The process creates value at every step – it treats wastewater, recovers wastewater nutrients as fertiliser, removes carbon dioxide from flue gas, and creates biofuel. The Christchurch wastewater treatment plant has 230 hectares of polishing ponds that are currently used to provide disinfection of the treated wastewater prior to discharge.

It is in one of these ponds that five hectares have been cordoned off by NIWA and converted into a series of specially designed High Rate Algal Ponds with carbon dioxide (CO2) addition.The aim of the project is for NIWA to produce between 150 and 300 tonnes of algae per year from the 5 hectares of wastewater treatment High Rate Algal Ponds. After harvesting and dewatering, this algae could potentially be converted into 10,000- – 25,000 gallons of bio-crude oil by Solray.”

Algae to biocrude, using wastewater, demonstration project opens in New Zealand is a post from: Biofuels Digest

Nigerian Cassva Growers Association signs 8 million ton delivery contract; ethanol for cooking stoves envisioned is a post from: Biofuels Digest

Petrobras acquires 50 percent stake in BSBIOS biodiesel plant in Brazil is a post from: Biofuels Digest

Prince Joachim of Denmark opens the Inbicon cellulosic ethanol plant in Kalundborg, Denmark

In Denmark, Prince Joachim inaugurated the 1.4 Mgy, demonstration-scale Inbicon cellulosic ethanol plant in Kalundborg, which is utilizing wheat straw as its initial feedstock. The plant is the largest cellulosic ethanol facility in Europe, and second globally only to the KL Energy project in Upton, WY.

Inbicon and its parent company DONG Energy, the state oil, power and gas firm, confirmed that Inbicon will license its technology for use outside of Denmark, while DONG CEO Alders Eldrup said that the company expects to “construct a few factories also in Denmark.

Inbicon, a DONG Energy technology subsidiary, has invested $80 million in the project, which is co-located with a DONG Energy power plant, and utilizes waste heat from the power plant as a critical cost-reducing inputs in its system.

The plant opening was timed to coincide with the COP 15 Climate Change conference in Copenhagen where the successor to the Kyoto Treaty is scheduled to be finalized. A number of official vehicles at COP 15 will utilize E85 cellulosic ethanol produced by the Inbicon plant. The remainder will be supplied to Statoil Hydro under a long-term offtake agreement, and will appear in E10 ethanol blends in Danish service stations commencing in 2010.

Wheat straw utilized in the Inbicon process

In addition to ethanol, the plant is expected to produce 13,000 metric tons of lignin pellets — which will be supplied to the DONG Energy power plant to replace coal — and 11,000 metric tons of molasses that will be utilized in animal feed.

Inbicon’s technology allows the molasses to be converted to biogas or processed into ethanol if economics warrant further processing of the C5 (xylose) sugars. Currently, only the C6 (glucose) sugars are processed into ethanol, although the company is continuing to improve its technology.

A unique feature of the technology is symbiotic relationship with power production — utilizing waste heat from power gen to eliminate the use of natural gas and costly heating infrastructure in a free standing ethanol plant, which also reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with production. In addition, the company has pioneered a proprietary pretreatment process and proprietary designs on its first-stage hydrolysis units, where enzymes are first introduced to capture sugars from the lignin and cellulose – both innovations are designed to reduce the energy intensity of the process, thereby reducing emissions and cost.

Inbicon CEO Niels Henriken confirmed that he expected that Inbicon technology would next surface in Southeast Asia, with several sites and projects under consideration. However, a team of executives from Minnesota’s Great River Energy were on hand for the Kalundborg opening, and confirmed that they expect to license or partner with Inbicon on a 20 Mgy cellulosic ethanol project planned for the Spiritwood complex in North Dakota. Like Kalundborg, the Spiritwood project is planned as a symbiosis to capture and convert waste streams from the Great River Energy’s CHP plant currently in operation at Spiritwood.

Inbicon opens 1.4 Mgy demonstration cellulosic ethanol plant in Denmark is a post from: Biofuels Digest

Braskem announces sugarcane ethanol-based polyethylene deal with Argentina’s Petropack is a post from: Biofuels Digest

The plant is being constructed by India-based  KBK Chem-Engineering and will be the third ethanol plant to open in the Philippines. The ethanol tariff was previously 1 percent due to the low production capacity in the islands.

Roxas to commence production at 7 Mgy sugarcane ethanol plant in Philippines in February is a post from: Biofuels Digest

China Integrated Energy completes IPO, expects to have 100% biodiesel offtake is a post from: Biofuels Digest

Wolffia is a microscopic flowering plant — so small that 12 plants could “tastefully fit on the head of a pin” according to davesgarden.com — which at one point was rumored to be among the platforms for Joule Biotechnolgies’ process. Wolffia is a member of the lemnacea family. PetroAlgae is currently licensing a process based on lemna.”

100 grams/sq meter/day feasible from wolffia, according to Thai project developers is a post from: Biofuels Digest

According to the EBTP, “next steps for all Industrial Initiatives will be discussions between the European Commission and Member States on different political levels during the forthcoming months. Further information will be published on the EBTP website and the SET Plan web page.” More on the EBTP, which is developing a searchable database of 60 recent biofuels reports and papers, here.

European SET-Plan calls for $75 billion in new investment in low carbon technologies during 2010s is a post from: Biofuels Digest

The groups found a shortfall of 77 million tonnes of CO2, and applied today’s spot price of $20 per metric ton. Among top airlines, British Airways, United and Delta will all have exposures in excess of 3 million metric tons of CO2, and face offset payments of more than $50 million each. For more information on Aviation CO2 Data Monitor 2009, visit rdcaviation.com.

Airlines face $1.53 billion carbon shortfall in 2012 without emissions reductions, biofuels: new report is a post from: Biofuels Digest