SAO PAULO(MarketWatch) — Brazilian state run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, said late Friday that it acquired a 50% stake in the local biodiesel company Bioleo Industrial e Comercial, for 15.5 million Brazilian reals ($8.8 million). Leer más »

BUENOS AIRES – Agribusiness giant Cargill said Thursday it was investing $113.6 million to build a biodiesel plant and an electricity generator in Argentina, where the U.S.-based company is the largest soy exporter.

Both projects will be carried out in the central province of Santa Fe and are due to come online in September 2011, the general manager of Cargill Argentina, Hugo Kranjc, told reporters after submitting the company’s plans to President Cristina Fernandez. Leer más »

The 100 Mgy Imperium Renewables  facility in Grays Harbor, Washington.

Back in 2008 the death watch began on Imperium Renewables.

Though its 100 Mgy multi-feedstock plant in Grays Harbor was, at the time, the largest and most modern biodiesel facility in the US, the company lost its CEO, withdrew a planned IPO, and was forced to cancel a potentially lucrative Hawaiian development project that would have supplied biodiesel to Hawaiian Electric (HECO). Leer más »

By Sorrel Moseley-Williams/Herald staff.Although renewable energy sources haven’t hit the mainstream just yet in Argentina, “the biofuels industry is finally coming together,” according to Carlos St. James, president and founder of the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber (ATEC).

Although biofuels currently supply just one percent of all energy to the domestic market, according to St. James, legislation will require them to provide eight percent by 2016. In addition, the government recently upped the blend of biodiesel with regular diesel from five percent to seven, an important move in a world increasingly reluctant to be fossil fuel-dependent. Leer más »

Canola-based biodiesel is closer to becoming a fuel authorized for biomass-based diesel Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), now that the EPA has released a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) for its recent modeling of the canola oil biodiesel pathway.

Earlier this year, EPA announced the final rule for the new Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), but the canola pathway was not yet looked at as biofuel feedstock able to meet required greenhouse gas reduction standards. Now, Biodiesel Magazine reports that the EPA says canola oil biodiesel could reduce GHGs by 50 percent compared to petroleum-based diesel: Leer más »

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina will make energy companies double the amount of soy-based biodiesel they blend with regular diesel fuel by the end of this year, the government announced on Thursday.

The fuel-mix requirement will be raised from 5 percent now to 7 percent initially and to 10 percent by year’s end, Planning Minister Julio De Vido said. Leer más »

Tim Haig, president of BIOX.Great strides being made in the development of biodiesel fuel.

To get to the Green Highway, auto makers are making the most amazing and fuel-efficient petroleum-burning engines ever. What doesn’t get nearly as much attention are the huge opportunities to achieve a cleaner world by burning something other than petroleum. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to dispel many of the “ethanol is a scam” myths. This week it’s biodiesel’s turn.

What I knew about biodiesel until recently was that Willie Nelson was probably making homebrew biodiesel in his kitchen somewhere to fuel a rainbow-coloured school bus. It’s true that the back-to-the-land crowd had long ago figured out that a fairly easy way to save the world and beat the taxman was to collect all the French fry grease they could and perform some simple chemistry. Biodiesel is that easy to make and it’s a wonderful fuel. Leer más »

MAN Latin America has supplied three customers with the first dual-fuel trucks that can operate on 100% biodiesel (B100).

 The vehicles, from the heavy Constellation range, can run on B100 or conventional diesel. The trucks are equipped with two separate tanks, which means that these systems can be used in areas where minimum requirements for biodiesel according to DIN norm EN 14214 may not be available. Leer más »

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s government is negotiating a plan to reduce diesel imports by making energy companies blend more of the fuel with soy-based biodiesel within the next year, industry sources said on Wednesday.

A new law requiring all diesel to be mixed with 5 percent of the plant-based fuel came into force earlier this year in the South American country, the fourth-biggest global biodiesel producer and top supplier of soybean oil. Leer más »

Santo Domingo. – The company Globasol signed an agreement on Monday with TSK-Ingemas, of the Spanish group Globalia, to build Dominican Republic’s first biodiesel  plant, at a cost of 40 million dollars.

The agreement includes the construction of a plant within 14 months in the province Azua (south) to use oil from native varieties of brush such as jatrofa and higuereta, which haven’t any use so far since the oil they produce is toxic. Leer más »