A team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a new computational model of a two-stroke scaled marine engine, with reduced chemical mechanisms for diesel, biodiesel, bio-oil, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). In a new open-access study published in the journal Fuel, the ORNL researchers used their model to... Read more →
The Biden Administration announced several steps to spur the development and adoption of homegrown biofuels. $700 million for biofuels producers: As part of the Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide up to $700 million in funding through a new Biofuel Producer Program. The... Read more →
Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group, and Veolia recently signed a long-term partnership agreement on the refining of crude methanol generated in pulp production at the Äänekoski bioproduct mill into commercial biomethanol. As part of this cooperation, Veolia will build a crude methanol refinery in connection with Metsä Fibre’s Äänekoski... Read more →
Raven SR, a US-based renewable fuels company (earlier post), plans to build a waste-to-hydrogen production facility in Aragón, Spain, following the opening of its subsidiary Raven SR Iberia in Zaragoza, announced earlier this month. The Raven SR project in Aragón will produce 1,600 metric tons per year of renewable hydrogen... Read more →
Toyota Motor is entering three differently fueled vehicles in the ENEOS Super Taikyu Series 2022 Powered by Hankook Round 1 Suzuka 5-Hour Endurance Race (Suzuka 5-Hour Race), which takes place from 19 to 20 March 2022: a hydrogen engine-equipped Corolla, a new GR86-based vehicle that uses a biomass-derived carbon-neutral fuel... Read more →
Sustainable materials leader Genomatica and Japan-based diversified global manufacturer Asahi Kasei announced a strategic partnership to commercialize renewably-sourced nylon 6,61 made from Genomatica’s bio-based HMD (hexamethylenediamine, also abbreviated as HMDA) building block. Asahi Kasei looks to this partnership to support its goal to be first-to-market with a more sustainable nylon... Read more →
Raven SR, a renewable fuels company (earlier post), announced the closing of a strategic investment from Samsung Ventures, expanding Raven SR’s reach into the global market, especially in Asia-Pacific region. Samsung Ventures’ strategic investment illustrates heightened demand for scalable renewable fuel production to respond to climate change concerns, Raven SR... Read more →
Researchers in China report the synthesis of jet-fuel range C10 and C15 polycyclic alkanes and aromatics with furfuryl alcohol and isoprene, two platform compounds which can be derived from lignocellulose. An open-access paper on their work appears in the RSC journal Green Chemistry. Cycloalkanes (especially polycycloalkanes) and aromatics—with their higher... Read more →
bp has begun producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from used cooking oil in co-processing process with crude oil at its plant in Lingen, Germany. This is the first industrial production facility in Germany to use this process for SAF production based on biomass waste and residues. Fats, Oils and Greases... Read more →
A team of scientists from LanzaTech, Northwestern University and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have engineered a microbe to convert molecules of industrial waste gases, such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, into acetone and isopropanol (IPA). These widely used chemicals serve as the basis of thousands... Read more →
Lummus Technology and Synthos S.A. have reached a major milestone in the development of advanced bio-butadiene technology. After completing a successful feasibility study in 2021, Lummus and Synthos have concluded that the bio-butadiene technology is ready for implementation, and the companies have agreed to move into the engineering and design... Read more →
Emerging Fuels Technology (EFT), a technology company focused on methods for producing synthetic fuels from feedstocks such as natural gas, flared gas, biogas, biomass, municipal solid waste, CO2 and more, introduced its Maxx Jet and Maxx Diesel proprietary methods, which employ a unique catalyst system made for EFT by Haldor... Read more →
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have shown that making carbon fiber composites with bio-based epoxies and an anhydride hardener makes the material fully recyclable by introducing linkages that are more easily degraded. The recycling process—called methanolysis—can be selectively triggered at room temperature without degrading the quality or... Read more →
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has released a report prepared by the consultancy Cerulogy that explores the potential market and environmental impacts of increased capacity for renewable diesel produced by hydrotreating oils and fats in the US. The United States currently supports renewable diesel supply through the federal... Read more →
