The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved registration for VertiGas20, a renewable gasoline product, to be sold as 20% blends in conventional gasoline to help mitigate transportation carbon emissions. VertiBlue Fuels, LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between Blue Biofuels and Vertimass, will start producing this renewable gasoline as one... Read more →

ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC (EMCL) has licensed its advanced fluid bed Methanol-to-Gasoline (MTG) technology to Aramco for a demonstration-scale unit to be located in NEOM’s Hydrogen Innovation and Development Center. Aramco plans to use the ExxonMobil technology to convert renewable methanol into renewable synthetic gasoline. Renewable synthetic gasoline has... Read more →

Bentley has installed a 1,200-liter biofuel tank at its Crewe factory after successful performance trials of biogasoline—Sustain by Coryton—at Goodwood Festival of Speed. Bentley ran its six-strong fleet at Goodwood using the fuel and successfully completed all 32 hill-climbs. The 750PS, W12-engined Batur fueled with the second-gen biofuel completed a... Read more →

Many new vehicles that leave the Audi plants in Germany are delivered with R33 fuel—a blend comprising one-third renewable components. Audi plants’ filling stations transitioned to R33 Blue Diesel (earlier post) last year; Audi has now introduced the gasoline counterpart, R33 Blue Gasoline. R33 Blue Gasoline (earlier post) now replaces... Read more →

Phillips 66 Company has applied for three California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Tier 2 fuel pathways for renewable gasoline derived from soybean oil and canola oil. The carbon intensities range from 58.48 gCO2e/MJ to 63.35 gCO2e/MJ, depending upon feedstock and transportation mechanism. Phillips 66 also filed a separate application... Read more →

Researchers from Zhejiang University in China have developed a photo-chemo-enzymatic multi-step combination pathway for the highly efficient and environmentally friendly preparation of biogasoline from cheap and sustainable triolein using solar energy and atmospheric O2 under mild conditions. An open-access paper on the work is published in the RSC journal Green... Read more →

Arbor Renewable Gas LLC, a Houston-based company formed in 2019 that produces renewable gasoline and green hydrogen from wood waste and forest residue (earlier post), is evaluating West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana for a planned $800-million manufacturing and distribution facility employing carbon capture and sequestration emissions-reduction technology. Operating as Magnolia... Read more →

Researchers from Peking University and SINOPEC have developed a one-post method for the synthesis of C6+ branched compounds from isopropanol condenstation on Ni/MoC catalysts. The branched-chain selectivity in C6+ and nonnecessity of H2 give this route advantage in high-octane gasoline blendstock production. Isopropanol can be derived from lignocellulose, making it... Read more →

Neste, the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), is beginning the final phase of testing of a renewable gasoline for drop-in commercial use in the existing fleet. The final phase will complete commercial tests of the fuel, thereby enabling significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions... Read more →

Porsche, Siemens Energy and partners are developing and implementing a pilot project—the “Haru Oni” project—in Chile that is expected to yield the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant for making synthetic climate-neutral fuels (eFuels). Electrolyzers will use wind power to produce green hydrogen. In a second step, plans call for... Read more →

Gevo, Inc. entered into a binding renewable hydrocarbons purchase and sale agreement with Trafigura Trading LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trafigura Group Pte Ltd. The agreement is a long-term, take-or-pay contract and is the largest contract in Gevo’s history. Trafigura is one of the world’s leading independent commodity trading companies... Read more →

Preem has chosen Haldor Topsoe’s HydroFlex renewable fuel hydrotreating technology to produce clean renewable diesel and jet fuel at its Gothenburg refinery in Sweden. The 16,000 barrels-per-day unit will have a yearly production capacity of approximately one million cubic meters of fuels which corresponds to about 25% of Sweden’s estimated... Read more →

Gevo, Inc. has been awarded part of The Queensland Waste to Biofutures (W2B) Fund to support the development of waste to biofutures projects in Queensland, Australia. The W2B fund provides targeted funding for pilot, demonstration or commercially scalable biorefinery projects in Queensland that use conventional waste streams or biomass to... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Co-Optima initiative is overseeing a Directed Funding Opportunity (DFO) to apply the unique, world-class capabilities of the consortium toward addressing specific challenges identified by applicants from industry and academia. The Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) National Laboratory consortium is jointly sponsored by the... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group has developed what it says it the world’s first Machine-Learning-based Smart Cruise Control (SCC-ML)—a technology that incorporates the driver’s patterns into its self-driving behavior, creating a custom experience for the driver. The technology incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) within the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) feature. The system... Read more →

Global Bioenergies will soon be receiving €2.6 million and IBN-One €0.5 million in the form of repayable advances, following last July’s achievement of a technical and financial milestone in the ISOPROD project funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), which involves Global Bioenergies, Cristal Union and L’Oréal... Read more →

