Many drivers across the country are getting frustrated as gas prices are on the rise and oil prices have surpassed $70 a barrel. Algae production may be a good replacement for oil and today, OriginOil, Inc., announced that it has filed for a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) on its technology to convert algae to renewable oil. The renewable oil could …
WI’s First Commercial Biodiesel Plant Idled
Biodiesel is still having a tough go of it… just like many other businesses in today’s economy. The latest victim of the economic downturn is Sanimax Energy, which has had to temporarily close its DeForest, Wisconsin plant… the first biodiesel plant to open in the Badger State two years ago. This story in the Wisconsin Ag Connection says the refinery, …
Harkin: Indirect Land Use Rule Not Good Science
The chair of the U.S. Senate’s Ag Committee says the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Indirect Land Use Rule, which would make biodiesel ineligible for mandates and federal subsidies, is not good science… and he believes there are enough votes in Congress to keep it from going into effect. Agriculture Online reports that the EPA’s proposal would use the concept of …
DF Cast: Global Debate on Biofuels
Biodiesel and ethanol have borne the brunt of criticism in the food versus fuel debate… being blamed, unfairly as it turns out, for the spike in food prices last year. The issue was one that came up at the recent World Ag Forum in St. Louis (see our coverage of the event over at our sister Web site, AgWired.com) that …
New Jersey Biodiesel Producer to Open CT Port
In a move that could set the company up to deliver biodiesel to all of New England, New Jersey-based biodiesel maker Innovation Fuels will open operations at a Connecticut terminal this month. This story in the New Haven (CT) Register says Innovation will ship the green fuel from its plant in Newark, N.J. by barge, rail and truck to the …
Biodiesel Spreadsheets to Help Analyze Profitability
Biodiesel producers won’t have to fly blind when trying to decide if an operation will be profitable or not. Biodiesel Magazine reports the Ag Marketing Resource Center, an online center hosted by Iowa State University Extension Service, is offering biodiesel profitability spreadsheets: “We put together what we think is a ballpark or typical biodiesel plant in Iowa to give an …
Pennsylvania Looks to Stimulus Money to Help Biofuels
Pennsylvania’s governor is looking to the federal government to help along his state’s biodiesel and alternative fuel vehicle industries. Governor Ed Rendell is asking the U.S. Department of Energy for $15 million in federal stimulus bucks for Alternative Fuel and Advanced Technology Vehicles Pilot Grants: “As part of Pennsylvania’s Energy Independence Strategy, the PennSecurity Fuels Initiative mandates the production and …
Boeing: Biofuels Just Fine For Aircraft
One of the world’s biggest makers of aircraft says that in initial tests, biofuels don’t affect performance and present no technical or safety problems, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent. This story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that word comes from the top people at Boeing: “It meets all jet fuel requirements and then some,” …
WI Businessman Plans to Open Biofuels Stations
A Milwaukee businessman has big plans to bring biofuels to southern Wisconsin. This story in the the Business Journal of Milwaukee says Peter Grimes is opening a biodiesel and ethanol station in the southeast Wisconsin town of Cudahy next month… and there’s plans to open up at least six more over the next two years: Grimes, a managing partner of …
Missouri Biodiesel Plant Holds Open House
About 300 investors, workers and local officials toured the new Producers’ Choice Soy Energy biodiesel plant near the north-central Missouri town of Moberly over the weekend. After a ceremonial ribbon cutting, officials said the 5-million-gallon-a-year refinery should be cranking out biodiesel sometime this summer: David Zielke, the CEO for Producers’ Choice said “This project has created jobs, stimulated the economy, …