In California, AgFunder is reporting that investment in foodtech and agtech startups reached $19.8 billion, a 4.8% decline by dollars and 15% by deals. Food delivery startups led the downward trend raising 56% less year-over-year. AgFunder also reported that “investment in upstream startups continued to grow, closing $7.6 billion in investment, a 1.3% year-over-year climb […]
In Texas, Darling Ingredients Inc. announced that its joint venture with Valero Energy Corporation, Diamond Green Diesel (DGD), has entered into a long-term lease agreement with IMTT. The agreement will allow DGD access and use of the St. Rose IMTT Terminal as a logistics hub for DGD’s existing and expanding renewable diesel facility located in Norco, […]
In Australia, collaboration partners Yara International ASA and ENGIE have welcomed the announcement of nearly $700,000 (A$995,000) in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) towards their feasibility study, which is examining the potential to make renewable hydrogen technology work in industrial-scale facilities. Yara International is working towards making carbon-free fertilizer, and renewable hydrogen […]
In Indonesia, Reuters reports that with Pertamina investing at least $600 million in one of its plants to produce biodiesel as well as in two others, it has asked the Parliament to cap palm oil prices on sufficient volume to cover its feedstock demand. The state-owned oil company wants to see a mandatory portion of […]
In California, Ocean Park says North American biofuel M&A activity was slow in 2019 due to thin margins, but even so that there wasn’t a single large-scale operating biofuel plant that was sold was rare. It said three ethanol plants representing 226 million gallons of installed production capacity, four biodiesel plants totaling 99 million gallons […]
In Zambia, the Lusaka Times newspaper reports that Sunbird Bioenergy has managed to sign up 1,700 farmers for its cassava-based ethanol plant of the 20,000 in total required to supply its ethanol plant. The country’s president kicked off the company’s farmer recruitment drive last month. Sunbird Bioenergy’s CEO said he was impressed by the speed […]
In Illinois, perennial grasses can be converted into everything from ethanol to bioplastics, but it’s unclear which bioproducts hold the greatest potential. BioSTEAM, a new open-source simulation software package in Python developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, gives scientists, engineers, biotechnology companies, and funding agencies a fast, flexible tool to analyze […]
In Sweden, Södra has built the world’s first plant for commercial biomethanol, a sustainable fuel from forest biomass, at Södra’s pulp mill in Mönsterås. Over the next few days, a first pilot delivery will go to Emmelev A/S, a customer that will be using biomethanol in its biodiesel production. Emmelev A/S is a Danish family-owned […]
In Spain, EQTEC announced that the group has been awarded a contract for the upgrade of the existing syngas research and development facility at the University of Extremadura in Badajoz, Spain. The award of the Upgrade Contract follows a successful funding application by the University to the European Regional Development Fund (‘ERDF’) to secure funding […]
In Sweden, Volvo CE Customer Center in Eskilstuna is paving the way for a sustainable future by running its demonstration machines on HVO. Using HVO means that Volvo can significantly reduce its CO2 emissions at the Customer Center, as well as demonstrating to guests how well the fuel works in practice. A key aspect of why […]
