HAMBURG (Reuters) – A number of European biodiesel refiners are likely to go under, and the EU will be under pressure to erect barriers to imports in the coming year as low demand in Europe for the green fuel combines with stiff competition from abroad.

“Many biodiesel companies are already in a critical situation, and there is a risk that this will be transformed into companies closing in the next months,” said Raffaello Garofalo, secretary general of the European biodiesel industry association EBB. Leer más »

By Rachel Graham, Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — European Union biodiesel production may fall for the first time in 2011 as Argentina and Indonesia increased exports to the region, an industry association said. Leer más »

By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters)/The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of Canadian crops such as canola and corn in U.S. biofuels on Thursday, a move that lifted Canadian canola prices and may help the U.S. meet its ambitious targets for biofuels.

The EPA’s designation of Canadian crops as a renewable biomass will allow U.S. biofuel makers to collect tax credits for using them, said Canola Council of Canada president JoAnne Buth.

“I suspect we will see more canola moving into the U.S. now,” Buth said in an interview. Leer más »

EVANSVILLE, Ind., Sep, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Imperial Petroleum, Inc. (otcqx:IPMN) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, e-Biofuels, LLC, produced and sold approximately 26 million gallons of transportation biodiesel in the Company’s most recent fiscal year ending July 31, 2011 resulting in revenues of approximately $106 million.

Jeffrey T. Wilson, President of Imperial said, “We’re very excited about the Company’s growth prospects. As a result of the turnaround of the biodiesel operations and robust demand for the product created by the RFS2 (Renewable Fuel Standard) our Company is set to experience built-in revenue growth for fiscal 2012 based on a full year of operation at plant capacity. At the Middletown, Indiana facility’s current production rates, the Company is on pace to produce in excess of 34 million gallons of fuel in fiscal 2012 or an annual increase of about 30%. Leer más »

Across the nation, biodiesel plants have been restarting or ramping up production, spurred by a revived federal tax credit and renewable energy mandates.

Becky Williams removes a pumping tube from a truck delivering oil to Renewable Energy Group’s biodiesel plant in Glenville, Minn. The plant was idled in March 2008 but has a new lease on life. (Renee Jones Schneider, MCT / September 19, 2011).Lufthansa flights take off using biofuel mix in engines./By David Shaffer.

Reporting from Glenville, Minn.— For more than three years, the SoyMor Biodiesel plant sat idle — victim of a slump that took down more than a quarter of the plants in the industry. Leer más »

* Rotterdam plant largest in Europe

* Production to be ramped up in stages

* Lifts Neste Oil’s total renewable diesel capacity to 2 mln tonnes a year (Adds CEO comments)

HELSINKI, Sept 20 – Neste Oil has started up its new renewable diesel plant in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, the Finnish refiner said on Tuesday.

The plant, with a total capacity of 800,000 tonnes per year, is the largest in Europe and can make renewable diesel from different types of vegetable oils and waste fats.

Production of renewable diesel would be ramped up in stages, the company said. Leer más »

Expedito José de Sá Parente, 70, a Brazilian scientist who is considered the creator of biodiesel died this week in Fortaleza, capital of the northeastern state of Ceará. President Dilma Rousseff paid tribute to the researcher who developed the ‘green’ fuel from oilseeds.

Chemical engineer Sá Parente “created biodiesel which is a motive of pride for all Brazilians” recalled President Rousseff in an official release underlining that “the discovery patented by Brazil, had a wide international acknowledgement and has had a decisive influence in the country’s future.” Leer más »

By Jerome Carlo R. Paunan.QUEZON CITY, Aug. 16 (PIA) — The Aquino administration is eying the potential of the oil derived from coconuts or “coco-biodiesel” to reduce the country’s overdependence on imported fuels, an official from the Philippine Coconut Authority said Tuesday.

During the CNEX – Talking Points forum held at the Philippine Information Agency, PCA public relations officer Thelma Tolentino said government is considering to increase the current minimum two percent blend of coco-diesel due to its many benefits. Leer más »

Biodiesel Industry Producing Record Volumes.

U.S. biodiesel production reached a new monthly high in June of 81 million gallons, marking a third consecutive month of record volumes. Biodiesel production in the first half of 2011 has already eclipsed production for all of 2010.

The new EPA statistics come after Congress reinstated the biodiesel tax incentive this year. Leer más »

Posted by Joanna Schroeder/An ethanol plant that stops looking for ways to diversify its business and improve its profits is an ethanol plant that will drown faster in bad weather. A new option for the ethanol industry to diversify is to add a biodiesel plant to the end of its corn oil extraction technology. This idea lends itself one step closer to a true biorefinery.

So what is the value proposition of doing this? Profits, as Mark Fashian, president of Ethanol Analytical Solutions (EAS) and Biodiesel Analytical Solutions (BAS) explained to me during a Skype interview following the Fuel Ethanol Workshop recently held in Indianapolis, Indiana. For example, Fashian said a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant will sell 100 million RINS. By adding a 3 million gallon biodiesel plant you’ll make your plant more valuable because each of these gallons is worth 1.5 RINS, or an additional 4.5 million in total. Leer más »