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Volume 13, Issue 6
Published: December 4, 2019
Vision for the future
As we near the end of 2019, the US biodiesel industry is heaving a sigh of relief. This was a brutal year, with challenge after challenge. Many of the biggest challenges were on policy fronts we believe...
Promoting the benefits of ethanol
Over the past three years, we have seen a steady increase in the use of ethanol in North America as Canada, the US and Mexico look to biofuels to reach their economic and climate goals....
Focus on fuel quality
In the ever-intensifying debate on climate change and how the European Union (EU) should respond to it, some of the fine print often gets overlooked. Case in point: the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive,...
Cap and trade
The best climate policy – environmentally and economically – limits emissions and puts a price on them. Cap and trade is one way to do both. It’s a system designed to reduce pollution...
A bleak outlook for biodiesel?
Politics continue to dominate the development of the biodiesel industry in North America, and not in a good way. You can’t have a year when at least 10 biodiesel producers decide to close their operations...
Europe's HVO feedstock conundrum
Aided by rapidly increasing biofuel mandates and physical limits to FAME blending, demand for hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in Europe is booming. Neste has long had a near-monopoly on its production,...
Counting the costs
The concept of blending product to create biofuels is not new. In the 1820s in the US, whale oil for fuel lamps was expensive, so a blend of camphene and alcohol was mixed and successfully used as a cheaper...
New catalyst on the block
The potential of acid-catalysed biodiesel transesterification has long been underestimated. In 1999, an in-depth investigation of acid catalysis to produce biodiesel was published by J. Van Gerpen, in...
Water, water everywhere
Water sustainability affects many production steps along the bioenergy supply chain. When evaluating the effects of bioenergy production on water supply, it is critical that we understand how much water...
Working with the universal solvent
Water, known as the universal solvent, is an amazing substance. Understanding water’s ability to dissolve, suspend and release both solids and gases can ensure favourable conditions in an ethanol...
Keeping the air cleaner with E10
On the way to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the European Union (EU-28) is on track to exceed its 2020 goal to reduce GHG emissions by 20%....
Carbon-14 for co-processed fuels.
Efforts to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions drive the growing production and use of biofuel blends. Often, the percentage of biocarbon that comprises a biofuel blend must be measured....
Breaking barriers with BRISK2
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From trash to treasure
As the need for energy security grows, scientists are investigating non-food biomass sources that can be used to create valuable biofuels and bioproducts....