While the idea of providing biomass to biorefineries and power plants seems like an idea that has some profit potential, some suppliers, and more accurately, potential suppliers, might find the prospect a bit daunting. Biomass Power and Thermal Magazine says folks who want to become involved in the biomass supply chain can get some help on how to use federal …
CHOREN Makes Progess on Biofuel Plant
Rainer Bomba, Undersecretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, visited CHOREN’s Beta plant at Freiberg in the German state of Saxony. His purpose of the visit was to discuss the progress of CHOREN on producing sustainable advanced biofuels and their role in achieving climate protection targets. “Last year, the Beta plant completed several campaigns …
EPA Names DC Leading Green Power City
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named Washington D.C. as the leading EPA Green Power Community. Combined, government, businesses, institutions, and residents in the nation’s capital are collectively purchasing nearly 756 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power each year. This is enough to meet 8 percent of the city’s total electricity use. All voluntary, this feat catapulted the city into …
KiOR to Sell Biomass Product to Oil Company
Maker of biomass-based renewable gasoline and diesel products KiOR will sell its biocrude to oil company Hunt Refining Co. This article from Reuters says the Hunt Texas oil empire will buy an unspecified amount of the product from Khosla’s first plant, still to be built in Columbus, Mississippi: KiOR says its “Biomass Catalytic Cracking Process,” aided by a catalyst developed …
Maverick Biofuels Wins NSF Award
Maverick Biofuels has announced that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a reactor system for converting syngas into high-value products. The company is commercializing a technology to convert biomass to a mixed-alcohol biofuel that can be readily blended with gasoline as a drop-in fuel. The process utilizes …
USDA Considering Biofuel Crop Insurance Program
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that the USDA will soon be accepting proposals to study the feasibility of providing crop insurance to producers of biofuel feedstocks ranging from corn stover to straw to woody biomass. The feasibility studies will be funded by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) and will be combined with current studies underway for energy cane, switchgrass …
Pellet Maker Gets New Deep Water Port
An American maker of wood pellets has acquired a deep water port, and that should help the company receive, store and load more than 3 million tons of woody biomass for export each year. Biomass Magazine reports that Enviva LP will expand its shipping capacity with the deep water port terminal in Chesapeake, Virginia: The location is one of a …
Farm-based Missouri Oil Company to Grow Biomass
Missouri-based MFA Oil Company, a farmer-owned cooperative, has partnered with Aloterra Energy to form a biomass venture. This MFA press release says the new company, MFA Oil Biomass LLC, will pay about 1,700 family farmers to grow miscanthus for use as a biomass fuel and possibly ethanol in the future: [T]he 2008 Federal Farm Bill created the Biomass Crop Assistance …
KiOR Lands DOE Loan Guarantee Promise
KiOR, Inc. has a $1 billion biofuels project in the works that will convert wood biomass into drop-in biofuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel. Today the company announced that it has received a term sheet for a DOE loan guarantee to help financially support the project. KiOR’s project under the DOE loan guarantee program will consist of four biorefineries …
Genetic Mutation Creates Drought Tolerance in Plants
Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a genetic mutation that allows a plant to better endure drought conditions without losing biomass. This discovery could prove significant because it could lead to plants that need less water to survive and thrive despite adverse climatic conditions. Mike Mickelbart, an assistant professor of horticulture; Mike Hasegawa, a professor of horticulture; and Chal Yul …