Biorefining Conference & Trade Show energizes Houston
September 14, 2011
The 2011 International Biorefining Conference & Trade Show officially started today in the heart of oil and gas country, but the buzz during the first night in Houston was all biobased.
UK firm produces high-energy 'Hycadiesel'
September 13, 2011
The enzyme process cancels out the need for dealing with glycerol waste, use of caustic alkali, methanol distillation recovery and the product wash steps needed with conventional biodiesel processing. The result is high-energy fuel with no waste.
BioSolar Inc. has entered into a sales rep agreement with ShinHa Inc. to market its biobased backsheet, designed to for use in photovoltaic solar modules. ShinHa is a Korean firm that represents large Asian PV panel makers targeting North America.
According to the report, which was supplied to us by Algae.Tec, Arrowhead said it believes that Algae.Tec has "enormous growth potential with a medium risk profile." A lack of patent protection and additional financing are among the risks.
The program with SYKE will focus on testing the lipid production capacity of different types of algal strains and analyzing how the quality and quantity of the lipids could be optimized by adjusting the conditions under which the algae are grown.
Biobased isobutanol developer Gevo Inc. has signed a commercial offtake and strategic marketing alliance with downstream oil company Mansfield Oil Co. to distribute its isobutanol fuel into the petroleum market. The agreement has three main pillars.
Trillium is developing a robust and readily scalable process technology that focuses on the use of a naturally occurring enzyme called xylose isomerase to convert xylose into xylulose, a sugar that conventional yeast can convert to ethanol.
Obama on jobs: 'We have to out-innovate'
September 09, 2011
U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech to introduce his American Jobs Act before Congress on Thursday night, a piece of legislation that he said will "put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working."
University of Illinois researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California-Berkeley, have engineered a unique yeast strain that is capable of converting red seaweed into cellulosic ethanol in half the time. Butanol is next.
Spain-based Neuron Bio recently announced it has commissioned a pilot-scale batch fermentation plant that will be used to scale up the production of yeast, bacteria and algae as part of its own research and development efforts.
Air Products notes that many advanced biofuels projects under construction or in planning phase require oxygen for gasification steps, hydrogen for oil upgrading to a final biofuel product and nitrogen as an inert and fluidizing medium.
It's not too late to go. Register today.
The U.K.'s National Non-Food Crops Centre has been chosen to investigate the environmental impacts of algae-based bioenergy, and help the region to formulate a long-term plan for algae. The report will include reference documents for policymakers.
OriginOil Inc. announced in early September that delegates to the recent Algae World Australia conference toured its next-generation algae extraction technology at a university-staffed site featuring end-to-end algae production in North Queensland.
DOE's EERE awarded $12 million to three small-scale biorefining projects in Illinois, Wisconsin and North Carolina that aim to commercialize novel conversion technologies and accelerate the development of drop-in advanced biofuels and biochemicals.
On Sept. 6 Nidus Partners LP announced that Denmark-based Novozymes has joined Nidus as a corporate partner. Novozymes will collaborate with Nidus and its other partners Bunge Ltd. and Monsanto Co. to select and develop early-stage technologies.
Biome Technologies experienced a 132 percent sales revenue growth within its U.K. bioplastics division, Biome Bioplastics, making the division profitable for the first time. The entire Biome group revenue increased by 55 percent during the period.
The link between algae and solar
September 06, 2011
The solar industry has hit hard times. How will bad news in the solar industry affect the algae industry?
Tom Vilsack spoke about the U.S. biofuels industry on Platts Energy Week Aug. 28. While Vilsack did briefly discuss subsidies for ethanol production, the bulk of his talk focused on our nation's developing cellulosic and drop-in biofuels industries.
If you're not in this space yet, what are you waiting for?
A team of researchers at Tulane University have discovered a unique bacterial strain of clostridia, coined TU-103, that has the ability to convert cellulosic materials into biobased normal butyl alcohol, or n-butanol, in the presence of oxygen.
Biomass leaching paired with torrefaction yields a densified biomass fuel ideally suited in many ways for biopower production, according to Luis Cerezo of the Electric Power Research Institute, who participated in a DOE webinar on Aug. 30.
Using a $25 million U.S. DOE award, UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced Aug. 30 that it has begun construction in Hawaii of a biofuels demo unit to convert forest residuals, algae and other cellulosic biomass into green transportation fuels.
Through subsidiary Bluewater Biochemicals, BioAmber has identified Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, as the site for its first North American biobased succinic acid production facility. The facility will have an initial annual capacity of 17,000 metric tons.
Navy Secretary Ray Maybus held a press conference to inform the private sector that a request for information has been issued on how to leverage capital markets to establish a commercially viable drop-in biofuels national market. They want ideas.
Aquaflow Bionomic, a New Zealand-based algae technology developer, is taking a broad approach to algae-to-fuel development, one the company's director says may include nonalgae feedstocks. It's now working with CRI Catalyst Co. on the IH2 process.
The visit aimed to highlight the Obama Administration's efforts to support the creation and production of biobased products in order to create jobs, add value to agricultural commodities, and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.
Monticello said while ethanol may not be a focus of the collaboration, the alcohol acts as a viable springboard for getting to the basic building blocks of producing chemicals such as isoprene, which is of specific interest to GlycosBio.
Vertically-integrated algae developer Aurora Algae has received $22 million in funding in a round led by Oak Investment Partners and other existing investors, along with an undisclosed foreign strategic investor. To date it has raised $72 million.
Ineos announced this month that its joint-venture project, Ineos New Planet BioEnergy, finalized $75 million in private financing utilizing the USDA loan guarantee program for its new Indian River BioEnergy Center located in Vero Beach, Fla.
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