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 →
An international research team has sequenced the full genome of an ornamental variety of miscanthus, a wild perennial grass emerging as a prime candidate for sustainable bioenergy crops. The genome project—led by scientists at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), a Department of Energy (DOE) bioenergy research... Read more →
IndianOil (IOC) has inked an MoU with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) to develop and demonstrate biomass gasification-based hydrogen generation technology. The process will help produce fuel-cell-grade hydrogen at an affordable price and accelerate IndianOil’s journey towards a sustainable hydrogen economy. IndianOil Chairman S M Vaidya said that... Read more →
A study by a team from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has found that the amount of sugars contained within cellulosic biomass from bioenergy crops that can be converted into fuels is of equal economic importance to the yield. The findings are published... Read more →
The Government of Canada is awarding $1.2 million to GreenNano Technologies Inc. (GNT), a company based in Toronto, to scale up production of a new lightweight wood-fiber–based composite material to create automotive parts using an innovative process. Cam covers made at GNT. The project will combine wood pulp with polymers... Read more →
Singaporean-based tonnage provider Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS), has appointed GoodFuels to supply biofuel bunkers for its 2010-built 47,377 deadweight tonne MR tanker M/T Pacific Beryl. The successful bunkering, which took place on Friday, 9 October in Dutch waters, is in line with EPS’ Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Policy. The... Read more →
Argonne National Laboratory’s Systems Assessment Center has released the 2020 version of the suite of GREET models and associated documentation. The GREET (Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation) tool provides a common, transparent platform for lifecycle analysis (LCA) of of the energy and environmental effects of a... Read more →
The technology group Wärtsilä has been awarded a major contract to supply and construct a plant for production of CO2-neutral liquid transport fuels. The plant will liquefy gas from the natural gas grid to produce carbon-neutral LNG. It will have a capacity of approximately 100,000 tons per year and located... Read more →
Renewable Energy Group, Inc. plans to undertake a capacity expansion of its Geismar, Louisiana biorefinery by 250 million gallons annually to 340 million gallons per year. The announcement follows a thorough review and site selection process. Construction should begin in mid to late 2021 with target mechanical completion date in... Read more →
Cargill and Virent, Inc. are working together to evaluate the use of Cargill’s corn dextrose as a feedstock to Virent’s BioForming technology for the production of “drop-in” low-carbon biofuels and biochemicals. Virent’s BioForming technology uses sugars found in plants as a feedstock to produce drop-in renewable gasoline and jet fuel,... Read more →
DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, says it will be neutralizing the carbon emissions of all less-than-container load (LCL) ocean freight shipments from 1 January 2021. As one of the leading ocean freight forwarders worldwide, and in line with Deutsche Post DHL... Read more →
The Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR will tackle this year’s Nürburgring 24-hour race featuring a complete body kit made of natural-fiber composite materials for the first time. Since early 2019, Porsche manufactured the two doors and the rear wing of the small series racing vehicle out of a natural-fiber... Read more →
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (APRA-E) will award $16.5 million in funding for six projects as part of the Systems for Monitoring and Analytics for Renewable Transportation Fuels from Agricultural Resources and Management (SMARTFARM) program. These projects will develop technologies that bridge the data gap in the biofuel supply chain... Read more →
A new study led by Colorado State University predicts significant climate benefits stemming from the use of advanced biofuel technologies. Accounting for all of the carbon flows in biofuel systems and comparing them to those in grasslands and forests, the team found that there are clear strategies for biofuels to... Read more →
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Gas Technology Institute (GTI) are embarking on a five-year initiative to accelerate the development and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies. With increasingly ambitious decarbonization goals from private companies and governments alike, existing technology is not enough to achieve those targets. The Low-Carbon Resources... Read more →
Novvi LLC announced the successful start-up of its Deer Park, TX plant, where it is manufacturing and marketing 100% renewable base oils (NovaSpec Base Oils) for the lubricants industry, and 100% renewable process oils for polymer, adhesives, and personal care industries. Novvi is a joint venture of Amyris, Inc., Cosan,... Read more →
Specialty chemical company Clariant and Eta Bio, a company of the Pavlovi family, running a leading business in the agricultural sector in Bulgaria, have signed a license agreement for Clariant’s sunliquid cellulosic ethanol technology. The agreement marks the fourth signed license deal for Clariant’s sunliquid technology. Eta Bio has been... Read more →
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $97 million in funding for 33 projects that will support high-impact technology research and development to accelerate the bioeconomy. These projects will improve the performance and lower the cost and risk of technologies that can be used to produce biofuels, biopower,... Read more →
A Korean research team has developed a technology that can be used to mass-produce aviation-grade fuels from wood wastes. The ability to produce aviation-grade fuel from oil derived from wood waste—which up until now has been difficult due to the high viscosity of the oil—could help international aviation companies comply... Read more →
Up to now, algae has provided invaluable nutrition in the health food sector but has struggled to be competitive against petroleum-derived chemical production. Algae is favorable to petroleum from an environmental standpoint but the production cost of culturing, collecting, extracting and refining adds up to make it too expensive for... Read more →
