In North Carolina, Novo Synthetix is working on bringing a ricin-free castor plant back to the US fields, an endeavor which won them North Carolina’s Biotech Center’s Ag Biotech Entrepreneurial Showcase earlier this year. A prototype plant is expected to be ready within six months to one year. The project will work with Precision Bioscience to […]
In Italy, oil prices, not ethanol, were the main drivers of grain prices in a new study from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). While ethanol moves in line with oil in the long term, the relationship between ethanol and oil prices between 1980 and 2012 has been nonlinear in the short term. The […]
In Texas, KiOR’s CFO John Karnes quit abruptly with an SEC filing on December 1, with very little information provided about his departure. The only clue to Karnes’s departure rests in the third-quarter results, reported a few weeks ago: “Though KiOR reported record fuel production of a tad over 300,000 gallons, it was barely within […]
In Illinois, after announcements on the EPA rollbacks, ethanol futures have been fluctuating a great deal on the Chicago Board of Trade, but futures last week jumped 5.7 percent on record low stockpiles and other signs of high demand. Said Jim Damask, a manager at StarFuels, the good news is that: “Margins are looking great. […]
In China, biodiesel imports in the first nine months of the year were ten times higher than that of last year. Investigations blame the fact that the consumption tax for imported biodiesel can be waived as the reason why many Chinese importers buy general diesel oil, which contains a small amount of biodiesel, to avoid […]
In India, sugar gained momentum after a panel recommended 10% ethanol blends in gas and indicated that sugar mills may gain access to small interest-free loans to combat debt. Additionally, sugar mills may also receive loans against excise paid. Ethanol blending prices will continue to be based on market price, indicated Narendra Murukumbi, MD, Shree […]
In Indonesia, the natural resource export business is booming at the expense of the manufacturing sector, exposing the country to volatilities in the commodity market in an epoch that resembles the “Dutch Disease” of its former colonizer. Analysts are blaming the palm oil industry for causing the shift, despite recent challenges that the Indonesian Government […]
In Oregon, researchers at Oregon State University have discovered a master regulator gene in a common fungus, which expands access to new compounds that could have use in industrial biofuels. Scientists succeeded in flipping a genetic switc, activating more then 2000 genes in the fungus. “Our studies will open the door to future precise ‘epigenetic […]
In Washington, an EPA hearing last Thursday had supporters of the RFS arriving in force. The only EPA hearing scheduled on the RFS numbers, held in front of the EPA’s five-member panel, had testimony from policy organizations and private companies alike. Growth Energy’s Director of Regulatory Affairs, Chris Bliley summed up the policy position: “The […]
In Brazil, Raizen has broken ground on a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant using Iogen Energy technology, which represents more than a year of cooperation between Raizen and Iogen. The $100m plant, to be located adjacent to a sugar cane mill in Sao Paulo, will produce 10 mmgy per year. The plant is expected to start […]
