In Massachusetts, a new five-year $750,000 Early Career Research grant from the DOE aims to determine the genetic mechanism that enables certain strains of the Q Microbe to produce up to 30 percent more ethanol from energy crop model system Brachypodium than other strains.. Samuel Hazen received one of 65 awarded grants from the DOE. […]
Last week, the Digest ran “E15 Ethanol: bridge to tomorrow, or bridge to nowhere?” in which we criticized the focus on E15 ethanol blending. As a counterpoint, we invited Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy and a Digest columnist, to present an opposing view on E15 and look at the merits of the effort to […]
The Biofuels Digest Index™ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, dropped 1.78 percent to 87.36 as ethanol continued to struggle. For the day, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) fell 1.83 percent to $29.54, while Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) plunged another 12.58 percent to $1.32. Among other equities, Novozymes (NZMB) fell 6.24 percent to $163.75. Declines led […]
In Texas, thanks to Texas A&M’s Agricultural and Food Policy Center, you can now download an Algae Production Conversion Calculator for free from the iTunes app store. A web based version is also available for Androids and other devices. The app will calculate annual algal oil production, as well as convert between grams per square […]
In California, BioProcess Algae has confirmed that early laboratory studies verify an increase in yields of algal oils following treatment with VG Energy’s Metabolic Disruption Technology additives. BioProcess Algae initially performed a Feasibility Assessment Study to establish baseline performance of VG’s technology, with algal strains provided by VG and additional strains from BioProcess Algae. Recognizing […]
In Washington, USDA made a slight, but downward, adjustment in its corn harvest forecast for the 2011 season. The USDA June WASDE report lowered 2011 corn planted area by 1.5 million acres from March intentions to 90.7 million acres. Harvested area was lowered 1.9 million acres, to 83.2 million based on early estimates regarding flooding […]
ASTM gives preliminary OK to Bio-SPK fuel spec; path to 58B gallon aviation biofuels market comes clearer, closer In Washington, Bloomberg is reporting that ASTM has given preliminary approval to the blending of biofuels produced from algal, jatropha, municipal waste and other cellulosic feedstocks in aviation fuels. Final approval is expected no earlier than July […]
In Canada, Lignol Energy reports they have received confirmation from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office that its first Canadian patent application has been approved. The patent, entitled “Continuous counter-current organosolv processing of lignocellulosic feedstocks”, is a companion to a US patent issued on December 16, 2008. The Canadian patent is broader in scope and includes […]
In Canada, AMG Bioenergy Resources announced that it raised $1.47M in a private placement, selling 4,910,500 common shares at a price of $0.30 per share. BPS Capital Pte Ltd. acted as Agent for the Private Placement and received a cash commission of 10% of the aggregate gross proceeds from common shares sold under the Private […]
In Canada, research carried out by teams at the Universities of Warwick and British Columbia have identified an lignin-breaking enzyme in bacteria which could be used to make biofuel production more efficient. The research is to be published in the 14 June Issue of the American Chemical Society journal Biochemistry. The researchers identified the gene […]
