Pacific Biodiesel “is the oldest biodiesel producer and refinery in the country, started in 1996,” said Vilsack during his remarks on Tuesday at the memorial, noting that USDA has provided assistance to help that company grow. “We provided recently a $5 million business and industry loan to Pacific Biodiesel to allow it to continue to expand its capacity.”

That loan, announced in February 2010, is being used to construct a $10 million, 5.5 million gallon per year biodiesel production plant in Kea’au on the Big Island. Pacific Biodiesel vice president and co-founder Kelly King says Big Island Biodiesel will be the companies 13th biodiesel plant. “We’ll be owning and operating five of them, the other ones we built for clients throughout the mainland, from the east coast to the west coast,” she says, with capacity ranging from a half million to six million gallons.

“We started in Maui, where we actually had the first available biodiesel pump for the public,” said King. “Back then, most of our customers were environmental hippies who would come and pay 70 cents a gallon more for fuel and thank us and tell us to keep the change!”

King says Pacific Biodiesel operates on a community-based sustainable model set up locally to benefit local communities. While all the plants can use any type of oil feedstocks, much of them operate on used cooking oil. “It can use the most degraded oils up to the purest oils,” she said. “The degraded oils make the best feedstock because it’s the cheapest!”

King and two of her Pacific Biodiesel team members were excited to be part of the secretary’s appearance at Pearl Harbor and to have him recognize the importance of renewable fuels in the Aloha State.DOMESTIC FUEL.

The proposed sites for development are in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and will use an Algae Enhancement Technology, the GB3000 system, employed for growing algae for the production of fish feed, proteins and biofuel. Prime Inc India’s current clients include Exxon, Shell, General Electric (GE) and Siemens.

“We look forward to working with Prime Inc India in the design, development and support of a cost-efficient algae production farm,” Liran Kosman, CFO of WHEN, said. “We anticipate scaling up operations and completing a number of significant algae projects in 2012.”

World Health recently acquired GNE-India, an algae technology firm with the distribution and licensing rights to a unique and innovative technology, the GNE GB 3000 system, to grow algae quickly and efficiently to produce biodiesel and commercial fish food protein. GNE-India owns and retains the territorial rights for distribution and sales of the proprietary technology in India and Sri Lanka.

The company enjoys exclusive distribution and licensing rights to the GNE GB 3000 system in India and Croatia.

In 2011, the GB 3000 system was used to grow local algae species like spirulina, as well as chlorella, for fish feed and biodiesel markets, Biodiesel Magazine reports.

WHEN is focused on biofuels produced from algae because, the company explains, it gives substantially higher yields in comparison to ethanol derived from corn, rapeseed, jatropha and palm oil. The company also works with enterprises producing progressive, broad-based solutions for better physical, nutritional and environmental health worldwide.

In addition, World Health is pursuing another use of algae: the efficient production of high-protein fish feed for commercial fish farms.By Natalia Real.FIS.

The ASA highlighted accomplishments it made in several specific areas, including policy and advocacy, and domestic and international use of soy. Under the heading of policy and advocacy, the ASA noted it doggedly supported the biodiesel industry in an effort to extend the biodiesel tax credit in 2011, which helped the industry reach record biodiesel production levels in 2011. According to the ASA, it also worked alongside the United Soybean Board, U.S. Soybean Export Council, and soy exporters in an effort to maintain access for U.S. soybean exports to the EU that would otherwise be negatively affected by the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. The ASA also noted that the U.S. government and the EU have agreed to enter into bilateral negotiations on how U.S. soybeans can be deemed compliant with RED requirements. In addition, the ASA efforts in the 2008 Farm Bill helped to establish the USDA’s BioPreferred program, a voluntary biobased product labeling program.

Regarding the use of soy, the ASA said record biodiesel production levels achieved in 2011 were the direct result of efforts by the National Biodiesel Board, the biodiesel industry and the ASA in supporting the development of a renewable fuel standard for biodiesel and extending the tax incentive through the end of 2011. In its statement, the ASA also noted its efforts have been supported by strong soybean checkoff investments in research and promotion.

The ASA also noted several key policy issues it intends to focus on in 2012, including defending the biodiesel portion of the renewable fuel standard and supporting the extension of the biodiesel tax incentive. The association also plans to work to maintain market access in the EU by addressing the treatment of U.S. soybeans under the RED.

