Daily Summary for Tuesday July 31

In today’s producer news, Indonesia, soon to become world’s major palm oil exporter, is projecting output to grow sharply throughout 2007 while tapering off in 2008 due to the effect of stricter environmental controls on producers. In Montreal, a company announced the launch of biofuel pellets which can be burned in place of coal to generate electricity.

In research news, a new article has appeared in England on the potential for biofuels derived from the jatropha bush and the USDA has released a study on the potential for biodiesel produced from peanut oil.

In policy news, in Washington DC and across the country, debate continues over whether the current government support of ethanol is reflective of its real potential or simply political pork barrel projects, while producers and consumers continue to argue over whether corn prices are rising due to biofuels and whether higher prices are a good thing.

In international news, the European Union has lifted land-use restrictions in order to provide more land for biofuel production as it gears up to meet its 10% biofuels target by 2020. In Japan, a leading brewer has announced plans to use the beer production residues as an ethanol feedstock. Today, BQ-9000 certification for biodiesel was awarded for the first time to a Canadian company. In Taiwan, the first sales of biodiesel are underway.

In demand-side news, Athens Transit of Georgia announced a conversion of its fleet to biodiesel for a total conversion cost of under $10,000 while reducing the cost of fuel by $600,000 per year.

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