Novozymes announced this morning that they have signed a research and development agreement to make biofuel from wood chips and other forestry residues with Lignol Energy Corporation. The goal of the partnership is to develop a process for making biofuel from forestry waste at a production cost less than $2 per gallon making it economically competitive with current gasoline and …
Plant to Produce Synthetic Oil from Biomass
A new plant is in the works that will produce synthetic oil from biomass that can in turn be made into transportation fuel. The process is called “fast pyrolysis” and two companies, Ensyn Technologies Inc. and Tolko Industries, have announced that they will build the world’s largest fast commercial pyrolysis plant in High Level, Alberta. When completed, the new plant …
New Yeast Strain For Cellulosic Ethanol Production
Purdue University scientists have improved a strain of yeast that can produce more biofuel from cellulosic plant material by fermenting all five types of the plant’s sugars. The researchers used genes from a fungus to re-engineer a yeast strain developed at Purdue. The new yeast can ferment the sugar arabinose in addition to the other sugars found in plant material …
Brazil Invests in Next Generation Ethanol
The Brazilian Innovation Agency, FINEP (Research and Projects Financing), and Brazil’s National Development Bank have entered into a new partnership to promote bioethanol development, providing up to $540 million in financing to the country’s biofuels sector to promote innovation in the field of bioethanol. The funding will be invested in technology projects over the next three to four years, which …
ZeaChem Breaks Ground on Biorefinery
Biomass refinery developer ZeaChem broke ground last week in Boardman, Oregon for a 250,000 gallon-per-year facility that will eventually be used to turn wood and other feedstocks into cellulosic ethanol. The plant will initially use ZeaChem’s technology to produce ethyl acetate, which the company says is a salable chemical intermediate and precursor to cellulosic ethanol. With a grant from the …
Novozymes and Ceres Partner on Biofuel Crops
Mixing enzyme cocktails and customized biofuel crops to make cellulosic ethanol a reality is the goal of a new industry partnership. Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. and enzyme provider Novozymes have announced a research collaboration to co-develop customized plant varieties and enzyme cocktails to improve the efficiency of converting biomass to fuel. “According to the Billion Ton Study by the …
Cellulosic Ethanol in Finland
A biorefinery company based in Finland has opened a plant for processing non-food biomass into cellulosic ethanol in Oulu. The Chempolis facility was officially opened last week by the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen. “The third-generation biorefining technology that we have developed enables us to produce multiple products from agricultural residues using all the vegetable matter they contain, maximising the …
Verenium Happy With First Quarter
Despite the fact that total revenues of $13.0 million were down $1.4 million compared to last year, Verenium Corporation executives were happy with the 2010 first quarter financial report released yesterday. “I’m very pleased with the successful first quarter and start to 2010 Verenium had with both its biofuels and specialty enzymes business units,” said Carlos A. Riva, President and …
Plant Makes Fuel from Waste and Fiber
An Iowa corn ethanol plant has been converted to produce commercial cellulosic biofuels from fiber and municipal waste. Clean technology company Fiberight announced today that it has started “commenced production at the nation’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant using enzymatic conversion technology and industrial / municipal solid waste (MSW) as feedstock.” According to a company release, Fiberight converted a former …
More Funds for Verenium Demo Cellulosic Plant
Verenium Corporation has been awarded an additional $4.9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to fund ongoing activities at its demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Jennings, Louisiana. “We are very pleased to receive this additional funding from the DOE, particularly given the critical work currently being performed at Jennings to optimize our cellulosic process,” said Carlos A. Riva, …