In the Philippines, a local entrepreneur has won several awards for the fuel additives he developed from used cooking oil that improves performance by rearranging the molecular structure of diesel, gasoline and motor oil. The product, called EFQ fuel and oil additive, is said to improve fuel combustion efficiency and reduce emissions. The inventor began […]
In California, Toyota Motor North America, Inc. will build the world’s first megawatt-scale carbonate fuel cell power generation plant with a hydrogen fueling station to support its operations at the Port of Long Beach. Announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the Tri-Gen facility will use bio-waste sourced from California agricultural waste to generate water, […]
In Florida, LanzaTech, Novozymes, Amyris, DSM, Enerkem, POET, BASF, Genomatica and Avantium have taken the lead in early voting in the 50 Hottest Companies in the Advanced Bioeconomy ballot. The Digest released the early-voting totals from Subscriber Voting — which do not yet include Invited International Selector votes. This week’s summary includes phioto and other bonus votes which […]
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide information access and dissemination to: Ensure high-quality, safe food, and other agricultural products; Assess the nutritional needs of Americans; Sustain a competitive agricultural economy; […]
In Japan, Kanazawa University researchers developed a novel carboxylate-type liquid zwitterion as a solvent of biomass, which could dissolve cellulose with very low toxicity to microorganisms. Use of this novel solvent enables significant reduction of energy cost for ethanol production from non-food biomass. They succeeded in reducing the toxicity to microorganisms by developing a novel […]
In India, although Bharat Petroleum Corporation announced a year ago that it would develop a second-generation ethanol plant using crop waste, it still hasn’t been allotted land for the project by the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited. Fingers are being pointed at the national labor minister for getting in the way of […]
In Canada, five projects have been selected for funding in Round 8 of the Genomic Applications Partnership Program, for a total investment of C$24.5 million ($8.1 million from Genome Canada and $16.4 million from co-funding partners including provincial governments, private sector and not-for-profit organizations). These project include a project led by Krishna Mahadevan (BioZone) & […]
In Washington, reform of the Renewable Fuel Standard could be on its way following confirmation of a meeting between President Trump and oil industry leaders regarding biofuel policy. The meeting was a result of Texas Senator Ted Cruz blocking the approval of a high level USDA appointment in the Senate until the meeting was agreed. […]
In Japan, biodiesel produced from used cooking oil will be used to power more than 420,000 pink LED lights in cherry trees along 2.2km of road in Tokyo’s Meguro river, meant to resemble the famous cherry blossoms the attract visitors from around the world every spring. The demonstration began seven years ago after the Fukushima […]
In the Netherlands, an open letter to the Dutch cabinet signed by 178 Dutch scientists called on policy makers to ensure that food crop-based biofuels were not included in the European energy policy post-2020. “We, the undersigned, wish to express our sincere worries about the European biofuel policy. In this letter we urgently implore you […]
