In Washington, Reuters reports that the White House is trying yet again to broker a deal between corn and oil states over reform of the Renewable Fuels Standard despite President Trump saying recently that he would give the issue a rest of a few months to see if Congress can work out a deal itself. […]
In Pennsylvania, researchers at Penn State have identified the major steps in the process as well as the tools used by plant cells to create cellulose, including proteins that transport critical components to the location where cellulose is made. A paper describing the study appears online the week of March 26, in the journal Proceedings of […]
In Washington, Reuters reports that the Advanced Biofuels Association submitted a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington DC to review whether the Environmental Protection Agency violated laws by granting so many hardship waivers in recent months to smaller refiners. With major companies like Andeavor that had $1.5 billion in net profit last […]
In California, Greenbelt Resources Corporation and Duckweed DAYS commenced their inaugural Duckweed Project to commercialize the duckweed model developed by the Andrew J. Young Foundation. Tests conducted during a pilot program indicated that protein extracted from duckweed was one of the most nutritious vegetable organic protein with essential amino acids, and the bio-refining process was efficient, sustainable […]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (establishes partnerships with key public and private stakeholders to develop technologies for producing cost-competitive advanced biofuels from non-food biomass resources, including cellulosic biomass, algae, and wet waste (e.g., biosolids). BETO works with a broad spectrum of government, industrial, academic, agricultural, and nonprofit partners across the United States […]
In Washington, U.S. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) joined 16 of their Senate colleagues in writing to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt highlighting the benefits of year-round E15 sales. The letter comes weeks after the president indicated he supported such a waiver. Thune and Rounds want Pruitt to provide an […]
In Washington, Reuters reports that the Environmental Protection Agency granted a hardship waiver to Carl Icahn’s CVR Energy Wynnewood, Oklahoma refinery, allowing the refiner to abscond on its RIN compliance under the Renewable Fuel Standard, avoiding tens of millions of dollars in RIN purchases. The facility had been denied waivers under the Obama administration. Icahn, […]
In Hawaii, the Hawaii Herald-Tribune reports that a new $1.5 million program from the state’s Agribusiness Development Corp. is under development to produce algae from food waste with an eye on spoiled papaya. The project would scale up successful work done at lab scale in a test tube by the Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center […]
In Wisconsin, Didion expects to have its milling operations back online by April 2019 following the May 2017 explosion that led to five deaths that later led to $1.8 million in OSHA fines that are still under appeal. The company is being coy regarding the cost of the damage or the cost of the rebuild […]
In Argentina, Reuters reports that the government set the price of biodiesel sold in the domestic market at $887.25 per metric ton as of May 1, nearly 5% higher than previously. The law establishing the fixed price of biodiesel was first approved in December 2017 in an attempt to support domestic biodiesel producers who were […]
