Outlining his priorities for farm policy this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stressed the need for continued support of renewable fuels in the next farm bill. “Rural America has done a great job of helping to develop the domestically-produced renewable energy and fuel. That job must continue because when we create those opportunities, we create jobs, we reduce our reliance …
BIO Encourages Commercializing Advanced Biofuels for Military
Advanced biofuels can be commercialized rapidly for military use, on military timelines, with adequate support and coordination of efforts by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense and Energy, according to comments submitted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) to the Air Force’s Request for Information on the commercial status and market for advanced drop-in biofuels. “The U.S. military and the …
Sorghum Could be Aviation Biofuel Feedstock
Louisiana State University is getting $17 million from USDA to study how to turn sugar cane and sorghum into biofuels. The project is one of the five announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, focused on developing aviation biofuels from various types of biomass. “We have an incredible opportunity to create thousands of new jobs and drive economic development in …
USDA Announces New Aviation Biofuels Projects
At the Seattle-Tacoma Airport on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced five major agricultural research projects “aimed at developing regional, renewable energy markets, generating rural jobs, and decreasing America’s dependence on foreign oil.” Altogether, the five-year program will deliver more than $136 million in research and development grants to public and private sector partners in 22 states. University partners from …
Embraer & GE Test BioJet Fuel
It seems like it won’t be long before aircraft flying with biofuels is an everyday occurrence. The latest test flights were conducted by Embraer and GE flying a EMBRAER 170 jet from the Company’s Gavião Peixoto facilities. The purpose of the tests were to benchmark the operational characteristics of the airplane and its GE CF34-8 engines when flying with a …
Blue Angels Perform With Biofuels
The Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, performed over the Labor Day weekend using a biofuel blend at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River Air Expo. All six F/A-18 legacy Hornets were powered with a 50-50 blend of conventional JP-5 jet fuel and a camelina-based biofuel. “Changing the kinds of fuels we use and the way we …
US Navy Completes Successful T-45 Biofuel Flight
The U.S. Navy has successfully flown a T-45 training aircraft using biofuels at the Naval Air Station (NAS) in Patuxent River, Maryland. The flight was completed by the “Salty Dogs” of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 flying on biofuel mixture of petroleum-based JP-5 jet fuel and plant-based camelina. The T-45 “Goshawk” is a tandem-seat aircraft used by the …
Navy, Energy and USDA Partner for Advanced Biofuels
The Obama Administration today announced a partnership between the private sector and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy to produce advanced drop-in aviation and marine biofuels to power military and commercial transportation. President Obama made the announcement during a stop in Iowa, at the same time the three department secretaries held a telephone conference call with the press. …
New Catalyst For Biomass Production
A new catalyst for biomass production has been developed by researchers from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Washington State University (WSU). These catalysts could turn ethanol into other products by converting it into a chemical called isobutene. This feat can be accomplished in one step, and the process can use water-diluted ethanol rather than purifying …
Arabian American Development Inks Deal with Gevo
Gevo has inked a deal with Arabian American Development Co. to build a hydrocarbon processing demonstration plant at its South Hampton Resources, Inc. subsidiary located in Silsbee, Texas. Arabian will also provide toll-processing services that will result in the processing of up to 10,000 gallons of isobutanol per month into a variety of renewable hydrocarbon biomaterials including jet fuel, isooctane …