In Jamaica, the Petroleum Corp. of Jamaica’s Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy is launching a pilot project to trial biodiesel production from locally-produced castor oil and jatropha. The research and development phase of the project will involve the cultivation and harvesting of six varieties of the oil nuts, to determine their oil content, harvesting […]
In Canada, the Global Renewable Fuels Association says it expects ethanol production to hit 23.47 billion gallons (88.7 billion liters) in 2011, up 3% from 2010, and enough to replace the need for one million barrels of crude oil per day worldwide. The United States continues to be the largest ethanol producer in the world […]
In the UK, the government has cut the Carbon Trust’s budget by 40%. Nearly 40 employees will lose their job and the grant for Newcastle University’s algae-for-biofuels research program has been eliminated. The government argues that its promised green investment bank will take up part of the role of the Carbon Trust but negotiations have […]
In Illinois, Chromatin announced that its sorghum hybrids outperformed biomass sorghum and sweet sorghum hybrids from public, private, and commercial sorghum collections. A number of Chromatin’s sorghum materials generated more fermentable sugar per acre than most of the competitors. “These tests show that our biomass has a combination of qualities that are high priority for […]
In Washington, a USDA economist says that even if ethanol critics tried to slow down or stop ethanol production in the country, it would be nearly impossible to do so because ‘the industry has pretty much been built.’ He said that U.S. ethanol production was a major factor in tightening supplies of corn but even […]
In California, Propel Fuels VP, Operations Jim Iacoponi has been appointed to the Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS) Advisory Panel of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). In Washington, Brent Erickson, EVP of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) Industrial & Environmental Section, has been named to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Synthetic Biology Engineering […]
The Biofuels Digest Index™ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, retreated 0.68 percent to 88.05 as advanced biofuels fell. For the day, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) slipped 0.52 percent to $36.46, while Gevo (GEVO) dropped 0.99 percent to $17.03. Among other equities, Monsanto (MON) plunged 4.78 percent to $71.54. Overall, declines led advances 2 […]
Here’s a look at some (but far from all) of the movers and shakers Note: This is Part II of today’s look at algal biofuels, part one is here. Sapphire Energy Sapphire Energy is focused on the entire “pond to pump” value chain with over 230 patents or applications spanning the entire algae-to-fuel process. They […]
In Mexico, the Mexican government has announced its “Manhattan Project” with an initial goal of producing 1 percent of its jet fuel from algae by 2015, and OriginOil has agreed to participate in a pilot scale algae project funded by the Mexican government. “By the end of this decade, the project must produce nearly twenty […]
In Washington, the US exported 279.5 million liters of ethanol to the EU during December, reaching a total of 1.555 billion liters during 2010. That’s a huge increase from 480.2 million liters during 2009. More on the story.
