March 11th, 2010
World Biofuels Markets – the largest European conferences and exhibition for the bioenergy starts on Monday: more than 1400 attendees registered from around the world. 11 Focused Conferences provide unparalleled market insight and access to experts from across the whole biofuels value chain.
264 high level speakers, 65 sessions, 17 streams, 17 hours of networking breaks and functions including the 2nd Annual Sustainable Biofuels Awards, 100 exhibition stands and more. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Awards & Industry events, Conferences and Exhibitions | Comments Off
March 11th, 2010
Upstream, midstream, downstream. Terms of art in oil and gas refining — less common in bioenergy. They correspond to feedstocks, processing, and the distribution systems and engine technologies.
In bioenergy, most attention is showered on the feedstocks and the processing technologies. The downstream is overlooked — yet it is in the pipeline and in the engine that the “fuel meets the fire”. Let’s take a look at some downstream challenges and the innovative downstream technologies.
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Posted in Bioenergy, Biofuels General, Biotechnology, Diesel, Ethanol, Road & Transport | Comments Off
March 11th, 2010
Certainly one of the biggest changes to the advanced renewable fuel standard (RFS2) was the dramatic reduction of the mandate for Cellulosic Biofuels in the year 2010. This particular fuel category, which industry now refers to as Type C, entails both ethanol and diesel range products generated through cellulosic technology. EPA, after considerable deliberation, reduced the volumetric target from 100 million gallons this year all the way down to 6.5 million gallons (foot note that this is actually an energy content adjusted level and the actual volume projection by EPA, considering ethanol and diesel range cellulosic biofuels, was 5 million gallons).
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Posted in Bioenergy, Biofuel Policy & Regulation, Biofuels General, Ethanol | Comments Off
March 11th, 2010
Bluefire Ethanol is , a company which has graced the “50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy” top 20 since its establishment — and which has won a series of DOE grants and competitive awards going back several years. Its weak acid hydrolysis process converts municipal solid waste and other municipal and agricultural residues to sugars and thereafter ethanol — a process proven at pilot and demo scale since 2004 with a project that was completed in Japan. Today, Bluefire has a fully-permitted, “shovel-ready” project in Lancaster, California that is stalled for lack of debt financing, and a project coming along quickly in Mississippi that will similarly hit a wall in a few months when permitting is complete.
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Posted in Bioenergy, Biofuels General, Biotechnology, Ethanol, Finance & Investment, Next Generation Fuels | Comments Off
March 11th, 2010
It was a cold Wednesday afternoon in January when the news came through that a consortium called the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts had received a $44 million grant from the Department of Energy. Another group called the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium had won the other. In all, DOE said it would invest $80 million in a consortia approach to solving technical challenges such as outlined in the Algal Biomass Roadmap process, commenced in late 2008.
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Posted in Algae, Bioenergy, Biofuels General, Biotechnology, Interviews | Comments Off
March 11th, 2010
This week, Joule Biotechnologies CEO Bill Sims, sitting atop one of the most discussed and least understood technologies in biofuels, visited with us to shed some light and provide some timelines for future guidance on the development of Joule’s bio-based technology, which uses a microorganism to produce biofuel directly from CO2, water and sunlight.
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Posted in Agriculture, Bioenergy, Biofuels General, Biotechnology | Comments Off
March 5th, 2010
In 2007 the Congress passed legislation that mandated producing 16 billion gallons per year of 2nd generation biofuels from cellulosic biomass by Year 2022. Although many experts believe this “Renewable Fuels Standard” (RFS) could still be attained, progress toward that goal has bogged down. Processes under development for producing 2nd generation biofuels on a commercial scale have yet proved to be economic.
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Posted in Agriculture, BioPower Generation, Bioenergy, Biofuels General, Biorefineries, Biotechnology, Finance & Investment, Forestry and Pulp, Future feedstocks, Gassification | Comments Off
March 5th, 2010
Researchers and industry will work together to develop new ways to convert biological feedstock into energy and other valuable resources, using biorefinery technology.
The Commission is providing €52 million in funding over four years. Its 81 partners from universities, research institutes and industry in 20 countries will invest another €28 million.
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Posted in Agriculture, BioGas, BioPower Generation, Bioenergy, Biofuel Policy & Regulation, Biorefineries, Biotechnology, Road & Transport | Comments Off
March 5th, 2010
In the EU, the Renewable Energy Policy Network REN21, a global policy network that provides a forum for international leadership on renewable energy, has launched its Renewables Interactive Map. The Map contains a wealth of information on renewable energy, including support policies, expansion targets, current shares, installed capacity, current production, future scenarios, and policy pledges.
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Posted in BioPower Generation, Bioenergy, Biofuels General, Biorefineries, Cellulosic Ethanol, Forestry and Pulp, Future feedstocks, Gassification, Industry news | Comments Off
March 5th, 2010
- Biofuels Research and Development Initiatives – Feedstock Development
This US multi-government department and agency group commissioned an overview of efforts aimed at producing more and better feedstocks with higher yield and faster payback. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Agriculture, BioPower Generation, Bioenergy, Biofuel Policy & Regulation, Biorefineries, Forestry and Pulp, Future feedstocks, Jatropha, Next Generation Fuels | Comments Off
