Sunday nights in America are famous for families sitting down and watching 60 Minutes. And while many people today may consider the news program “old school” millions of people still get their news from the show. This past Sunday night, 60 Minutes aired a piece, “The Cleantech Crash,” criticizing the Department of Energy’s investments in clean energy and the lack …
Fast-Eating Enzymes Lunch on Cellulose
A microorganism first found in the Valley of Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia in 1990 may be a key to more efficient cellulosic biofuel production. The microoorganism can digest cellulose almost twice as fast as the current leading component cellulase enzyme on the market according to researchers at the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The researches …
Amyris Increases Biodiesel Buses in Brazil
Amyris, Inc. has announced that the city of São Paulo is now operating 400 city buses using Amyris Renewable Diesel, which is branded locally as Diesel de Cana. In other news, Amyris announced it has successfully produced its first fragrance oil for its partner Firmenich SA. “From fuels to consumer care products, we continue to make progress on our commercialization …
Senate Energy Tax Reform Proposal
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) today unveiled a proposal to streamline energy tax incentives. “It is time to bring our energy tax policy into the 21st century,” Senator Baucus said. “Our current set of energy tax incentives is overly complex and picks winners and losers with no clear policy rationale. We need a system of energy incentives that …
ICM Signs Canadian Ethanol Plant
Renewable energy technology company ICM of Colwich, Kansas has signed a Letter of Intent with IGPC Ethanol of Ontario, Canada to be the first Canadian adopter of ICM’s Generation 1.5™ technology. Adoption of the technology will enable IGPC Ethanol to produce corn fiber cellulosic ethanol. “Through our previous collaboration with ICM, we believed it was important to continue down the …
Legislation Would Extend Biofuels Tax Credits
Legislation introduced last week in the House would extend expiring tax incentives important to the development of next generation biofuels. Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) introduced the “Second Generation Biofuels Extension Act of 2013” (H.R. 3758) which would extend for one year the Second Generation Biofuel Producer Credit and the Special Allowance for Second Generation Biofuel Plant Property. Four fellow Democrats …
USDA, DOE Fund $8M for Bioenergy Feedstocks
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) today announced $8 million in research grants to develop non-food feedstocks that can be used for bioenergy. USDA said the grants are part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to develop domestic renewable energy and advanced biofuels, providing a more secure future for America’s energy needs and enhancing rural …
USDA, DOD Announce Farm-to-Fleet Program
U.S. Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus have announced a joint “Farm-to-Fleet” venture to make biofuel blends part of regular, operational fuel purchases and use by the military. The announcement incorporates the acquisition of biofuel blends into regular Department of Defense (DOD) domestic solicitations for jet engine and marine diesel fuels. The Navy will …
Standard Ethanol Selects Greenbelt Technology
Greenbelt Resources Corporation has been selected by Australia-based Standard Ethanol Pty. Ltd to design and deliver an end-to-end commercial-scale advanced biofuel system for converting wheat feedstock to ethanol and organic fertilizer. The module is designed to enable beverage producers and agri-businesses to locally recycle organic wastes into usable products. The customized modular system for Standard Ethanol will include proprietary distillation …
Sapphire & Phillips 66 Embark on Algae Partnership
Algae-based Sapphire Energy and Phillips 66 have announced a joint development agreement with the goal of taking production of algae crude oil to commercial scale production. The companies will work together to collect and analyze data from co-processing of algae and conventional crude oil into fuels. The goal is to complete fuel certifications to ready Sapphire Energy’s renewable crude oil, …