It wasn’t that long ago that Europe was a champion of biofuels, in particular, biodiesel, as just a few years ago the continent adopted a policy of having 10 percent of transportation fuels come from renewable sources, including biofuels. This boosted biodiesel demand, coupled with favorable tax laws and the popularity of diesel vehicles. This piece in Public Service Europe …
Biodiesel Key in Wash. State DOT Sustainable Energy
In honor of Earth Week, the Washington State Department of Transportation has outlined some key points in how to have a clean, sustainable supply of energy. And a couple of items from the top of the list of things the department is doing itself include biodiesel: Some recent WSDOT initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and conserve natural resources include: * …
Ethanol Daily Production at Nearly 35 Mil Gallons
Latest figures from the Energy Information Agency show that last week’s ethanol production hit 34.94 million gallons daily for an annual rate of 12.63 billion gallons. And the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) points out those numbers reflect about 10 percent of the overall daily gasoline demand: Stocks of ethanol stood at 17.5 million barrels. That is a 1.6% decrease from …
NREL: Biodiesel Quality Shows Dramatic Improvement
New information from the U.S. Department of Energy shows biodiesel quality is better than ever. This news release from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that 95% of the samples from 2011-12 met ASTM International fuel quality specifications… a dramatic improvement from just a few years ago: “The survey showed a major improvement over results from previous years,” NREL …
RFS Shown to Work Because It Makes Big Oil Nervous
How can we tell the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is working? By how nervous it’s making the big oil companies. That was the message attendees at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference near Washington, D.C. heard. “We are disrupting an existing marketplace,” says Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of the Advanced Ethanol Council. “We are not social media. We are not creating …
Biodiesel Choice of Fleets Replacing Petroleum
The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency shows alternative fuel use is up. And when it comes to what the groups using fuel at the highest rates, the larger, medium duty vans, are picking to replace non-renewable oil, that choice is biodiesel. Many fleets meet petroleum reduction requirements by using biodiesel rather than alternative fuels. Changes in biofuel …
February Biodiesel Production Hits Nearly 78 Mil Gallons
Government numbers show the biodiesel production pace for the year at just under a billion gallons. Biofuels Journal reports the EPA announced February’s production today at 77.6 million gallons of biodiesel: The numbers show a total of more than 80.4 million gallons of Biomass-based Diesel for February, but that total also includes renewable diesel production. With the February numbers, year-to-date …
IRS Extends Biodiesel, Alt Fuels Deadlines
Want to feel good about Internal Revenue Service this time of year? Well, maybe you won’t be doing the wave for tax collectors, but the IRS is helping out those filing tax credit claims for biodiesel mixtures and alternative fuels sold or used in 2012. Biodiesel Magazine explains that several fuel tax credits, including the cellulosic biofuel producer credit, the …
DOE to Fund Three Bioenergy Research Centers
Three labs working on advanced, next-generation biofuels will get funding for another five years … of course, if Congress funds it. The U.S. Department of Energy announced the intent to fund the BioEnergy Research Center (BESC) led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State …
Canadian Renewable Fuels Welcomes GF2 Policy
The Canadian Renewable Fuels Association welcomed this week’s launch of that country’s agriculture policy. The Growing Forward 2 (GF2) policy framework was unveiled this week, and CRFA sees it as good for Canada’s renewable fuels industry and the farmers who grow the feedstocks for biofuels: Today, CRFA members are producing clean-burning renewable fuels across the country. This success is a …