The Biofuels Digest Index™ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, rose 0.28 percent to 74.24 as ethanol and oil stocks fell, but KiOR soared. For the day, BP dropped 0.29 percent to $44.77, while KiOR (KIOR) gained 11.88 percent to $13.00. Among other equities, Amyris (AMRS) fell 1.48 percent to $10.00. Overall, declines led […]
Those researchers developing pyrolysis as a solution to the world’s fossil fuels woes – they are just irrepressible. Now, one team from UMass-Amherst has come up with a “platform discovery” that can make catalytic fast pyrolysis “economically competitive with crude oil production”. You just can’t turn your back for very long, around the Pyromaniax […]
Elsewhere, the pyromaniax continue to rule. Here’s a round-up of the latest major pyrolysis breakthroughs and updates around the world, as part of the Digest’s special Focus issue, “Return of the Pyromaniax“. Over in Finland Last November, Green Fuel Nordic Oy initiated an investment roadmap for production of second generation bio-oil from sustainable, forest-based feedstocks […]
In California, the Cal Poly Algae Field Station was commissioned by the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, with Prof. Tryg Lundquist as Principal Investigator. The project is funded by the California Energy Commission, with engineering design provided by MicroBio Engineering, Inc. This algal wastewater treatment and biofuels research facility includes nine […]
In Nebraska, Ascendant Financial Partners completed a capital restructuring for NEDAK Ethanol that included the amendment of NEDAK’s credit agreements and the closing of a private equity offering, for the operator of a 44 million gallon ethanol plant in Atkinson, Nebraska. NEDAK’s restructuring consisted of amending its senior loan facility with AgCountry Farm Credit Services, […]
In Swaziland, South African company Fuel Ethanol and Agricultural Plantation plans to invest $373.4 million in a sweet sorghum ethanol project. The project will stretch across 15,000 hectares of government-owned farmland and will provide jobs for 2,000 people. Once the project gets under way, local farmers will be able to own shares in the project.
In New Zealand, LanzaTech is considering an IPO on its national stock exchange the NZX. If it does so, it won’t be until the second half of this year after it has proven its technology at a Chinese steel plant. The firm is also likely to list on Nasdaq as well as the company will […]
In Brazil, a researcher from the University of Campinas waded into the Gevo vs Butamax debate this week. “Today I was reading the Digest on the patent trial between Gevo and Butamax,” writes research Adriano Marino, “and what is interesting is that these companies are fighting over a fermentation technology (integrated flash separation) which was […]
In Florida, Arizona Chemical, a biorefiner of pine-based materials, announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Kale Kimya to distribute the company’s line of bio-based specialty polymers in Turkey. Kale Kimya will offer SYLVACLEAR and SYLVASOL and UNICLEAR polymers, Arizona Chemical’s patented specialty products that provide a broad range of functionality in personal […]
In Montana, a researcher at Montana State University has discovered a fungus from an extreme zone in Yellowstone, fond of eating algae, that could become a future participant in biofuel production. When the fungus is dried out, it oozed an oil of high percentage lipids contained a ratio of oleic and steric acids that’s nearly […]
