Biomass News

The Pilbara region of Western Australia has long term potential for bioenergy developments and carbon farming, according to a new scientific review published by the Western Australia Department for Agriculture and Food. Covering an area of 502,000 square kilometres, the Pilbara is a large, dry, thinly populated region characterised by distinctive red earth and huge mineral deposits. At present…
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The territorial government of Yukon, Canada, has given $150,000 (EUR 140,000) in support of a First Nation community’s biomass project, according to a news release. Yukon’s Teslin Tlingit Council is currently converting ten community buildings from propane and electrical heating to biomass heating. The money from the territorial government will be used to contribute to the labour…
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A delegation from Borneo’s Ministry of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment has met with several potential investors in Tokyo, Japan at a series of specially arranged meetings, according to Borneo Post Online. The meetings were with three Japanese companies that are interested in biomass to produce pellets for the Japanese and Korean markets, the website…
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Plans to create a new biomass plant in southwest Wales have been put on hold due to uncertainty over the effects the proposed facility could have on the local environment and wildlife, according to the BBC. If completed, the new biomass plant would create some 560 jobs in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. Cypriot owned energy company Egnedol wants to invest £685 million in a new renewable…
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Environmental campaigners are staging simultaneous protests outside Drax’s annual general meeting (AGM) in York, UK, today (13 April, 2017). In a statement, Biofuelswatch said that protests were being held against what the protestors see as “Drax’s involvement in dirty energy, its contribution to climate change and deforestation, and its continued reliance on government…
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A biomass plant in Alexandria, New Hampshire, will shut down on 30 April, but local legislators hope to make the closure temporary, according to The Laconia Daily Sun. Revenue shortfalls have forced the temporary closing of the 15 megawatt plant fuelled by wood and organic materials. The closure will affect 16 local businesses and dozens of vendors and wood suppliers. Illinois based Indeck…
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A new paper by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) describes a process that captures methane from natural gas and biogas and that uses photosynthesis to convert it into biomass feedstock. The new paper is called ‘A flexible microbial co-culture platform for simultaneous utilization of methane and carbon dioxide from gas feedstocks’, the…
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Mitsubishi Corp. Power Systems, Inc. (MCP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp.(MC), has joined with The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO) to establish a new joint venture to develop biomass power. The new venture, Aioi Bioenergy Corp., is being set up to promote and develop biomass power generation business in Japan. The new venture will have an initial capital of 450 million…
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The UK’s Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has launched a new project to investigate how removing impurities from sustainable biomass feedstocks can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of biomass energy. Biomass feedstocks specialist Forest Fuels and energy company Uniper Technologies will work with the ETI in a £2.2 million (EUR 2.6 million) project to explore how improvements…
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A stalled attempt to revive a biomass project in Vermont has seen the developer take his case to the state’s Supreme Court. In 2010 a bid was launched to build a wood-chip burning power plant close to the border between Connecticut and New York. The project had to be put on hold in 2014 following the withdrawal of one of its major financers. Ted Verrill, owner of Pequot Energy in…
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A proposed new biomass plant in the South West of England has caused controversy in the village where it is set to be built. Residents of Woolavington, Somerset, have voiced their opposition and concerns about the new wood chip fuelled biomass plant. In particular, they argue that they have not received enough information about the new development. The proposal, by SHAL Housing and Cenergist, is…
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The construction of a renewable energy biomass cogeneration facility adjacent to Albany, USA’s Procter and Gamble manufacturing centre is on schedule, the $200 million (184 million euro) plant set to start producing energy and steam for its customers within 90 days. When completed, the 50-megawatt cogeneration biomass facility will produce energy for Georgia Power, steam for Procter and…
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Six years after the natural disaster and the reactor catastrophe in the Fukushima prefecture today governor Masao Uchibori has launched a biomass-based power plant by pressing the button that starts the operations. The clean energy power plant produced by UK-based Entrade, located at the small health resort Nishigo, uses biomass which is available in the region – for instance pellets…
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A National Trust owned property is set to save £34,000 (€39, 256) a year by switching to an environmentally friendly biomass heating system. Knightshayes Court in Tiverton, Devon, is undergoing the switch to the new, sustainable heating system this spring. It’s part of the National Trust’s goal to get 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. There are currently…
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