News

Universal Bioenergy says it generated revenues of nearly $50 million (€37 million) for the first three quarters of this year, an increase of more than $7 million made on the same time last year. The company increased its total operating expenses for the three months ending on September 30 2010 by 7.5% to more than $576,000 for the same period in 2011. The company’s assets have also…
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US company Fulcrum Bioenergy has raised $100 million (€74.5 million) in an venture capital financing round. The company uses municipal solid waste (MSW) to produce renewable fuel and currently makes about 700 million gallons a year from 13 million tonnes of rubbish taken from landfills in the US. The company uses heat generated from its refinery process to power its plant, therefore reducing…
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Construction has begun on a new bioenergy plant in Stockport, UK, which will convert food waste into gas, providing about 1,400 homes with renewable gas in the north west of England. The plant will run on organic material taken from hotels, restaurants and offices in the surrounding area and is scheduled to open in April 2012. The facility is expected to cost about £5 million (€5.8…
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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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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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Wood pellet manufacturer Enviva is to develop a production factory in Courtland, Virginia, US. The plant, which could be up and running by the first half of 2013, will produce 454,000 tonnes of wood pellets a year. The majority of these pellets will be exported to utility companies in Europe through Enviva's Port of Chesapeake deep-water port terminal outside of Norfolk. Upon completion of the…
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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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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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Canada-based wood pellet producer Biomass Secure Power has outlined its three-year growth plan. The company currently has five wood pellet production plants under development, which will manufacture a total 3.5 million tonnes of wood pellets a year. The first plant is slated to come online in 2012, with a further two to be ready for commissioning in 2013. The remaining two will be operational in…
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In Berlin, New Hampshire, US, a new programme has been set up to encourage local homeowners to convert from burning fossil fuels to wood pellets. The Model Neigborhood Project, a collaboration between the Northern Forest Center, Berlin BetterBuildings, the city of Berlin and Maine Energy Systems, is to offer subsidies to around 40 local homeowners to incentivise them to switch. These financial…
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KTG Agrar, a producer of agricultural commodities, has reached a 20MW milestone as it continues to expand its biogas capacity. To date the company generates enough electricity for 34,000 homes; a significant increase from the 28,000 households it served in mid-2011. This figure is set to increase further as KTG Agrar is currently building more biogas plants with a combined capacity of over…
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In Amel, Belgium, one utility company has co-fired fossil coal with biocoal supplied by renewable energy company 4Energy Invest. 4Energy Invest manufactures the biocoal, which it made from black torrefied woodchips, in its large-scale production unit. The co-firing trial lasted for around 20 hours. The utility reported successful results as it did not have to modify the existing power plant to…
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In Pakistan, the Italian government, along with the Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) is to invest Rs50 million (€716,000) in the development of biogas plants in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The project will see 436 biogas plants erected throughout six districts: Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Abbottabad, Haripur and Mansehra. Pakistan's potential for a thriving biogas sector…
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The Port of Amsterdam is preparing for a growth in biomass product as European countries look to replace existing coal-fired power plants with renewable materials. As the port gears up to meet the expected growth in this sector, new developments of fossil fuel terminals are no longer allowed, although expansion projects of existing terminals will still be able to go ahead. The Port of Amsterdam…
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