News

In Kenya a five-year pilot project is being developed as a way of improving the nation’s biogas industry and turning it into a viable market through financial and technical advancements. The farmers of small-scale dairy farms are set to gain from the project as it looks to develop 8,000 biogas plants in rural parts of the country. The pilot programme is targeting these farmers to develop…
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Carbon dioxide refineries could soon be as common as oil refineries with the possibility of converting air into fuel drawing increasingly nearer. In March this year a team of 14 scientists from the universities of Bath, Bristol and the West of England were awarded a £1.4 million (€1.6 million) grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of Research Councils UK, to…
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The price of biomass across the US has been affected by the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) set up by the US federal government in 2009 to lower the prices of biomass and bring more raw materials to the market, says the North American Wood Fiber Review (NAWFR). Northern California and Northern New England are two of the major biomass markets in the US, both housing a significant number of…
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UK firm Chesterfield BioGas, a division of Chesterfield Special Cylinders dedicated to the development of equipment for fuelling vehicles as well as the supply of systems for converting raw biogas to biomethane, will provide the city of Sheffield with a temporary biomethane gas filling station. After signing an agreement on 22 April this year the Sheffield-based company will now supply…
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John Ibbett, chairman of the AD group Biogen Greenfinch located in Bedfordshire, UK, manages 5,500 acres of land, 23,000 pigs sold to the likes of Tesco and J Sainsbury and an annual production 12.5 million litres of Bedfordshire herd slurry. With the enforcement of government laws such as the taxation on rubbish sent to landfill sites as a way of reducing waste, Ibbett’s agribusiness then…
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The city of Naperville, located in Illinois, US, is to create energy from landscaping debris in its newly launched project. The Packer Engineering’s Green Depot Project, a system turning biomass into vehicle fuel, will utilise tree branches and other waste biomass found on the pavements. The gasifier will generate electricity that will be injected into the grid and used to power electric…
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The partnership between New Page and Nova Scotia Power, coated papers producer New Page Port Hawkesbury, has proposed a biorefinery that will be constructed on the Canadian island of Cape Breton. The facility would convert waste biomass from forests into 60MW of electricity, benefitting 30,000 homes. However the proposal is not being well received by local residents due to the belief that…
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British-owned energy supplier British Gas is to form a venture with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks that will see the construction of a new biomass pilot plant in Didcot, UK. The plant will clean biomethane gas collected from human waste before injecting it into the grid to be used in kitchens and as heating. The facility will be built at Didcot sewage works as this is where Thames Water…
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Located at the Budd Inlet Treatment Plant in Washington State, US, a biogas and energy efficiency project costing over $2 million (€1.5 million) is set to save the sewage agency around $228,000 in annual utility costs. The $2.4 million project will capture methane gas from a sewage treatment plant that will then be used to power machinery at the plant. The heat generated will be utilised by…
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Energy company Electrabel and France-based electricity generation and distribution firm GDF Suez Group have launched a €40 million biomass generating system at the Gelderland power station in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The Gelderland power station originally burnt coal but the conversion will result in around one quarter of this being replaced by wood pellets. With a total capacity of…
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In comparison to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the south-western state of Kerala is not dedicated to generating biomass power, according to the government. India has the potential of generating 21,000MW of biomass power and Farooq Abdullah, the minister of new and renewable energy, said: ‘The leading states in producing biomass power are Andhra Pradesh,…
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The minister of plantation industries and commodities Tan Sri Bernard Dompok has claimed that the energy sources from biomass has the potential to be exploited to help tackle electricity shortages in Sabah, Malaysia. Although these renewable sources will not replace traditional fossil fuels they will be used to expand Sabah’s energy supplies. Dompock said: ‘It can only help towards…
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After critics claimed that a biomass plant proposed for Shelton town, Mason County, US, would create pollution harming human health and the environment, advanced biopower company Adage’s refinery is now facing some resistance from local residents. Located in Maryland, Adage is developing a $250 million (€190 million) refinery that will convert 604,000 tonnes of wood from the forest floors…
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The consultation period for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), part of the targets that will dramatically slash Britain’s carbon dioxide emissions, has just closed and is due to be introduced in April next year. The RHI aims to enable the construction of 80TWh (Tera Watt hours) of renewable heat in the UK in the short- to medium-term. Almost 10% of this target is allocated to heat generated…
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