plan in effect since 2012 to promote environmental protection and national energy security, but progress has been slow as consumers... [Read More]

Perstorp has announced its intent to acquire an existing biodiesel plant in Fredrikstad, Norway. ‘We have ambitious growth plans for biofuels, now and in the future, and we see how the demand will increase to meet the global climate challenges,’ says Lars Lind, vice president – biofuels at Perstorp. ‘In order to grow with the market, we need to... [Read More]

US ethanol production hit a 16-week low last week, according to US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data analysed by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). In the past week, ethanol production averaged at 948,000 barrels per day, equalling 39.82 million gallons a day. These numbers are down 4,000 barrels a day from the week before and the lowest in 16 weeks overall. The... [Read More]

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have successfully introduced an engineered lipid remodelling system into a transgenic plant to enhance biofuel production. Triacylglycerols from plants can be used to produce environmentally friendly and renewable biodiesel, and there has been great interest in using genetic engineering to enhance triacylglycerol... [Read More]

Harbour Marina at Lake Pomme de Terre in Missouri has become the first US marina to sell petrol blended with Gevo's renewable isobutanol at the pump. Introduction of the initial isobutanol and petrol fuel blend took place at the beginning of September on the marina docks. Lake Pomme de Terre is located in one of the premier recreational boating regions of the country. Gevo... [Read More]