News

Belgium-based tradeshow operator easyFairs has acquired the market leading bulk liquid storage conference and exhibition, StocExpo. easyFairs will take over the organisation of the 2012 event with immediate effect. International sales manager, Sharé Mason, has transferred to the UK offices of easyFairs in Twickenham and will continue in the success of the 2012 event. UK-based StocExpo…
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Algae.Tec, a company dedicated to the production of renewable oils from algae, has been awarded a contract to build its algae biofuels production facility in Sri Lanka. The plant is being constructed for cement and building company Holcim Lanka and is Algae.Tec's first plant to be built in Asia. Holcim is investing in the plant to reduce its carbon footprint by channelling waste carbon dioxide…
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Canadian company Core BioFuel has produced a wood-to-fuel process to create high-octane, benzene-free, drop-in petrol. The fuel will be produced from dimethyl ether and Larry Melnichuk, vice president of process design and development at Core says the technology ‘performs better than expected’. He says: ‘The catalyst for this reaction did not produce benzene - which the EPA has…
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Atlantec BioEnergy says it is to build an R&D demonstration plant on Prince Edward Island off Canada. The company recently purchased a facility in Cornwall in the UK and is also turning this into a demonstration plant by renovating it and installing its technology. Atlantec plans to use ‘non-traditional feedstocks’ to create the bioenergy, such as energy beets grown in the local…
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German manufacturer Weltec Biopower has begun the construction of its second anaerobic digestion plant in South Korea. Work at the site, located in Gyeonggi-do province about 80 km north of the capital Seoul, started in October and the 450kW biogas plant is to go live in the early summer of 2016. The plant will have the capacity to process 100 tonnes of organic waste a day, whereof 70% will be…
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The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul has granted preliminary licenses to ten biomass projects in order to increase its renewable energy output. The Environmental Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul (Imasul) gave the licenses to a total of 535.75MW worth of eucalyptus-based biomass projects. The 10 schemes, with a combined investement of $734 million (€679m), will be located in the cities of…
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The Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK and the supply chain specialist Terravesta are running new trials to examine how the energy crop miscanthus survives in water-logged land and its effect on the soil after flooding. The trials come some 18 months after the floods which devastated the Somerset Levels and are being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council…
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Oneida Seven Generations (OSG) has been given approval by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to build an electricity plant to run on waste in the City of Green Bay, Brown County, Wisconsin. The US state previously received nearly $55.5 million (€40.6 million) under a federal grant, and will give a $2 million loan to OSG from the funds. Municipal solid waste is to be brought to the plant,…
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Laidlaw Energy Group, a renewable energy company, has acquired a biomass-fired power plant in Susanville, California, US. Renergy and Natural Energies formerly owned the idle facility, which is able to generate 12.5MW of electricity. Both companies will become equity shareholders in Laidlaw Energy. Laidlaw will spend around one year and $20 million (€14.7 million) restoring the plant and…
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Varn Wood Products is to build a new wood pellet production plant next year, utilising waste pinewood from its sawmill facility in Hoboken, Georgia, US. The company is scheduled to break ground on the project in Q2 2012, with startup slated for the end of 2012. The plant will be able to manufacture 80,000 tonnes of wood pellets annually, but this could be expanded to 120,000 tonnes if demand from…
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AD plant developer Farmgen has started operations at its plant at Dryholme Farm, West Cumbria in the UK. The biogas plant cost £4 million (€4.7 million) to install and started supplying electricity to the national grid on 4 November. The project was partly financed by Nuclear Management Partners, which supplied a £350,000 grant. The plant converts locally farmed crops into 1.2MW…
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At the end of November, energy company E.on will break ground on a £120 million (€140.6 million) biomass-fired power plant in Tinsley, Sheffield, UK. According to the project's final plans, which have now been announced, the plant will produce up to 30MW from UK-based waste wood only. This is enough to power 40,000 homes when it comes online in mid-2014. The new development will also…
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Turkey producer Bernard Matthews is looking to become more self-sufficient with the installation of a biogas plant at its factory in Suffolk, UK. The £4 million (€4.7 million) AD plant will produce heat and power for the factory's onsite operations from 28,000 tonnes of poultry effluent, blood fluids and fat. It is hoped the new facility will supply 13% of the factory's electricity and…
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The announced £1.15 billion allocation for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) budget by 2021 could quadruple the number of UK biomethane plants. The forecast, released by the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), says that the Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review could support the construction of an additional 140 biomethane plants. These plants represent a…
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