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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Fruits of J. curcas. Fruits are produced terminally in the branches, and each fruit contains three seeds. Image credit: Dr. Wagner A Vendrame, University of Florida at Homestead.

 What if space held the key to producing alternative energy crops on Earth? That’s what researchers are hoping to find in a new experiment on the International Space Station.

The experiment, National Lab Pathfinder-Cells 3, is aimed at learning whether microgravity can help jatropha curcas plant cells grow faster to produce biofuel, or renewable fuel derived from biological matter. Jatropha is known to produce high quality oil that can be converted into an alternative energy fuel, or biofuel(biodiesel). Leer más »

BA says the plant will reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

British Airways has struck a deal to build the first plant in Europe to produce jet fuel from waste matter.

Some 500,000 tonnes of waste will be used by the UK facility each year to produce 16 million gallons of fuel.

Construction of the plant in east London will start within two years. It is set to produce fuel from 2014, creating up to 1,200 jobs. Leer más »

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell plans to form an ethanol and fuel distribution joint venture worth up to $12 billion with Brazilian sugar and biofuel giant Cosan, becoming the latest global energy company to buy into one of Brazil’s fastest-growing industries.

The deal, announced on Monday, marks Shell’s first foray into ethanol production and follows moves by British oil company BP, which in 2008 took a stake in a big Brazilian biofuel project and unveiled $1 billion in investments.

Cosan shares jumped 12 percent in Sao Paulo, compared with a 1.1 percent gain by the benchmark Bovespa index. Shell shares rose 1.1 percent in London, outperforming a 0.3 percent rise in the Dow Jones European oil and gas index. Leer más »

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence. Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence. The sequence and its analysis appear in the January 14 edition of the journal Nature. Leer más »

There has been quite a bit of activity in Brazil during the last few months of 2009 and it looks like it will continue. Bunge Limited announced today that it will become the 100 percent owner of Usina Moema Participacoes S.A.

Moema Par is a holding company that owns one sugarcane mill and has ownership in five others. Together the six mills, known as the Moema Group, have the capacity to crush 15.4 metric tons. This agreement, which is structured as a share exchange worth approximately $896 million, gives Bunge 60 percent effective share of the total capacity. Leer más »

In past days the envelopes with the technical offer of the Official Plan of Renewable Energies (GENREN) bid were opened. The proposing companies are now waiting for the economic offer envelopes.

he Argentine government announced the results of the 1,015 megawatt (MW) renewable energies tender proposed last May. The total offers reached 1,461 MW, a 46% oversubscription. The offers were broken down by technology: 1,203 for wind power; 155.4 MW from biofuels; 54.1 MW from biomass; 14 MW from biogas; 22.5 MW from photovoltaic solar energy; and 12.7 MW from small hydro projects. Leer más »