Feedstock Innovation award won by DuPont

The 2012 Sustainable biofuel award in the sustainable feedstock innovation category for its stover harvest collection project was won by DuPont. This was a scale up project that has significantly advances the cellulosic ethanol industry toward commercialisation and advances DuPont’s efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Sustainable Feedstock Innovation
Winner: DuPont

"It is an honor to receive the 2012 Sustainable Biofuels Award for our Stover Harvest Collection Project," said James C. Collins, president of DuPont Industrial Biosciences. "We recognise that a reliable, sustainable source of biomass is critical to the success of advanced biofuels. Our collaborative approach involving growers, researchers, environmental organisations and government ensures we'll be able to meet the needs of the evolving market sustainably while creating new opportunities for rural America." Read more ...

Pension funds see renewable energy as alternative to government bonds

In 2011 the global investment in renewable power generation hit a record high of US$260 billion (€197.514 billion) and by 2020 the annual investment is expected to double, as the prices for fossil fuels increase. In the United Kingdom renewable energy capacity grew by 15 percent between 2009-2010. Biomass also grew substantially by 17 percent along with the biofuel sector also 17 percent.

Graham Weale, Chief Economist at utility company RWE, said: "With interest rates in government bonds at a rather low level, there is quite a lot of money in pension funds chasing relatively reliable returns, which offer more than sovereign debt." "Both grid and renewable investments are regulated and relatively low risk, which makes them suitable for fixed-income funds and means they offer higher returns than are available elsewhere," he added. Read more ...

Biogas could reduce Coca Cola fleet emissions by 50 percent

A new report commissioned by Coca Cola, that a fleet of new vehicles powered by biogas could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent compared to diesel and could save fuel costs. Coca Cola saw the potential of biogas as a possible new breed of low carbon source, as its used in the production of heat and electricity and is growing in importance across the UK.

The report which has now been published and reveal that the biogas fueled vehicle reduce well-to-wheel greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by an estimated 50.3 percent, compared to the diesel Stralis vehicle. However, this was achieved using a temporary filling station a more efficient permanent station being installed at the Coca-Cola depot could raise the GHG savings to above 60 percent.

Additionally, operating the gas vehicle on biomethane reduced the fuel costs by 12.8 percent. Lucy Hopwood, Head of Biomass and Biogas at NNFCC, said: "These are exciting results and offer a glimpse of the potential for the wider deployment of the technology, but the next step is to establish a network of filling points at fleet bases." Read more ...

Inedible Biomass Key to Renewable Future?

SCI and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) are hosting a one day meeting for people who want to learn more about the commercial potential of the next generation of biorenewable energy, materials and fuels based on biomass.

Every year more than 40 million tons of wood and agricultural residues is produced. Converting just a fraction of this biomass into chemicals and fuels, like ethanol, could go a long way towards reducing the reliance on fossil fuels and wouldn't take crops away from food production. Read more ...

Drax ends biomass plans at Selby due to poor support by government

Drax PLC has announced that they will not now be building a new dedicated biomass power plant at Selby because of the 'disappointing' support of the British government, but they will consider more co-firing of biomass with coal. Co-firing is a cost effective solution to decarbonising the electricity sector but dedicated biomass plants can offer even greater opportunities for reducing carbon emissions and there had been hopes that the company would build three new dedicated plants with German engineering giants Siemens.

However, the company has now abandoned plans to build the first of these plants near Selby because of the lack of financial support from Government and high cost to transport biomass inland from the continent, where most of the biomass would have originated. Read more ...

Southern Iowa Biomass Crop Workshop

There is increasing interest in biomass crops for energy in Iowa. Initially, it was thought that strong commodity prices would limit the interest of growers in planting perennials for bioenergy, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A Biomass Crop Production workshop Thursday, March 8, at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa will explore why interest is increasing. The program will start at 8:45 am and conclude at 2:15 pm

The Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development Area has been working with Iowa State University and the Iowa Farm Energy Working Group to evaluate biomass crops, including giant Miscanthus and warm season grasses that can be used to produce renewable energy feedstocks. Read more ...

