A start-up company, Tyton BioSciences, is looking for a new outlet for tobacco – biodiesel and ethanol. The company is developing genetically modified tobacco that will, according to their website, “produce both ethanol and biodiesel at yields that far surpass the traditional crops of corn and soy.” The company’s tobacco will also be easier to grow than those grown for …
Ethanol Potential in Giant Sweet Potatoes
At the International Biomass Conference and Expo last week, Dr. Janice Ryan-Bohac attracted a lot of attention carrying around a sweet potato the size of a newborn baby. Ryan-Bohac is president of CAREnergy, Carolina Advanced Renewable Energy, located in South Carolina and dedicated to the development of dedicated energy crops for the southeast, such as the eTuber™ sweet potato and …
Biofuels Center of North Carolina Awards $1.6M in Grants
In an effort to accelerate the commercialization of renewable fuels, the Biofuels Center of North Carolina has awarded $1.6 million to 15 different projects located within the state. The monies for the awards came from the 2011 Statewide Biofuels Development Grants Program. The center received 58 pre-proposals from 23 organizations with funding requests totaling more than $5.2 million. “The juncture …
BioJet & Abundant Biofuels Merge
It’s official. BioJet International, a developer of bio jet fuels, and Abundant Biofuels Corporation, an integrated feedstock development company, have merged. With this merger in place, Abundant is now a wholly owned subsidiary of BioJet but its affiliates will continue to operate under the Abundant name and brand. Abundant is best known for its Philippine Jatropha Project and today has …
ICM Deploys Its Biomass Gasification System
ICM has announced that it is beginning commercial deployment of its biomass gasification system after the successful completion of infrastructure development, research, testing, and an independent engineering review. The company began operating its commercial scale demonstration gasifer back in 2009. The technology has the capacity to covert 150 tons of biomass per day to a syngas that can then be …
Cornoil – A Growing Feedstock for REG
The synergies between the biodiesel, ethanol and advanced biofuels industries are growing. One of the things that’s been happening over the past few years is the ethanol industry creating a new feedstock for the biodiesel industry – inedible corn oil. Inedible corn oil was one of the feedstocks that REG highlighted during USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator …
Buster Biofuels on Biodiesel Quality
During a trip to San Diego I met with budding biodiesel company Buster Biofuels. The company is in the last phase of permitting and then will build a 2 million per year multi-feedstock biodiesel facility. According to Kristof Reiter of Reiter Scientific Consulting, who is working with Buster Biofuels, two of the most important elements for the company’s success are …
Charles Bronson “It’s Going to Work”
“I think people are going to catch on. That this thing is real and it going to work,” said Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles A. Bronson during an interview about Farm to Fuel. One of Bronson’s long-term goals has been to turn Florida into an alternative energy leader in areas such as biofuels. This year marked the fifth …
The Economics of Ethanol from Corn Cobs
Producing a significant amount of ethanol strictly from corn cobs is possible but would require a specific set of circumstances to be economically feasible, according to a new report from Purdue University researchers. In the report “The Economics of Harvesting Corn Cobs for Energy,” Matthew Erickson and Wallace Tyner found that factors such as corn yield, farm size, harvesting equipment …
Butter Could be Biodiesel Feedstock
USDA researchers are studying the use of butter as a feedstock for biodiesel. According to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists with USDA's Ag Research Service looked into the concept of making butter that would otherwise go to waste into biodiesel. Michael Haas and colleagues cite rising global demand for biodiesel, and the desire …