Blue Biofuels, Inc. reports that it has achieved full conversion ( 99% + ) of king grass cellulosic material to water soluble sugars on a repeatable basis. This conversion occurs with a reaction time of less than one minute. This achievement was accomplished with the company’s upgraded 4th generation CTS... Read more →
ExxonMobil is acquiring a 49.9% stake in Biojet AS, a Norwegian biofuels company that plans to convert forestry and wood-based construction waste into lower-emissions biofuels and biofuel components. Biojet AS plans to develop up to five facilities to produce the biofuels and biofuel components. The company anticipates commercial production to... Read more →
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released a new Request for Information (RFI) on the scale-up and demonstration of renewable fuels. The RFI, titled “Overcoming Barriers to Renewable Fuel Scale-Up and Demonstration,” (DE-FOA-0002615) seeks input from biofuels producers and technology developers about their readiness to scale process technologies to... Read more →
Blue Biofuels (BIOF) and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) are collaborating on optimizing the yields of Pennisetum hybridum, commonly known as king grass, a perennial grass biomass crop, that the Company is using as feedstock for its patented mechanocatalytic cellulose-to-sugar (CTS) process. The USDA... Read more →
Start-up Mote is establishing its first facility to convert wood waste into hydrogen fuel while capturing, utilizing, and sequestering CO2 emissions resulting from its process. With the engineering work of their first facility underway, Mote expects to produce approximately seven million kilograms of carbon-negative hydrogen and remove 150,000 metric tons... Read more →
VERBIO has commenced production at its new plant in Nevada, Iowa. The plant will generate biomethane from corn stover (maize straw), and is the first large-scale commercial plant in the US to use the technology developed by VERBIO. VERBIO acquired the mothballed cellulosic ethanol plant from DuPont, the previous operator,... Read more →
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a package of actions setting biofuel volumes for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for years 2020, 2021, and 2022, and introducing regulatory changes intended to enhance the program’s objectives. For 2022, EPA is proposing the highest total volumes yet; the proposed volumes... Read more →
A team of researchers from the US NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers based at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has demonstrated the use of a dual cellular–heterogeneous catalytic strategy to produce olefins from glucose. Wang et al. These renewable liquids could serve as a more sustainable replacement for today’s... Read more →
Asahi Kasei, a diversified Japanese multinational company, concluded an agreement with Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd. regarding the supply of butadiene derived from plastic waste and biomass. Asahi Kasei plans to begin producing and marketing sustainable solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) using sustainable butadiene at its plant in Singapore by the... Read more →
Gevo signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sweetwater Energy, Inc., regarding the use of sustainably sourced agricultural residues and woody biomass as a feedstock for producing cellulosic alcohols and energy-dense renewable liquid hydrocarbons. As outlined in the MoU, Sweetwater plans to build, own and operate a facility adjacent to... Read more →
Velocys plc announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Velocys Renewables LLC, has entered into its first offtake agreement for the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be produced at the planned Bayou Fuels biorefinery project in Mississippi with Southwest Airlines. The agreement covers the purchase by Southwest of an expected 219... Read more →
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Subaru Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Mazda Motor Corporation, and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. jointly announced that, toward the achievement of carbon neutrality, they will take on the challenge of expanding fuel options through the use of internal combustion engines at the (three-hour) Super Taikyu Race in... Read more →
Energy Vault, a company developing grid-scale gravity energy storage solutions, has entered into an energy storage system agreement with DG Fuels, a developer of renewable hydrogen and biogenic-based, synthetic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and diesel fuel. Under the terms of the agreement, Energy Vault agreed to provide 1.6 gigawatt hours... Read more →
The US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has published a notice of intent (DE-FOA-0002637) to issue a second “Scale-Up” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) (DE-FOA-0002638). This FOA, funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), will aim to accelerate the scale-up of biofuel and bioproduct biorefineries.... Read more →
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 →