In Hawaii, pongamia trees are being farmed for the first time in experimental plots in Oahu to help meet Hawaii’s biofuel needs, specifically for biodiesel and jet fuel. TerViva is heading up the plantings and is talking with Pacific Biodiesel to possibly use their processing plant, though TerViva could make biodiesel with their current equipment. […]
Who will be #1? who will get your vote? In Florida, The Digest announced the official opening of nominations for the 40 Hottest Early-Stage Companies in the Advanced Bioeconomy. Nominate companies here. Eligibility Any companies engaged in the advanced bioeconomy as a producer, supplier, investor or partner companies are eligible who were founded on or […]
In Brazil, the Brazilian Chamber of Foreign Trade has approved a recommendation to impose a 20 percent tariff on U.S. ethanol imports after a 600 million liter tariff rate quota, according to postings from the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Blairo Maggi. Local media are reporting this TRQ would be in place for […]
In Washington, the US Commerce Department issued a preliminary countervailing duty determination from the Commerce Department regarding subsidized biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia. The Commerce Department found that Argentina and Indonesia provide subsidies to their biodiesel producers in violation of international trade rules. In addition, Commerce found “critical circumstances” to address the post-petition surge […]
In California, Vertimass gained its intermediate technology validation with the US DOE’s Bioenergy Technology Office, which verified performance against negotiated milestones, provided progress on scale-up, and reviewed Vertimass’ estimated cost for their transformative catalytic technology. BETO verification effectively opens the door for Vertimass to move to demonstration scale of its technology for converting ethanol into gasoline, diesel, […]
Today we’d like to highlight advances in the production and use of higher-value forms of carbon as examples of a society slowly moving away from a hunter-gatherer culture in energy and materials and towards a pastoral and agricultural approach. Specifically we’ll look at clean, cost-efficient approaches of producing carbon fiber from biomass — including applications […]
In Iowa, a new tractable multi-market model study finds that the RFS has substantially benefited the U.S. economy by lowering gasoline, crude oil prices, and crude oil imports, while increasing prices and benefits for corn and soy farmers and reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But in their ‘what if there was no RFS?’ scenarios and […]
There he goes again. Bruce Rastetter, that is. It wasn’t enough to be one of the transformers of the US ethanol industry with the development of Hawkeye Renewables and its 450 million gallons of capacity. When Thomas H. Lee Partners bought 80% of the company in 2006 for a reported $312 million (some sources put […]
MetGen, Sweetwater Energy say “there’s gold in them thar side-streams” For all of your questions about the advanced bioeconomy there’s just the one answer and that is “lignin”. Why don’t we see more biobased chemical plants built these days? Lignin. Why do people shy away from hardwoods as a raw material even though it’s sustainable, […]
In Louisiana, reports surfaced in Alexandria’s TownTalk online paper that Sundrop Fuels has struck an agreement to sell the 1200-acre site where it once planned to build its $450 million, 50 million gallon capacity first commercial plant to produce green gasoline from woody biomass. The company selected the site, the former location of the Cowboy […]
