National Park Service diesel vehicles on the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be filling up with 50% biodiesel. This story in the Haywood County (NC) News says the biodiesel will go into about two dozen vehicles that burn 12,000 gallons a year: “This biodiesel refueling project will help us achieve our long-term goal of …
A Greener Grocer
Grocery-giant Safeway is test-marketing 20% biodiesel at one of its Seattle stores. Check out this story on MSNBC.com: Cherie Myers, a regional Safeway spokeswoman, said the company saw the environmentally conscious Northwest as a good place to test biodiesel’s commercial viability. “This was our first step. Now we’re going to see how the consumer will respond to this,” Myers said. …
Green Lawns Through Green Fuel
Just a month until the first day of spring, and I’m sure after the kind of winter much of the country has seen, many people are REALLY looking forward to even some of the springtime chores such as mowing the lawn. The folks at Toro want to make that process a little greener. This article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says …
West Coast Biodiesel Giant Nabs Big Investments
Seattle-based Imperium Renewables has announced it has secured $214 million in investments… possibly a record for biodiesel makers in the U.S. and reflecting a trend in more money going into the renewable fuel. From an Imperium Renewables press release: Imperium Renewables, Inc. today announced it has closed its Series B round with $113million of private equity and has mandated Société …
Johanns to Keynote Biofuels Investment Seminar
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns will be the keynote speaker at a symposium next month on biofuels investments. “Biomass and Biorefinery Deals 2007” will bring leading government officials, developers, equity and venture financiers, and technology providers together to discuss how to best accelerate the implementation of emerging biomass and biorefinery technology and optimize the revenue flows for projects. The symposium will …
Biodiesel… This Year’s Ethanol
As I’ve talked about before on this blog, one of the keys to biodiesel being a success is it being financially viable. This article in the Financial Times Deutschland (Germany) has one expert predicting that biodiesel could see the results ethanol has recently seen: Biodiesel could be “this year’s ethanol” in the view of Leigh Goering, portfolio manager for the …
Carter Hometown to be Home of Peanut Biodiesel Plant
Former President Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia will become the home of a new biodiesel plant. According to a press release from the National Biodiesel Board, the plant will be just a few blocks from Carter’s home and actually use peanuts from the Carter farm to make some of the biodiesel: “The development of alternative, environmentally responsible energy sources …
Expert Says Biodiesel Not to Blame for Indiana Bus Sludge
Recently, a school district in Indiana had to start school late. Normally, that’s not news for Indiana in the wintertime. But the weather was not to blame this time. Officials with the Maconaquah School Corporation in Bunker Hill, IN say some of their buses would not start earlier this month because of a sludge that was clogging the fuel filters. …
USDA: Biodiesel to See Spike, then Level Off
Ethanol is still the king of biofuels in the U.S., but biodiesel is making, and will continue to make, big gains… that’s according to a USDA long-term projection reported on CattleNetwork.com: Biodiesel production capacity and output have increased rapidly in the past 2 years and are projected to rise rapidly again in 2007/08. Slower growth is then projected for several …
Major Biodiesel Plant Planned for Maui
You can’t enjoy paradise when the skies are filled with smog… that seems to be the idea behind a $61 million biodiesel plant planned in the Hawaiian Islands. The Blue Earth Maui Biodiesel LLC refinery would provide Maui Electric Company with enough biodiesel to run its largest electric plant. The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports the plant would produce 40 million …