Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that Fiscal Year 2009 funding is once again available again for three USDA Farm Bill programs to promote increased production of biomass and bioenergy. Applications for the Biorefinery Assistance Program, which uses loan guarantees to develop, construct, and retrofit commercial-scale biorefineries, must be received by June 1, 2010. Applications are also being accepted for …
Wisconsin Team Turns Biomass into Jet Fuel
A group of engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been able to turn biomass into the chemical equivalent of jet fuel, and they’ve been able to do it using a process that actually takes advantage of biomass sugars’ bad habit of degrading. This press release from the school says a simple process developed by James Dumesic, Steenbock Professor of …
Biofuels and Conservation Achievable with Biomass
Getting energy from the land and practicing good conservation are not mutually exclusive. A federal ag deartment researcher says we can have both through using biomass. USDA researcher Doug Karlen, who works at the Agricultural Research Service’s National Soil Tilth Lab in Ames, Iowa, told attendees of the recent USDA Outlook Forum that conservation and energy from biomass can be …
World’s First Hybrid Biomass-Solar Refinery Announced
A Colorado company has come up with a way to harness to power of the sun to unlock the energy in biomass. This post from the CalFinder blog says Sundrop Fuels has developed the world’s first hybrid solar-biomass refinery that uses concentrated solar power (CSP) to heat plant scraps and wood chips to create biofuel: The use of solar power …
E. coli to Help Brew Biodiesel
A group of federal researchers has figured out how to better extract biodiesel from biomass using a microbe that most of us try to avoid in our food. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has announced that researchers have engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria that can extract an advanced biodiesel directly from biomass: “The fact …
“Green Coal” to Debut at UK Biomass Conference
An energy source made from biomass that’s touted as “magic coal from the steam cooker” will make its debut at the Energy from Biomass and Waste conference January 26-27, 2010 at the Royal Horticultural Halls & Conference Centre in London, England. This press release says “Green Coal,” invented the German company the G+R Technology Group, will be produced at the …
Promoting Freedom at AG CONNECT Expo
In the growing field of biomass conversion to fuel there’s a plant that Mississippi State University thinks will help farmers and all Americans. It’s Giant Miscanthus and you can follow it on Twitter @GiantMiscanthus. They’ve actually licensed the product which is Freedom Giant Miscanthus that’s being marketed by Sunbelt Biofuels LLC. On the show floor at AG CONNECT Expo last …
Biomass to Provide Power for Algae Biodiesel Plant
An algae-biodiesel plant in Alabama will be powered by biomass. This press release posted on CNNMoney.com says Nevada-based Energy Quest, Inc. will build a turn key biomass (wood waste) to power/algae energy plant producing 26.8 megawatt (24 net) of power in Piedmont, Alabama: The attached Algae biodiesel plant will produce a clean and efficient fuel that can be used in …
Could Salicornia Be a New Wonder Feedstock?
On the Eve of the World Future Energy Summit, which began today in Abu Dhabi, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Honeywell UOP, Boeing and Ethiad Airways announced a project that would study how to combine fish farms and biofuel crops to lower CO2, reduce ocean waste and produce renewable jet fuel. The star feedstock? Salicornia. Salicornia, also known …
Southeast Poised to be Leader in Energy Crops
The Southeast is poised to be the leader in energy crop production according to University of Florida Associate Professor and energy crops expert Dr. John Erickson. He has been focusing on research of perennial grasses, mostly C4 grasses in his work with the Agronomy department. These can include sugarcane, energycane, elephant grasses, miscanthus, giant reed, switchgrass and sorghum. In terms …