News

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), the UK’s technology innovation provider for process manufacturing, announced that the SeaGas collaboration has successfully harvested a 20-tonne batch of seaweed, the largest harvest of farmed seaweed in the UK to date. The SeaGas project, funded jointly between Innovate UK and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), is…
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The Straus Family Creamery in Marin County, California, has announced the launch of the ‘first’ full-scale electric truck powered by biomethane created from cow manure. California dairy farmer Straus Family is a pioneer in organic dairy and sustainable agriculture. The new truck is the next step in the dairy’s quest to show that it can be carbon positive, using agriculture as a…
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New insights have been gained into a unique system some fungi use to digest and recycle wood. Remarkably, a new study suggests that this unusual mechanism does not involve the use of enzymes, the usual accelerators of chemical reactions. Microbiologist Barry Goodell first discovered the unique system twenty years ago. However, although three orders of ‘brown rot’ fungi have since been…
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As the primary component of natural gas, methane is a common, problematic by product of oil drilling. A greenhouse gas 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide over the course of a century, methane is a costly challenge for the energy industry. Piping it from remote areas is expensive, so companies burn off about a third of the gas they produce in bright flares that can be seen from space. In…
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The “first” pan-African expert network on food and non-food biomass has been launched by African and German researchers. BiomassNet aims to ensure that food security and environmental sustainability are not compromised in the development of new biomass uses. The scheme’s developers claim this will help to strengthen the emerging African bioeconomies. The scheme was launched by…
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Nine EU Member States have asked the European Commission (EC) for permission to pollute above national limits set in EU law, according to the European Environmental Bureau (EBB). Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland and Luxembourg have all asked for the limits that should have been met in 2015 to be raised so that they no longer appear to have breached them. The…
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Bioenergy can play a role in reducing the risk of forest fires, according to a video recently published on the European Forest Institute’s website. Across the world, forest fires devastate large areas of forest every year. In 2017, the tragic trend has been seen in forest fires in France, the USA and Portugal. In its new video, the EFI looks at the factors behind increased forest fire risks…
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The Canadian government is set to invest $2.6 million (€1.8 million) into Sustane, a Halifax, Nova Scotia based waste-to-energy company. Sustane claims to have developed a new process which converts municipal solid waste into clean burning fuel and other recycled products. The investment will be used to scale up Sustane’s technology, supporting the creation of a demonstration facility…
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A Californian biomass plant is at the heart of the launch of the ‘first’ software-defined network for critical infrastructure. Dispersive Technologies new Internet-based, software-defined network for use by California’s energy grid operator to connect entities using real-time devices to the grid’s energy management system, has now gone live. Humboldt Redwood…
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A £6.5 million (€7.6 million) biomass energy project has officially opened at the University of Northampton’s Waterside Campus. On 1 August, 2017, members from The University of Northampton and sustainable energy specialists, Vital Energi took the opportunity to celebrate the opening by officially switching the 27sqm LED screen on, which was performed by Professor Nick Petford,…
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Wood pellet giant Enviva has released its latest proprietary Track & Trace forestry data, highlighting the company’s ongoing commitment to a sustainable and transparent supply chain. These data are another key tool for measuring and demonstrating Enviva’s sustainability practices throughout the Southeastern US. “We are committed to keeping forests healthy and growing, while…
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Canada-based biogas upgrading company Greenlane Biogas has extended its biogas upgrading equipment line-up. In a statement, the company said that it had expanded its Kauri upgrading system to help provide solutions for large-scale projects. With the capacity to treat up to 3,000 standard cubic feet per minute (SCFM) of biogas, the ‘Kauri’ will enable biogas developers to produce over…
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The first sales of biofertiliser produced from the anaerobic digestion process in the UK have been described as “a game-changing moment in the restoration of the UK’s soils”, according to trade body Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA). Farming family Steve and Sarah Suggitt of Suggitt Farm Services in Norfolk are using digestate, a liquid byproduct from…
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Norway-headquartered Geminor has signed a new agreement to supply refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to the Amager Bakke energy-from-waste plant in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of a contract to supply 30,000 tonnes of waste to support the commissioning of the plant, the delivery marks the agreement’s commencement, which will see Geminor manage the transport of RDF material from producers in the UK and…
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