Recently in Biofuel Category

Ok, so there have been more news on biofuel than I thought. I should have posted this last week. In the meantime, I am also looking at some of the recent earnings report that came out. As the blog posted before about rising ethanol prices because of drought, it looks like this is also affecting some renewable chemical companies based on Gevo's earnings call yesterday.

Speaking of Gevo, the blog has also been receiving several lawsuit updates against Butamax (including one today), so I guess it's that time of the month for another post in that area ;-).

Clariant starts cellulosic ethanol plant
Swiss specialty chemical company Clariant has opened Germany's biggest cellulosic ethanol pilot plant located in Straubing, Bavaria. The project will produce up to 1,000 tonnes of cellulosic ethanol using 4,500 tonnes of wheat straw based on the sunliquid processing technology developed by Clariant. The process, according to Clariant, is an innovative biotechnological method that turns plant waste products such as grain straw and corn straw into second-generation cellulose ethanol.

REG biodiesel now available
Biodiesel producer and marketer Renewable Energy Group (REG) will offer wholesale biodiesel  REG-9000 to large petroleum jobbers or large fleets beginning mid-August under a new agreement with Maxum Petroleum at its Rancho Dominguez (California) terminal location outside Long Beach. REG also recently announced biodiesel availability at a terminal near Lebanon, Ohio, and its own terminal in Clovis, New Mexico.

AFS BioOil aims $2/gal biodiesel
AFS BioOil has conducted initial tests on its algae production system, and the company states that they will be in the $2 per gallon range of production at commercial scale. For advanced biofuels, commercial scale is at least 1 million gallons per year of production. The company along with a renewable electricity firm are planning a 5 MW renewable electricity and 1-2m gal/year biodiesel projects. The companies are at a design stage and will release actual scope of the projects in the third quarter.

Azul Brazilian Airlines uses Amyris biofuel
Azul Brazilian Airlines has successfully demonstrated a flight using sugarcane jet fuel produced by Amyris. The Embraer E195 jet operated by Azul departed from Campinas Viracopos Airport, flew over Rio de Janeiro and landed at Rio's Santos Dumont Airport.

Algae.Tec commissions biofuel facility
Australia-based Algae.Tec has opened its advanced engineered algae to biofuels facility in Nowra, New South Wales. The facility is connected to the Manildra Group waste carbon dioxide site, which is used in the algae growth process. Algae.Tec also has projects with Holcim Lanka, joint venture discussions in China, and a manufacturing base in Atlanta, Georgia (USA)

Solazyme receives EPA registration
Solazyme has been granted registration for SoladieselRD fuel by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The registration enables SoladieselRD to be sold commercially either in blended and unblended (R100) form. SoladieselRD is said to be compatible with existing infrastructure and can be used with factory-standard diesel engines without modifications.

Novozymes partners with Shengquan
​Shengquan Group, a Shandong-based company specializing in furan resin and polymers, and Novozymes, a world leader in bioinnovation, formed a partnership deal enabling Shengquan to start commercial-scale production of cellulosic ethanol for solvents in June 2012 using Novozymes' technology. Using Novozymes enzymes, Shengquan will now convert corncob residues from furfural production into fermentable sugars and then into ethanol for solvents and other purposes.

Petrobras to produce biodiesel 
Petrobras Biofuel and the State of Rio Grande do Norte signed a memorandum where Petrobras plans to build an experimental biodiesel plant, located in the municipality of Guamaré for commercial production . With investments of R$ 5.1m, the unit will start in the first half of 2013, with a capacity to produce 20m liters/year of biodiesel.

ICM contracts ACA BIO for ethanol plant
ICM has signed a contract with ACA Bio Cooperative Limitada to design a dry-mill corn ethanol plant with a 40m gal/year capacity located near the city of Villa Maria, in the central province of Cordoba, Argentina. Completion of the facility is expected in the first quarter of 2014. Ethanol production from ACA Bio will focus primarily on the country's domestic markets.

EPEC partners with BioDimensions
Florida-based EPEC Biofuels Holdings Inc. has partnered with BioDimensions Delta BioRenewables (BDBR) of Memphis, Tennessee, to advance EPEC's Ethanol 2.0 platform towards commercialization. BDBR produces, process, and a downstream user of sweet sorghum and has integrated a mechanized system from field-to-factory. EPEC is a development stage company intent on owning and operating ethanol facilities using sweet sorghum on host farms across the US.

DIC Group in spirulina biofuel
Tokyo-based specialty chemical firm DIC Corp. announced that its California subsidiary Earthrise Nutritionals has entered an algae licensing deal with Sapphire Energy, where the company will integrate Earthrise Nutritionals' spirulina strain into its growing inventory of cyanobacteria and algae strains for algae-to-energy production or green crude - a drop-in replacement for petro-based crude oil. DIC Group is the world's largest supplier of Spirulina, which it has been producing for use in health foods and food colorings since the 1970s.

Sundrop uses ExxonMobil tech
Sundrop Fuels, a gasification-based drop-in advanced biofuels company, has finalized a licensing agreement to use ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company's methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) technology to be incorporated into its "green gasoline" production facility located near Alexandria, Louisiana, which will use forest waste for feedstock. The facility will produce up to 50m gal/year renewable gasoline and is expected to start later this year.

Plymouth Energy picks Edeniq
Plymouth Energy has been using Edeniq's proprietary Cellunator milling equipment at its 50m gal.year corn ethanol facility Merrill, western Iowa, since the first quarter of the year. Plymouth said it has achieved a 3% yield boost since the Cellunators were installed. which enables to easily convert sugars from corn and other plant materials to produce biofuels.

