Top 10 Biodiesel Trends 2018: what’s up with the world’s favorite advanced biofuel?

#6 New & Improved Crop Feedstocks

From algae to pine nuts, new crops make advances as alternative feedstocks

ExxonMobil, Synthetic Genomics advance on algae fuels

In May, we reported that ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics have announced a new phase in their joint algae biofuel research program that could lead to the technical ability to produce 10,000 barrels of algae biofuel per day by 2025.

With that, it feels like the circle has turned again. Which is to say, West Texas Intermediate has reached $70.68, Brent crude is at $78.76; there’s noise afoot that Saudi Arabia is aiming at $80 oil to boost the Saudi Aramco IPO, some whispers about $100 oil have surfaced at OPIS.

The new phase of research includes an outdoor field study that will grow naturally occurring algae in several contained ponds in California. The research will enable ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics to better understand fundamental engineering parameters including viscosity and flow, which cannot easily be replicated in a lab. The results of this work, the partners say, are important to understand how to scale the technology for potential commercial deployment.

https://staging.biofuelsdigest.com/2018/05/24/back-to-the-future-all-over-again-exxonmobil-targets-algae-fuels-at-scale-by-2025-as-oil-prices-rise/

Mexican researchers ID high oil-yielding pine nut varieties for biodiesel

In April, we reported that researchers from the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research are making headway on the production of biodiesel from pine nuts with three high oil yielding varieties have been selected from clones sourced from the national germplasm bank. The three varieties will be promoted to farmers seeking to develop pine plantations where it is already a common crop in the regions of Chiapas, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Hidalgo, Morelos, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Puebla, Sinaloa and Yucatan.

https://staging.biofuelsdigest.com/2018/04/26/mexican-researchers-id-high-oil-yielding-pine-nut-varieties-for-biodiesel/