The new Vivergo biorefinery being built at Saltend

The new Vivergo biorefinery being built at Saltend near Hull is nearly complete and the Managing Director of Vivergo Fuels the joint venture behind the plant says operations will begin in late spring. When finished the Vivergo biorefinery will be one of the largest in Europe and each year it will turn 1.1 million tons of locally grown feed wheat into 420 million liters of bioethanol and 500,000 tons of animal feed.

Mr Richards said the company had already started commissioning the "farm end" of the plant where the first stage of the refinery process takes place and the animal feed byproduct is produced. There are two other processing sections which must be finished before fuel can be made but work is more than 95 percent finished. Read more ...

Farmers invited to see biomass in action at Country Estate

Farmers are being invited to a historic country estate, to learn about biomass and how to get into renewable fuel. The Barningham Park Estate a 7000 acre estate in North Yorkshire, has set up a commercial operation to supply wood chip biomass boilers in the region.

Ed Milbank, who manages the family estate near Richmond, said: "The estate's woodland has now become a big asset for us, especially as oil prices are forecast to continue rising and demand for timber is growing. "We are now felling old, thin conifer blocks and re-planting and this year we have planted a further 70 acres of mixed woodland. Read more ...

Funding for energy programs announced by USDA

The US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the available funding for the fiscal year 2012 for two key programs to encourage the use of renewable biomass and production of advanced biofuels. Around US$25 million (€19.1 million) is to be made available through each program.

"President Obama has laid out a new era for American energy an economy fueled by homegrown and alternative energy sources that will be designed and produced by American workers," said Secretary Vilsack. "These programs support that vision by helping biorefineries use renewable biomass as a replacement fuel source for fossil fuels and supporting advanced biofuel producers as they expand production." Read more ...

NIB invests in biomass development program

The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has provided bioenergy company Vaskiluodon Voima Oy with €18 million (US$13.134 million ), to build a gasification plant in Vaasa, Finland. The facility will produce 140MW and is to be connected to a power plant that is already established, allowing for the coal from the old plant to be substituted by domestic biofuels and peat.



Because of this, coal use will be lowered by between 25-40 percent, with a fuel mix for the gasification system that will be made up of about 25 percent peat and 75 percent forest residues and biomaterials such as reed. Read more ...

VTT working to develop biomass delivery chains in Vietnam

In Vietnam VTT is working to develop Vietnam's solid biomass fuel resources on an industrial level as part of the Energy and Environment Partnership Program run by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, is to create multi-fuel delivery chains for power plants and industrial boilers.

The program will make sure biomass fuels are available all year round through the use of storage systems to make seasonal raw materials available continuously. It is thought that through this program, biomass will be able to be more efficiently and more often delivered, which should allow for biomass fuel to be more readily available at Vietnamese power plants. Read more ...

Map published of UK bioenergy facilities by NNFCC

The UK's installed bioenergy capacity currently stands at 2,000 MWe and can now produce more than 700,000 tonnes of biofuel each year. Increasingly demanding renewable energy and fuel targets are also likely to mean this will only increase in the future.

Biorenewables are a rapidly growing part of the UK's low carbon economy and offer significant opportunities for investment. "We are beginning to see real progress across the biorenewables sector in the UK and biomass is playing an increasingly important role in heat, power and materials markets," said Dr Adrian Higson, Head of Biorefining at the NNFCC. Read more ...

Miscanthus x giganteus has great potential as an alternative energy source

Recent findings from a study carried out by the University of Illinois has shown that Miscanthus x giganteus is a strong contender in the race to find the next source of ethanol. M. x giganteus is a bioenergy crop that can be grown to produce ethanol. The study investigated the establishment success, plant growth and dry biomass yield of the grass. Tom Voigt, lead scientist and associate professor in the U of I Department of Crop Sciences, said the overall goal is to promote biomass yield per acre for ethanol production using the fewest inputs with no environmental damage. Read more ...

