In Washington, the Advanced Biofuel policy organizations have responded to the American Petroleum Institute’s recent letter to the EPA claiming that zeroing out the 2012 cellulosic biofuel obligation of the RFS is “the only proper implementation of the Court’s” ruling. Brent Erickson fired back that the API “want to strangle the infant cellulosic biofuel industry […]
In New York, OceanConnect, the firm that accidentally sold $6.7m of fake RIN credits from Clean Green Fuel, has filed for bankruptcy. The company is currently facing lawsuits from Tesoro and Phillips 66 after suffering $1.7m in losses last year. OceanConnect filed a lawsuit against the EPA, seeking protection against penalizing participants that relied on […]
In North Dakota, the EPA has certified a new ethanol plant planned by Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, allowing the company to begin seeking financing for the $130M, 65 mgy plant. It will use corn as a feedstock and will recycle the waste stream from the Great River Energy Spiritwood Station, a coal-fired power plant, for processing […]
In North Carolina, the North Carolina Solar Center will be receiving a $500,000 grant from the Department of Energy to study the expansion of biodiesel, high-blend ethanol, and electric charging stations for cars across the state. The Alternative Fuel Implementation Team project will span two years and will create cost-benefit analyses and application options for […]
In Indonesia, PT Perkebunan Nusantara is developing a bioethanol facility at one of its sugar mills as it expands into biofuel production and electricity to balance out increases in sugar manufacturing costs. The state-owned sugar plantation intends to construct both an ethanol and biogas facility, both of which will be operational by October and will […]
In Canada, the government announced its intention to invest in a POS pilot plant in Saskatchewan, the plant in Canada to offer commercial scale short-path distillation. The government’s $911,000 investment will assist POS in purchasing the equipment it needs to begin purifying compounds from plant feedstock to be used in the biofuels industry. More on […]
In China, Huaian Rich International intends to build an ethanol factory with a capacity of 500,000 decaliters per year in Uzbekistan, thanks to the Angren special industrial zone whose customs and tax regime prove favorable to the Chinese company. The investment, as well as a bottle-cap making factory, will total $12.8m. More on the story.
In Washington, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack posted a column on Friday on the USDA’s website that highlighted the successes of the USDA thusfar and laid out the Secretary’s goals for 2013. He indicated his desire to continue to help advanced biofuel producers reach a goal of 14 million gallons of production. The USDA indicated […]
In New York, scientists have been investigating an enzyme that naturally produces alkanes and have discovered a method to lengthen the natural reaction. Said biochemist John Shanklin, “biologically produced alkanes could be extracted and used directly of fuel.” The scientists, stationed out of Brookhaven National Laboratory, are currently working on installing the enzyme into algae […]
In Nebraska, Abengoa will temporarily halt production at two of its plants in York and Ravenna, idling them in response to challenging market condition and the latent effects of last year’s drouth. Nebraska Ethanol Board Administrator Todd Sneller indicated that re-start up “may not occur in the near future”. More on the story.
