Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT), a technology company focused on transforming a number of waste sources of carbon into fuels and chemicals that greatly reduce emissions while generating profits (earlier post), has launched a Regulation A+ equity funding campaign, following the qualification of its Form 1-A offering circular by the US... Read more →

Maersk Growth, the corporate venture arm of A.P. Moller - Maersk, has invested in Vertoro, a Dutch start-up focused on developing liquid lignin technology which can be used as a marine fuel. Vertoro is a spin-off from a public-private partnership between Brightlands Chemelot Campus, DSM, Chemelot InSciTe, University of Maastricht... Read more →

Rio Tinto is progressing new technology to deliver low-carbon steel, using sustainable biomass in place of coking coal in the steelmaking process, in a potentially cost-effective option to cut industry carbon emissions. Over the past decade, Rio Tinto has developed a laboratory-proven process that combines the use of raw, sustainable... Read more →

In the Netherlands, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and its partners have developed a new type of aviation fuel produced using bio-based waste streams from the agriculture industry. The new fuel is based on a mixture of acetone and alcohol. Although it does not yet meet all industry requirements for... Read more →

Honeywell and Wood announced a comprehensive package of technologies to support the effort to produce carbon-neutral aviation fuel. When used together, the technologies—based on Honeywell’s UOP Ecofining process technology and Wood’s hydrogen plant technology—could reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 100% using certain feedstocks when compared to traditional petroleum... Read more →

Royal Dutch Shell announced its ambition to produce around 2 million tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) a year by 2025. It also aims to have at least 10% of its global aviation fuel sales as SAF by 2030. Currently, sustainable aviation fuel accounts for less than 0.1% of the... Read more →

Arbor Renewable Gas, LLC (Arbor Gas) will use Topsoe’s TIGAS technology for producing renewable gasoline at a new facility in the Gulf Coast region. The facility—expected to be operational by 2024—will produce 1,000 barrels per day of renewable gasoline with a significantly negative carbon intensity score under California’s Low Carbon... Read more →

As part of a White House roundtable to launch the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge to decarbonize the aviation sector by 2050 (earlier post), the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $64.7 million in funding for projects focused on producing cost-effective, low-carbon biofuels. These investments will advance technologies to... Read more →

The Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are launching a government-wide Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge to meet the demand for sustainable aviation fuels by working with stakeholders to reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and expand production and use of sustainable aviation fuels... Read more →

United and Honeywell announced a joint multimillion-dollar investment in Alder Fuels—a company that is developing technologies for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at scale by converting abundant biomass, such as forest and crop waste, into sustainable low-carbon, drop-in replacement crude oil that can be used to produce aviation fuel. When... Read more →

Chevron USA, a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, and Bunge North America, a subsidiary of Bunge Limited, announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) of a proposed 50/50 joint venture to help meet the demand for renewable fuels and to develop lower carbon intensity feedstocks. Upon finalization of the joint venture, Chevron... Read more →

Raven SR Inc., a waste-to-fuels company, closed a $20-million strategic investment from Chevron USA, ITOCHU, Hyzon Motors and Ascent Hydrogen Fund. Raven SR plans to build modular waste-to-green hydrogen production units and renewable synthetic fuel facilities initially in California and then worldwide. (Earlier post.) Raven SR’s technology makes it one... Read more →

Strategic Biofuels announced that its Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) Test Well Program was successfully completed at the company’s Louisiana Green Fuels Project (LGF) in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. LGF is the first renewable diesel fuel project to achieve this milestone. The goals of the test well program were to demonstrate... Read more →

A new report from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Co-Optima initiative identifies the top 13 diesel fuel blendstocks from biomass resources that could reduce harmful emissions from medium- to heavy-duty diesel vehicles. The top 13 blendstocks include hydrocarbons, esters, and ethers that have the potential to reduce GHG emissions... Read more →

California Ethanol + Power (CE+P) is partnering with the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a Bioenergy Research Center of the US Department of Energy (DOE), to develop scalable next-generation renewable energy products using biomass from CE+P’s planned sugarcane ethanol facility in Imperial County, California. In addition, CE+P Permitting Manager Nathan M.... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award nearly $34 million in funding for 11 projects that will support high-impact research and development to improve and produce biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts. Biomass feedstocks can be produced by municipal solid waste (MSW) streams and algae and converted into low-carbon fuels that... Read more →

Using existing fish processing plants, kelp and fish waste can be turned into a diesel-like fuel to power generators or fishing boats in rural, coastal Alaska, according to a team from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Many isolated communities rely on diesel generators for energy; diesel, however, is expensive since... Read more →

