In California, Cobalt Technologies and Rhodia announced they will begin joint development and operation of a biobutanol demonstration facility in Brazil. The Cobalt/Rhodia plant will utilize sugarcane bagasse to make n-butanol; bagasse is used at sugar mills to provide process energy to drive the mill and to supply power to the local grid; the Cobalt […]
In Massachusetts, Gevo and BioFuel Energy Corp have signed a collaboration agreement to explore the large-scale production of biobutanol. As a result of the announcement, BioFuel Energy stock shot up 35% on Tuesday. Before the turnaround after the announcement, the company was trading at a 52-week low. Read more here.
Declining ethanol margins and plant idlings; ethanol price gloom; controversy over RFS2 targets. Despair? Bah! It all spells “opportunity” for the intrepid ethanolista. This week in biofuels, two storylines that have been gaining a lot of attention have been the declining margins and plant slowdowns and shutdowns in the US corn ethanol sector, and the […]
In New Jersey, a student is creating a biobutanol out of bamboo at Princeton University. While the process is far from being commercially viable, Amanda Rees was able to treat bamboo sawdust acid with enzymes to produce a small amount of fuel. Rees has hopes for the project, as bamboo’s resilience and status as inedible […]
In Delaware, Butamax and Fagen have joined together in a collaboration to retrofit ethanol plants with Butamax’s biobutanol technology. The two companies hope that Fagen’s experience in having constructed over 85 ethanol plants and Butamax’s biobutanol technology will lead to a rapid scale-up of biobutanol production.
In Scotland, Napier University’s Biofuel Research Centre has spun-out a new start-up, Celtic Renewables to develop biobutanol sourced from the £4 billion malt whisky industry in Scotland. Celtic Renewables, Scotland’s first biobutanol company, is now working with Scottish Enterprise to produce the fuel from sustainable resources on an industrial scale. Its fermentation process uses the […]
In Minnesota, Butamax Advanced Biofuels announces that Highwater Ethanol, will be its first entrant to the Butamax Early Adopters Group. The ICM-designed facility was constructed by Fagen with a nameplate capacity of 50 mgpy. Butamax’s business model is to offer current ethanol producers proprietary biobutanol technology to permit improved biofuels growth and plant profitability. Last November […]
In the UK, Green Biologics and Songyuan Laihe Chemical announced a collaborative development and licensing agreement in China. Under the terms of the agreement GBL and Laihe will collaborate to improve the economics of Laihe’s biobutanol plant by optimising GBLs fermentation technology using sugars derived using Laihe cellulosic pre-treatment process. It is anticipated that the […]
In Colorado, Gevo fires its first legal broadside, filing with the USPTO to invalidate Butamax’s patent. The filing is for the reexamination of Butamax patent 7,851,188 issued in December 2010, and Gevo reports they are planning to file a second petition for reexamination and invalidation of Butamax’s patent 7,993,889, issued on August 9, 2011.
In Illinois, a University of Illinois study focused on biobutanol has drawn attention to the need for changes in the regulatory processes of the US’s approach to biofuels. The study, conducted by Kesan and Timothy A. Slating of the UI Energy Biosciences Institute, indicated that the current US regulatory process does not foster commercialization or […]
