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Schools in Ohio are being urged to apply for grants to fund using soy biodiesel in buses.

This story from the Chilicothe (OH) Gazette says 21 school districts are already taking advantage of the program designed to help kids breathe easier:

“It is great to see schools take advantage of this program that requires no additional costs but provides a tremendous amount of benefits to school children, and I am hopeful that even more school districts apply during the second round of funding,” said Dan Corcoran, chairman of the council and a soybean farmer in Pike County.

The program, which is administered by the Ohio Department of Development and is promoted through the council’s Clean Air for Kids program, provides grants to cover any cost difference between regular petroleum diesel that most districts now use and a B20 biodiesel, which is a blend of 20 percent biodiesel with 80 percent of the traditional diesel fuel.

You can find out more about the program by going to www.soybiodiesel.org/kids.

Blackhawk Biofuels has announced it will cut the ribbon on its newest biodiesel plant this coming Wednesday (Nov. 19) in Danville, Illinois, with production at the 45-million-gallon-a-year facility to start the next day.

This story in TradingMarkets.com says the plant will at first use soybeans from Bunge Milling, adjacent to the biodiesel plant:

The cost of soybeans, which had skyrocketed in recent years, had kept the facility’s construction from completion before the new investors took over, Vermilion Advantage President and CEO Vicki Haugen said in May.

The plant’s biodiesel would be created from Bunge’s soybean oil and eventually, alternative feedstocks like animal fats.

The article goes on to say that Blackhawk has an agreement with Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group to get the animal fats needed. Private investors put in $25 million, while the State of Illinois kicked in another $19.8 million to make the refinery a reality.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has published environmental regulatory rules and requirements for the construction and operation of biodiesel production facilities.

In a press release, the agency says it’s a user-friendly manual for the 176 biodiesel plants in operation nationwide:

Region 7 Administrator John B. Askew said, “We are taking steps to provide useful tools to help biodiesel facilities comply with environmental regulations. The manual serves as a road map of federal environmental information. EPA is addressing our nation’s growing energy demand in a way that supports our goals for a clean environment, supports farmers and rural America, and supports greater energy security.”

The manual provides practical examples to ensure compliance with environmental regulations. A contact directory of key federal and state officials is included in the manual. EPA Region 7 staff members are available to answer questions about the applicability of environmental requirements to renewable fuel facilities.

National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe commended the EPA for developing the manual for the industry:

“We appreciate that the document includes EPA’s recognition that biodiesel contributes to the wellbeing of the environment by ‘significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions’ and other pollutants,” he said. “Biodiesel use is a viable part of protecting the environment, and we look forward to working closely with the agency on future mutual goals.”

You can read the manual by clicking here.

A Fort Collins, Colorado biofuel company will build an algae-biodiesel plant on an Indian reservation in southern Colorado.

Solix Biofuels has announced it has raised $10.5 million in funding with another $5 million commitment from investors to build the facility on 10 acres on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. This story on Colorado.com has details:

The plant will be jointly developed by Solix and Southern Ute Alternative Energy LLC.

Currently, algae grown in Solix photo-bioreactors create five times the amount of fuel per acre of land per year than agriculture-based fuel such as corn-based ethanol and soy- or canola-based biodiesel, according to the company.

Company officials say the facility won’t be on a largescale right away but is hoped to set the stage for a much bigger operation in the future.

A trip to a Patagonian forest (that’s in South America) has produced the latest development in the biodiesel game.

Dr. Gary Strobel from Montana State University has found the endophytic fungus, Gliocladium roseum — a hydrocarbon-producing fungus he found growing in a tree in Patagonia — has been shown to produce many of the same hydrocarbons found in diesel. This story from Biodiesel Magazine says Strobel calls his discovery myco-diesel:

Strobel, a professor in the plant sciences and plant pathology department at Montana State University, explained that many organisms produce the shortest chain hydrocarbon, methane, and a number of organisms make longer-chain hydrocarbons that become increasing wax-like as the carbon chains get longer. However, in an extensive search of the literature, no other organism has been identified that produces as many short-chain hydrocarbons as Gliocladium roseum.

“How long it will take to make it practical to use is anybody’s guess,” Strobel said. “My son is doing the genetic profile and genetic sequencing. Perhaps these genes could be moved into other organisms like yeast or E coli that grow faster.” His son, Scott Strobel, is chair of Yale University’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.

Strobel has published a paper on the subject due out in the November issue of Microbiology. He’s headed next to the rain forests of Borneo and then to Patagonia again to find more specimens to test.

You can read more about Strobel and his work on his Montana State web site: plantsciences.montana.edu/facultyorstaff/faculty/strobel/.