A full list of the ASA’s 2011 accomplishments can be downloaded from the organization’s website.BIODIESEL MAGAZINE.

According to a statement released by Evogene, the impetus behind establishing the subsidiary is due to the need for diversifying feedstock supply to fulfill worldwide demand of biodiesel, which currently relies mainly on edible oils such as soybeans and canola.

Originally launched in 2007, Evogene’s biofuel activity targets the development of second-gen feedstocks to serve as sustainable, viable and cost-effective sources of oil for the burgeoning global biodiesel industry. In addition to its castor bean seed development and commercialization efforts, the company stated that it “intends to broaden its activity to additional potential feedstocks for the biodiesel, biojet and ethanol markets.”

“With the biofuel industry’s continued growth and tremendous demand for cost-competitive feedstock, there is a strong and immediate need for a solution based on designated second-generation seed products,” said Ofer Haviv, president and CEO of Evogene. “The establishment of Evofuel as a separate company strongly positions it to address this substantial unmet need. We are reinforced by the progress and results of our castor seed in Brazil and believe that access to Evogene’s leading plant genomics capabilities will provide Evofuel with commercial advantages and opportunities in relevant markets.”

The formation of Evofuel follows on the heels of Evogene successfully completing field trials for its advanced castor varieties in Brazil in cooperation with SLC Agricola S.A., a leading agribusiness firm in the country, which will be cultivated for biodiesel feedstock. Under the expanded agreement, Evogene and SLC Agricola intend to continue to evaluate Evogene’s castor varieties at its farm locations in Brazil. The goal is to identify the best performing varieties and agronomic practices suitable for commercial-scale production.

In addition to Brazil and Israel, field trials of castor been cultivars are also being conducted in the U.S.; most notably at Texas A&M University. Additional collaborators in the program include NASA and Honeywell’s UOP.

In mid-2010, Evogene announced that biobased jet fuel produced using its castor varieties met international standards for alternative aviation fuels. The testing was completed in collaboration with NASA and Honeywell’s UOP. Also in 2010, the company announced that a life-cycle analysis of biodiesel using its castor varieties demonstrated a 90 percent greenhouse gas reduction when compared to petroleum.BIODIESEL MAGAZINE.

This year’s efforts more than doubled last year’s production of about 315 million gallons and breaking the previous record of about 690 million gallons set in 2009. The new record comes after a federal tax incentive for biodiesel was reinstated earlier this year.

The incentive is in danger of expiring on Dec. 31 without congressional action.

“I can say without question that this tax credit has helped us grow our production and hire new people, and it will play a big role in our growth going forward,” said Gabe Neeriemer, president of Patriot Biodiesel in Greensboro, N.C. “It will affect how many people we can hire, how much feedstock and equipment we buy, how many truckers we put to work delivering fuel.”

Neeriemer says Patriot Biodiesel was forced to temporarily suspend operations when the tax credit expired in 2010. With the incentive restored this year, the plant is not only back online but is expanding production to about 5 million gallons per year and hiring a half dozen new employees.

“This incentive is working, and particularly in this kind of economy when politicians say they’re doing everything they can to create jobs, I can’t imagine why Congress would allow it to expire,” Neeriemer said.

The biodiesel industry rebounded after Congress reinstated the $1-per-gallon tax credit in December 2010. Without the incentive last year, production dropped dramatically as dozens of plants shuttered and thousands of people lost jobs.

This year’s increased production will support more than 31,000 jobs — up from fewer than 13,000 last year — while generating at least $3 billion in GDP and $628 million in federal, state and local tax revenues, according to a recent economic study conducted by Cardno-Entrix.TRUCKING INFO.

“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.

“Many companies have already closed, especially in Germany and Spain.”

The EBB estimates European Union 2011 biodiesel production capacity is at 22.1 million tonnes but that the industry is reaching only 44 percent of that capacity.

“Although the EU has got a nominal biodiesel capacity of more than 22 million tonnes, many plants have been at least temporarily closed down or idled and are not really producing,” said Rabobank analyst Susan Hansen.

“This is for instance the case in Germany, Spain, or Italy but actually across the whole of the EU.”

A poor EU rapeseed crop has made palm oil and soyoil-based biodiesel more price attractive.

