Food and Fuel “Synergy”

Cindy Zimmerman

An international partnership to promote the use of ”green” fuels called the Global Bioenergy Partnership recently opened its secretariat at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations headquarters in Rome. According to a press release announcing the new partnership, FAO has always actively promoted biofuels as a means of reducing poverty while producing clean, low-cost energy. Given the …

Audio, Energy, Ethanol, International

Brazil May Boost Ethanol Content

Cindy Zimmerman

Bloomberg is reporting that Brazil is considering raising the ethanol content in the country’s gasoline to 25 percent to help increase sugar prices as producers harvest a record cane crop. According to the article, Brazil’s government, which has held talks with ethanol producers over the past weeks on raising the biofuel content in gasoline, hasn’t said whether it will adopt …

Ethanol, International

Agressive Expansion

Cindy Zimmerman

According to this AP report out of Rio de Janeiro, “Brazil is aggressively expanding its sugarcane plantations and expects to more than double its annual exports of alcohol fuel, or ethanol, by 2010.” That’s according to Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy speaking at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference on Monday. Brazil is the world’s second-biggest producer …

Ethanol, International

Chinese Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Reuters reports that China is emerging as a global ethanol exporter. According to the article, exports of Chinese ethanol – made from either corn or cassava (tapioca) – have gone from zero to over 500,000 tons this year. China is the world’s third largest ethanol producer, behind Brazil and the United States, even though it only had four plants in …

Ethanol, International

China Considers Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

America is not the only country addicted to oil. China is now considering a change in energy policy to encourage the wider use of ethanol in order to improve air quality. According to China Knowledge, Beijing could set a target by the end of this year to include ethanol in the nation’s energy mix, the newspaper said, citing Fabrizio Zichichi, …

Ethanol, International

NG Diesel Trip Update

Chuck Zimmerman

Sasol Chevron Diesel ComparisonHere’s an update to the Sasol-Chevron GTL Challenge. The GTL stands for “gas-to-liquids” and you can learn more about it here. This is the group that’s travelling from South Africa to Quatar to demonstrate the performance of their NG Diesel fuel in one of the caravan vehicles. In the picture you can see oil from the test vehicle on the left and from one of the other vehicles running on conventional diesel on the right.

International, Promotion

NG Diesel Trip Is Blogged

Chuck Zimmerman

GTL TeamI hope you like our event blogging. I’ve been receiving some very nice comments on it, thank you. Here’s a story about an event that’s being blogged in Africa that you might be interested to check out. Keep your eyes on Domestic Fuel too as I have a couple of events coming up that will be covered extensively.

International, Promotion

Global Shift to Biofuels

Cindy Zimmerman

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, better known as FAO, is seeing a major international trend toward bioenergy. According to a news release from the FAO Rome newsroom, “The gradual move away from oil has begun. Over the next 15 to 20 years we may see biofuels providing a full 25 percent of the world’s energy needs,” …

International, Miscellaneous