In Brazil, São Paulo will be operating 400 city buses using Amyris Renewable Diesel, as the company continues to diversify its portfolio to include everything from biodiesel to fragrance oil. The program will also include a pilot operation in 2014 to use 100% Amyris Renewable Diesel in several city buses. Buses in São Paulo are […]
In North Dakota, Murphy USA announced recently that it has completed a $173 million sale of Hankinson Renewable Energy to Guardian Hankinson LLC. Hankinson owns and operates a 132 mgy ethanol plant in North Dakota, which was acquired by Guardian Hankinson in an all-cash transaction through a membership purchase agreement. More on the story.
In New York, F-box proteins have a negative effect on plant phenols’ production, according to recent research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. With this information, the lab hopes to engineer a new way to regulate the production of phenols which influence biomass to biofuel conversion efficiency. “This strategy of increasing PAL degradation to reduce cell-wall […]
In New York, Sweetwater has received a $2.5 million funding grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to build five facilities in New York. The first facility is to supply sugar to Naturally Scientific US (NSUS), which has signed a $250 million, 15-year contract for Sweetwater’s sugars. The second facility […]
In Florida, Alternative Fuels America is beginning a three-phase trial production run of jatropha-based biofuel as the next step toward commercialization of its “seed to pump” vertically-integrated endeavor. The feedstock for Phase 1 will come from AFAI’s plantation in Tempate, Costa Rica. “As with every endeavor we undertake, we are testing our assumptions and capabilities […]
In Canada, Just Energy Group has agreed to sell Terra Grain Fuels, an ethanol producer in Belle Plaine, Minnesota, to a group of Saksatchewan businesses for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will transfer over the $68 million debt associated with Terra Grain, and is expected to close before December 24th. Just Energy originally intended to […]
In the EU, the European Investment Bank is providing a €65M (USD$89M) loan to Biochemtex, an engineering subsidiary of the Mossi and Ghisolfi Group, for research to improve non-food biomass to biofuels and molecules including ethylene glycol (for PET production). The loans, directed toward the Piedmont and Puglia facilities, match half of Biochemtex’s investment of […]
In Malaysia, Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGV) is in negotiations to acquire SPC Biodiesel, an idle biodiesel plan. However, industry sources indicated that FGV was not the only company looking to acquire the plant, with ballpark figures around USD $10 million. Earlier this year, FGV bought a 100% stake in Pontian United Plantations, which is […]
In the Netherlands, Simadan Holding plans to invest over €65 million (nearly $90m) in a second generation biodiesel plant with an estimated capacity of 150,000 metric tonnes annually. The plant will also produce up to 50,000 metric tonnes of bio-glycerin per year. It will open on a 12 hectare location in Amsterdam. More on the […]
In Indonesia, November palm oil shipments gained 2.2% to 1.9 million tons in October as the country’s shipment numbers continue to rise to the highest levels in nine months. Malaysian prices of consumed cooking oil have also hit a 14-month high and are heading for the first annual gain in three years as speculation that […]
