News

A coalition of green groups is calling on the UK Chancellor Exchequer Philip Hammond to use his first budget statement to end future subsidies for biomass. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as NRDC, Biofuelwatch, Fern and Dogwood Alliance  wrote a letter to earlier today (1 March, 2017). They wrote: “A large proportion of UK renewable energy is generated by old coal-fired…
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Oil giant BP has announced that it will buy Clean Energy Fuels Corp.’s biomethane business for $155 million (€147m). Clean Energy Fuels is a US provider of natural gas fuel for transportation in North America.  In a statement, BP said that the deal enables both companies to accelerate the growth in renewable natural gas supply and meet the growing demand of the natural gas vehicle…
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US-based science and engineering centre Argonne National Laboratory has developed technology that synergistically uses two waste biomass streams to generate two bioproducts and enhance the process of anaerobic digestion (AD). According to the organisation, the digestion of wastewater can be improved sludge by incorporating biomass-derived, carbon-sequestering char within the digester, thus…
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Finnish energy firm Fortum has installed a lithium-ion battery, which is believed to be the biggest in the Nordic countries, at its biomass power plant in Järvenpää for storage use. The investment was part of Fortum’s Finland-based ‘Batcave project’ and cost around €1.6 million. Fortum will also receive a 30% energy investment subsidy from the Ministry of…
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There has been excessive use of land for bioenergy crops in Germany which has led to a loss of species, according to the German environment minister Barbara Hendricks. Hendricks, speaking to the magazine Mehrwert, included energy as part of general comments on how she planned to reverse some policy in a bid to assist nature conservation, Power Engineering International reported. With reference…
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Canadian wood pellet manufacturer Diacarbon Energy has said that it will restart its operations in June, according to media reports. The company experienced a fire in October 2016 in its dryer unit and had to shut down its operations. Diacarbon Energy CEO Jerry Ericsson told the Merritt Herald he expects the plant to be running again in June, and is hopeful that the new year will be one…
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Following the merger of UK waste management firm Shanks Group and Dutch waste services provider Van Gansewinkel, the company has announced it will rebrand as Renewi.  Following the completion of the merger with Van Gansewinkel Groep B.V, Shanks has announced that it will be re-launching the combined business under a new brand, which will include re-naming the company from Shanks Group plc to…
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Finnish process technology developer Valmet will supply a multifuel power boiler and a flue gas cleaning system to Kushiro Thermal Power Plant in Hokkaido, Japan. The new boiler plant in the city of Kushiro will enable the producer to achieve a stable power supply at high thermal efficiency. The order is included in Valmet’s first quarter orders received in 2017. The value of the order will…
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Drax Biomass and the American Forest Foundation (AFF) has announced a multi-year project to invest in the future of small family landowners around Drax’s Morehouse BioEnergy facility in Northeast Louisiana. The five-year, $1.1 million (€1.03m) project – the “Morehouse Family Forests Initiative” (MFFI) – will provide landowners with the tools and…
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The UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a long awaited report on biomass on the same day as the spring budget. The report was entitled, ‘Use of North American woody biomass in UK electricity generation: Assessment of high carbon biomass fuel sourcing scenarios’. The aim of the report is to improve understanding of the carbon…
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German waste to energy equipment manufacturer Steinmüller Babcock Environment has secured a contract to build the boiler and furnace unit for a new energy from waste plant in northwest Stockholm, Sweden. The company secured the deal from the Swedish subsidiary of the German utility E.ON, to supply the single-line waste to energy plant. According to Steinmüller, with a performance of 100…
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UK-based food waste recycling firm ReFood, is expanding its Widnes biogas facility by 33% with the construction of a new anaerobic digestion (AD) tank. The expansion will take the site’s processing capacity to 160,000 tonnes of food waste each year, making it one of the largest AD plants in Europe. The plant is situated between the major cities of Liverpool and Manchester and will be able…
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Plantation Energy is to re-open a wood pellet processing plant, which has been closed for the last five years, in Albany, Australia. It is set to be recommissioned due to a low Australian dollar and increased international demand, according to media reports in ABC News. Plantation Energy secured AUS$7 million (€4.96m) of funding from multinational energy company ENGIE to recommission the…
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Schmack Biogas, a Viessmann Group company, has been awarded a further contract for the construction of a biomethane plant in Sourdun in northern France. In mid-December, the French government adopted a new feed-in tariff for electricity from biogas. France is the biggest country in the EU and uses a much larger area for agriculture than Germany. The potential for biogas plants is enormous. With…
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