Mascoma Team Moves Toward Cellulosic Ethanol Commercialization
As the company moves closer to the commercial development phase for cellulosic ethanol, Mascoma Corporation is making some management “reconfigurations.” Bruce Jamerson will transition from his role as Mascoma’s CEO to the position of Chairman of Mascoma and of Frontier Renewable Resources, Mascoma’s Michigan-based operating subsidiary. The company is in the process of recruiting a new CEO with experience in …
VW Announces 2010 Biodiesel Racing Schedule
With just four races left in the current racing season, Volkswagen Motorsports has announced next year’s SCCA Pro Racing Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup schedule… a series that features clean-burning B5 biodiesel in its cars. This press release says Volkswagen of America has an online application page for prospective drivers at www.vwmotorsportusa.com, adding one more path that drivers may follow in …
Aurora Biofuels Improves Carbon-Eating Algae
In what is being characterized by the company as a major breakthrough in algae technology to be turned into biodiesel, California-based Aurora Biofuels has optimized algae strains that more than double their intake of carbon dioxide… important for producing the oil that is eventually turned into biodiesel. This article from Biodiesel Magazine says while it’s hard to figure how much …
Algae Researchers to Talk Energy in St. Louis
Researchers will be gathering in St. Louis next week for the “Algae-to-Energy Research and Development in the South” meeting. The Center for Evergreen Energy in conjunction with The Southern Growth Policies Board and The Southern Agriculture and Forestry Resource Alliance (SAFER) is hosting the meeting of southern algae researchers on August 26th at the Regional Chamber and Growth Association’s office …
Drive Smarter Video Challenge: Win $5,000
Lights, camera, action! It’s time to produce a cinematic masterpiece that will be seen by millions. The topic: driving smarter. Contestants have the opportunity to submit a two-minute video to the Drive Smarter Challenge video contest, that demonstrates one or more of the Driver Smarter Challenge campaign’s gas-and money-saving tips. The winner will receive $5,000. Second/Third Prize is a choice …
Indirect Land Use Science Lacking & World Knows it
Yet another study has found that Searchinger et al.’s paper on Indirect Land Use was not based on ‘sound science’. According to researchers Professor John Matthews and Dr. Hao Tan, from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, the Searchinger paper is more ideology than science and is seeking to put biofuels in the worst possible light. In addition, they say, alternative …
A Few Minutes with ‘The Father of Ethanol’
“I thought it would take one-and-a-half years to get things done but now its been 22 years for me,” said Merle Anderson during our conversation at the 22nd Ethanol Conference & Trade Show. Merle is often known as ‘the father of ethanol,’ and with good reason. He helped to start the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) in 1977. As a …
Seawater to Jet Fuel? The U.S. Navy Thinks So
The search for renewable energy sources is varied and sometimes strange and here is another one to add to the strange category: turning seawater into kerosene-based jet fuel. Who would research something like this? Look no further than our very own U.S. Navy. Navy chemists have processed seawater into unsaturated short-chain hydrocarbons that with further refining could be made into …