POET–DSM Advanced Biofuels will be celebrating the start of construction Tuesday on Project LIBERTY, the planned commercial-scale ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The joint venture between Dutch life sciences firm Royal DSM and ethanol giant POET announced the groundbreaking when the partnership was made public in January. “The joint venture anticipates that we’ll complete construction of Project LIBERTY and start …
Support for Stabenow Transportation Bill Amendment
Biofuels organizations are strongly urging lawmakers to approve an amendment to the Transportation Bill (S.1813) offered by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) that would extend tax incentives for biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol. “We applaud Sen. Stabenow for introducing this amendment and we urge all senators to support it,” said Anne Steckel, vice president of federal affairs at the National Biodiesel Board. …
Amendment Would Extend Domestic Energy Tax Credits
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced an amendment to the Transportation Bill (S.1813) Thursday that would extend tax incentives for domestically produced energy sources, including biodiesel, ethanol, cellulosic biofuels, electric vehicles, wind energy and solar. The measure would re-instate and extend the $1 per gallon biodiesel tax incentive, which expired at the end of last year, and the Advanced Energy Manufacturing …
Ethanol Land Use Debate Continues
The debate over ethanol, greenhouse gases and land use continues – and that was the topic of a panel discussion at the recent 17th annual National Ethanol Conference. The panel, moderated by Renewable Fuels Association VP of Research and Analysis Geoff Cooper, consisted of Thomas Darlington with Air Improvement Resource, Inc.; Dr. David Zilberman with the University of California-Berkeley; and …
Cobalt Demonstrates Biomass Treatment Process
Cobalt Technologies has announced a milestone in the commercial conversion of biomass to sugars with the successful demonstration of its biomass pretreatment process. The company, which is developing next generation n-butanol, made the achievement in cooperation with ANDRITZ, a globally leading supplier of technologies, equipment and plants for the pulp and paper industry. Cobalt conducted the testing in the ANDRITZ …
New Holland Stresses Support for Ethanol
New Holland Agriculture announced a major new national “blue is back” advertising campaign at the 2012 Commodity Classic last week and stressed the blue tractor company’s support for homegrown fuel. New Holland North American VP Abe Hughes says they believe that more acreage will be planted this year than anytime in recent history and part of the reason is ethanol. …
HCL CleanTech Changes Name, Announces Financing
HCL CleanTech has changed its name to Virdia and announced new funding for the development of cellulosic sugars for biofuels and other uses. Virdia today officially announced the closing of $30 million in private financing and a $75 million loan package from the Mississippi Development Authority to build manufacturing plants in the state. Founded in 2007 as HCL CleanTech, Virdia …
ZeaChem to Develop “Drop-In” Advanced Biofuels
ZeaChem, a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into sustainable fuels and chemicals, will receive a portion of a $40m grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Regional Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP). The USDA project will establish regional systems for the sustainable production of bioenergy and …
President Stresses All of the Above Energy Policy
As the ethanol industry was meeting in Orlando last week, President Obama was talking energy just a few hundred miles to the south at the University of Miami. “If we’re going to take control of our energy future and can start avoiding these annual gas price spikes that happen every year — when the economy starts getting better, world demand …
Views from the Political Right and Left at NEC
Positioned on opposite sides of the stage to their political leanings, two former presidential advisors took on a range of questions related to the 2012 election year and important policy issues in front of 1200 attendees at the 17th annual National Ethanol Conference (NEC) last week. On the left, was senior advisor to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove, while …