JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Brazil on Tuesday opened the world’s first ethanol-fueled power plant in an effort by the South American biofuels giant to increase the global use of ethanol and boost its clean power generation.

State-run oil giant Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) and General Electric Co (GE.N), which helped design the plant, are betting that increased use of ethanol generation by green-conscious countries will boost demand for the product.

Brazil, the top global ethanol exporter, is already in talks with Japan to develop biofuels power generation there. Leer más »

Progress in the use of biofuels for power generation..

On May 20 the government announced the GENREÂ program (Renewable Generation), by which the state company ENARSA will call for tender the purchase of electricity produced through renewable energy. Leer más »

Developer. De Souza Meirelles is leading a project for expansion of ethanol.

Interview with brazilian producer Joao Carlos de Souza Meirelles.

His company, Frontera Norte, is working on the development of new agricultural zones, founded three cities and colonized one million hectares, mostly in Mato Grosso. Strong commitment to energy sugar cane.

Frontera Norte Ingeniería de Desarrollo Limitada is a company with over 30 years in the development of large zones of new agricultural frontiers of Brazil. “We did what we call in Portuguese, colonization.” said to “La Voz del Campo” the engineer Joao Carlos de Souza Meirelles, group member and former secretary of agriculture of the state of San Pablo. Coming from a family of Portuguese immigrants but with several generations among Brazilian farmers, De Souza Meirelles is one of the “fathers” of the raise of Brazil as the first world exporter of beef. 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 »

Kyung Wook Hur, Vice Minister, Ministry of Strategy and Finance of Korea; and Luis Alberto Moreno, President, IDB, signed a memorandum of understanding to promote programs and projects that foster cooperation between them and, in particular, activities related to green growth, sustainable energy and climate change.

Photo: Árlette Pedraglio

The Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will sign a an agreement to co-finance public and private sector projects worth as much as $2 billion in the next three years in Latin America and the Caribbean. Leer más »

The jatropha (known as Barbados nut) and the biodiesel attract the interest of the markets of Asia and North America, through the promotion that two investigators carry out in United States on the plant and its yield.  Â

In October of 2008, a group of investigators visited the country interested in promoting the scientific investigation in the alternative energy field. Ryan Joon Hyeong Im and Ryan Choi wants to bring the scientific investigation on the jatropha and the biodiesel production to the country, at the same time of promoting Paraguay in the Asian and North American markets, explained Jerónimo Finestra, representative of the Association for scientific development of the Mercosur. Leer más »

It would begin with the super and common types due to the lack of the capacity to process alcohol.Â

The 5% bioethanol mix in the naphtha won’t reach to all the varieties in January of 2010 as it was foreseen, but rather it will begin with the super and ultra types due to the lack of dehydrating plants to transform the alcohol. As confirmed to La Nacion by sugar companies involved in the business and the Argentinean Sugar Center that pointed out that May 15 will conquer the term to present the projects for the bioethanol quota before the Secretary of Energy. Fernando Nebbia, president of the Argentinean Sugar Center, said: “For January there will be an important quantity of dehydrated alcohol to begin the operative with two types of naphtha: common and ultra. Leer más »

WASHINGTON, (Reuters). – The future of the biodiesel market is in unstable land, because the closing of the legal lagoon of a fiscal credit and new European import tariffs could reduce the trade, said the Energy Information Administration. Â

It is expected that in 2009 in United States and with the standards of the renewable fuel, 500 million gallons (1900 million liters) of biodiesel be blended with diesel, a biofuel elaborated starting from oils or of animal fats. Â

The figure should be increased by law to 1000 million biodiesel gallons for 2012. This, together with the rise of the fuel prices, generated an increase in the production in the last years, and the tributary incentives sent great part of the fuel to the foreigner, in accordance with the EIA. Leer más »

It will add industrial park in Terminal Las Palmas.Â

Terminal Las Palmas will invest u$s 10 M to enlarge its port complex of Zárate enabling the dispatch of liquid loads and a new general loads dock, that will be added to the grain and container portrising that today they already have. And also, in a 5 year term, they hope to lift an industrial park to attract the establishing of companies linked to the agri exporting business. Â

As it was announced yesterday by Federico Pellicer, manager of Terminal Puerto Feeder, of Terminal Las Palmas, a company of the Molinos Cañuelas Group, in the framework of the III Argentinean Encounter of Fluvial Transport that was carried out in the Board of Trade. Leer más »