The Daily Biofuels Summary for August 28

Top Story: The European Union announced an initiative to turn unsold European wines into ethanol. The EU will offer 1.8 million gallons of wine from France, Spain, Italy and Greece. The EU has used “crisis distillation” in several instances in the past to eliminate supply imbalances in the wine industry.

Biofuels Producer News: In Washington state, development of a 36 million gallon ethanol facility is temporarily on hold after Earth Biofuels defaulted on its funding obligation. Liquifaction Corp will seek $3 million to complete financing….In New Mexico, the first commercial-scale biodiesel plant  is under construction. Clovis Biodiesel is scheduled to open in January 2008 and will produce 15 million gallon per year of biodiesel from canola and soybean oil….In Pennsylvania, BioEnergy International secured the project equity requirements for its 108 million gallon per year ethanol plant. The state has also provided $27 million towards the plants construction cost.

International Biofuels News: In India, Syngenta said it has successfully introduced sugar beet into India. The beet delivers similar output yields to sugar cane and is an ethanol feedstock….The Myanmar Department of Energy announced plans to cultivate seven million acres of jatropha by summer 2008….In Malaysia, implementation of the Malaysian Biofuel Industry Act, better known as EnvoDiesel, is on hold. Malaysian officials say that palm oil prices are too high at RM 2700 per tonne for implementation to take place. The Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister said that the government would decide the exact date of if palm oil prices were to fall below RM 2000 ($572).  The Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which notes that palm oil prices have risen from RM 1400 to more than RM 2600 per tonne, predicted that prices would remain in the RM 2400 to 2700 range in the years to come. The Board also announced that annual production of Malaysian palm oil would reach 14 million tons, 15% short of its initial estimate of 16.5 million tons….In India, the state government of Orissa announced a series of biofuels incentives centered around cultivation of jatropha and karanja on up to 600,000 hectares of barren and fallow land….In Bulgaria, Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie AG is expecting to invest up to 100 million euros in biodiesel and ethanol production….In New Zealand, LanzaFuels has shelved plans for an ethanol plant due to the low price of Brazilian ethanol imports.

Biofuels Policies & Policymakers: In Nebraska, a report from the Nebraska Public Power District identified 700 permanent and 1500 indirect jobs created by the Nebraska ethanol industry, at a 50% higher average wage than Nebraska jobs as a whole. Nebraska produces 2.16 billion gallons of ethanol per year, suggesting that the national ethanol industry has created 8600 new high-wage jobs….In Washington, the US and Australia will hold bilateral talks which include a focus on cellulosic ethanol.

Biofuels Research Updates: In North Dakota, distillers grains, a byproduct of ethanol production, are under scrutiny as a possible low-cost substitute for grain corn and protein supplement for cows….In Washington, the US Department of Energy (DOE) today (27th August) announced up to $33.8 million for development of commercially viable enzymes – a key step towards commercially viable cellulosic ethanol.

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