Bioenergy Research Group in €10.84m Project

Aston University Bioenergy Research Group (BERG) is involved in a €10.84 million (US$14.253 million) project to develop a European wide research infrastructure for producing biofuels. BERG has been awarded €510,000 (US$670,584) of research funds, as part of the €10.84m (US$14.253 million) BRISK research project from the European Commission Seventh Framework Program (FP7).



The four-year initiative aims to develop a European research infrastructure capable of delivering marketable biofuel products. This includes production of biofuels by thermochemical processes, including gasification, combustion, pyrolysis and hydrothermal processing. Read more ...

EU policy ultimatley will cost US farmers $1.1 billion

The study, funded by the United Soybean Board (USB), shows the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive, which currently excludes biodiesel made from US soybean oil in renewable energy quotas, could decrease US soybean prices by as much as 35 cents per bushel. If left unresolved, the regulation would cost US soybean farmers more than US$1.1 billion (€837 million) per year.

Soybean fields

The checkoff contends the policy unfairly singles out biodiesel made from US soy. USB Immediate Past Chair Marc Curtis says the checkoff continues to work with the American Soybean Association (ASA) on efforts to gain inclusion for biodiesel made from US soy.

“The EU is the second-largest market for US soybeans, and that market is at risk due to this regulation,” says Curtis, a soybean farmer from Leland, Miss. “We can use this study to show allied organisations and the US government how much of an impact this regulation would have on US soybean farmers. It will also give the US government facts to demonstrate to the European Commission that the regulation needs to be based on sound science.” Read more ...

Exports from the US and Canada of wood pellets at record high

Wood Pellets

Wood pellets exported from Canada and the US to Europe reached a record high in the forth quarter of 2011 due to the increased demand from the United Kingdom. Exports of wood pellets from North America to Europe reached a record of over two million tons in 2011, according to analysis reported in the North American Wood Fiber Review. Canada has long been the main exporter of pellets but in the second half of 2011, the US caught up and exported an equal volume to Canada. Read more ...

Project to discover the best algae species for producing biofuel

At Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech a team of researchers has assembled the draft genome of a marine algae sequence to aid scientists across the US in a project that aims to discover the best algae species for producing biodiesel fuel. The results have been published in Nature Communications. Other methods have been tried for developing an alternative renewable fuel source, corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel, for example.

Nannochloropsis gaditana. Una microalga

But to truly meet the world’s fuel needs, researchers must come up with a way to produce as much biofuel as possible in the smallest amount of space using the least amount of resources. Enter algae. Unlike other crops like corn or soybeans, algae can use various water sources ranging from wastewater to brackish water and be grown in small, intensive plots on denuded land. Read more ...

Article in Nature Communications here

Aberystwyth University unveils new research facilities

 

The BEACON biorefining centre at Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), has unveiled new research facilities as part of a UK£20 million (US$31.7 million) initiative. The centre is the first of its kind in Wales and houses large-scale equipment capable of taking laboratory research and scaling up to produce commercial products, services and technologies.

The new facilities are already enabling businesses to develop new ways of converting crops such as rye grass, oats and miscanthus (elephant grass) into products including platform chemicals, fuels and cosmetics. Read more ...

New Zealand economy could get wood biomass boost

According to the New Zealand Bioenergy Association, New Zealand could see a major boost to its economy worth up to NZ$6 billion (€3.739 billion), they claim that this additional boost to the economy could be through wood to produce bioenergy. Now the association has called on the Government to include it within the Government's economic growth agenda.

Rob Mallinson, Chair of the Bioenergy Association of New Zealand (BANZ) said: "There really is no better time to be considering the use of forest harvest and wood processing residues as a fuel for hospitals, institutional and industrial heat applications.

"The forest and wood products sector should be congratulated and supported in their endeavours to get additional value from wood. Currently approximately 10-15 percent of wood is wasted and this is an economic loss to the country as well as lost revenue to forestry and wood processing companies.”

Read more ...

Apple announces a new 5MW biogas fuel cell installation

Apple?s energy- and material-efficient data center located in Maiden, North Carolina

Apple has revealed they plan a 5MW biogas fuel cell installation at their new US$1 billion (€761 million), North Carolina data centre. Finding more environmentally friendly power sources to deliver this energy is of increasing importance to IT companies interested in reducing their carbon footprint and energy costs. Now Apple has filed plans to construct a 24 fuel cell system to help power its new iDataCentre in North Carolina, which was built to support its iCloud online data storage system and SIRI voice-recognition software. Read more ...

Is bio-energy expansion harmful to wildlife?

Indicator Species the Skylark

The Helmholtz Centre for the Environmental Research in Leipzig has developed a way to study the effects of increased energy crop cultivation on farmland bird populations. “The Skylark is an indicator species for agricultural areas because it occupies many habitats of the wider countryside around the globe, breeds on the ground within fields and feeds mostly on insects” notes lead researcher, Jan Engel. “Improving the habitat suitability for Skylark, accordingly, would improve conservation of natural vegetation, insects, and other ground breeding farmland bird species.” Read more ...

Study by DGFI claims renewable 'are the answer'

A recent study carried out by DWS Global Financial Institute (DGFI), indicates that investors should look to renewables and clean technologies as a growth area, as it estimates that the global oil supply will begin to diminish by 2020. According to Biofuels International even as the oil start to run out the demand for energy is on the increase. The study points out that only 30 countries provide the entire worlds production of oil and that political unrest could restrict oil exports. Read more ...

Download White Paper – Peak Oil and the Arab Awakening

Volkswagen teams up with biofuel companies

Car manufacture Volkswagen in the US has teamed up with biofuels companies Solazyme and Amyris to evaluate the amount of emissions produced by cars running on biofuel in order to show the environmental benefits. Volkswagen is to supply the companies with two cars the 2012 Passat TDI and 2012 Jetta TDI so that they can examine the effects the fuels will have on the Volkswagen clean diesel technology and the environment.

"Amyris' renewable diesel's proven superior cold weather performance, high cetane and comparable energy density to petroleum diesel have enabled us to obtain one of the highest blending registrations certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency," says Mario Portela, COO of Amyris. Read more ...