Biofuels News
Read the latest biofuels news in a short format and arranged by date. We update this section at least twice a week. Keep up-to-date get the RSS feed for this and other time-sensitive sections.
Producers & Market
August 13, 2008 POET, the largest ethanol producer in the U.S. announced that they expect to have a cellulosic ethanol pilot plant operational by the end of this year in Iowa. They are making a $4 million investment, which they think will give them a good insight to make final improvements to their technology.
The pilot facility will produce 20,000 gallons per year. The feedstock is composed of corn fiber and corncobs. The commercial-scale plant is expected to produce 125 million gallons per year, with 20% of that amount coming from cellulose. This $200 million commercial facility will be operational in late 2011.
POET has 23 facilities in the U.S. with a total production of more than 1.3 billion gallons per year.
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August 13, 2008 The announcement made by Petrobras two years ago, regarding their intentions to sell ethanol to Japan, have become a reality. They have so far sold 15 million liter to industrial customers in Japan through a venture joint with Japan Alcohol Trading.
They plan to sell 25 more million liter by the end of this year, and aims to reach 100 million in 2009.
Petrobras, the brazilian state-owned oil company, signed last month an ethanol plant project with Mitsui (Japan) and Italuma (Brazil) to build a 200 million liter/year facility. It is expected to start producing in late 2009 and reach full capacity by 2013.
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August 11, 2008 A new 8 MW cogeneration plant powered using sugarcane waste (vinasse) biogas is operational in Pakistan. The facility supplies mill´s on-site power and heating needs. The eight Jenbacher biogas engines were provided by GE Energy based in Jenbach, Austria.
The new biogas plant powers the mill and delivers electricity to the national grid. This is considered an important contribution to the energy shortage in the country.
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August 8, 2008 AE Biofuels, Inc., a biofuels company with regional office at Lincoln, Nebraska, announced the opening of the first integrated cellulose and starch ethanol demonstration facility in the United States. The 9,000 square foot demonstration plant will process a combination of feedstocks including various grasses, wheat straw, corn, corn stover (corn stalks), and bagasse (sugar cane stalks). AE Biofuels’ technology addresses the need for diversity of non-food and food inputs to meet the worldwide demand for alternative fuels.
The plant uses proven patent-pending Ambient Temperature Enzymes for converting starch and cellulose to fermentable sugars to optimize process conditions for multiple feedstocks. Non-food ethanol feedstocks used by the facility include switch grass, grass seed straw, small grain wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse, and corn stalks either alone or in combination with a variety of traditional starch and sugar sources.
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April 8, 2008 Cheaper ethanol outselling gasoline in Brazil São Paulo. Car owners in this giant city of 11 million people are giving the oil companies fits. Ethanol outsells gasoline here by a large margin. This year, it became the most popular fuel throughout Brazil.
Research & Development
August 12, 2008 Allied Minds and the University of Washington have created a new company to develop algae strains for producing biodiesel. The University’s biology professor Rose Ann Cattolico who has spent more than 25 years researching algae physiology, is the senior scientific advisor for Allied Minds. The core technology around this project is based on research on selecting and cultivating desirable strains made by Cattolico.
Algae are a very promising feedstock for biofuels because of its high oil content and especially because of the ability to double their masses in a few hours. Notwithstanding, two main challenges are faced by now: how to grow algae in a cheap way and how to extract their oil efficiently.
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