There is a lot of talk today about creating “green jobs” and how best to train those people to enter the green sector. One of the early adopters of green education was Iowa Central Community College (ICCC). This week, the college announced that they have become the first laboratory to earn accreditation as a BQ-9000 laboratory. This accolade means that …
Oodles and Oodles of Biomass, Oh My!
There are several barriers to the success of converting biomass to biofuels including harvesting, transportation and storage. But of these three challenges, one of utmost importance is not only how to store the biomass but how long can it be stored without compromising the feedstock? The most advanced commercial scale corn stover to ethanol project in the U.S. is Project …
San Jose Becomes Top Solar Community in California
The California Public Utilities Commission has reported that San Jose is now the largest installer of solar power in the state of California. Today, the city’s newest and largest solar installation was unveiled that included more than 2,500 solar panels covering 44,448 square-foot parking lot. The building that is now solar powered is Power Integrations’ headquarters in the Edenvale Technology …
RFA: EPA Overestimates ILUC Emissions
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has sent another letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding what they call errors in the calculations of biofuels’ carbon intensity under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). In the August 4th letter, RFA writes, “according to [EPA’s] own analysis, EPA grossly overestimated potential emissions from land use change (LUC) attributable to the [greenhouse gas] …
New York Officially Passes Bioheat Legislation
In a follow-up to a story written last week, New York has officially passed air quality legislation that includes a provision to ensure that only Bioheat, a blend of heating oil and biodiesel, is used with the city. The unanimous vote, 45-0, ensures that starting October 2012, all home heating and oil will contain at least 2 percent biodiesel. The …
Murphy Oil Looks to Grow Biofuels Business
One of the country’s most touted, and failed, ethanol concepts may be sold. Last year, Hereford Biofuels, the first commercial scale plant in the country intended to operate using methane from cattle operations, went belly-up. Construction was halted when owner, Panda Energy, an energy firm based in Dallas, Texas, sold the plant to creditors earlier this year for a reported …
Dyadic Lawsuit Dismissed
Dyadic International has confirmed that the final resolution of the consolidated stockholder class action lawsuit, Miller v. Dyadic International, Inc. et. al, has been approved and the lawsuit dismissed with prejudice. Dyadic is a biofuels company that is focused on developing technologies to produce cellulosic ethanol from corn stover and wheat straw. The lawsuit was originally filed in October of …
Northeast Biodiesel Breaks Ground in Greenfield, Mass
Although the biodiesel industry has struggled for the past few months, in areas with state mandates the biodiesel industry is thriving. Today, Northeast Biodiesel LLC, in partnership with Co-op Power, broke ground on a 3.5 million gallon biodiesel plant to be located in Greenfield, Mass. that is expected to be operational in January 2011. The plant will use various feedstocks …
FAO: Japtropha Promising Rural Crop for Biodiesel
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently released a new report that champions jatropha as a promising biodiesel crop especially for global rural farmers. The report, “Jatropha: A Smallholder Bioenergy Crop, the Potential for Pro-Poor Development,” set out to examine the potential for jatropha as a sustainable biodiesel crop and has been in development since …
First Blender Pump Opens in Ord, NE
Ord, Nebraska has a new blender pump. Country Partners Cooperative joined forces with Growth Energy to install the community’s first blender pump that now offers flex-fuel drivers E20 and E30. Driver’s can fill up with these higher ethanol blends at 424 North 14th Street, on the corner of Highway 70 and Highway 11. “We took advantage of Growth Energy’s funding …