German oilseeds analysts Oil World forecasts EU biodiesel output will fall to 9.07 million tonnes in 2011 from 9.54 million last year largely because of competition from imports.

“EU imports of biodiesel have increased sharply so far this year and will probably reach a record 2.52 million tonnes in January/December 2011, up 21 percent from last year,” Oil World said.

“We expect 1.4 million tonnes of biodiesel to arrive from Argentina and at least 830,000 tonnes from Indonesia and Singapore,” Oil World says.

That compares with imports of 1.1 million tonnes from Argentina and 516,000 tonnes from Indonesia and Singapore last year.

European biodiesel producers came under extra pressure earlier this year as environmentalists questioned the EU policies for green fuels, after studies said the cultivation of rapeseed, palm or soybeans as a feedstock for biodiesel was worse for climate change than the use of regular diesel.

Biodiesel refiners themselves are often unwilling to talk about the depth of the problem.

“The industry is in a very bad way, and we could see more closures pretty soon, especially in south Europe,” said one German refiner, who declined to be named.

CRISIS CLOSE IN SPAIN AND ITALY?

A crisis could be approaching in Spain and Italy, where biodiesel capacity usage is falling to dramatically low levels.

“I cannot see how Spanish and Italian biodiesel producers will survive much longer at the terrible capacity usage rates we are currently seeing,” one oilseeds trader said.

“The signs are that biodiesel imports are causing an alarming fall in local output.”

Spain’s 2011 biodiesel output will drop 31 percent on the year to 550,000 tonnes, Oil World estimates. Spain’s biodiesel production capacity is 4.4 million tonnes.

Italy’s 2011 biodiesel output is likely to fall 40 percent on the year to 450,000 tonnes, Oil World forecasts. Italy’s annual capacity is 2.2 million tonnes.

More EU imports of palm-based biodiesel are expected, especially from Indonesia.

“Biodiesel demand for Europe at least keeps us in business and will keep palm oil prices very supportive next year despite expectations for strong production,” said an Indonesian trader who sells biodiesel to Germany.

But rising imports, especially from Indonesia, also threaten to create trade friction, with allegations of unfair prices.

“Palm oil and even biodiesel is sold in the internal market in Indonesia at a price which is higher than the price of exports to Europe,” said the EBB’s Garofalo. “There is clearly dumping. This also happens from time to time with Argentine imports.

“We are now talking to the EU Commission authorities to raise their attention to this issue.”

Rabobank’s Hansen said she would not be surprised if the EU moved to curb imports.

“Every time imports drastically increase, I believe the EU will find ways to – at least temporarily – put barriers in place by introducing tariffs on imported biodiesel for example,” she said.

The EBB is also calling on European governments to take more steps to reach the EU’s goal of 10 percent biofuel use in transport by 2020.

“This (low production) is a paradox when we have a desperate need to reduce greenhouse gases in transport to fight climate change,” Garofalo said.

(additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur, editing by Jane Baird).REUTERS.

Output rose 5.5 percent to 9.57 million metric tons in 2010, the European Biodiesel Board said today in an e-mailed statement. Output growth slowed from 17 percent in 2009 and 35 percent in 2008, according to the Brussels-based group.

“Forecasts for 2011 show a reduction of European production compared to the same time last year,” the statement said. The region’s plants operated at 44 percent in the first half of this year, according to the group.

–Editors: Rob Verdonck, Raj Rajendran.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG

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.

ICE Canada canola futures closed up 1.9 percent exceeding gains in other related markets. Canada becomes the first country outside the United States to receive approval under the EPA’s land use test on an aggregate basis, said Ben Evans, spokesman for the U.S.-based National Biodiesel Board.

That means Canada has provided assurances that overall it is not bringing more net farm land into production, so farmers don’t have to individually prove the same thing to qualify under the U.S. biodiesel mandate.

The U.S. Congress has set a goal of blending 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel into transportation fuel by 2022 and that target is large enough that there’s little risk of Canadian crops displacing U.S. feedstocks like soybeans from the biodiesel mix, Evans said.

 “I don’t think you’ll see a huge flood, but a gradual increase” of canola entering the U.S. biodiesel industry, Evans said in an interview. “It’s a positive development.”

In 2010, soybean oil made up half of the feedstock used in production of U.S. biodiesel, followed by animal fats, Evans said.