Biomass System outperforms expectations in Vermont US

A biomass system in Vermont is outperforming all expectations, in one of the coldest States in the US National Life Group in late 2010 installed a biomass twin boiler wood chip system to provide primary heat for its 500,000 square foot headquarters.

“Because it was something new and they’d never operated it before, most of the guys said, ‘This is going to be bad," Ansel Quintin, HVAC team leader recalls. “It seemed like a lot of work. But you know what? That thing is awesome. We can’t say enough about it, the way it operates. Very smooth.” Read more ...

£10m anaerobic digestion fund launched

Wiltshire-based company Malaby Biogas has become the first recipient of a loan from a UK£10 million (US$15.331 million), anaerobic digestion fund launched in July last year by Defra and administered by WRAP. The one-off UK£800,000 (US$1,226,440.838), loan will be added to other funding secured by Malaby Biogas, including equity investment and support from Clydesdale Bank, to construct and commission a new anaerobic digestion plant on the site of a redundant 12-acre smallholding. Read more ...

Worlds largest biomass-fueled power plant

Tilbury Power Station

 Towards the End of January the worlds largest wood pellet-based biomass power plant will be fully commissioned and producing electricity at Tilbury in England. The power plant will be capable of generating an estimated 750 megawatts (MW) of base loan renewable power. “Although facing significant headwinds, the biopower industry is continuing to add capacity worldwide as governments look to develop low-cost, base load renewable energy sources,” says senior analyst Mackinnon Lawrence.

Wood pellets

“Currently, power generation from biomass is hamstrung by policy uncertainty and the high costs of feedstock relative to fossil fuels, but the combination of a burgeoning international trade in biomass pellets, implementation of emission regulations, and increased utilisation of co-firing strategies is expected to accelerate global scale-up efforts over the next decade.” Read more ...

Difficulties creating biofuels from grass and wood chip

Some biofuel companies are finding the going hard to create biofuels from grass, woodchip, many are having to become creative to their business, but the result of this is the fact that some are having to abandon their green credentials. Gevo a major advanced biofuels company that has received millions in US government funding to develop biofuels made from cellulosic sources. It is finding that it can't use materials like woodchip and grass. Read more ...

British Gas acquires leading biomass heating company

Centrica the owners of British gas has announced that they have brought the remaining 81 percent of Econergy in a deal worth UK£6.5 million (US$10.106 million). Econergy is a market leader in biomass heating, which uses renewable energy sources for combustion to produce heat. Econergy offers a complete design, installation and energy services package to domestic properties, businesses and public sector customers. Read more ...

Biotechnology Industry Organisation calls for Tax policies

The Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) that represents more than a 1,000 biotechnology companies has approached the government to call for long term tax policies to be introduced into the US in order to increase development to commercial scale.

In order to make sure these developments are successful, incentives should be given to ‘technologies with the greatest potential to create new jobs, economic growth, energy security and environmental benefits’, BIO claims. In a letter, the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) asked the US government to extend the Cellulosic Biofuels Producer Tax Credit and the Special Depreciation Allowance for Cellulosic Biofuel Plant Property. Read more ...

The US biomass industry outlook 2012

2012 should be a good year for the biomass industry in the United States, with four major biomass plants to be constructed, which will be pivotal in the expansion of wood fired power industry. Along with the coal to biomass plant conversions awaiting permits in Virginia, which could set the stage for a boom in biomass fuel use. One of the big problems is that there is too much red tape from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Bob Cleaves of the Biomass Power Association. said "We'll see gains for big projects where you have a combination of local fuel supply and strong political support". "At the same time, the weak economy, lack of demand for power and plummeting natural gas prices make it difficult to continue operations of smaller plants without long-term PPAs." Read more ...