The US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced up to $23 million in funding (DE-FOA-0003518) to support research and development (R&D) of domestic chemicals and fuels from biomass and waste resources. The notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), Sustainable Propane and Renewable Chemicals (SPARC), will support BETO’s Conversion... Read more →

Neste and Bayer signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing a winter canola ecosystem in the US, including identifying partners and developing the value chain together, and scaling winter canola production as a raw material for renewable products. While having a strong focus on waste and residue raw materials,... Read more →

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $6 million in funding for three projects that will advance biofuel development. Funded through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the projects will support research to improve performance and reduce costs of high-impact... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) announced $6.9 million in funding (DE-FOA-0003072) for nine projects to support local waste-to-energy management solutions for transportation energy needs. Located across six states, these selected projects will help sustainably manage and recover potential clean energy... Read more →

Avina Clean Hydrogen will invest $820 million in the development of a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility in Southwest Illinois. Leveraging KBR’s alcohol-to-jet technology, the facility will produce up to 120 million gallons of ASTM-certified SAF annually. The facility is expected to prevent 25 million metric tons of carbon... Read more →

Verde Clean Fuels announced a stock purchase agreement with Cottonmouth Ventures, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Diamondback Energy, for a $50-million equity investment by Cottonmouth into Verde. The investment consists of the purchase of 12.5 million shares of Verde’s Class A common stock at a purchase price of $4.00 per... Read more →

The BMW Group is converting the initial filling of all diesel models produced in Germany to HVO 100. Neste MY Renewable Diesel is the HVO 100 fuel used at BMW Group plants, Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg and Leipzig, which produce annually more than 50% of BMW Group’s Diesel-powered vehicles. Fuel from... Read more →

The US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is awarding $52 million in funding for six university and industry projects to advance the production of low carbon intensity, purpose-grown energy crops critical to accelerating a clean energy bioeconomy. These projects will expand a domestic supply chain of alternative... Read more →

Chevron USA, Inc. (CUSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, has completed a retrofit of its refinery in Pasadena, Texas, which is expected to increase product flexibility and expand the processing capacity of lighter crudes by nearly 15% to 125,000 barrels per day. Chevron acquired the Pasadena Refinery in... Read more →

A new study by a research team from Florida State University and Duke University has found that an estimated 151 million excess mental disorders can be attributable to lead exposure from gasoline. The study is published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology. More than half of the current... Read more →

In 2024, the US East Coast became a consistent destination for small volumes of renewable diesel as a few suppliers and local governments began offering or consuming the fuel, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Because no renewable diesel is produced on the East Coast, suppliers and local... Read more →

Wallenius Wilhelmsen is launching a re-engineered bunker adjustment factor, BAF2.0, to prepare for future fuels on the path to net-zero emissions by 2040. BAF2.0 will streamline and simplify the adaptation of alternative fuels. Bunker Adjustment Factor (BAF) is a pricing mechanism used to adjust freight rates based on fuel price... Read more →

Liquid Wind and SAMSUNG E&A entered into a collaboration agreement to accelerate the development of eFuel facilities outside of Europe, in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The partnership aims to combine each party’s expertise to evaluate opportunities for collaboration in eFuel facility development, extending Liquid Wind’s reach and ongoing... Read more →

Formula 1 is expanding its investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) through a new program developed with Global Partner Qatar Airways. The expansion builds upon the previously announced investment alongside Global Logistics Partner DHL, and creates a broader framework for F1 teams and the FIA to participate. In total, the... Read more →

Following the signing of definitive agreements on 28 June 2024 (earlier post), Aramco has completed its acquisition of a 10% equity stake in Horse Powertrain Limited based on an enterprise value of €7.4 billion. The transaction builds on Aramco’s efforts to develop new mobility solutions with the potential to reduce... Read more →

A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found a way to thwart deactivation of catalysts for the dry reforming of methane. Dry reforming of methane converts methane and carbon dioxide into syngas, a valued mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide used by oil... Read more →

Hapag-Lloyd has reached an agreement with Goldwind, a global strategic partner in clean energy with headquarters in Beijing, China, for the delivery of 250,000 tonnes of green methanol per year. The green methanol will consist of a blend of bio- and e-methanol, ensuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction of at... Read more →

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and Toyota Motor have used a surrogate for a methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) fuel to study numerically the effects of gasoline composition on knock propensity and on the sensitivity of knock to thermal and fuel stratification, to oxygen dilution and to nitric oxide from exhaust gas recirculation... Read more →

