Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new initiative Wednesday to “finance the deployment of climate-smart farming and forestry practices to aid in the marketing of climate-smart agricultural commodities.” USDA will support a set of pilot projects that provide incentives to implement climate smart conservation practices on working lands and to quantify and monitor the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated …
White Energy Teams with Occidental for CO2 Study
Occidental Petroleum Corporation and White Energy are teaming up to evaluate the economic feasibility of a carbon capture, utilization and storage project. The project would capture carbon dioxide (CO2) at White Energy’s ethanol facilities in Hereford and Plainview, Texas, and transport it to the Permian Basin, where Occidental would use it in its enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. Occidental injects …
GRFA Calls on Increased Action for Climate Change
Bliss Baker, the President of the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA), has asked G20 leaders take last year’s Paris Accord even further. The first binding climate agreement needs to be scaled up in it’s ambitiousness to reduce emissions in the transport sector, Baker said, especially in light of a newly released report “Perspectives for the Energy Transition” from the International …
Breakthrough Energy Ventures Launches $1B Green Fund
A new green venture fund has been created by Breakthrough Energy Coalition (BEC) called Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). The $1 billion investor-led fund will finance emerging energy technologies with the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero. The announcement was made earlier this month during the climate talks. “It is extremely exciting for us to launch this fund …
Carbon Intensity Surpasses #Biofuel Volumes as Key Metric
Lux Research is reporting that new policies are being put forward based on technology-agnostic carbon intensity metrics rather than focusing on mandating volumes of specific biofuels. The move to low carbon fuels is being led, says Lux Research, by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the near-term winners will be renewable diesel and conventional electricity followed by renewable electricity. …
WEO-2016 Finds Renewables, Natural Gas Future Winners
According to the 2016 World Energy Outlook (WEO-2016), the winners to reach energy demand growth through 2040 will be renewables and natural gas. The annual report is published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and finds that the era of fossil fuels is long from over. Natural gas will continue to expand and coal and oil usage will decrease. This …
UNIST Discovers Waste Gas to Biofuel Catalyst
A research team led by Professor Jae Sung Lee of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST has discovered a new way to make biofuels directly from carbon dioxide. The team has produced road ready diesel through a direct CO2 conversion to liquid transportation fuels by reacting with renewable hydrogen generated through solar water splitting. The research was published in the …
MSU Awarded $6M Biofuel, Carbon Grant
Montana State University (MSU) has received a $6 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop new innovations at the intersection of food, energy and water systems. MSU will be working alongside the University of Wyoming and the University of South Dakota to address the sustainability profiles of biofuels and carbon capture technologies that would be introduced in …
Nano-Spike Catalysts Convert CO2 Into Ethanol
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol. The team is researching an electrochemical process that uses tiny spike of carbon and copper to convert CO2 into ethanol. Their discovery involves nanofabrication and catalysis science. “We discovered somewhat by accident that this material worked,” said ORNL’s Adam …
Canada Adopts Carbon Pricing Strategy
Canada has announced a carbon pricing strategy on emissions that takes effect in 2018 with a $10 per ton rate. The fees rise to $10 per ton per year until they are capped out at $50 per ton by 2022. As part of the legislation, provinces and territorial governments can select from two carbon pricing systems: carbon tax or cap …