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 »

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 »

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 »

The world’s first commercial-scale seawater-based biofuels project boosts Egypt’s aquaculture profile. (Photo: Global Seawater).

EGYPT, Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 00:40 (GMT + 9)

Houston-based energy projects development company Energy Allied International and the Seawater Foundation and Global Seawater, Inc, pioneers in the development of Integrated Seawater Agriculture Systems (ISAS), have signed an MOU to develop the world’s first commercial-scale seawater-based biofuels project in Egypt: “New Nile Co.” 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 »

Yields of biodiesel from oilseed crops such as safflower could be increased by up to 24 percent using a new process developed by chemists at UC Davis.

The method converts both plant oils and carbohydrates into biodiesel in a single process, and should also improve the performance characteristics of biodiesel, especially in cold weather. Leer más »

Accelergy, USAF to evaluate Camelina, liquid coal jet fuel mix
Accelergy has begun production of biojet fuel using a mix of Camelina oil and liquefied coal for evaluation by the US Air Force (USAF). Separately, Accelergy signed a Camelina oil supply agreement with an Ohio company.

US Navy to test F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet with biofuels
In 2009, Accelergy entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with USAF for testing fully synthetic fuels that meet or exceed USAF JP-8 military jet fuel standards. Leer más »

Engineers from the University of Cincinnati devise a foam that captures energy and removes excess carbon dioxide from the air — thanks to semi-tropical frogs.By: Wendy Beckman.

For decades, farmers have been trying to find ways to get more energy out of the sun.

In natural photosynthesis, plants take in solar energy and carbon dioxide and then convert it to oxygen and sugars. The oxygen is released to the air and the sugars are dispersed throughout the plant — like that sweet corn we look for in the summer. Unfortunately, the allocation of light energy into products we use is not as efficient as we would like. Now engineering researchers at the University of Cincinnati are doing something about that. Leer más »

Tilapia entrails, not used as food, can be an important souce of biodiesel. (Photo: Stock File/FIS).

The Ceara Nucleus Foundation of Industrial Technology (NUTEC) is moving forward with a project that will transform it into a pioneer in the research of biodiesel production from tilapia entrails.

For Fernando Pedro Dias, a researcher at NUTEC, the advantage in producing this type of biodiesel is that it does not depend on the use of byproducts apt for food production, but rather on fish discards.

Within the framework of this project, the Biodiesel Reference Laboratory (LARBIO) is in charge of gathering, storing and producing the biodiesel. Leer más »

SAO PAULO, March 22 (Reuters) – Braskem (BRKM5.SA), Latin America’s largest petrochemicals company, may open a second factory to produce polyethylene from sugar cane-based ethanol, once a first plant starts up around October, a project manager at the firm said on Monday.

Braskem expects to become the first commercial-scale producer of polyethylene made from a renewable source when a plant in Brazil begins producing the building block resin used in plastics at the Triunfo plant, said Leonora Novaes, Braskem’s commercial head for green polyethylene. Leer más »