Other News

Abengoa has officially opened its second generation cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton in the US state of Kansas. Construction on the biorefinery finished in mid-August and it began producing cellulosic ethanol at the end of September. It has the capacity to produce up to 25 million gallons per year. The plant utilises only second generation biomass feedstocks such as non-edible agricultural…
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Sagay Central, a sugar milling and sugar growing company and partner of energy crop cultivator Viaspace, has shipped and planted Giant King Grass in Negros Occidental, the Philippines. Sagay Central crushes 4,000 tonnes of sugarcane daily and produces 150,000 tonnes of sugar per year. The Giant King Grass was harvested from Viaspace's nursery in California, US and inspected by the US Department…
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US-based renewable fuels producer BlueFire Renewables has finalised and signed a new master engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its cellulosic ethanol plant in Fulton, Mississippi. The contract is with China International Water and Electric, a subsidiary of renewable energy company China Three Gorges (CTG). 'The master EPC structure will utilise a US-based EPC contractor…
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The October issue of Bioenergy Insight is out now and for those of you who subscribe, it will be hitting your desks within the next couple of weeks. As usual, it's packed full of the most up-to-date news from around the world, including new production plants, latest technologies and regulatory changes/updates. A key focus in this edition is the region of Canada and we've got lots of interesting…
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Cool Planet Energy Systems, which is commercialising a technology to create green fuels and biochar, has received a $91 million (€72 million) conditional commitment from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a loan guarantee to support construction of the company's first commercial manufacturing plant. Speaking about the plant, which will be located at the Port of Alexandria,…
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GranBio Investimentos, a Brazilian biotechnology company, has started production at its cellulosic ethanol plant in Alagoas, Brazil. The company invested $190 million (€149 million) in the facility, which is the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the southern hemisphere. The Bioflex 1 plant has the capacity to produce 82 million litres per year of ethanol from sugarcane waste.
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A new ethanol plant may be built in Onida, Iowa, US. Plans started earlier this year for a facility that is capable of producing 70 million gallons per year of ethanol and 200 tonnes of distiller’s grain. ‘What ethanol has done for agriculture is help balance supply and demand,’ says Walt Wendland, who, along with Chris Schwarck, has been involved in the start-up of several…
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Renewable energy technology provider INEOS Bio is restarting its new cellulosic ethanol plant in Florida after contamination forced it to decrease production considerably. The company has upgraded the facility's technology and is also finishing the installation of equipment to remove impurities from one of the plant's process streams. As a result, this contamination has disrupted production. The…
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Swedish Taurus Energy has partnered with France-based CIMV, and sent a proposal to the EU Commission detailing the construction of a demonstration plant for the production of ethanol from biomass. The plan is for the demonstration plant will be built in France. Taurus Energy will be responsible for the yeast-based fermentation step in the process and the demonstration plant will be built in…
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The Lufthansa Group is operating its LH 190 flight from Frankfurt to Berlin Tegel using a 10% blend of the new biofuel component farnesane. This is the first scheduled flight in Europe to run on this sugar-based bio-kerosene fuel mix. A rig test at Lufthansa Technik's facility in Hamburg last year, as part of the EU's 'Blending Study' project preceded Lufthansa's flight. Lufthansa has also…
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SGB, an agricultural biotechnology and seed company, has successfully created a hybrid jatropha which has both high yield and rapid time to maturity. In conjunction with these results, the company has closed an $11 million (€8.5 million) Series C financing to drive commercial rollout. With its latest generation of jatropha hybrids, SGB has reduced the time to maturity from five years to one…
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Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels, a sustainable fuels company, will receive a loan from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the construction of waste-to-jet fuel facility. The USDA is to award a $105 million (€81.5 million) Biorefinery Assistance Program loan guarantee to Fulcrum, which the company will use to build a biorefinery in Nevada, US. The new facility, which will require a total…
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Finnish pulp and paper manufacturer Stora Enso is investing €32 million in a new demonstration plant, to be built in Louisiana, US, following its recent acquisition of biotechnology association Virdia. The plant will be used to validate, on an industrial scale, Virdia's technology. This newly acquired extraction and separation process enables cellulosic biomass, such as wood and rural waste,…
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Project Liberty, the US's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, located in Emmetsburg, Iowa, has been officially opened. A joint venture of DSM and Poet, Project Liberty will convert 285,000 tonnes a year of biomass sourced from within a 45-mile radius of the plant into renewable fuel. Feedstocks will include baled corn cobs, leaves, husk and stalk. The plant has now officially…
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