Miscanthus appears to be the hot feedstock for December. Last week, Sunbelt Biofuels announced that it will be licensing Freedom Giant Miscanthus, and today, Speedling Incorporated and Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. announced an agreement to work together to research, develop and commercialize a “cost-effective propagation and production system for Mendel’s advanced Miscanthus product candidates.” Neal Gutterson, Mendel’s president and CEO said, …
New Jersey Station Celebrates Anniversary of Biodiesel
The first commercial service station in New Jersey that offered biodiesel is celebrating the first anniversary of that historic event. As you might remember from my post last year, it was an early Christmas present for the area around Maplewood, New Jersey as Woolley Fuel became the first in the state to offer Biodiesel to the public. Proprietor Norm Woolley, …
PowerPellets Touted as “Coal from the Farm”
It could become the next great fuel source from the agricultural community. A Nebraska-based biomass supplier and manufacturer has debuted a product it touts as “Coal from the Farm.” Next Step Biofuels, Inc. has launched PowerPellets, a green fuel made from corn stover – all the leaves, cobs and stalks leftover after the corn is harvested – that burns like …
Audi Tells Obama, “Forget Plug-Ins, Think Biodiesel”
The top executive at Audi’s U.S. offices says American political leaders need to think less about plug-in electric vehicles and more about vehicles that run on biodiesel, as well as standardizing the rules for biodiesel. The Detroit News reports that Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen made the remarks at Washington, D.C.’s National Press Club, where he told the …
NREL Tests Sorghum for Cellulosic Ethanol
Representatives of the National Sorghum Producers (NSP) witnessed a pilot test of bioenergy sorghum at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) this week. NSP collaborated with NREL to provide almost 100 different sorghum samples for testing, eventually choosing two for pilot testing. The resulting data shows that high biomass forage sorghum demonstrates great potential to fit into cellulosic ethanol conversion. …
Energy From Cows Could Reduce Emissions
Producing more energy from cow manure could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the climate summit in Copenhagen, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an agreement with U.S. dairy producers to accelerate adoption of innovative manure to energy projects on American dairy farms. “This historic agreement, the first of its kind, will help us achieve the ambitious goal of drastically …
Airlines Agree to Buy Renewable Jet Fuel
Fourteen major airlines from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Germany, led by the Air Transport Association (ATA), have agreed to buy up to 750 million gallons of renewable jet fuel and diesel derived from camelina and produced by Seattle-based AltAir Fuels. This AltAir Fuels press release says the green fuel will be produced from camelina oil obtained from Montana-based …
Valero to Purchase 3 Ethanol Plants
Valero Energy Corp will add three more ethanol plants to their group, bringing their total production to 1.1 billion gallons per year. After these purchases, Valero will own ten ethanol plants. A $200 million agreement has been settled for two plants now owned by creditors ASA Ethanol Holdings LLC. These plants are located in Linden, Indiana and Bloomingburg, Ohio and …
Wind Works Acquires Interest in 80 MW of Wind Power
Canadian-based Wind Works Power Corp. has acquired half interest in six wind energy projects in Ontario with a total capacity of 80 megawatts. This company press release says Wind Works Power will have the option to up those interests to 100 percent: “With these 6 new projects, we now have a total of 15 wind energy projects in Ontario totaling …