Other News

FuturaGene, a company dedicated to enhancing the yield and sustainability of woody crops for biofuels and biopower, and Guangxi Academy of Sciences (GXAS) have entered into a development agreement. Under the agreement, FuturaGene and GXAS, which is primarily focussed on bioenergy research and the development of non-food crops, will develop and optimise second generation biofuel production from…
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In the US, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on 6 October for the Berlin, New Hampshire-based Burgess BioPower facility. Upon completion, expected for 2013, the $275 million (€183.5 million) biomass-fired power plant will generate 75MW of renewable power from 750,000 tonnes of waste wood. A long-term power purchase agreement has already been signed, which will see New Hampshire Public…
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The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center has broken ground in Florida, following the fundraising of nearly $500 million for the biomass project. American Renewables, the company behind the development, plans to gather wood waste left over from tree harvesting from forests within a 75 mile radius surrounding the plant. This year American Renewables signed an agreement with forest products company…
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A biogas facility in Somerset, south west England, has been given approval to double its current capacity to power 4,000 homes. Currently the Cannington Enterprises plant uses an anaerobic digester to produce power from residue crops such as maize silage, grass, whole crop and big bale silage but it will now be allowed to treat up to 75,000 tonnes of other waste such as rotting food. A number of…
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Ethanol company ICM has decided to branch off into the waste-to-energy sector, opening a demonstration plant in Harvey County, Kansas in the US. The facility uses a gasifier, which is running at full capacity on various types of feedstock, such as municipal solid waste and producing syngas. The unit has the potential to produce electricity and thermal energy if it receives the investment required…
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A new multi-million pound anaerobic digestion plant has opened in Edgmond, Shropshire in the UK, which will convert 23,000 tonnes of food waste and cow slurry into biogas, feeding the electricity onto the local grid. The plant, designed and built by BiogenGreenfinch for a local university, will work with retailers, manufacturers and caterers to gather the food waste; and Harper Adams own dairy…
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Canadian company FireBox Energy is to build a demonstration biomass facility in Glenevis, Alberta to generate about 30MW of electricity. The primary feedstock for the plant is to be wood waste from north western Alberta and central British Colombia. ‘In addition we are also sourcing Logepole Pine infected by the Mountain Pine Beetle that has cut a swath through a sizable region in British…
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Biomass gasification company Nexterra has signed a research agreement with the University of British Columbia to develop a conditioning synthetic gas. The new method will be based on Nexterra’s proprietary biomass gasification technology and will research towards developing a lower cost catalytic process for removing tars from the synthetic gas produced by Nexterra’s gasification…
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The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Regional Board of Investments says it has approved a P24 million (€405,000) investment into expanding cassava starch producer Matling Industrial and Commercial Corporation. The company is to expand its operations by building biomass power plants around the country and has also received investment from surrounding regions such as Malaysia and…
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Placer County officials say they will consider building a biomass power generation facility near a material recovery facility in Cabin Creek in California. The research will be funded by a Department of Energy (DoE) grant that was given to the region in 2008 and the development will not cost more than $200,000 (€146,200). A proposal for development could be made by the middle of next year if…
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Algae.Tec, an algae production company, has received approval for its demonstration facility in Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia. The facility was approved under the Shoalhaven City Council Environment Planning and Assessment Act and the plant will be used to capture carbon dioxide waste from power stations and manufacturing facilities, feeding the pollution into the algae growth…
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The Port of Antwerp and chemical company Solvay have signed an agreement to carry out a feasibility study on the potential to build a biomass power station in the port. Output at the proposed plant would be large, between 200-400MW, or enough to power between 500,000 and 1 million homes. Under the agreement the two companies will draw up the outlines of the project, hoping to gain investment from…
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In Brazil, Cargill, a global trader of sugar and ethanol, and Grupo USJ, a company dedicated to the sugarcane industry, have formed a 50/50 joint venture, SJC Bioenergia. The new JV brings together two of Grupo USJ's sugarcane mills, both located in the state of Goiás: its Quirinópolis-based São Francisco mill and the Cachoeira Dourada mill, which is currently under…
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Orchard House Foods, a UK-producer of fresh fruit products, has installed a new build-own-operate power production plant. The plant generates biomethane from waste food products including rejected fruit, peelings and wash water. It is currently handling around 1.5 tonnes of COD/day from the liquid waste stream and a further 4 tonnes of COD from the mashed fruit peelings. The processing of this…
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