There is another biofuel feedstock entering the mix next spring. SunBelt Biofuels LLC, based in Georgia, has announced that it will sell registered and certified rhizomes of its Freedom Giant Miscanthus to several hundred Southest U.S. licensed growers. This will mark an unusual relationship in that SunBelt has an exclusive licensing agreement with Mississippi State University.
According to a company news statement, the crop was selected after 12 years of research conducted by the university. This non genetically modified feedstock grows well in the Southeast, takes less land, costs less to grow and will provide solid revenue for growers. Studies have shown that the feedstock will produce over 3,000 gallons of ethanol per acre. On average, one acre of corn produces around 450 gallons of ethanol.
SunBelt Biofuels heralds the crops ability to stimulate rural economies citing that farms that grow Freedom Giant Miscanthus will see income rise more than $2 billion above crops that are currently grown. The company also touts the crops ability to gain energy independence for the state of Georgia.
According to SunBelt Biofuels’ CEO Phillip Jennings, Georgia needs to plant 2.4 million acres of Freedom Giant Miscanthus to become energy independent. “In Georgia, we can take 10 percent of our commercial timber land or 24 percent of our crop land, and we would be where we need to be to sustain just this one state.”
Jennings continued, “With 10 million acres of Freedom Giant Miscanthus, Georgia would become the number 7 OPEC fuel producer in the world.”
An Ohio biodiesel plant is among those 
This coming Friday, Dec. 11 is the deadline for Iowa schools to get in their application for two, $2,500 grants from the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association’s (IRFA) Biodiesel Backer Award Program. 
Big emitters of carbon dioxide are faced with a big problem. Industries and utilities will soon have to capture that CO2 and store it … somewhere. That’s where 
In this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we talk to Carbon Sciences President and CEO Byron Elton, who explains how this process works. Basically, it’s the exact same process that changed carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons all those eons ago far beneath the surface of the Earth. But this is much more efficient and faster and could be the solution for those CO2 emitters looking for something to do with their newly sequestered product and a planet hungry for energy.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), DOE Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the selection of 19 integrated biorefinery projects to receive up to $564 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate the construction and operation of pilot, demonstration, and commercial scale facilities. Fifteen states will house these projects and help lay the foundation for full commercial-scale development of a biomass industry in the United States. 
Joining Secretary Chu, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack noted that USDA Rural Development has selected San Diego, California based Sapphire Energy to receive a loan guarantee for up to $54.5 million through the Biorefinery Assistance Program to demonstrate an integrated algal biorefinery process that will cultivate algae in ponds, and will use dewatering and oil extraction technology to produce an intermediate that will then be processed into drop-in green fuels such as jet fuel and diesel. The actual project will be constructed in Columbus, New Mexico. 
Some workers are back on the job after a large explosion at a Seattle, Washington-area biodiesel plant.
A California-based biodiesel producer that makes the green fuel out of contaminated wastewater fats, oils and greases … better known as wastewater FOG … has been recognized internationally as a Technology Pioneer.
The demand for biodiesel worldwide is expected to double by the year 2015. Fortunately, the supply is supposed to triple. Those predictions came from Tammy Klein, executive director of global biofuels services for Hart Energy Consulting, as she spoke at the recent Canadian Renewable Fuels Summit earlier this week in Vancouver, British Columbia.