News

The Virginia Port Authority has agreed a 20-year lease at its Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT) to a Virginia company that plans to export wood pellets to Europe. Ecofuels Pellet Storage (EPS) will lease 15 acres at PMT and build two domes to house and prepare wood pellets for export. It expects to be operational by the second quarter of 2014. ‘EPS has been set up to take advantage of the…
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Energy technology supplier Metso has won the contract to convert the combustion technology at Kuopion Energia’s Haapaniemi Two in Kuopio, Finland. The change will use a shift from pulverized peat-fired combustion to fluidised bed technology. The rebuild will take place during the summer and early autumn of 2013, but the value of the order has not been disclosed.Kuopion Energia hopes the…
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The US Department of Agriculture will supply a multi-million loan guarantee for a new biomass generating plant in Summit County, Ohio. An area of abundant beetle-killed trees has been considered as feedstock by various agencies and officials, but now the $40 million loan guarantee could see those discussions move to an actuality. It is believed any such project could eventually produce around…
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According to a new report the US surpassed Canada as the largest wood pellet exporter in the world for the first half of 2012. The report, compiled by the North American Wood Fibre Review, says both South US and British Columbia regions reached a record high of 760,000 tonnes of produce in the second quarter of 2012. An estimated figure of 1.5 million tonnes has been mooted to come from southern…
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Clean chemical developers Global Bioenergies (GB) claims to be able to demonstrate a direct way of producing propylene from renewable sources. GB believes the market for propylene stands at $93 billion (€72.2 billion), mainly through the packaging and car industries, and that currently there is no known natural pathways leading to propylene in microorganisms. ‘Designing such an…
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A second round of government funding applications for on-farm biomass projects is set to close next month in Northern Ireland. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Biomass Processing fund will close on 30 November, but is open to all individual or groups of farmers as it aims to encourage installation of biomass-fuelled technologies to help agricultural activities. Eligible…
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The UK government will ask entrepreneurs and businesses to bid for a share of a £2 million ($3.2 million) fund aimed towards bioenergy production via UK wetlands. A forecast made under a Bioenergy Strategy back in April believes technology could meet between 8 and 11% of the UK’s total primary energy demand by the end of the decade. The scheme will aim to use plants already growing in…
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A biogas plant has been caught up in a mystery surrounding multi-coloured honey being made by bees over in France. Northeastern French beekeepers were recently confounded after reaping honey made on their farms that appeared blue and green in colour, which they couldn’t sell. It was eventually deciphered that the bees must have been collecting sugary waste from biogas plant Agrivalor, which…
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A new biogas-fired CHP plant has opened in Konopnica, Poland. Polish biogas technology firm Bioenergy Project officially put the 1.99MW facility online on 5 October, and it was constructed on a turnkey basis with Technika Energetyczna, a division of Italy-based cogeneration and green energy concern Gruppo. The plant is believed to produce 17,000MW of heat and 16,800MW of power an hour and…
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Thailand-based oil refiner Bangchak Petroleum’s president Anusorn Sangnimnuan says it is set to invest heavily into two biodiesel projects. Sangimnuan revealed that Bangchak will invest THB1.2 billion (€30.2 million) and double its capacity of pure biodiesel, or methyl ester, to 600,000 litres per day at its Ayutthaya plant. That move is set to cost THB800 million and the remaining…
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A wood recycling business in Nottinghamshire, UK has submitted planning application for a biomass energy facility. The new Plevin and Sons facility would be based in Elkesley and could potentially generate 1.6MW of electricity and 8MW of heat via 25,000 tonnes of wood waste as feedstock. ‘The proposed biomass CHP plant would be carbon neutral and offset 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per…
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Operations have begun at the largest biomass driven CHP facility in France this month. The 69MW plant is based at paper manufacturer Smurfit Kappa Group’s Biganos-Facture facility in the south west. It will convert over 500,000 metric tonnes of tree bark and fines from its pulp screening process to produce electricity, which will be purchased by EDF Energy, and up to 360 metric tonnes of…
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Consent was given today by the UK government for the construction of a 60MW energy-from-waste generating station in Cheshire. The proposed development in Northwich will generate enough power to supply 80,000 homes and create a total of 500 jobs during the construction period and a further 50 permanent operating posts. ‘It is essential we have a balanced energy mix in the future to provide…
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A combined heat and power facility in the north west of England is to get an upgrade. The contract for a performance upgrade at the PDM Widnes plant in Cheshire has been awarded to Siemens and will focus on two of its scale-scale steam turbines. The current project is set to involve modernisation of the plant, plus upgrades and modifications including new nozzle rings, turbine wheels and valve…
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