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Wisconsin passes ethanol billThe "ethanol bill" has been signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. Senate Bill 279 streamlines the process for the management, development and research of biofuels. State Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, who worked on the bill with State Sen. Scott Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, said Wisconsin needs the bill for jobs, for the environment and to make the state competitive in the renewable energy sector.READ MORE Algae growth device made from computer partsFive students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created an algae growth contraption from old computer parts and other waste materials that they say can help replace fossil fuels and bring algae growth for biofuel production down to the household level.READ MORE  U of York opens Green Chemical Technology FacilityThe Green Chemistry Group at the U.K.'s University of York will use its recently-opened Green Chemical Technology Facility to advance research into clean synthesis, catalysis, novel materials and the application of renewable resources. The facility is an expansion of the Chemistry Department's existing Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence.READ MORE Converting carbs to lactic acid with catalystsA team of researchers from Haldor Topsøe A/S, a Danish catalyst research and development company, and the Technical University of Denmark's Department of Chemistry have developed a process to convert carbohydrates from biomass into lactic acid using only catalysis.READ MORE Cost increase may halt Xcel biomass projectFor the past several years, Xcel Energy has been investigating the logistics of converting its last coal-fired boiler at its Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland, Wis., to a biomass gasification technology. Two of the three boilers at Ashland's Bay Front Power Plant have been combusting woody biomass since 1979, and if the last boiler were converted it would be the largest 100 percent biomass-fueled power plant in the Midwest.READ MORE Dalkia plans huge biomass project in PolandElectricité de France and Veolia Environmental-owned Dalkia-a woody biomass power plant operator in France-announced it will soon engage in its largest biomass power project to date, a €70 million ($86.1 million ) retrofit of two coal-fired boilers in Poland.READ MORE EPA tailoring rule worries biomass industryThe biomass power industry was unpleasantly surprised with the release of the U.S. EPA's final Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule, which does not exempt biomass power producers from greenhouse gas permitting requirements despite past EPA affirmations that biomass is carbon neutral, and requires the same GHG reporting obligations as fossil fuel consumers.READ MORE U.S. states import billions of dollars in coalThree dozen states are collectively spending billions of dollars annually on imported coal, hundreds of times more than what they spend on renewable energy development and research, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists report released May 18.READ MORE |
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