Other News

The public in both Suffolk and Norfolk, UK can now be ferried on a specially created bus route via the power of biogas. Anglian Bus, a division of the Go Ahead Group, is operating the fleet of 13 renewable energy powered single-deck buses, brought for a cost of £624,000 (€772,500), via new routes between Lowestoft and Norwich. Part of the UK government’s £3 million Green…
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A biomass project slated for construction near Truckee, US has been given the green light by the Placer County Planning Commission. Approval for the 2MW facility was awarded on 20 December and it will convert local wood biomass into gas to power turbines to produce electricity. The facility will be based over 11,000m2 and a further one acre area will be used for fuel storage. A contractor is due…
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Netherlands-based engineering consultancy Grontmij has won a contract to design a new organic waste to energy biogas facility in Poland. The facility will be located in Bialystok and is hoped to produce 23 million cubic metres of biogas a year from biodegradable organic waste material. The contract is said to be worth about €2 million ($2.6 million) and will be handled by Grontmij’s…
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The first food waste to power plant in Bristol, UK opened this December. The facility is operated by Geneco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water, with the anaerobic digestors provided by technology business Monsal. It took less than a year to construct and can generate 10GWh, enough power for almost 3,000 homes. ‘The opening of the food waste plant builds on our experience of using anaerobic…
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The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) has responded to the UK government’s decision to allow drilling for shale gas to recommence this month. Energy secretary Ed Davey has agreed for energy company Cuadrilla to resume operations after drilling for shale gas was suspended in 2011 due to two related earthquakes. This follows a dismissive Gas Generation Strategy, which made no…
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A new $7 million (€5.3 million), five year biofuels collaboration has been signed this month. International chemical company Johnson Matthey will work with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at producing economical drop-in gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from non-food based biomass. ‘It’s a way of leveraging the expertise of two…
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Two new biogas plants have been recently completed in the US, one in California and the other in Washington. Sacramento-based waste-to-power business Cleanworld has brought online what it claims to be the country’s largest commercial-scale anaerobic digestion system. The system is set to convert 25 tonnes of food and organic waste materials a day into electricity and renewable natural…
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Drax Biomass International is to plan for three projects in the Gulf region. It expects to begin construction of two pellet manufacturing plants in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as storage and loading facilities at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, during the first half of 2013. The manufacturing facilities, Amite BioEnergy in Mississippi and Morehouse BioEnergy in Louisiana, are expected…
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Control systems provider Tri-Mer and Enginuity Energy (EE) will work together to test the air emission quality of various biomass fuels. Both companies will share technologies and work out of EE’s research and development laboratory in Pennsylvania, where EE gasifies a range of high moisture and high ash content material. Tri-Mer will provide a filter system that is capable of removing NOx,…
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US-based Portland General Electric (PGE) is delving deeper into alternative biomass sources to help replace coal at the Boardman power plant. According to plant research and development director Wayne Lei, 18 different products have been tested in scaled-down apparatus at Washington State University. Of the 18, it has been decided that corn stover, wheat straw, poplar chips, special biomass…
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Germany-based biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Power has been chosen to help bring a new project online in France. The company will work with engineering and development business Methaneo to establish a 500kW plant in Saint Varent, western France. Weltec has worked on five previous biogas projects in the country to date. ‘We decided to work with Weltec because it is capable of integrating…
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A working partnership believes it has found, following a year and a half of research, a direct biological pathway to convert renewable sources into butadiene. Butadiene, a light olefin generated from oil, is used to manufacture rubbers, nylon plastics and latexes. Around 10 million tonnes is produced a year with a market value coming in at over $20 billion (€15.4 billion). Industrial biology…
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Biogas plant developer Agri Capital and technology provider BioWatt Developments are to work closer together following the completed signing of a mutual cooperation framework agreement. Agri Capital will use the agreement to help springboard its attempt to break into the UK market from Europe, where it operates 80 biogas plants throughout Germany, while BioWatt seeks to capitalise on further…
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US-based technology provider ArborGen has signed a long-term partnership with the College of Charleston Foundation to support forest conservation and restoration efforts. Its first order of business was to donate 75,000 Longleaf Pone seedlings that will be planted over the next few months across 144 acres of Dixie plantation. ‘We are grateful for ArborGen’s partnership,’ says…
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