News

Showa Shell Sekiya K.K., an energy company currently developing a biomass-fired power plant in Japan, has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract to JFE Holdings. No financial terms of the new contract were disclosed. The plant itself will cost around 16 billion yen (€121.6 million) to build. The plant will be built south of Tokyo in Kanagawa prefecture. Ground will…
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Renewable Energies of Brazil (ERB), an enterprise involved with the generation of biomass-derived power, has concluded its second fundraising cycle for the development of new projects for the co-production of energy and steam. Endespar and Fundo Caixa Ambiental (Environmental Fund Bank), run by Mantiq Investments from Santander Bank, have invested $300 million (€220.9 million) and will join…
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Doosan Power systems, a power plant construction and maintenance company, and French industrial maintenance group ADF have entered into an 18 month long partnership to carry out the biomass conversion and turbine upgrade project at E.ON's coal-fired power plant in Gardanne, France. Once the plant's conversion to biomass is complete, it will be France's largest biomass-fired power plant to date;…
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BlueFire Renewables, a renewable fuels company, is to integrate a wood pellet production plant with its ethanol facility in Mississippi, US. The reconfigured design will see a 400,000 tonne per year wood pellet factory integrated with the company's existing 9 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Fulton. The pellets will be sold under long-term contracts into the European mandated renewable…
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Technology supplier Cool Planet Energy Systems and Acritaz Greentech, a group of companies that bring biomass processing and biotechnology projects to plantations, have signed an agreement to establish a number of commercial facilities in Malaysia. The partnership says it plans to start building the first plant next year, when the two companies will source biomass materials local to the local…
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Waste from dairy farms and beer breweries could provide the necessary ingredients to grow algae-based biofuels say the leaders of a project based in Vermont, US. The US Department of Agriculture awarded the association, which includes the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), a $51,000 (€37,000) grant to research biofuels technology using algae during a news conference at…
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Greensphere Capital has acquired a biomass-fired power plant in Wales. The 14.7MWe Western Bio-Energy in Port Talbot was purchased with funds managed by Greensphere on behalf on the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Stobart and Signia investors. Greensphere says it led the deal and will manage the investment. Opened in 2008, the plant burns approximately 150,000 tonnes a year of feedstock to…
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Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in cooperation with Chemieanlangenbau Chemnitz, has produced renewable fuel at its Bioliq (biomass to liquid karlsruhe) pilot plant. With the synthesis stage of the plant now operational, all stages of the Bioliq process (flash pyrolysis, high-pressure entrained-flow gasification and synthesis) are online and the pilot facility is a step closer to producer…
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DP CleanTech, a designer and commissioner and biomass- and waste-to-energy power plants, has signed a contract with Shougang Holding Tianguan Group to develop a biomass-fired power plant in Henan province, China. The project, which will be China's first biomass-to-energy plant, will use the by-product feedstock from second generation ethanol production. It will be a key part of the cellulosic…
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Fuels producer Kior says it will double capacity at its Columbus, Mississippi cellulosic fuels plant through the construction of a second facility incorporating its technology. The project – Columbus II – is estimated to cost in the region of $225 million (€166.6 million). Construction will begin within 90 days of Kior raising sufficient equity and debt capital to commence the…
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Concord Energy, a Singapore-based crude oil and refined petroleum product trading company, and technology supplier Cool Planet Energy Systems have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in the Asia Pacific region. The new JV company will develop commercial facilities that will produce biofuels and biochar from non-food biomass. Concord Energy is an investor in Cool Planet, joining…
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A new wood pellet export facility is on the cards for the Port of Morehead City in North Carolina, US after the port signed an agreement deal with WoodFuels. According to the terms of the agreement, WoodFuels would finance and build a $25 million (€18 million) export facility at the port to receive, store and load wood pellets for export to Europe, where they would be used as a renewable…
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RusForest, a Swedish forestry company, has secured bank financing for its wood pellet plant currently under construction in Arkhangelsk, Russia. The pellet plant, being built by engineering firm Hekotek at the site of RusForest's existing sawmill, will have an annual production capacity of up to 100,000 tonnes and allow the company to monetise its sawmill by-products by exporting wood pellets to…
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Biotricity, an Irish renewable company, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the supply of feedstock to its biomass-fired power plant, which is currently under construction and expected to enter service by the end of 2015. Under the MoU, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) will purchase and manage straw feedstock for the Rhode, Co. Offaly biomass plant. The new facility will…
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