A team from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Idaho National Laboratory has evaluated the process economics and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the conversion of 11 biomass feedstocks to produce transportation fuels via fast pyrolysis and then pyrolysis oil upgrading via hydrodeoxygenation. An open-access paper on their work appears... Read more →

AltAir Paramount LLC has filed a California LCFS Tier 2 application for converting North American tallow to renewable naphtha; the company calculates a carbon intensity of 39.75 gCO2e/MJ. AltAir operates a Renewable Diesel (RD) plant in Paramount, California, which produces RD and Renewable Naphtha (RN) using a mixture of animal... Read more →

Gevo, Inc. and Renmatix, the leader in affordable cellulosic sugars, announced a joint development agreement to evaluate the commercial feasibility of creating renewable jet fuel by integrating Renmatix’s Plantrose Process (earlier post) with Gevo’s GIFT technology and alcohol to jet process (earlier post). Renmatix’s Plantrose Process converts cellulosic feedstocks such... Read more →

In 2014, at KU Leuven’s Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, researchers succeeded in converting sawdust into building blocks for gasoline. A chemical process made it possible to convert the cellulose in the sawdust into hydrocarbon chains. These hydrocarbons can be used as an additive in gasoline. (Earlier post.) The... Read more →

A team at UC Davis has optimized the levulinic ester self-condensation reaction and the efficient conversion of its products—which are highly branched cyclopentadienes—into a mixture of substituted cyclopentanes with high octane ratings and excellent density and flow properties. In a paper in the RSC journal Green Chemistry, they reported that... Read more →

Global Bioenergies and Audi signed a new agreement focused on the implementation of biomass residue feedstock usage, preparation of a path to commercialization and engine testing of new blends of renewable gasoline. (Earlier post.) Following the completion of a first series of engine testing and significant progresses of the isobutene... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued four funding opportunities (FOAs) totaling up to $78 million to support early-stage bioenergy research and development under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). These include: BioEnergy Engineering for Products Synthesis (BEEPS) (up to $28 million) (DE-FOA-0001916) This... Read more →

Researchers at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil have produced biohydrocarbons in the distillation ranges of gasoline, diesel and aviation kerosene from palm kernel oil and palm olein using beta zeolite (HBeta) under relatively mild process conditions. Deoxygenation, cracking and isomerization over HBeta were conducted in single step, without... Read more →

Global Bioenergies is beginning the road-testing phase of renewable gasoline derived from its fermentative isobutene pathway. (Earlier post.) Global Bioenergies will use an EN228-compliant gasoline blend containing more than 34% of renewable, isobutene-derived, compounds to fuel a car on a circuit. In preparation for commercial uses, Global Bioenergies developed several... Read more →

Phase 1 of the ABBA Integrated Biorefinery project, to be built at the AVAPCO Thomaston Georgia site, has begun. The project, which will co-produce full replacement renewable jet fuel, gasoline, diesel and Bioplus nanocellulose from woody biomass in an integrated biorefinery at AVAPCO’s site in Thomaston, Georgia, has received a... Read more →

Royal Dutch Shell plc, through its subsidiary Shell International Exploration and Production B.V, and SBI Bioenergy Inc. have reached an agreement granting Shell exclusive development and licensing rights for SBI’s biofuel technology. Canada-based SBI has a patented process that can convert a wide range of waste oils, greases and sustainable... Read more →

New biofuel technology is finally starting to push aside traditional biofuels such as first-generation biodiesel, according to a new report by Lux Research. New facilities based on non-food feedstocks and producing novel fuels account for over half of new capacity deployment for the first time in the biofuel industry’s history,... Read more →

Researchers at the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, with partners from the automotive industry (Audi, VW) and the petroleum industry (Shell, OMV) have launched the €1.46-million OTTO-R project for the production of gasoline from “green” methanol produced from CO2, water and renewable electricity. The new OTTO-R synthesis process is based on... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) released its new strategic plan, titled Strategic Plan for a Thriving and Sustainable Bioeconomy. The strategic plan—with a vision for 2040—lays out BETO’s mission to accomplish its vision in a dynamic setting that realizes changes in the energy landscape, advances in... Read more →

Global Bioenergies is now entering the final phase of demonstrating its technology for converting renewable carbon into hydrocarbons. The first trials on the demo plant in Leuna were successfully completed, within schedule, in the fall of 2016 and Global Bioenergies announced first production of green isobutene via fermentation. (Earlier post.)... Read more →

A new study from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes that the Renewable Fuel Standard program will miss its advanced biofuel targets due to the the high costs of creating advanced biofuel; the relatively low price of fossil fuel; the timing and cost to bring new tech to commercial-scale... Read more →

Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology have proposed a new process for the conversion of biomass to gasoline via a one-step DME synthesis (DTG: Dimethyl ether to gasoline). In a paper in the journal Fuel, they report a per-pass conversion of CO and the production capacity... Read more →

