The Big Biofuels Blog

By Jimminy, the US Biodiesel business needs to react to this post about lying biodiesel pumps quickly and make sure it can repair the damage.

The cost of lobbying by the National Biodisel Board in the US has been published by Congress. In 2007 the National Biodiesel Board spent about $1.2m, which seems pretty small beer to me, according to Hemscott

Nice piece by Amy Ziff over on the Huffington Post about Virgin's biofuel powered flight recently. I can't help wondering if we'd be better off using waste materials for fuel, than edible nuts, even if their market is in the Amazon Basin.

Its worth looking at this on Taza Kino - Citzen News for a feel of how some people in parts of the world (where English is not the first language) feel about biofuels.

There's a useful exchange in Hansard, the UK's parliamentary record this week on biofuels. In a written answer. Ian Pearson (MP for Dudley South and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) says that to meet the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation using existing technology we'd need to plant between 1 and 1.5bn ha (405m to 608m acres) of crops compared to 209,000ha in 2005.

In other news, the Department had a sofa worth £350 (approximately) stolen in 2006.

Hattip to Biofuelwatch

Check out the latest Biofuel Cities e-newsletter. Interesting stuff about the feasibility of a global biofuel standard and some useful news to start with.

I'm sitting in a very noisy cafe on a seat with a great view of people bored with shopping in Termainal 3 at Heathrow. I had hoped to be able to fit in a stint as a moderator at the Brussels Biofuels Markets conference later next week. But instead the business I work for has decided that I should go to New York to help cement ties with a business association in the chemicals sector (which is where the bulk of ICIS' business comes from).

I'll be in Manhattan, and if I get any time to myself, between my activities there then I'll be posting from the hotel.

D1 Oils may seek more funding from financial institutions, according to a report in the Telegraph. The firm has been hit by subsidised US Biofuel finding its way into the European market But for me the interesting parts in the story are that the firm is being viewed as an agriculutural play, not as a fuels play. It may have to lay off staff though.

Worth watching this movie and then going to the home page to look at the commetns/ take part. Interesting conversation -- at least at first -- about fuel efficiency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfcEwEo5yRc

The US army uses its stomach (and brains) to make biofuels in Iraq. The US Army will be using kitchen and other waste to produce biofuel. The drive has come from the need to cut down on diesel convoys that are targets, but for whatever reason its beeing done, its good to see the army using a little biofuels imagination.
If the idea of portable biopower plants takes off in Iraq, then there is an outside chance that they might make their way into the mainstream.

Sorry, its been so long. I've been up to my eyes in the other parts of my job. The good news is that there should be some more biofuels content in a day or two, possibly a nice video with a couple of the chaps from our Houston office. The bad news is that I've got a week in the US filming many things that are not directly related to biofuels. There will be more.