The largest government purchase of biofuels for military application was announced today. U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack jointly announced that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) signed a contract to purchase 450,000 gallons of advanced drop-in biofuel. The biofuel to be purchased is made from a blend of non-food waste (used cooking oil) …
U.S. Navy Successfully Runs Ship on Biofuel
The U.S. Navy successfully concluded the largest demonstration of shipboard alternative fuel use last week when the Self Defense Test Ship (SDTS) arrived on November 17 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme, Calif. The SDTS is a decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer ex-Paul F. Foster (EDD 964) reconfigured to provide the Navy an at-sea, remotely controlled, engineering test and evaluation …
OriginOil Announces Algae Appliance
During the 4th Algae World Asia conference in Beijing, China, OriginOil announced it’s newest algae extraction technology – Algae Appliance. This entry-level commercial algae harvesting system was designed to help producers process algae at a low cost and without chemicals. Algae Appliance is set for release in the first half of 2012 and is a continuous flow ‘wet harvest’ system …
USDA Funds Algae Fuel Project in New Mexico
USDA has issued a loan guarantee that will allow a biofuels firm to construct a facility in New Mexico to produce “green crude” oil from algae which can be refined into transportation fuel. The loan is going to Sapphire Energy, which intends to design, build and operate a $135 million integrated algal biorefinery (IABR) in Columbus, N.M., for the production …
First Commercial Flight Made on Advanced Biofuel
The friendly skies of United Airlines are now friendlier for the environment as subsidiary Continental flew the first commercial flight on advanced biofuel yesterday. “United is taking a significant step forward to advance the use of environmentally responsible and cost-efficient alternative fuels,” said Pete McDonald, United’s executive vice president and chief operations officer. “Sustainable biofuels, produced on a large scale …
Senators to Address Algae Biomass Summit
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Al Franken (D-MN) will address the 2011 Algae Biomass Summit October 25-27 in Minneapolis, according to the Algal Biomass Organization (ABO). Senator Franken will help kickoff the conference on October 25, while Senator Klobuchar will address the conference via a video lunchtime keynote on October 26, focusing on home grown energy and job creation. …
Algae Industry Gets Sneak Peak of OriginOil Technology
The biofuel industry was invited to tour OriginOil’s algae technology during the recent Algae World Australia conference. The end-to-end algae production project is located in North Queensland, Australia. Riggs Eckelberry, company CEO, spoke during the conference and joined the visitors touring the facility, which is operated by their partner MBD Energy on the James Cook University campus (JCU) in Townsville. …
UOP Breaks Ground on Hawaii Cellulose Plant
UOP, a honeywell company, has broken ground on a biofuels demonstration plant in Hawaii that will convert forest waste, algae and other cellulosic biomass to fuel. The project is being helped along by a $25 million U.S. Department of Energy grant. The project will help meet federal biofuel mandates as well as help Hawaii reach its clean energy goals of …
Level the Playing Field for Biofuels
Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) announced this week his intent to introduce bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate that would help level the playing field for advanced biofuels such as algae. He wants to accomplish this by reforming the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) to make it technology agnostic. Of the 36 billion gallons required by the RFS, up to 15 billion …
Continuous Algae Harvesting Network Developed
OriginOil has announced that it has developed a real-time control network to supervise continuous algae harvesting operations aimed for large scale algae production sites. The network, code named “Green Stick,” will be installed at Australian algae producer MDB Energy’s power plant test site. In this configuration, the system will interface with MBD’s own growth control system and integrate its operations …