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have produced kerosene-range fuels from C2-4 olefins and mixtures thereof via (co–)oligomerization. An open-access paper on their study is published in the journal Fuel. —Fuchs et al. A very promising pathway [for the production of SAF] is the methanol- or dimethyl ether... Read more →

Swedish eFuel facility developer Liquid Wind raised €44 million in Series C financing led by Uniper, HYCAP Fund I SCSp (“HYCAP”) and Samsung Ventures. The financing will support the development of 10 eFuel facilities by 2027 as part of the company’s vision of reaching 500 facilities globally by 2050. The... Read more →

GE Vernova announced that the LM6000 gas turbine, included in the GE Vernova LM6000VELOX packaged solution is planned to operate on 100% hydrogen at the Whyalla hydrogen power plant in the Upper Spencer Gulf, South Australia. GE Vernova announced it has secured an order with ATCO Australia for four LM6000VELOX... Read more →

Global pure-play agriculture company Corteva Inc. announced a collaboration with bp on the companies’ shared intent to form a crop-based biofuel feedstock joint venture (JV). The JV envisaged by Corteva and bp would produce and deliver crop-based biofuel feedstocks to help meet the anticipated growth in demand for sustainable aviation... Read more →

As the first large vessel in the industry, the container ship Maersk Halifax has been converted into a dual-fuel vessel able to operate on methanol. The retrofit operation was conducted at the Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard in China over 88 days with completion at the end of October 2024. Following the... Read more →

Johnson Matthey and Honeywell UOP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to offer an end-to-end solution for businesses developing alternative fuels from a wide range of feedstocks, including municipal solid waste, residual biomass, biogas, and CO₂ (captured and renewable). The partnership brings together JM’s leading syngas solutions and Honeywell UOP’s... Read more →

Alfa Laval has secured two contracts worth 350 million SEK (US$32 million) to supply HVO pre-treatment technology to Europe’s largest biofuel facility. The facility, a joint venture between Cepsa Bioenergia San Roque S.L. (CSBR), and Bio-Oils Energy, part of the Apical Group, will produce 500,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel... Read more →

Topsoe has signed an agreement with Refinaria de Petróleo Riograndense SA (Riograndense), to provide its HydroFlex and H2bridge technologies for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel production at Riograndense’s Rio Grande renewable fuels plant in Brazil. The production addresses the rapidly growing demand for SAF. As cited by the... Read more →

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects US refinery capacity to be 17.9 million barrels per day at the end of 2025, about 3% less than at the beginning of this year. LyondellBasel Industries plans to close its Houston Refinery in the first quarter of 2025, removing nearly 264,000 barrels... Read more →

Neste and Air Canada have signed an agreement for the supply of 60,000 metric tons (77.6 million liters) of neat Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Neste will deliver the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blended with conventional jet fuel to the Vancouver marine terminal starting in December 2024, with further shipments... Read more →

UC Santa Cruz chemists have developed a straightforward, catalyst-free approach to the transesterification of vegetable oils, converting them into high-value biodiesel fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). The method, described in a paper in Energy & Fuels, uses sodium tetramethoxyborate [NaB(OMe)4] derived from the reaction of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) with methanol... Read more →

An Australian-led scientific breakthrough to increase oil yield from plants will help advance the production and use of biofuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel. Developed over a decade by scientists from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, the technology was acquired by Australian agricultural innovation company Nufarm. Oils from plants are... Read more →

Hapag-Lloyd has signed two contracts with two Chinese shipyards for a total of 24 new container ships. Of these, 12 newbuildings—each with a capacity of 16,800 TEU—will be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group. These units will be used to expand the capacity of services that are already in place. An... Read more →

US fuel ethanol exporters are on track to export a record amount of the fuel in 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The increase in exports this year has largely been driven by demand in countries with biofuel blending mandates and cheaper-than-usual US fuel ethanol prices. In... Read more →

Maersk entered into a long-term bio-methanol offtake agreement with LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. First volumes are expected in 2026 with full production expected at the end of the decade. The agreement will contribute to lowering GHG emissions from Maersk’s growing fleet of dual-fuel methanol container vessels. Bio- and... Read more →

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) have demonstrated that the use of nanosecond pulse transient plasma enables stable combustion of ammonia in an internal combustion engine (i.e., a modified natural gas engine) over a wide range of equivalence ratios from ϕ = 0.78 to ϕ = 1.23. A... Read more →

