On the Road in Jenny Owen Youngs’ Biodiesel Van

John Davis

Singer Jenny Owen Youngs, known for her music on the Showtime series Weeds, is incorporating some green (different kind of green in this case) in the van she’s using to tour the country. This article from HARP Magazine features Youngs: On her current tour, Jenny Owen Youngs will be tooling around in a biodiesel van. She got the idea from …

Biodiesel

Portland Mandates Biodiesel

John Davis

Starting next month, all diesel sold in Portland, Oregon will have to have at least a five percent biodiesel content. And according to this story on eTrucker.com, the City Council has made the standard even higher for city vehicles: City-owned diesel vehicles must use fuel with a biodiesel content of more than 20 percent. The rule also mandates that all …

Biodiesel, Government

Michigan’s BIG Program Installing Biofuels Pumps

John Davis

That’s the Biofuels Infrastructure Grant Program that gets federal money to help gas station owners/operators install E-85 and B20 (or higher percentage) pumps to encourage the Earth-friendly fuels. The latest was a station the Quick Sav Food Store in Swartz Creek. That station got about $8,400 to put in the new pumps… one of six stations in Michigan that received …

Biodiesel, Ethanol

DuPont Turns Corn Into Oil

John Davis

No, it’s not corn oil… it’s propanediol, a corn-sugar based product that replaces petroleum in many uses. U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman today in Loudon, Tennessee joined officials from DuPont Tate & Lyle in a joint venture to open a $100 million Bio-PDO(TM) facility… the world’s first of its kind. Check out this release posted on PR Newswire: Bio-PDO(TM) …

Miscellaneous

Hot Rod on Ethanol

John Davis

A race car running on ethanol is winning races and setting some records on the drag racing circuit. Stephanie Eggums, the lady behind the wheel of Eggums Racing’s NHRA SC car posted news of her wins on the news section of her MySpace page: Next was the NDRA MIR event May 19 – 20th, where we had to finish the …

Ethanol

Incoming British PM Pushes Biodiesel

John Davis

The man expected to replace British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for more tax incentives for the production of biodiesel. According to this story on the Scotsman.com, to make his point, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown made a recent trip on Europe’s first biodiesel-powered train with Sir Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin: The pair travelled on a …

Biodiesel, International

Brew Your Own Biodiesel for $.85 a Gallon

John Davis

No, its not some ad in the back of a kids magazine. There’s plenty of people across the country who are brewing up their own biodiesel… not just the big plants you normally hear about. This story on YourHub.com talks about how many people are using (usually) free old cooking oil from restaurants. But the article points out you can’t …

Biodiesel

Clean Diesel Signs Another Patent Deal

John Davis

Innovator of clean energy technology, Clean Diesel has inked another deal to share its patents with another company to make the technology more widely available. Clean Diesel has agreed to a non-exclusive license agreement with Connecticut-based Combustion Components Associates. CCA is a provider of air pollution control technologies for the power generation and transportation industries. The announcement came in a …

Miscellaneous

Imperium, Solazyme Ink Biodiesel Deal

John Davis

Biodiesel giant Imperium Renewable and algae-to-oil producer Solazyme, Inc. have reached a deal that will have Solazyme producing oil from microbes it developed and providing the oil to Imperium to make into biodiesel. From a company press release: Harrison Dillon, Solazyme’s Chief Executive Officer commented: “Imperium has publicly expressed interest in the opportunity for algal derived biodiesel for some time …

Biodiesel

Americans Get EU Perspective on Biofuels

John Davis

Several American journalists are touring Europe, courtesy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a program that promotes cooperation between the United States and Europe on domestic and international trade policies. From this post on FarmPolicy.com, Missy Shelton Belote of KSMU-FM, Springfield, Missouri’s public radio station; Todd Gleason, from the University of Illinois and WILL AM-580 public radio; …

Biodiesel, Ethanol