Have a wonderful strain of algae, but struggle to find a project location that optimizes climate, inputs and infrastructure? With Zillow not yet providing real estate services for choosy microbes, PNNL and Sapphire Energy come to the rescue. The Digest has often criticized synthetic biologists, in genetically enhancing microbes, for failing to endow them with […]
DuPont leading in two categories (and its JV Butamax also in the lead); Sapphire Energy, Ceres, Genomatica, Heliae, MBI, OriginOil, KiOR Evogene, DuPont, Cool Planet, Edeniq and Sierra Energy among the early leaders as voting gets underway. In Florida, The Digest announced nominations for Transformative Technologies 2014, in which organizations are recognized for their impact […]
Brazil, Russia, India and China — and throw in South Africa for a complete BRICSA set. The vaunted new economic engines for the 21st century — and, lately, home to a beehive of activity around drop-in, sustainable, aviation biofuels. What’s up, with whom, where, when and why? In the motion picture Casablanca, most of the […]
In Texas, the White Energy ethanol plant in Plainview is back operating following a nine-month hiatus due to drought in the area that kept corn prices out of reach. Despite for being shut three-quarters of the year, it still produced 19.1 million gallons, close to the 20 million gallon minimum it promised local authorities in […]
In Argentina, the government has set the price of biodiesel at $576.5 per metric ton, a price which producers say is too high for blenders to buy. As such, less than 5% of total diesel consumption is biodiesel, less than half of the 10% blending mandate. Tariffs on exports to the European Union are expected […]
In Texas, January ethanol exports were up 36% on the month and 33% over January 2013, making it the highest amount of exports since Dec. 2011. Of the 326 million liters that were exported, the highest volume of undenatured ethanol—90.6 million liters—went to Brazil. Other major markets were India and the Philippines. For denatured ethanol […]
In Singapore, Ennovor Biofuels has announced a new set of three managers as the company expands to become the world’s second largest second generation global biodiesel producer by 2015. Chairman John Markham (formerly of ICI) will be brought on for strategic business development, David Frohnsdorff will be brought on as the managing director for production, […]
In the Philippines, coconut oil exports grew by nearly 50% in the last 9 months as the country failed to implement the shift to a B5 biofuel mandate. The current blending requirement is 2%, and the proposal to shift to B5 has yet to secure approval from the National Biofuels Board. Coconut oil export goals […]
In Nigeria, Green Energy and Biofuels are producing biofuel gel from saw dust and water hyacinths for use in clean cooking stoves in both Nigeria and Ghana. The company says that already 200,000 households are using the clean cookstoves and it plans to expand into the rest of West Africa, including Cameroon and Togo where […]
In Ireland, the Teagasc Tillage Sectoral Energy Crop Development Group has released a report showing the potential for energy crops in the country. Currently 3,000ha of energy crops are currently grown but that could reach 67,000ha if the right incentives were put in place. Doing so would also go a long way in helping the […]
In Jamaica, research by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica shows that a variety of castor been that comes from China, Zibo 8, could be the most productive for local production. Following two years of variety trials under the Scale Biodiesel Pilot Project, Zibo 8 had the highest oil yield. A Brazilian variety had slightly higher […]
In the US, the Energy Information Administration (EIA)’s new “Today in Energy” brief looks at the jump since 2007 in the number of service stations selling gasoline containing 85% ethanol. While Minnesota continues to dominate the market with 336 E85 retail locations, California and New York have sent he biggest amounts of growth. Across the […]
In Hawaii, the state’s Board of Land and Natural Resources will evaluate a proposal from Hoku Kai Biofuels to use a 10-inch pipe to transport biodiesel from the Hilo harbor to storage tanks, a system that was initially constructed in the 1960s to transport asphalt products to the former Shell Oil location near the harbor […]
In California, the state’s Air Resources Board is set to hold two workshops on March 11, one providing general updates on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and the other on ILUC. Staff will discuss a proposal to update iLUC values for corn ethanol, sugarcane ethanol, and soy biodiesel, as well as proposed iLUC values for […]
In Washington, the USDA announced $60M worth of payments through the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program for over 195 producers across the nation. Agriculture Undersecretary Doug O’Brien announced the payments, which were reauthorized by the recently signed 2014 Farm Bill, to produce advanced biofuels from renewable biomass other than corn kernel starch. More on the story.
The Biofuels Digest Index, an index of publicly traded biofuels stocks, fell 1.73 percent to 80.06 as ethanol dropped sharply. For the day, Solazyme (SZYM) surged 6.82 percent to $14.41 while Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) plummeted 8.74 percent to $13.36. Among other equities, KiOR (KIOR) descended 9.03 percent to $1.31. Overall, declines led advances 3 to […]
The Biofuels Digest Index, an index of publicly traded biofuels stocks, dropped 0.43 percent to 81.47 as advanced biofuels slipped. For the day, Amyris (AMRS) lost 2.43 percent to $4.41, while Renewable Energy Group (REGI) lost 1.22 percent to $11.34. Among other equities, KiOR (KIOR) fell 2.04 percent to $1.44. Overall, declines led advances 3 […]
The Biofuels Digest Index, an index of publicly traded biofuels stocks, fell 1.49 percent to 81.82 as ethanol plunged. For the day, Solazyme (SZYM) surged 4.46 percent to $13.58, while Biofuel Energy (BIOF) plummeted 15.00 percent to $3.06. Among other equities, KiOR (KIOR) descended 6.96 percent to $1.47. Overall, advances led declines 3 to 2 […]
In the UK, national authorities including the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England have at last given the CME permission to set up a commodities exchange in the country that will include derivatives such as biodiesel futures. Trading will begin on April 27 after initial trading dates were postponed twice due to delayed […]
In Cameroon, the country’s president trying to woo Addax & Oryx Group, the Swiss company that invested in Addax Bioenergy in Sierra Leone. Based on the company’s sustainable investment and production practices as well as the positive benefits already realized in Sierra Leone, the Cameroonian president would like to facilitate a similar investment in his […]
In Wisconsin, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has announced that his office has obtained a judgment against Marquis Energy-Wisconsin, LLC, requiring payment of $125,000 in forfeitures, court costs, and surcharges for violations of Wisconsin’s air pollution control laws at a Necedah facility. Wisconsin facilities that have the potential to emit elevated levels of air contaminants […]
A BP joint venture with DuPont, Butamax Advanced Biofuels is developing the advanced biofuel biobutanol and commissioning a technology demonstration facility in the UK. Biobutanol has a higher energy content that ethanol, can be blended at higher rates into fuel that can be used by vehicles on the road today and may be able to […]
