California-based BlueFire Ethanol received approval from the Department of Energy (DOE) recently to locate its second planned cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Fulton, Mississippi. The company was awarded a $40 million dollar grant from DOE for a second facility in 2007 that was originally to be located in California. However, development and licensing concerns, coupled with the challenging business climate in …
Switchgrass Varieties From Ceres
We’ve certainly heard a lot about switchgrass as a biomass option for the production of ethanol. How many of you have seen it growing? That’s it behind Cory Christensen, Director of Product Managment, Ceres, who was conducting Sunbelt Ag Expo presentations in the field. He says it’s a first season stand of their Blade energy crop. It was developed specifically …
Companies Working on Cellulosic Technology
Two companies have formed an alliance to commercialize a patented process to economically and efficiently produce ethanol from cellulose feedstocks. The ChemPro Group of New Jersey has joined with Mo-Fuel (Rural Bio-waste) of Sikeston, Missouri on the project. According to Steve Lavorerio, President of ChemPro, the process can handle a full spectrum of cellulosic feedstock, from wood chips and pulp-and-paper-plant …
Update On UF Renewable Fuels Center
One of the nation’s largest farm shows is the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA. I’ve been attending thanks to the support of Growth Energy and covering the show on our AgWired website. I did find a couple of stories I thought I’d share with you here including this one from the University of Florida exhibit. One of my stops …
Verenium to Test Technology for Cellulosic Ethanol
Verenium Corporation has entered into an agreement to test the effectiveness of technology for the creation of cellulosic ethanol from pulp and paper processing. The is agreement with Value Prior to Pulping (VPP), an organization created by the Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance, a special project of the American Forest and Paper Association, and CleanTech Partners, Inc. VPP is funded by …
FDC Enterprises Awarded DOE Feedstock Delivery Grant
FDC Enterprises, based on Columbus, Ohio, announced today that it has won a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to develop supply systems to handle and deliver feedstocks for cellulosic biofuels production. The $21 million grant is being shared by five winners. The government is attempting to help speed up cellulosic biofuels production, or the production of fuel that uses …
Coskata Unveils Semi- Commerical Cellulosic Plant
Coskata Inc., has finally unveiled it’s “semi-commercial flex ethanol facility” to the world today with the New York Times taking the lead. In the article author Matthew Wald writes, “The facility, built by a company called Coskata, is not quite proof that a new era is at hand for American transportation fuels. But with the company claiming it will be …
Study: Cars Running Corn-Based E85 Outperform Telsa
The Biofuels Digest has reported that a new study found that cars running on corn-based E85 have 30 percent lower CO2 emissions over the car’s lifetime than the Tesla Roadster, an all electric vehicle running on coal-based electricity. These results are based on the new CAFE standards that were passed this summer. But maybe more interesting, the study found that …
KL Energy & Fair Energy Ink Cellulosic Deal
KL Energy Corp. has inked a deal with Fair Energy to move forward with a partnership that would produce cellulosic ethanol in both the U.S. and Europe. KL Energy was the first company to operate a commercial-size demonstration cellulosic ethanol plant located in Upton, Wyo. In a press statement, Steve Corcoran, KL Energy’s CEO said, “As the industry continues moving …
Cellulosic Ethanol Could be Made from Wastewater
A cellulose product made from wastewater holds the potential of being used to make ethanol. Qteros and Applied CleanTech have announced a joint development project for making Recyllose™, a recycled solids-based material produced from municipal wastewater, into fuel for cars. Qteros has entered into a joint development project with Applied CleanTech (ACT), a commodities recycling company based in Israel, to …