Construction began yesterday in Florida on the grounds of a former citrus-processing factory to build one of the first commercial-scale biofuel plants in the U.S.
When completed and fully operational, the Indian River BioEnergy Center is expected to produce 8 million gallons of bio-ethanol per year.
The center will be run by Ineos New Planet BioEnergy (INPB), a joint venture formed by Ineos Bio, a subsidiary of the chemical conglomerate Ineos, and New Planet Energy, a company specializing in the commercialization of sustainable refinery technology.
The plant will use technology developed by Ineos that enables bacteria to produce biogas … Read more
The U.S. government yesterday gave four biofuel companies loan guarantees of nearly $650 million to help build plants that will make motor fuels from sources like animal fat, orange peels, and trash.
The government is supporting the development of new feedstocks for ethanol to ease dependence on corn. Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop goes to making ethanol, which has spurred concerns from environmentalists and food groups that production of the fuel can raise food prices.
The Agriculture Department gave Coskata loan aid of $250 million to build and operate a 55 million gallon-per-year (gpy) plant … Read more
The Chinese government has committed $15 billion over the next 10 years to the electric vehicle (EV) industry alone, while the U.S. Department of Energy spends $4 billion a year on research and development for a wide variety of energy-related tech.
The figures paint a portrait of two countries with vastly different approaches to growing industries and jobs, according to an Accenture report released today, "The US and China: The Race to Disruptive Transport Technologies," (PDF) which parses out the advantages and disadvantages each country has right now in the realm of alternative vehicles and fuels.
A commercial pilot project for carbon sequestration and large-scale algae biofuel manufacturing in Australia has been successfully completed, OriginOil announced today.
The company partnered with Australian energy company MBD Energy through a licensing agreement that has allowed both companies to share intellectual property on proprietary algae-to-fuel conversion processes.
The algae-to-fuel process in this case begins with an existing coal power plant.
CO2, given off as a byproduct of MBD Energy's coal-fired power plants, is captured by micro-algae. The micro-algae convert that captured CO2 and use it to reproduce, creating higher amounts of algae, which can then be used as … Read more
Former vice president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy," weeks before tax credits are up for renewal.
U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to use the fuel even when it is more expensive than gasoline. The credits are up for renewal on December 31.
Total U.S. ethanol subsidies reached $7.7 billion last year according to the International Energy Industry, which said biofuels worldwide received more subsidies than any other form of renewable energy.
"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for [U.S.] first-generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.
"First-generation ethanol, I think, was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small," he said "It's hard once such a program is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going."
He explained his own support for the original program on his presidential ambitions.
"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."
U.S. ethanol is made by extracting sugar from corn, an energy-intensive process. The U.S. ethanol industry will consume about 41 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, or 15 percent of the global corn crop, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.
A food-versus-fuel debate erupted in 2008, in the wake of record food prices, where the biofuel industry was criticized for helping stoke food prices. … Read more
GE subsidiary GE Energy Financial Services and North Bridge Venture Partners will invest $8 million in a company developing a biofuel production process coupled with the production of biochar.
Cool Planet Biofuels converts cellulosic byproducts like plant waste and woodchips into biofuel that can be used in vehicles.
The company's byproduct from the process is biochar, or manmade coal as some call it, which just like conventional charcoal can be burned for fuel. It's something the company says qualifies its biofuel process as being carbon neutral.
The biochar can also be buried in the ground serving as both … Read more
When Audi accepted Green Car Journal's 2010 Green Car of the Year award, it may not have realized that a road trip was part of the prize package. Next week, two Audi A3 TDIs will travel down the California coast as part of the magazine's Green Car of the Year Tour, using Rentech's synthetic RenDiesel fuel to power their 2.0-liter diesel engines.
RenDiesel is an advanced biofuel made from renewable feedstock (in this case, woody green waste), but it meets the petroleum diesel transportation fuel specification, ASTM D975, around which automotive manufacturers develop their diesel engines. … Read more
There's been a lot of buzz about algae as an alternative biofuel. Several business and university researchers are looking at algae's potential as a viable alternative to fossil fuel. And earlier this year, the House of Representatives introduced the Green Jobs Act of 2010, which offers investment tax credits for algae-based biorefineries.
Now researchers at Ford are looking into algae as a fuel source, the company announced.
"Algae have some very desirable characteristics as a potential biofuel feedstock and Ford wants to show its support any efforts that could lead to a viable, commercial-scale application of this … Read more
Algae biofuel producer Solazyme announced Wednesday it's delivered 20,000 gallons of algae-based shipboard fuel to the U.S. Navy.
Solazyme's Soladiesel Renewable Naval Distillate fuel will go toward the Navy's ambitious goal of getting 50 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020.
But algae fuel is not just useful for the Navy's ships.
This past summer Solazyme also delivered 1,500 gallons of algae-based jet fuel to the U.S. Navy for testing. If testing goes well, Solazyme's algae-based advance biofuel could be powering some of our nation's military aircraft.
Canadian company Enerkem broke ground on a facility Tuesday that plans to convert 100,000 tons of household trash a year into ethanol.
The $75 million plant in Edmonton, Alberta, is expected to be completed in late 2011. By 2013, the city will be able to divert 90 percent of its residential waste, Mayor Stephen Mandel said in a statement.
Enerkem hosted a groundbreaking for the waste-to-ethanol plant, which it said will be the first industrial-scale project of this kind. The facility will sort recycled and compostable material and convert the remaining into about 10 million gallons of ethanol a … Read more
Manage updates with the Download App