The U.S. Canola Association also supports the decision, said Dale Thorenson, the association’s assistant director.

Last year, the EPA placed canola oil on an equal footing with soyoil, ruling that it emits low enough greenhouse gas levels to qualify for the U.S. mandate to increase renewable fuel production.

 That decision allowed biodiesel makers to get credits for using U.S. canola, but Canadian crops did not qualify.

Canada is the world’s top exporter of canola, a rapeseed variant that is used mostly for vegetable oil and livestock feed. Top Canadian canola crushers include Cargill Inc, Viterra Inc, Bunge Ltd, Richardson International Limited, Louis Dreyfus and Archer Daniels Midland.

Canada is normally a net importer of corn.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel; Editing by David Gregorio and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

LONDON (Reuters) – Major British independent oil firm Greenergy sees its future as an exploration company, but one that hunts for fuel in piles of stale pork pies and cakes rather than under the ground or from food crops.

The refined oil product wholesaler is still investing in the embattled European Union biodiesel sector, aiming to utilise ever more challenging waste products after abandoning, at least for now, the widely criticised use of virgin vegetable oils.

“We are investing more and more so we can take harder and harder wastes to process. By late spring or early summer next year we will be able to take almost any liquid you can imagine,” Greenergy founder and chairman Andrew Owens said in an interview on Wednesday.

The European Union’s biofuels industry has struggled to attract funds and expand during the eurozone’s economic crisis, hurt not only by a challenging investment climate but also questions about the sector’s environmental credentials.

Biofuels had been seen playing a central role in helping the EU achieve its target of meeting 10 percent of road transport fuel needs from renewable sources by 2020.

Political support has wavered as scientists raised concerns about the environmental impact of diverting food crops to biofuel production.

Greenergy’s biodiesel plant at Immingham in eastern England was built to use vegetable oils but in the last couple of years the company has built units to pre-treat and post-treat production to allow use of waste such as used cooking oil.

The plant now has the capacity to produce nearly 200,000 tonnes of biodiesel from waste products.

EXPLORING PIES

“We get pork pies, crisps, cakes, dairy products that are not suitable for sale anymore because they have got too old or been damaged in the factory and we can extract fats and oils to make biodiesel,” Owens said.

The move to waste was prompted partly high vegetable oil prices, which made it hard to process them into biodiesel profitably, potential extra regulatory benefits from processing waste and a company target to achieving 70 percent greenhouse gas savings across all its biofuels.

“We are focussed on trying to broaden the feedstock base. We are becoming an exploration company but we are not exploring oil fields, we are exploring pies,” he added.

Owens said the EU’s biodiesel sector faced two main challenges, a massive over investment in capacity across Europe and continuous political tinkering and uncertainty.

He said investment decisions had to be made based on “intuition and common sense” in the absence of a clear future framework for the industry.

“The problem with political decisions is that common sense isn’t always one of the biggest drivers towards the decision,” he said.

But Owens said he remained hopeful about the future of the EU’s biodiesel industry.

He said bioethanol, a substitute for gasoline that is generally produced from grains and sugar crops, was now the cheapest way for oil companies to comply with obligations to blend biofuels into motor fuel.

But the EU overall had too much gasoline and not enough diesel.

“The point that people should not forget is that Europe remains short of diesel. This remains an absolutely pivotal issue,” he said.

“Biodiesel fills a strategic hole in the energy balance which bioethanol doesn’t do to the same extent.”

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; Editing by Anthony Barker).

SOURCE: REUTERS

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%.

“In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 we settled or resolved all of the past vendor and litigation issues that had faced e-Biofuels at the time of its acquisition by the Company, we extended our credit facility and we can now focus on our efforts to expand operations in both biofuels and oil sand production and refinance of the Company’s debt. We are excited about the opportunity to share our unique story with the investment community at the Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference in New York City.”

About Imperial Petroleum

Imperial Petroleum, Inc. is a diversified energy company headquartered in Evansville, Indiana. The Company is engaged in three principal areas of energy production: (i.) biodiesel and biofuels production; (ii.) traditional oil and gas exploration and production and (iii.) non-traditional oil production of heavy oil from mineable tar sands. For more information, visit the Imperial Petroleum corporate web site at: www.imperialpetroleuminc.com .

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those described herein. Although the Company believes that the expectations in such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

SOURCE: Imperial Petroleum, Inc.