A New Jersey company has sold its first industrial-scale oil extractor that will help get biodiesel from waste streams. This article from Biodiesel Magazine says Renewable BioSystems LLC’s (RBL) system will initially be able to turn 500,000 gallons of yellow grease into oil for biodiesel feedstock each year and could be scaled-up to more than 5 million tons of oil …
INEOS Secures $75M USDA Loan Guarantee
INEOS BioEnergy Center has received a conditional commitment for a $75 million loan guarantee as part of the USDA’s 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program. The project is a partnership between INEOS Bio and New Planet Energy. The funds will be used for the construction of their plant to be located near Vero Beach, Florida. Once completed, the biorefinery will produce 8 …
Investments in G-20 Clean Power Projects Could Top $2.3 Trillion
Private funds have been difficult to secure in the U.S. for clean energy programs for the past year; however, on a global scale, private investments in G-20 clean power projects could total more than $2.3 trillion by the end of this decade alone. This figure was released as part of a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts this month: …
GM Reaches Zero-Landfill Plants Goal
General Motors has announced that it has reached its global operations commitment set in 2008 to convert 50 percent of its 145 plants to landfill-free status by the end of 2010. Currently, 52 percent, or 76 of its worldwide facilities, now take all its waste generated from normal operations and reuse, recycle or convert it to energy. GM’s first facility …
Book Review – The Story of Stuff
Many years ago on a high school field trip, we were taken to the local landfill. It was nearly full and the city needed to do something – find somewhere to take its trash. Out of this field trip came my first environmental inspiration. I researched recycling and determined that at that time, the only way to get people to …
CEC Awards $9.6M in Energy Grants
Good news today for several California biofuel producers. The California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved eight grants worth more than $9.6 million along with $11,969,855 in private funds. Each winning project demonstrated its ability to reduce petroleum use, reduce pollution and provide jobs. The categories of industry that were eligible for funding included biofuels, manufacturers of electric vehicles and batteries, …
INEOS Awards $100M Contract to Build Bioenergy Facility
INEOS Bio has awarded Tucker, Georgia-based AMEC a $100 million contract to build its BioEnergy Center in Indian River County, Fla. Once completed, the plant will be one of the first commercial waste-to-energy plants and the first one built using INEOS’s advanced BioEnergy Technology. When the facility is completed, it will produce 8 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year …
Waste to Fuel Plants Become Reality
Waste Management flipped the switch this week on Southwestern Ontario’s first-ever private landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGTE) facility. Located at Waste Management’s Petrolia Landfill, the facility will use methane gas – created from the natural decomposition of waste – to power up to 2,500 homes in the surrounding area. The gas is collected through wells that are strategically placed throughout the site, which …
Brown Researchers Green WVO-to-Biodiesel Conversion
Researchers at Brown University have found a more streamlined and greener way to turn waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. This school press release says Brown University chemist Jason Sello and postdoctoral researcher Aaron Socha have eliminated the corrosive chemicals usuallu used in the reactions… a process that is six times faster than previous methods, using less energy: “We wanted to …
TMO Renewables Joins Fiberight for MSW Projects
UK-based TMO Renewables has announced that it has entered into a 20-year contract with U.S.-based Fiberight to design and build waste to ethanol plants in the U.S. The contract is estimated to be worth more than $25 million per year. The new plants will combine the TMO Process, which optimizes waste feedstock conversion using a specialty bio-organism, with Fiberight’s fractionation …