Other News

Waste management company Veolia is expecting to collect around 200 tonnes of leftover waste from the London-based Notting Hill Carnival, which will be burnt to generate energy for the National Grid. The Carnival, which takes place over a public holiday weekend at the end of August every year in London, was attended by around one million revellers from around the world. Veolia estimates the…
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UK bioenergy giant Drax has announced that it will step in to fill a potential energy gap if the UK government drops plans for a €20 billion nuclear station in Somerset. Andy Koss, CEO of Drax Group, told Bloomberg that biomass is the UK’s most cost-effective form of energy on a whole-systems cost basis. The company, which converted three of its six units to biomass from coal,…
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Aquapak Polymers has developed a process to produce a multifunctional packaging polymer that is both 100% recyclable and 100% biodegradable in standard waste management facilities, it has announced. Currently at demonstration phase and with a full-scale production factory on the way, Aquapak is now in talks with retailers, local authorities and the waste sector to explore the…
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Amur, a new UK-based anaerobic digestion (AD) player, is set to complete the second phase of construction for its AD plant in North Yorkshire, UK, by the end of this year. The business, part of AB Agri, an Associated British Foods subsidiary, was officially launched in June this year at the ADBA show in Birmingham, UK.  Associated British Foods also owns high-street retailer Primark and food…
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Denmark-based biotechnology company Novozymes has reported half year pre-tax tax profit up 6% to DKK 1,906 million (€256m), compared to DKK 1,792 a year earlier, helped by strong sales growth. The firm’s net profit was DKK 1,496 million, an increase of 8% from DKK 1,389 million in the first half of 2015, primarily driven by the gain from net finance. In the first half of 2016, sales…
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UK-based construction specialist Interserve has announced that it is leaving the energy-from-waste (EfW) industry months after revealing complications with on-going projects had cost the company £70 million (€81m). The company announced its decision in its recently published interim management statement. An £88m operating loss on the firm’s EfW projects has led to a…
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A new renewable energy research centre, called VILLUM Center for the Science of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals, has opened in Copenhagen, Denmark. The new centre at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) will be headed by Professor Ib Chorkendorff who will bring together a team of researchers from Stanford University, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Southern Denmark, among…
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The California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved $21 million (€19 million) in grants for energy innovation and efficiency programmes. Almost 12 of these projects, including one to convert forest residues to electricity and another to turn dairy manure into biogas, were funded through four key grant and loan programmes. Under the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) scheme, four…
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Cellulosic sugars company Renmatix has announced an investment by the New Energies Division of Total, and the signature of a joint development agreement (JDA) between Total and Renmatix. Under the agreement, Renmatix and Total will utilise Renmatix's proprietary Plantrose process with specific feedstocks to extract sugar for use in production of biobased products of interest to Total. In concert…
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Warrington's Stobart Group has signed a £110 million biofuel supply deal with a Welsh company. In the agreement, Stobart Energy will source, process and supply 250,000 tonnes per year of recycled waste wood to Margam over 14 years. The Transport business will also transport the product which will generate additional revenue for the company's Energy Division. 'This agreement will contribute…
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In the UK, Matthew Hancock MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise and Minister of State for Energy, has visited MWH Treatment's biopower plant in Tyseley, Birmingham to mark one year since the project's groundbreaking. The plant is the first of its kind in the UK and it will be supplied with approximately 67,000 tonnes of wood waste secured under a long-term sustainable contract with a…
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Renewable fuel producer UPM has started commercial production at its renewable diesel biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland. The UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery is based on a hydrotreatment process developed by the company, and produces approximately 120 million litres per year of renewable UPM BioVerno diesel. UPM's BioVerno diesel, which is produced out of crude tall oil, a residue of pulp…
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Construction has started on a new 44.2MW biomass power plant in Snetterton. The plant, known as Snetterton Renewable Energy Plant, is being developed by Eco2 and Iceni Energy. Using straw as its feedstock, the plant will have capacity to generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 82,000 homes and the potential to become an electricity connectivity point for Snetterton Heath, where…
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Wood-based biofuels developer UPM and WWF Finland, a conservation organisation, have teamed-up to discuss and promote the status of wood-based liquid biofuels in Finland. The duo will create a list of joint measures to promote sustainability and will perform a scientific forest carbon impact study that looks specifically at wood-based biofuels. As a result, both will contribute to the development…
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