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 »

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 »

Agricultural giant Tyson Foods Inc. and fuel developer Syntroleum Corp. will announce Monday that they have successfully opened a plant that makes diesel from chicken fat and leftover food grease.

But they say their new venture won’t survive unless Congress gives them a hefty tax break, an argument that many other alternative energy projects are also making.

A raw-materials check at the Tyson-Syntroleum alternative-diesel plant.

Tyson and Syntroleum say they’ve begun in recent weeks to make diesel and jet fuel from chicken fat, beef tallow and a range of greases and oils at a plant they’ve built in Geismar, La., south of Baton Rouge. The raw materials are leftovers from Tyson’s meat-processing plants and other food-processing factories and restaurants. Leer más »

FLORENCE – The city’s cooking oil recycling program has a problem. Public response has been so good, more oil is being collected than the city has capacity to convert to biodiesel fuel.

It’s a problem Mayor Bobby Irons and Gas and Water/Wastewater manager Mike Doyle like.

“We would like to expand and treat a larger volume during the warmer months,” Doyle said. “These (treatment) units are expandable, and we could double our treatment capacity to 200 gallons at a time real quick by adding another one.” Leer más »

The project is being developed by Bioscan in the region of Antofagasta, with co-financing InnovaChile. (Photo: CORFO)

A new project, which is financially supported by the Chilean government, will promote the diversification of energy through the production of biofuels from microalgae.

The main objective of the initiative is to develop algae production which captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and also creates competitively priced biodiesel fuels. Leer más »

One of the most heated environmental debates concerns biofuels. Using biofuels is nothing new and, in fact, diesel cars were originally designed to run off of peanut oil, but diesel fuel ended up being cheaper than peanut oil.

Now with pollution and the very real threat of drying oil wells, car manufacturers and scientists are once again turning to biodiesel fuels in order to solve this problem.

Biodiesel fuel is generally made from vegetable oils (soy being the most popular) or animal fat, either way it is biodegradeable. Leer más »