By Erin Voegele/Events planned in Thailand and India aim to provide interested parties with knowledge and information related to each country’s respective biodiesel industry. Bangkok, Thailand is hosting the Clean Power Asia conference June 28-30, while the Center for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel (CJP) will hold the 4th Global Jatropha Hi-tech Integrated Nonfood Biodiesel Farming & Technology Training Programme in Jaipur, India Sept. 14-18.

“Thailand is committed to the low-carbon pathway,” said Twarath Sutabutr, deputy director of the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency within Thailand’s Ministry of Energy. Sutabutr is leading the list of speakers for this week’s event. Leer más »

Jatropha seed oil touted for jets.

Photo provided by Mission New Energy Jatropha seeds yield as much as 40 percent oil that has been touted for use in diesel applications and refined into aviation-quality jet fuel.

A plant that some have scorned as a predator might well turn out to be part of the answer to rising fuel bills for consumers.

Jatropha curcas, a poisonous, semi-evergreen shrub that can grow as high as 20 feet, produces seeds laden with oil that backers say is an ideal biofuel. One company that maintains 194,000 acres of the plant under cultivation in India is looking to expand farming, and fuel production, in the United States. Leer más »

Planning Minister Julio De Vido, undertook to update the domestic price of biodiesel that remains frozen from the Ministry of Interior established Comercion Supply Act for the entire marketing chain liquid fuels.

Urgente24 reported 8 / 11 that negotiations were between the producers and the government to unfreeze the internal value of biodiesel derived from soybean (see related). However, the conflict would come to an end for the pressures of the association that brings together workers in the sector.

Biodiesel.com.ar site reported, the update of prices was rushed by a demonstration of the Union of Petroleum private gas and biofuels San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, which warned of the effect of this freeze on jobs. Leer más »

15 September 2010. In an effort to reduce carbon emissions and further renewable energy solutions, the Canadian government is to invest up to CA$18.79 million (€14 million) in Biocardel Quebec, a biofuels plant producing biodiesel and glycerol located in Richmond, Quebec, through its ecoENERGY for biofuels programme. Leer más »

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently released a new report that champions jatropha as a promising biodiesel crop especially for global rural farmers. The report, “Jatropha: A Smallholder Bioenergy Crop, the Potential for Pro-Poor Development,” set out to examine the potential for jatropha as a sustainable biodiesel crop and has been in development since 2008. Leer más »

The 100 Mgy Imperium Renewables  facility in Grays Harbor, Washington.

Back in 2008 the death watch began on Imperium Renewables.

Though its 100 Mgy multi-feedstock plant in Grays Harbor was, at the time, the largest and most modern biodiesel facility in the US, the company lost its CEO, withdrew a planned IPO, and was forced to cancel a potentially lucrative Hawaiian development project that would have supplied biodiesel to Hawaiian Electric (HECO). 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 »

Bernd Waltermann and Henning Streubel ,  Jakarta.

As Indonesia is today the world’s largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) — a desirable feedstock for biodiesel production — it has the potential to grow into a world biodiesel leader and a model for plantation sustainability.

Biodiesel has the potential to become a significant industry sector in Indonesia, supported by two of its most valuable assets: its oil palm plantations, and more importantly, its people. Indonesia currently produces approximately 20 million tons of CPO per year from 7 million hectares of oil palm plantation, of which approximately 80 percent  is exported.  Leer más »

Following the publication of the EPA’s draft Regulatory Impact Analysis this week which includes proposed changes to the Renewable Fuels Standards Program, the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber expressed both concerns and optimism regarding the possible effects this will have on the export-driven Argentine biodiesel industry. Leer más »

In the Fair of Detroit the presentation of hybrid and electrical vehicles was the tendency marked by the companies before an adverse economic panorama.Â

The vice-president and general manager of Toyota Bob Carter presents the Toyota Prius , a gas-electrical hybrid of third generation. Picture: EFEÂ

DETROIT, (AFP). – The electric and hybrid vehicles continue encouraging the recovery hope of the automotive market in crisis times. It is for that reason that the makers multiply announcements and reveal prototypes to seduce the public in the fair of Detroit with numerous prototypes of big manufacturers as Daimler, Toyota or General Motors that respond to the climatic concerns and the high price of the fuels. Leer más »