Gasoline made from Giant Miscanthus at MSU

Cool Planet Biofuels recently announced it has used Freedom giant miscanthus to create gasoline, a breakthrough in the biofuels industry. Mississippi State University researcher Brian Baldwin and his colleagues in the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station spent years developing a variety of giant miscanthus, a perennial grass native to Asia, particularly suited to the Southeastern climate and soils. MSU filed a plant patent application for the resulting variety, named Freedom, in 2010, and licensed it to Georgia-based Repreve Renewables LLC.

"MSU, MAFES and the Extension Service have a long history of bioenergy research. The possibility of gasoline being made from a cultivar developed in Mississippi is very exciting and validates MSU’s research focus," Mr Kasper said. "The primary reason we license our intellectual property is so our industrial partners can take MSU’s research and translate it into greater applications for the public benefit. We want our technology out there, improving the lives of people around the world."  Read more ...

Core BioFuel has produced a wood-to-fuel process

Canadian company Core Biofuels produces fuel from wood. They have developed a wood to fuel process to create high octane, benzene-free, drop in petrol. Larry Melnichuk, vice president of process design and development at Core says the technology performs better than expected’.

"The catalyst for this reaction did not produce benzene which the EPA has determined should not be present in petrol unless lower than their current criteria levels. Removing benzene is difficult and expensive and our process does not incur this cost. Utilising similar operating parameters, our reactor actually produces a gasoline superior to ExxonMobil’s well-known commercial MTG (methanol-to-gasoline) process. Read more ...

US bio energy development in Zimbabwe

A US$600 million ( €443.344 million) bio energy development eastern Chisumbanje district, has launched ethanol blended with petrol on the local market in a development hoped to cut fuel cost for motorists and to reduce the country's fuel import bill. At selected fuel stations in Harare the new mixed fuel went on sale at US$1.36 per liter, which is marginally cheaper than the unblended petrol. The government has since approved a blend ratio of 10 percent locally produced ethanol and 90 percent petroleum, a low-level blend called E-10 in the industry. Read more ...