In India, the Press Trust of India reports the Food Ministry has approved up to $1.68 billion in soft loans for 185 sugarcane mills and distillers to set up standalone ethanol production, four times the volume of loans approved under the program in the past two years. Once installed, the new projects represent an increase […]
In Brazil, Platts reports the government has given the green light to use imported soy as feedstock for biodiesel in light of the ongoing supply shortage nationally. Soybean and soy oil stocks are at 20-year lows which have pushed up prices significantly. The biodiesel blending mandate has focused on domestic production until now as a […]
In Australia, a new report from APAC Biofuel Consultants says Australian biofuel demand contracted by nearly 4% between 2019 and 2020, shrinking to less than 0.5% of the country’s transport liquid and gaseous fuel consumption. ABC acknowledged the role played here by Covid-19 and all its economic repercussions, but positioned mistrust or inertia among consumers […]
In West Virginia, Reuters reports that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to go back and reevaluate Ergon West Virginia Inc’s small refinery exemption application, saying the agency has approved SRE for a similar refinery but denied it for EWVI. The EPA used another refinery’s lubrication production has […]
In Mississippi, a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy will benefit Mississippi State researchers in the university’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center studying the economic and ecological benefits of growing trees for biofuel production. The DOE funding will help MSU scientists study how to produce better, hardier hybrid poplars and eastern cottonwoods […]
In Washington, a coalition of the nation’s largest biofuels and agricultural trade groups filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia asking the court to enforce its 2017 decision requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address its improper waiver of 500 million gallons of biofuel demand in the 2016 renewable volume obligation (RVO). The coalition, which includes […]
By Mark Bustard, Chief Executive, Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) Special to The Digest By 2050 the world’s population is expected to be close to 10 billion, and with it a serious demand for food. Feeding a growing population is a challenge but so too is doing it in a way that reduces the impact […]
While you may have waste fats, oils and greases or FOG after this week’s turkey dinner, technology has unlocked it as feedstock for renewable diesel, biodiesel and jet fuel, and the world-wide search is on from “brown Gold”. Greasezilla execs Brian Levine and Bill Hambley shared this slide guide at last week’s DigestConnect on the […]
In Pennsylvania, a multi-institutional research group led by two Penn State faculty members identified, for the first time, how cellulose crystals orient themselves relative to the cell wall in plants, with potential implications for chemical and energy development. “A more detailed understanding of the structure of plant cell walls could lead to new strategies for […]
In Washington, D.C., Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) introduced the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Act, legislation to incentivize the production of sustainable aviation fuel and help the aviation sector reduce carbon emissions. “As a member of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, I know the importance […]
