Oakhurst Dairy, based in Maine, has announced the conversion of their delivery trucks to a biodiesel blend. Oakhurst credited tax incentives for driving the decision to convert 90 percent of its vehicles, making it the largest private biodiesel fleet in New England. Biodiesel is produced in Maine from waste vegetable oil. Except in the coldest weather, the delivery trucks will …
World Biodiesel Output May Triple by ’09
An analyst with Bunge Ltd., expects world biodiesel output to hit nearly 16 million metric tons by 2009. That prediction, which is more than triple the current 5 million metric tons this year, was made by Bunge’s Nancy DeVore at the Terrapinn Biofuels Finance & Investment World conference in London. Read more from Farm Futures.
Bean Breeding Groundbreaking
Monsanto is building a new soybean breeding facility in South Dakota. They broke ground just this week in fact. The site will develop and test new soybean varieties developed by Monsanto’s breeders, as well as varieties containing traits in various stages of pre-commercial advancement in the company’s product pipeline. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in conjunction with the dedication of …
NearBio for Bio Near You
Finding biodiesel to fuel up with just got a little easier thanks to NearBio. The free service is designed to enable cell phone users to easily find nearby biodiesel fueling locations based on city, zip code, or GPS coordinates. According to a company news release, The comprehensive national database of over 1000 individually verified locations is updated daily and is …
Biofuels Expected to Dominate Farm Bill
It was already a given that energy issues would dominate the writing of the 2007 Farm Bill, but even more support for domestic fuels like ethanol and biodiesel is expected now that the House and Senate Agriculture committees will be run by corn belt Democrats. Forbes reports that with Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa …
Biodiesel Board Chairman Re-elected
For a third year, the biodiesel industry has chosen farmer-leader Darryl Brinkmann to lead the National Biodiesel Board. A soybean grower from Carlyle, Ill., Brinkmann has the charge of leading the organization as chairman during yet another year of intense growth and change for the alternative fuel. Brinkmann has served as a board member for the nonprofit trade association since …
Case IH Supports Biodiesel
Case IH is the latest equipment manufacturer to announce support for B20, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel. The company has announced that customers can use B20 in most Case IH engines and B5 (5 percent biodiesel) in all Case IH engines. In addition, Case IH uses biodiesel blends as the factory fill in most cases. …
Brazil Opens First Ethanol-Biodiesel Plant
Reuters reports on a first for Brazil’s biofuels industry: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva showcased Brazil’s prowess in the alternative fuels industry on Tuesday when he inaugurated Barralcool, the first integrated biofuels plant that will produce cane-based ethanol and biodiesel from oilseeds. Brazil, with its huge agricultural potential, has for decades had the world’s most advanced biofuels market. After …
Study Finds Biotech Will Meet Food and Fuel Demands
A National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy study suggests that biotechnology plays a vital role in meeting the increased demand for corn production for food, feed and fuel. According to the study, U.S. farmers gained an additional 8.3 billion pounds of yield last year due to biotech crops, including an extra 7.6 billion pounds of corn production, a 29 …
25 x ’25 Could Help Rural Economy
The alliance known as 25X’25 has just completed a study that outlines the positive impact producing 25 percent of the nation’s energy supply from renewable sources by 2025 could have on rural America. According to J. Read Smith, co-chair of the 25x’25 Project Steering Committee, “Not only would reaching the goal drastically reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources, it …