Other News

Beta Renewables, a cellulosic biofuels business and part of the Mossi Ghisolfi Group, and Novozymes, a producer of industrial enzymes, marked the official opening in Northern Italy of the world’s largest advanced biofuels facility this October. Situated in fields outside the city of Crescentino, it is claimed to be ‘the first plant in the world’ to be designed and built to…
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An award-winning University of Queensland researcher hopes to use a chemical found in lemons and other citrus fruits to produce clean, renewable jet fuel. Claudia Vickers, a senior researcher at the Systems and Synthetic Biology Group at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, is modifying baker's yeast to produce a synthetic form of the natural chemical…
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Food manufacturer Mondelez Philippines, formerly known as Kraft Foods Philippines, has completed installation of a biomass boiler which will generate renewable energy for its manufacturing plant in Parañaque City. The new technology will handle rice husks and coconut shells when it comes online later this month, helping Mondelez to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 648…
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A*STAR's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), that will see them carry out research into sustainable chemicals, specifically biomass-based chemicals. The collaboration will see researchers from both institutes carry out academic meetings and R&D projects, and build on…
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Showa Shell Sekiya K.K., an energy company currently developing a biomass-fired power plant in Japan, has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract to JFE Holdings. No financial terms of the new contract were disclosed. The plant itself will cost around 16 billion yen (€121.6 million) to build. The plant will be built south of Tokyo in Kanagawa prefecture. Ground will…
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Renewable Energies of Brazil (ERB), an enterprise involved with the generation of biomass-derived power, has concluded its second fundraising cycle for the development of new projects for the co-production of energy and steam. Endespar and Fundo Caixa Ambiental (Environmental Fund Bank), run by Mantiq Investments from Santander Bank, have invested $300 million (€220.9 million) and will join…
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Doosan Power systems, a power plant construction and maintenance company, and French industrial maintenance group ADF have entered into an 18 month long partnership to carry out the biomass conversion and turbine upgrade project at E.ON's coal-fired power plant in Gardanne, France. Once the plant's conversion to biomass is complete, it will be France's largest biomass-fired power plant to date;…
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BlueFire Renewables, a renewable fuels company, is to integrate a wood pellet production plant with its ethanol facility in Mississippi, US. The reconfigured design will see a 400,000 tonne per year wood pellet factory integrated with the company's existing 9 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Fulton. The pellets will be sold under long-term contracts into the European mandated renewable…
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Technology supplier Cool Planet Energy Systems and Acritaz Greentech, a group of companies that bring biomass processing and biotechnology projects to plantations, have signed an agreement to establish a number of commercial facilities in Malaysia. The partnership says it plans to start building the first plant next year, when the two companies will source biomass materials local to the local…
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Waste from dairy farms and beer breweries could provide the necessary ingredients to grow algae-based biofuels say the leaders of a project based in Vermont, US. The US Department of Agriculture awarded the association, which includes the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI), a $51,000 (€37,000) grant to research biofuels technology using algae during a news conference at…
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Greensphere Capital has acquired a biomass-fired power plant in Wales. The 14.7MWe Western Bio-Energy in Port Talbot was purchased with funds managed by Greensphere on behalf on the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Stobart and Signia investors. Greensphere says it led the deal and will manage the investment. Opened in 2008, the plant burns approximately 150,000 tonnes a year of feedstock to…
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Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in cooperation with Chemieanlangenbau Chemnitz, has produced renewable fuel at its Bioliq (biomass to liquid karlsruhe) pilot plant. With the synthesis stage of the plant now operational, all stages of the Bioliq process (flash pyrolysis, high-pressure entrained-flow gasification and synthesis) are online and the pilot facility is a step closer to producer…
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DP CleanTech, a designer and commissioner and biomass- and waste-to-energy power plants, has signed a contract with Shougang Holding Tianguan Group to develop a biomass-fired power plant in Henan province, China. The project, which will be China's first biomass-to-energy plant, will use the by-product feedstock from second generation ethanol production. It will be a key part of the cellulosic…
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Fuels producer Kior says it will double capacity at its Columbus, Mississippi cellulosic fuels plant through the construction of a second facility incorporating its technology. The project – Columbus II – is estimated to cost in the region of $225 million (€166.6 million). Construction will begin within 90 days of Kior raising sufficient equity and debt capital to commence the…
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