Pamplona Buses to Run on Biodiesel

John Davis

Pamplona, Spain is famous for its annual running of the bulls, but the city’s buses might become famous for running on eco-friendly biodiesel. Fifty city buses will run on a 100% biodiesel mixture provided by the Spanish company Acciano. Check out this story from Reuters: Acciona will deliver 1.5 million liters of fuel a year, produced from vegetable oil at …

Biodiesel, International

Louis Dreyfus Buys More Brazilian Ethanol Plants

Cindy Zimmerman

International commodity trading company Louis Dreyfus is buying an addition four sugar ethanol mills in Brazil to become the second-biggest sugarcane processor in the country. According to a Bloomberg.com report, Paris-based Louis Dreyfus, which already owns four sugar and ethanol mills in Brazil, expects the acquisition to boost sugarcane processing to 18.5 million metric tons by 2009, from 11.8 million …

Ethanol, International, News

Biodiesel Heating Up in Brazil

John Davis

Carnaval (Mardi Gras) is not the only hot thing in Brazil at this time of year. A U.S. firm is investing $35 million dollars in Brazil’s burgeoning biodiesel industry. Check out this story from CattleNetwork.com: “We are going to build a facility capable of producing 28 million gallons of biodiesel from soy and sunflower oils,” said Tyler Bruch, president and …

Biodiesel, International

Tribe’s Waste Cooking Oil Fuels Reservation

John Davis

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe straddling the U.S.-Canada border is working with Clarkson University in Upstate New York to turn the tribe’s used cooking oil from its casino into biodiesel. The fuel produced is expected to be more than enough to power the reservation’s solid waste facility generators and maintenance vehicles. According to a release on Clarkson’s website, the tribe …

Biodiesel, International

Ciba Introduces Chemical to Stabilize Biodiesel

John Davis

Switzerland-based chemical company Ciba Specialty Chemicals has come up with a biodiesel additive touted to protect against degradation and oxidation to help extend the storage life of biodiesel. According to a press release on the company’s web site, the chemical will help make fuel quality consistent… no matter what the feedstock and process… and that will help the biodiesel meet …

Biodiesel, International

Biodiesel to Help Connect Unconnected in India

John Davis

This story on the BBC’s web site says GSMA, a fund to help people in developing countries gain access to wireless phone service, will be using locally-produced biodiesel to fuel mobile base stations in India. The project is expected to help the vast majority of India’s 1.2 billion people living in areas with, at best, fragmented coverage get phone service. …

Biodiesel, International

US and Brazil Seek Ethanol Partnership

Cindy Zimmerman

Officials from the world’s two largest ethanol producers, the United States and Brazil, have been meeting this week to discuss the possibility of a new “energy partnership.” According to a Washington Post report, U.S. officials said they expect to sign accords within a year that would promote technology-sharing with Brazil and encourage more Latin American neighbors to become biofuel producers …

Ethanol, International, News

Making Hydrogen More Mainstream

John Davis

A deal between two companies could make the mass production of hydrogen-fueled vehicles more feasible. In a press release on their web site, Dynetek officials say they will make seven million Canadian dollars (nearly US $ 6 mil) worth of compressed hydrogen storage systems for Magna Steyr connected to DaimlerChrysler’s fuel cell program. Dynetek officials say the deal will ultimately …

Hydrogen, International

Companies Join to Build Slovenia’s Largest Biodiesel Refinery

John Davis

A Slovenian oil refining company has partnered with an Austrian financier to build Slovenia’s largest biodiesel plant. The plant in Lendava, Slovenia (pictured below) will produce about 18 million gallons of biodiesel a year… making it one of the biggest in Europe. According to a press release on the company’s website, Nafta Lendava, Eko Nafta, Nafta Biodizel and the Austrian …

Biodiesel, International

Global Warming at 28 Below

Cindy Zimmerman

A quick Google news search for “global warming” today turns up nearly 2,000 articles in the first heading, thanks to a new study that says global warming is “underway right now, humans caused it, and it will continue for centuries, no matter what we do.” The study was released in Paris by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At a …

Ethanol, global warming, Government, International, News