Other News

Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA) is looking to build a biomass plant in the town of Le Sueur, Minnesota, US. The $30 million (€22.3 million) project would generate 8MW of renewable energy from a variety of feedstocks including sweet corn silage, and waste from potatoes and beans. MMPA has secured some supply contracts with local food processing companies, and is currently working to…
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Biofuels company Gevo has been given a $5 million (€3.7 million) grant by the United States Department of Agriculture to develop bio-jet fuel from woody biomass and forest product residues. The grant is part of the $40 million that has been given to the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance, a consortium led by Washington State University. With the funding, Gevo plans to use woody biomass…
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In Florida, US, U.S. EcoGen Polk is developing a biomass plant that will be built in Fort Meade. EcoGen plans to break ground on the $200 million (€148 million) facility at the beginning of 2012, with startup expected in 2014. The U.S. EcoGen Generating Facility will convert eucalyptus into 60MW of renewable power. EcoGen will grow 100% of the eucalyptus needed to fuel the plant on dedicated…
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Operations have begun at a new biomass-fired power plant in Belgium. GDF Suez and its subsidiary Electrabel own a majority stake in the Rodenhuize plant and invested €125 million to convert it from a coal-fired facility to one which burns 100% biomass. The power plant now burns wood pellets to generate 180MW of electricity. This is enough to power 320,000 households and will reduce CO2…
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In the UK, MITIE's asset management business, O-Gen UK and Una Group have formed a joint venture, O-Gen Plymtrek, which is developing a renewable energy centre in Plymouth. The new facility will generate renewable heat and power from 40,000 tonnes of woody biomass a year by converting it into a gas fuel which will be combusted in a boiler and create steam. The centre will be installed with O-Gen…
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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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The worldwide production of electricity derived from biomass will increase by approximately 8,000MW until 2015. These are the findings of a study by ecoprog and Fraunhofer. The construction of biomass-fired power plants is continuing to grow, mainly due to the increasing number of feed-in tariffs available for biomass-based electricity. The high cost of fossil fuels and the introduction of CO2…
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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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In Europe, a number of North West European organisations are partnering for a €14 million initiative that will address the current lack of information on macro- and microalgal productivity. Energetic Algae (EnAlgae) will establish a series of pilot-scale seaweed farms and microalgae growth facilities in the region to provide information needed for optimised algae production. NNFCC is one…
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Canadian Biofuel held a grand opening ceremony on 17 September for its new wood pellet and briquette production plant. Located in Springford, Ontario, Canada, the plant has been under development for six years and Canadian Biofuel finally began construction in April. Production is expected to start by the end of the year, when it will manufacture 1,500 tonnes each month of biomass fuel. The…
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In Anglesey, Wales, UK, a biomass-fired power plant has been given the go ahead. Anglesey Aluminium Metal Renewables proposed the 299MW plant and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) approved it in September. The power station will be built at Penrhos Works in Holyhead. When it is operational it will generate enough renewable electricity for around 30,000 households.
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In Leamington, Ontario, Canada, New Energy Farms (NEF) has constructed its energy crop bioproducts facility. The 30,000 square foot plant converts locally grown energy crops into low carbon bioproducts. It also generates 265kW of renewable electricity from solar panels fitted in the roof. Pyramid and Prism Farms, partners of NEF, built the site, which currently handles 1,000 hectares of…
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In the US, River Basin Energy is developing a commercial-scale biocoal production plant, which it expects to break ground on later this year. When the facility comes online in 2012 it will produce more than 100,000 tonnes a year of biocoal. River Basin Energy already owns a demo-scale biocoal plant in Laramie, Wyoming. This partially commercial-scale facility has the capacity to manufacture…
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Weltec Biopower, a German biogas plant manufacturer, has completed the construction of its fifth plant in the Czech Republic. Located in Příložany, the plant converts pig manure, grass silage, maize silage, crop silage and grain waste into 366kW of renewable energy, which is fed into the grid. Completed by Weltec in four months, the plant comprises a 2,500m3 stainless steel fermenter, a…
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