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected seven projects for awards totaling $1.94 million to conduct research and development to accelerate the adoption of performance-advantaged biofuel blendstocks. These fuels are derived from renewable feedstocks, and can deliver exceptional efficiency with low emissions. The seven projects will leverage National Laboratory... Read more →
In an EU-funded research project, an international consortium is aiming to develop new production methods for sustainable marine fuels to replace heavy fuel oils in shipping. The use of heavy fuel oils (HFOs) contributes to global warming due to the fossil origin of these fuels and, moreover, generating non-negligible emissions... Read more →
SunGas Renewables Inc., a supplier of proven biomass gasification systems, announced a strategic alliance with Hatch, Ltd., a global advisory, development consulting, multidisciplinary engineering and project delivery firm. The alliance will leverage both organizations’ technical expertise, engineering capabilities and market knowledge to accelerate the deployment of SunGas’ biomass gasification systems.... Read more →
Hydrogen researchers at Graz University of Technology (Austria), together with the Graz-based start-up Rouge H2 Engineering, have developed a cost-effective process for the decentralized production of high-purity hydrogen using chemical looping. Currently, hydrogen is mainly produced centrally from fossil resources and compressed or liquefied in an expensive and energy-intensive process... Read more →
An international research collaboration has developed a novel, porous, and hydrophobic metal–organic framework (MOF) based on copper ions and carborane–carboxylate ligands that can efficiently separate biobutanol from the broth of fermented biomass needed for the fuel’s production. A paper on the work is published in the Journal of the American... Read more →
Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and the University of Delaware have developed a catalytic strategy to promote the selective breaking of a carbon-oxygen bond—an essential step the conversion of lignocellulsoic biomass via hydrodeoxygenation to fuels and chemicals. To demonstrate their principle, the team created a catalyst with highly dispersed... Read more →
In a three-year Business Finland BioFlex project, VTT—the Finnish state-owned research agency—and partners are exploring how suitable fuel oils made from biomass and waste plastics are for power plants and ship diesel engines. The aim is to determine the most ecologically and economically sustainable way to replace fossil fuels. We... Read more →
Researchers at Aarhus University (Denmark) have launched a project to produce cellulosic bioethanol via completely natural processes. They are looking for the solution in the intestines of pandas and slugs, and in ants’ fungus gardens—special enzymes and microorganisms that, for millions of years, have specialized in the breakdown of this... Read more →
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), which is managed by Berkeley Lab, have quantified how bioproduct accumulation in planta—i.e., engineering plants to produce valuable chemical compounds, or bioproducts, as they grow—affects biofuel selling prices. Their... Read more →
Replacing dry biomass-derived fuels with biogas and biogas-derived fuels in certain sectors of the energy system can reduce dry biomass consumption by up to 16% when used for power, heat or industrial sectors, according to a new study by researchers By Aalborg University in Denmark. This paper analyses the role... 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 →
Researchers at S. Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have developed a novel process for the production of hydrogen using various types of biomass, including lignin, as an efficient alternative to water oxidation as an electron source. In a paper published in the journal ACS Catalysis, the... 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 →
Nouryon has begun the first deliveries of AkuPure, a carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) polymer targeted specifically at lithium-ion batteries, a market that is growing quickly due to increased demand for electric vehicles. CMC is a sustainable, bio-based water-soluble polymer used as a thickener, binder, stabilizer and film former. AkuPure CMCs are... Read more →
Researchers led by Prof. WANG Feng at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have reported that photocatalytic decarboxylation is an efficient alternate pathway for converting biomass-derived fatty acids into alkanes under mild conditions of ambient temperature and pressure. This finding was published in... Read more →
US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, a department-wide initiative to align resources, programs, and research to position American agriculture to better meet future global demands. Specifically, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will stimulate innovation so that American agriculture can achieve the goal of increasing... 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 →
With the common goal to further implement 5-HMF in various materials and chemical applications, AVA Biochem AG in Zug, Switzerland has entered into a Joint Development Agreement with the Michelin Group. AVA Biochem developed, patented and piloted a novel hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process for the conversion of industrial sugars into... Read more →
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have identified a suite of technologies to help California to become carbon-neutral—and ultimately carbon-negative —by 2045. To achieve the goal of carbon-neutrality, California will likely have to remove on the order of 125 million tons per year of CO2 from the atmosphere. In the... Read more →
Building on its $2-million investment for an ongoing feasibility study with Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels (NWABF), Delta has entered into one of the largest airline offtake agreements of its kind to purchase sustainable aviation fuel, if produced, from NWABF. The NWABF process uses the gasification of woody biomass to produce syngas... Read more →
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), with colleagues at Yale University, have developed a photochemical process to convert acetone derived from plants (bio-acetone) into a mixture of polycyclic alkanes, the high energy density of which is appropriate for high-perfomance aviation applications. A paper on the work appears in the... Read more →
A Rutgers-led team has developed a new biomass pretreatment process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. The approach, featuring an ammonia-salt-based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works well... Read more →