In April this year, Preem, Sekab and Sveaskog entered into a collaboration to develop a gasoline fuel based entirely on forest resources with support from the Swedish Energy Agency. The consortium has now selected the bio-isobutene process developed by the French industrial biotech Global Bioenergies for the conversion of wood-derived... Read more →

Renewable fuels and chemicals company Virent has established a strategic consortium with Tesoro, Toray, Johnson Matthey and The Coca-Cola Company focused on completing the development and scale up of Virent’s BioForming technology to produce low carbon bio-based fuels and bio-paraxylene (a key raw material for the production of 100% bio-polyester).... Read more →

Global Bioenergies, IBN-One and Lantmännen Aspen, world market leader in alkylate gasoline for two- and four-stroke small engines, have entered into a partnership on renewable isooctane (earlier post) for specialty fuel applications. Aspen is part of the Swedish Lantmännen group, an agricultural cooperative and Northern Europe’s leader in agriculture, machinery,... Read more →

France-based Global Bioenergies announced that its German subsidiary, Global Bioenergies GmbH, secured a €400,000 (US$446,000) grant from the BMBF (the German federal ministry for research and education) to finance a 14-month-project aimed at producing renewable gasoline additives. Global Bioenergies has developed a process to convert renewable resources into gaseous isobutene... Read more →

Altex Technologies has selected Unitel to provide engineering services to design and build a pilot system that will produce 1 BPD of synthetic gasoline from biomass (Biomass Conversion to Synthetic Gasoline System, BCSGS). This project is funded by a ~$1-million grant from the California Energy Commission under the auspices of... Read more →

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) updated its annual survey of US non-starch ethanol and renewable hydrocarbon biofuels producers. The 2015 Survey of Non-Starch Ethanol and Renewable Hydrocarbon Biofuels Producers provides an inventory of the domestic advanced biofuels production industry as of the end of calendar year 2015, documenting important... Read more →

The US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent Nº 9,217,161 for a process using naturally occurring microorganisms to ferment biomass or gases directly to hydrocarbons such as hexane and octane. The fuels separate and rise to the surface of the fermentation broth, and are exactly the same as current components... Read more →

Ensyn (earlier post) has been granted a key regulatory approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its renewable gasoline product, RFGasoline. This approval, pursuant to Title 40 CFR Part 79 promulgated under the Clean Air Act, is required for the sale of RFGasoline into US commerce. This approval... Read more →

Neste, currently largest producer of renewable drop-in fuels (primarily diesel) with its NEXBTL platform (earlier post), has filed a patent (US20150144087) on a gasoline composition (and the method for making it) comprising up to 20 vol% (preferably from about 10-15 vol.%), of paraffinic bio-hydrocarbons originating from the NEXBTL process. In... Read more →

A team from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa is developing a new one-pot process to produce gasoline-grade (C6–C18) hydrocarbon oil from polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)—an energy storage material formed from renewable feedstock in many bacterial species. In contrast to conventional biofuels derived from plant biomass, the resultant... Read more →

A new catalytic method for converting algal oil to gasoline- or jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons has been developed by the research group of Prof. Keiichi Tomishige and Dr. Yoshinao Nakagawa from Tohoku University’s Department of Applied Chemistry, and Dr. Hideo Watanabe from the University of Tsukuba. The new method uses a highly... Read more →

Like other major automakers, Audi (and its parent Volkswagen Group) is working on meeting its medium-term regulatory requirements (e.g., in the 2020 timeframe) by reducing the average fuel consumption of its new vehicles using a combination of three primary measures: optimizing its combustion engines for greater efficiency; developing alternative drive... Read more →

Last week, Audi and its partner Global Bioenergies announced that the first batch of renewable isooctane—which Audi calls “e-benzin”—using Global Bioenergies’ fermentative isobutene pathway (sugar→isobutene→isooctane) had been produced and presented to Audi by Global Bioenergies. (Earlier post.) Global Bioenergies, founded in 2008, has developed a synthetic isobutene pathway that, when... Read more →

Global Bioenergies and its partner Audi (earlier post) announced that the first batch of renewable gasoline using Global Bioenergies’ fermentative isobutene pathway has been produced. (Earlier post.) The batch will be presented to Audi by Global Bioenergies during a press conference to be held in Pomacle on 21 May. The... Read more →

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company completed work under a $1.5-million government grant to develop advanced tire technology aimed at increasing vehicle fuel efficiency. The grant, awarded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, called for Cooper to develop technology for light vehicle tires... Read more →

Researchers from three US national labs—Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)—have performed the first, fully integrated assessment of the quality and yield of common feedstocks from the field to hydrocarbon blendstock production using the fast pyrolysis-hydrotreating pathway. A paper describing... Read more →

Researchers in China have generated gasoline fuel with a research octane number of 95.4 from biomass-derived γ-valerolactone (GVL)—the highest octane number reported for biomass-derived gasoline fuel—using an ionic liquid catalyst. A paper on their work is published in the RSC journal Green Chemistry. In the study, they converted biomass-derived γ-valerolactone... Read more →