A common farm weed could make a jet fuel with fewer production-related environmental impacts than other biofuels, according to a new lifecycle study by researchers at The Ohio State University. Growing the weed, pennycress—often called stinkweed—as a crop requires less fertilizer and fewer pesticides than other plants that can be... Read more →

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have discovered a microbial enzyme that degrades tough-to-break bonds in lignin, a waste product of biorefineries. When inserted into a bioengineered bacterium, the enzyme helps efficiently convert lignin compounds into a common component of plastics—muconic acid—opening a pathway to transform waste into a... Read more →

Arkema has launched its new sustainable Kynar PVDF range. These new grades will claim 100% renewable attributed carbon derived from crude tall oil (CTO) bio-feedstock, according to a mass-balance approach. Kynar CTO PVDF grades using the mass balance approach under the ISCC+ certification process will be produced first in Arkema’s... Read more →

Canada has launched the $1.5-billion Clean Fuels Fund with a call for proposals for projects that increase Canada’s capacity to produce clean fuels. Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources, made the announcement during the World Hydrogen Technologies Convention hosted by the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association and supported... Read more →

Origin Materials launched its Net Zero Automotive Program with Ford Motor Company. The Net Zero Automotive Program is a sustainable automotive supply chain initiative focused on industrializing new materials to drive decarbonization in the automotive industry. Origin Materials has developed technology which turns sustainable wood residues into cost-advantaged, carbon-negative materials... Read more →

UrbanX Renewables Group of Long Beach, CA, executed a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract with Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd—an essential step for building the state’s first facility producing ultra-low carbon renewable diesel. The company will produce its XRD renewable diesel from vegetable oil, fats and waste cooking oils through a... Read more →

Biocrude oil produced via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of biomass could provide a low-carbon supplement for transportation fuel supply. However, biocrude’s poor chemical (heteroatom content, energy content); physical (viscosity, density); and thermal (boiling point distribution, cetane value, cold-flow properties) characteristics limit commercial application. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a thermochemical depolymerisation process... Read more →

A research team in China has developed a one-pot method to produce octane from bio-derived furans under low temperatures. In an open-access paper in the RSC journal Green Chemistry, they report a 96.6% yield of octane obtained by catalytic conversion with Pd/C and phosphotungstic acid (HPW) under 1 MPa H2... Read more →

ADM plans to build North Dakota’s first dedicated soybean crushing plant and refinery to meet fast-growing demand from food, feed, industrial and biofuel customers, including producers of renewable diesel. Based in Spiritwood, ND, the approximately $350-million crush and refining complex will feature state-of-the-art automation technology and have the capacity to... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $35 million to 15 research projects through ARPA-E’s “Energy and Carbon Optimized Synthesis for the Bioeconomy” (ECOSynBio) program to decarbonize biorefining processes used across the energy, transportation, and agriculture sectors. Many biofuels, including ethanol, biodiesel and other products derived from organic material... Read more →

Arbios Biotech, a joint venture between Licella and Canfor (earlier post), and Shell Catalysts & Technologies (SC&T), have formed a new global alliance aimed at utilizing SC&T’s upgrading technology capability in the pursuit of a low-carbon intensity, circular-economy-focused biorefinery. Arbios Biotech was formed to commercialize Licella’s Cat-HTR platform, a globally... Read more →

A recent update by The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) now includes carinata as a renewable fuel feedstock for hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with a similar greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint as waste and residuals, such as used cooking oil, for the same fuel type.... Read more →

Topsoe has signed a contract with Tidewater for the delivery of Topsoe’s HydroFlex technology (earlier post) in Canada. The technology will be utilized in a new 3,000 barrels per day renewable diesel facility that will be constructed at the site of Tidewater’s existing Prince George refinery in British Columbia, Canada.... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced the availability of $61.4 million for technologies that produce low-cost, low-carbon biofuels. (DE-FOA-0002396) Topic areas for the “Bioenergy Technologies Office Scale-Up and Conversion” funding opportunity include high-impact biotechnology research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to bolster the body of scientific... Read more →

The Government of Canada announced a $2,890,000-investment in the University of Alberta’s biojet technology. The University of Alberta, along with project partners Alberta Innovates, FORGE Hydrocarbons Inc., Western Economic Diversification Canada, Future Energy Systems, CanmetENERGY Devon and Edmonton International Airport, are also providing funding toward this $7.4-million project. The investment... Read more →

Following several years of research and development, Central & East European (CEE) oil and gas corporation MOL has stepped up the value chain and has become a biofuel producer through the realization of an investment in the Danube Refinery. Bio feedstock will be co-processed together with fossil materials increasing the... Read more →

Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Dayton, Yale University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from food waste–derived volatile fatty acids (VFA) by targeting normal paraffins for a near-term path to market and branched isoparaffins to increase... Read more →

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) and software company Bioledger released a case study on the potential of a blockchain database to support traceability of biofuel and its feedstocks and overcome the vulnerabilities identified in securing the supply of sustainable renewables. The report summarizes the results of a project which... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy intends to issue three sustainable transportation technologies funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) in Spring 2021. These potential funding opportunities seek innovative research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) in the pursuit of technologies that will help reduce greenhouse gas... Read more →

British Airways will power future flights with sustainable aviation fuel produced from sustainably-sourced ethanol, as part of a new partnership with sustainable jet fuel company LanzaJet. British Airways will invest in LanzaJet’s first commercial-scale Freedom Pines Fuels facility in Georgia and acquire cleaner burning sustainable aviation fuel from the plant.... Read more →

Honeywell recently introduced a single-stage UOP Ecofining technology offering for the production of renewable diesel fuel. The new single-stage technology is a fast-to-market, low capital cost solution that is suited for repurposing an underutilized hydrotreating or hydrocracking unit in a refinery, producing higher yields of renewable diesel fuel than other... Read more →

US Senator John Thune (R-SD) has re-introduced two bills intended to speed the adoption of biofuels. The first, with co-sponsor Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) would approve certain advanced biofuel registrations that have gone without approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) despite the fuels already being successfully used in at... Read more →

Large perennial grasses such as miscanthus are a primary target for use as bioenergy crops because of their sustainability advantages, but they take several years to establish and aren’t ideal for crop rotation. Maize and other annual crops are easier to manage with traditional farming, but they are tougher on... Read more →

Enerkem, with a group of strategic partners including major investor Shell, along with Suncor and Proman, and Hydro-Québec supplying green hydrogen and oxygen, and with the support of the Québec and Canadian governments, is proposing the construction of a biofuel plant in Varennes, in the Greater Montréal area. Varennes Carbon... Read more →

Researchers at UC Riverside and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have used mathematical and computational modeling, artificial intelligence algorithms and experiments showing that bacteria have failsafe mechanisms preventing them from producing too many metabolic intermediates. Metabolic intermediates are the chemicals that couple each reaction to one another in metabolism. Key to... Read more →

Altair Paramount, LLC (Altair) has applied for California LCFS fuel pathways for renewable diesel, renewable naphtha and renewable jet fuels derived from rendered animal fat feedstock and processed at their facility in Paramount, California. Altair sources rendered inedible animal fat from an integrated meatpacking and rendering facility owned by JBS1... Read more →

The Québec Government is awarding funding totaling CAD 5.943 million (US$4.55 million) to a non-profit organization Bioénergie La Tuque (BELT) under a program called Technoclimat from Transition Énergétique Québec (TEQ) for a project to develop and demonstrate the potential of producing advanced biofuels from locally-sourced forestry waste in La Tuque,... Read more →

Royal DSM will start a strategic partnership with Neste to enable the production of high performance polymers made from sustainable feedstock. This enables DSM and its customers to reduce the carbon footprint of their own products while supporting the industry to transition to a circular economy. In the new strategic... Read more →

Eastman and Gruppo Maip, a leading international plastics formulator and compound producer based in Turin, Italy, will partner to formulate new sustainable polymer solutions for automotive interior applications. This will enable an exclusive portfolio of formulations based on Eastman’s Advanced Circular Recycling technology, offering a range of both bio-based and... Read more →

Researchers from the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) have developed an efficient three-step process for the conversion of cellulosic feedstocks to both a valuable chemical precursor and high-performance jet fuel blendstock. Their paper appears in the journal ChemSusChem. In it, the team describes the synthesis of sustainable methylcyclopentadiene... Read more →

As part of a three-year project led by the US Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center (ERDC) to mitigate growth of toxic algae blooms, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is investigating these blooms as a viable source of biocrude fuel and fertilizer. One year into the ERDC project,... Read more →

Neste, the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel produced from waste and residue raw materials, has agreed to acquire Bunge Loders Croklaan’s refinery plant located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands for a purchase price of €258 million (US$302 million). The refinery plant is located next to Neste’s... Read more →

Diamond Green Diesel facility in Norco, La., will more than double its annual production of renewable diesel with the completion of a second Honeywell Ecofining process unit with a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day (bpd). Diamond Green Diesel is owned by Valero Energy Corp. and Darling Ingredients Inc., and... Read more →