Other News

Renewable energy company Anaergia is set to participate in the creation of ‘the world’s largest college campus-based anaerobic disgestion system in the US. The Canada-based biogas producer will be involved in the project found at the Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Centre at Michigan State University (MSU). The project’s aim is demonstrate how anaerobic digestion can address…
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US-based transportation fuels producer Kior has begun production at its first commercial facility in Mississippi. It is believed the plant, once running at full capacity within the next 12 months, will be able to produce almost 50 million litres of petrol and diesel per year. Kior will be using a mixture of biomass, like non-food crops and woodwaste, as part of the manufacturing process. Despite…
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A Scottish association has secured a loan to help build a renewable heating system near Oban. The West Highland Housing Association (WHHA) will use the £400,000 ($638,350) given by a government initiative called the Warm Homes Fund, to construct a biomass district heating network at Dunbeg. The electricity created would be enough to generate power for 50 homes and construction is due to…
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Canadian-based Woodland Biofuels says its new demonstration plant is up and could be producing ethanol by the end of this year. The new facility will use wood waste as feedstock and is based at the Western University Research Park’s Bioindustrial Innovation Centre in Sarnia. It will create 10 operational jobs while it employed 25 people during construction. ‘It’s all assembled…
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The Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) has confirmed new international bioenergy standards will come into operation by 2014 across East Africa. Following a three day workshop at the start of November TBS acting director Dominic Mwakangale believes the bureau is in at the final stages of compiling the proposed standards. The workshop attracted participants from places including Uganda, Burundi,…
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A district heating scheme in Brae, Scotland will unveil a new small biomass heating system after receiving planning permission. The heating cabin will be operated by local company Northfish and use wood chips as feedstock. The company is already running a similar project. The cabin will measure 12ft by 3.5ft and go towards helping to heat the local health centre, leisure centre and a local…
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Germany-based biotechnology company Direvo is set to commercialise its new conversion process of non-food feedstocks into fuels and chemicals. Its BluCon platform is the result of an intensive research programme to identify microorganisms viable to cheaply produce chemicals and fuels from carbohydrates created from non-food biomass, so-called second generation biomass conversion. ‘After two…
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Brazil-based ethanol producer Raizen Group is set to work with Canada-based cellulosic ethanol developer Iogen to develop a new commercial plant in South America. Iogen has produced over 2 million litres of cellulosic ethanol at its demonstration plant in Ottawa since 2004, but this joint venture represents its first commercial foray. Raizen produces 2.2 billion litres of ethanol a year from…
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A farmer in Devon, UK has installed a biomass boiler to help improve his carbon footprint and even his bank balance. John Roberts now heats multiple cottages and a live/work unit on the farm via the 60kW biomass boiler which runs on logs, woodchips and pellets taken from his land. He also, under the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), receives 50% return on investment per…
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Germany-based biogas company BD Agro Renewables has begun operations at one of the first biogas plants in Russia. The facility, located in Belgorod, will generate 2.4MW of electricity via a feedstock supply of 80 tonnes of maize silage, 45 tonnes of slaughterhouse waste and 80 cubic metres of slurry a day to supply around 10,000 households. Belgorod oblast governor Vevgeny Savchenko said at the…
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A new combined heat and power project makes up part of PowerSecure International’s new multi-million dollar business wins. The new business consists of $15 million (€11.5 million) of turnkey sales for distributed generation systems, including its IDG systems. A significant portion of the revenue for these new distributed generation awards relates to the CHP project, which will be split…
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UK power station Drax will plan to raise £180 million ($290 million) through a new share placing to support a change to becoming a predominately biomass-fuelled power generator. Three of the six Drax units will be converted to biomass meaning the site will be one of the largest renewable energy plants in Europe. The company is now looking to secure capital funding for the conversion, which…
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The European Biomass Research Institute (EBRI) welcomed a very prestigious visitor in October. HRH Princess Anne toured the EBRI’s Pyroformer demonstration plant in Shropshire, which is also part of a European Union project named BioenNW. The Pyroformer facility uses waste products to generate cost-effective heat and power. Speaking from his office at Aston University, head of EBRI Andreas…
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Next generation bio-based chemicals producer Cobalt Technologies is set to work closely with a subsidiary of agribusiness and food company Bunge. Bunge Global Innovation ‘s investment into Cobalt, along with chemicals business Rhodia Poliamida e Especialidades, means it will operate a pilot plant demonstrating the production of n-butanol using sugarcane bagasse as feedstock in…
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