Other News

A new co-digestion facility will be built in California after the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (SRCSD) joined forces to help produce renewable energy. Fats, oils, grease and liquid food processing waste will be used in the digestion system, producing power for a plant in the southern Sacramento County. As part of the American…
Read More »

The US Patent & Trademark Office has awarded NTE Energy a patent for its proprietary biomass hybrid renewable energy technology. This newly patented technology allows the simultaneous operation of a biomass energy cycle in unison with a traditional power plant. It integrates biomass and steam electric power, forming a single hybrid power facility that will offer shared equipment for both…
Read More »

Renewable energy company Harvest Power has raised $110 million (€760,000) in a funding round. True North Venture Partners were the leaders in the investment, with help from American Refining and Biochemical, as well as existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, Generation Investment Management and more. Harvest Power plans to use the funds to expand its operations…
Read More »

Dyadic International is a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of enzyme and protein products for the bioenergy, biochemical, biopharmaceutical and industrial enzyme industries. The company has announced that Abengoa Bioenergy New Technologies (Abengoa), has agreed to pay them $5.5 million for an expansion of its rights under the non-exclusive…
Read More »

UK-based food company PDM plans to invest £40 million (€48.5 million) into building a network of anaerobic digestion plants throughout this year. The plants, to be built under a project which the company has dubbed ReFood, will be built in Widnes and East London, UK. The two plants come after PDM’s first anaerobic digester was deemed a success after it was built at its…
Read More »

A recent study conducted by the Oregon State University (OSU) and a number of other universities located in Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria, has suggested that the use of forest biomass may be responsible for higher greenhouse gas emissions and furthermore may not be sustainable. A depletion of soil nutrients, higher erosion risk, younger forests, loss of forest biodiversity and shorter…
Read More »

Pellet exports from North America into Europe hit a new record in the fourth quarter of last year. Shipments rose to 600,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2011, which is a sharp increase from the 130,000 tonnes shipped in the first quarter of 2008. Shipments have been on the rise steadily every quarter since then. Over all of last year, wood pellet shipments reach just over 2 million tonnes, an…
Read More »

Ventura, which is a subsidy of biodiesel company Biodico, has been given a $2 million (€1.5 million) grant from the California Energy Commission and will use the funds to produce renewable energy and biodiesel at Biodico’s 10 million gallon a year facility which is being built in Port Hueneme, California. At the facility, process heat and power will be generated through the use of…
Read More »

The Harare City Council in Zimbabwe is in talks with a local gas company, considering a joint venture to enable electricity to be generated from waste collected from nearby sewage works. About $3 million (€2.28 million) will be needed to fund the project, which will take a year and a half to build. One plant, called Firle, is expected to produce 2.5MW whilst the other, Crowborough, should…
Read More »

UK energy company E.ON has received approval from the Shropshire council to build a new fuel store at its Ironbridge power station in the region. This planning permission grant will allow the company to convert a section of its Ironbridge power station so that it can use 100% wood pellets as a renewable fuel source. E.ON will continue to work with the council so that it can build the fuel storage…
Read More »

BioPower Operations, a company that grows, produces and sells biomass and its byproducts, has become a public company, listing its shares on the stock market. The company currently has plans to produce and sell biomass oils in the short term and in the long term receive licenses to grow trees and bamboo that can also be converted into oils, biofuels, animal feed or electricity. Robert Kohn, CEO…
Read More »

Viridor, a waste management company based in the UK, has broken ground on a new anaerobic digestion (AD) plant that is located close to Bridgwater in Somerset, UK. It is the first AD plant in that region of the country and will be situated next to the Walpole landfill site, coming online in April 2013. The Somerset Waste Board approved the facility in September 2011 and it will cost about…
Read More »

Wealth management firm, Taaleritehdas, plans to build a series of biogas plants throughout Finland, which will convert household biowaste, wastewater slurry, industrial byproducts and agricultural waste into biogas. Over the next couple of years, the Finnish company will build five to seven plants which will cost about €90 million. Under its plans, the company will also purchase a biogas…
Read More »

The North East Lincolnshire Council in the UK has approved a biomass-fuelled plant, which will be built in the region for about £130 million (€158 million). Real Ventures, the company behind the development, plans for the facility to have an electrical output of more than 49MW which should power around 90,000 residences. The plant will be a combined heat and power (CHP) project which…
Read More »