The State of Iowa is making a major investment to grow algae for biofuel at a southwest Iowa ethanol plant. Fox News has details: The 18-member Iowa Power Fund Board approved the $2,085,000 grant this week to assist in the commercialization of algae production technology. The effort is a joint venture of four companies based in Nebraska, Tennessee, Rhode Island …
Indonesia Looks to US Firm for Biodiesel Equipment
While the biodiesel production business has been growing in the U.S., it has also grown in popularity overseas, especially in Southeast Asia. That has led a group representing commerce interests in Indonesia to visit a Southern California biodiesel equipment manufacturer. This article from Biodiesel Magazine says SRS Engineering Corp. is at the center of potential trade agreements between the two …
Biodiesel, Solar Tops in Lexus Eco Challenge
Two teams of high school students have taken top honors in the Lexus Eco Challenge, sponsored by book mega-supplier, Scholastic. About 50 teams of teens took part in the national environmental contest with a group from Thornbridge High School in the Chicago suburb of Dolton and another group from Plantation, Florida (just north of Miami) picking up the top $50,000 …
RI Legislature Moves Forward Biodiesel Tax Break
A tax incentive designed to encourage the use of biodiesel has moved forward in the Rhode Island State Legislature. The Providence (RI) Journal reports the state’s Senate Finance Committee gave unanimous approval to Sen. Louis P. DiPalma’s measure that would exempt blended biodiesel fuel from the state’s 30-cents-a-gallon motor fuel tax: Current law generally exempts from the tax only 100 …
Drive Clean and Green in NC
A caravan of more than than 24 alternative fuel vehicles will leave from Raleigh, NC on April 15 at 3:30 p.m. and travel across the state. The Clean Fuel Advanced Technology program at the NC Solar Center is leading a clean transportation technology drive across North Carolina. The tour will continue with stops in Greensboro and Charlotte on April 16.
Canadian Bioenergy, ADM Building Biodiesel Plant
A leading biodiesel company north of the border has teamed up with an American agri-business giant to go in to the green fuel business together. A press release from the Canadian Bioenergy Corporation says it will work with ADM to build and run a 70 million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant. The joint venture will make biodiesel from canola crushed at ADM’s crushing …
Biodiesel Cold Soak Tax Credit Deadline Pushed Back
Biodiesel producers not quite able to pass the newest quality standard… ASTM D 6751, which now includes a Cold Soak Filtration Test (CFST)… will have some extra time when they can still claim the Internal Revenue Service’s dollar-per-gallon tax credit. Those not meeting the new standard were supposed to lose the credit as of April 1st, but that’s been rolled …
Illinois Biodiesel Plant Expands Feedstock Choices
An Illinois biodiesel plant has made some upgrades and can now use a wider variety of feedstocks. Hoosier Ag Today reports that the improvements made by Renewable Energy Group to the 45-million-gallon-a-year Blackhawk Biofuels plant in Danville, Ill., will be able to turn more fats and oils, such as used cooking grease, into biodiesel: “These upgrades enhance local production of …
Biodiesel’s New Cold Soak Method Gets ASTM Number
The new Cold Soak Filtration Test method for B100 biodiesel finally has an official number. This story from Biodiesel Magazine says the ASTM’s Committee of Standards has given the method the an official number – ASTM D 7501, due to be published later this month: The CSFT method currently in effect was developed as a result of the Minnesota experience …
Midwest Senators Sponsor Biofuels Pipeline Bill
The Midwest has plenty of ethanol and biodiesel… the big population centers in the Eastern United States needs those renewable fuels. You’d think it would be a match made in heaven, but the lack of infrastructure to move those biofuels has been a problem, adding extra transportation costs. But a new piece of legislation looks to rectify that. According to …