MAN Energy Solutions has received multiple orders for MAN B&W G95ME-LGIM Mk 10.5 methanol engines to power a series of Very Large Container Vessels (VLCVs). The order brings the cumulative number of G95ME-C10.5-LGIM methanol engine orders to 95 at various yards in South Korea, China and Japan since the engine’s... Read more →

California has reached an agreement with the nation’s leading passenger and cargo airlines to accelerate the use of sustainable aviation fuel for flights within the state. In an announcement made today at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Airlines for America (A4A), an industry... Read more →

Rio Tinto has completed the transition from conventional to renewable diesel for all heavy mining equipment at its Kennecott copper mine in Utah, giving the mine one of the lowest carbon footprints of any copper producer in the United States. Kennecott’s fleet of 97 haul trucks and heavy machinery equipment... Read more →

Avfuel Corporation is expanding blended Sustainable Aviation Fuel (having target percentages of 30% neat SAF and 70% conventional jet fuel) (SAF) across the southeastern United States supplied from Valero Marketing and Supply Company (Valero), a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation. The supply agreement with Valero significantly increases Avfuel’s volume and... Read more →

Neste has decided to withdraw from investing into a 120 MW electrolyzer project to produce renewable hydrogen at its Porvoo refinery in Finland. The decision follows the completion of the basic engineering phase, which commenced in May 2023. Neste said that the reasons behind the withdrawal are the challenging market... Read more →

Having designed and tested the first two-stroke ammonia engine (earlier post), MAN Energy Solutions has now launched the ‘AmmoniaMot 2’ research project. Initiated by MAN with partners from industry and research institutes, the project aims to develop a four-stroke, medium-speed, dual-fuel test engine that runs on ammonia. ­ Supported by... Read more →

Terviva, Inc., an agricultural innovation company working with farmers to grow and harvest pongamia for food, feed and fuel announced an investment from Chevron Renewable Energy Group. Together, the two companies expect to scale Terviva’s pongamia-growing operations and drive greater availability of pongamia as a feedstock for renewable fuels production.... Read more →

Vale and Petrobras signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement to supply products with a focus on competitiveness and advancing the decarbonization agenda. This agreement, which reflects the natural evolution of the protocol of intentions signed by the companies in September 2023, establishes conditions for testing and potentially marketing three strategic products:... Read more →

Calumet, Inc. announced that the US Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has awarded a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.44 billion to fund the construction and expansion of a renewable fuels facility owned by Montana Renewables, LLC. Montana Renewables is an unrestricted subsidiary... Read more →

Propel Fuels, a retailer of low-carbon fuels at stations throughout California, was awarded victory by a jury in its trade secrets misappropriation case against Phillips 66 Company, following a five-week trial in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, located in Oakland, California. The jury found in Propel’s favor... Read more →

Phillips 66 plans to cease operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery in the fourth quarter of 2025 and will work with the state of California to supply fuel markets and meet ongoing consumer demand. The Los Angeles Refinery consists of two facilities linked by pipeline located five miles apart in... Read more →

Capacity to produce biofuels increased 7% in the United States during 2023, reaching 24 billion gallons per year (gal/y) at the start of 2024, led by a 44% increase in renewable diesel and other biofuels, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Other biofuels includes renewable heating oil, renewable... Read more →

Ohmium International, a green hydrogen company that designs, manufactures and deploys advanced Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer solutions, signed a Term Sheet with SwitcH2 BV, a renewable energy Joint Venture with partners such as BW Offshore, a leading provider of offshore production solutions. Under the agreement, Ohmium will develop PEM... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced a conditional commitment for a $1.46-billion loan guarantee to Gevo Net-Zero 1, LLC (Gevo NZ-1), excluding capitalized interest during construction, to help finance a large-scale corn starch-to-jet fuel facility in Lake Preston, South Dakota. The facility—the first of its... Read more →

LanzaTech, a company focused on carbon recycling to create sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials, recently signed a Master License Agreement with Sekisui Chemical to implement a jointly developed platform that converts syngas from municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial solid waste into ethanol at a commercial scale. Sekisui plans to... Read more →

Refinery margins for petroleum refiners across the world are shrinking, indicating reduced profitability from refining crude oil and selling petroleum products, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Declining margins are the result of relatively weak demand for petroleum products even as global refining capacity increases. Global refinery margins,... Read more →