Dyadic launches biofuel enzyme
Dyadic International has unveiled its latest biofuels enzyme AlternaFuel CMAX3, which enables the production of cellulosic biofuels and biobased chemicals from a wide range of renewable non-food feedstocks under broad pH and temperature ranges. The enzyme is said to be the latest generation of a cellulase and hemicellulase complex based on Dyadic's C1 platform technology.

So many things going on in the US ethanol market especially current  drought conditions for corn crops (and even soybeans for biodiesel).

Corn prices are going up and that means ethanol prices have been going up too especially when some ethanol plants have been idled because of the lack in demand, which could mean lower ethanol inventories going forward. According to an ICIS news* article, the US Department of Agriculture trimmed its projected yield for 2012 corn by 12% as of its July estimate.

Ethanol producers Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Grain Processing Corp., and MGP Ingredients have all announced price increases for their ethanol citing higher corn prices, according to ICIS.

Because of the higher corn-derived products prices resulting from the drought, industry food groups such as the National Chicken Council, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Pork Producers Council and other meat and poultry trade groups (dairy, milk, turkey, sheep, etc...) are requesting several US Congress representatives to petition for a change in the 2012 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The RFS requires 13.2bn gallons of corn-based ethanol to be produced in 2012 and 13.8bn gallons in 2013. The trade groups argue that the RFS requirement is aggravating the drought impact on food prices.

According to an August 2* article from ICIS News, more than 150 Republican and Democrat members of Congress have signed a letter to the EPA requesting the RFS amendment.

The coalition opposed to the current RFS mandate noted some agricultural forecasters estimate' of 11.8bn bushels of corn will be harvested this year, compared with about 13bn that were harvested last year. Under those conditions, corn-ethanol production will use about four of every 10 bushels, the coalition said.

Meanwhile, several biofuel groups have also been arming themselves as they urged the EPA to maintain the RFS mandate.

Today, eight biofuel industry organizations namely -- the Advanced Biofuels Association, Advanced Ethanol Council, Algae Biomass Organization (ABO), American Coalition for Ethanol, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), Growth Energy, National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) -- have formed a new council called Biofuels Producers Coordinating Council.

The new council will jointly advocate for the EPA to maintain the RFS mandate. According to the council, US production of biofuels has tripled since the adoption of the RFS standard.

"Undermining the RFS will have a chilling effect on the development of cellulosic feedstocks that are not used for food or feed. The RFS is important for all biofuels, but it is critically important for cellulosic feedstock process development. To undermine the RFS now would wound this feedstock development effort that in the long run is going to help both farmers and ranchers. This aspect is often neglected by the media and is not well understood by cattle ranchers, pork and chicken producers." - BIO

*requires subscription

Codexis announced today that it is under exclusive discussion with Shell that would give Codexis certain rights and licenses to develop and sell their cellulase enzymes to third parties in the biofuels field on a worldwide basis except Brazil.

Codexis said it has exclusive rights to commercialize its cellulase enzyme technology in all other fields (such as chemicals).

"Currently, Codexis' cellulase enzyme technology can only be commercialized in the advanced biofuels field through Shell and its affiliates. If we finalize a new agreement with Shell as we currently anticipate, the rest of the world's second generation biofuels producers will now also be available as target customers for our cost effective cellulase enzyme technology," said John Nicols, Codexis' President and Chief Executive Officer.

Codexis said it would take appropriate cost reduction measures to reduce its operating expenses if Shell will provide this notice to Codexis.

Sorry this has been a long time coming. I hope biofuel fans are not too mad at me...

Enerkem starts waste-to-etoh plant
Montreal-based Enerkem initiated production of cellulosic ethanol from waste materials at its demonstration facility in Westbury, Quebec. The primary purpose of the Westbury facility is to validate the technology process design before full-scale commercial production, to test various waste feedstocks coming from customers and partners, as well as to continuously improve the technology, according to the company.

Repsol buys biofuel tech NEOL
Spain-based fuel company Repsol has acquired 50% of NEOL Biosolutions, formerly the bioindustrial divsion of Neuron Bio. The alliance is expected to accelerate development of bioprocesses for use in production of advanced biofuels. Repsol's New Energy unit is currently working on different business initiatives in bioenergy, renewable energy and electric transport.

Great Lakes Biodiesel picks TWD
TWD Technologies has been selected by Great Lakes Biodiesel (GLB) to build Canada's largest biodiesel plant, which will have capacity of 170m liters/year. The plant is scheduled to be operational by the Fall of 2012. TWD is providing full engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) for the Great Lakes Biodiesel Plant located in Welland, Ontario.

Biofuel competitive with H2Bioil process
Purdue University has developed a thermochemical process called H2Bioil method that can produce cost-effective biofuels. The method is said to be competitive when crude oil is $100/barrel. H2Bioil is created when biomass, such as switchgrass or corn stover, is heated rapidly to about 500 degrees Celcius in the presence of pressurized hydrogen. Resulting gases are passed over catalysts, causing reactions that separate oxygen from carbon molecules, making the carbon molecules high in energy content, similar to gasoline molecules.

Amyris fuel on Azul Airlines
Azul Airlines will use Amyris's sugarcane-based jet fuel during a demonstration flight on an Azul E195 aircraft powered by GE's CF34-10E engines. The "Azul+Verde" (a Greener Blue) flight will take place in Brazil on  June 19th, during the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The companies will provide additional information about the flight plans shortly, following authorization from Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC).

Evogene, T6 partners in castor
Evofuel Ltd., Evogene's wholly owned subsidiary, and T6 Industrial S.A., entered a collaboration for development of castor bean seeds as feedstock for biodiesel production. The companies will evaluate and develop Evofuel's advanced castor bean varieties for commercial production in Argentina. According to the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, Argentina's 2011 biodiesel production was 2.5 billion liters, with soybean oil being the main feedstock.

Edeniq partners with Flint Hills
Edeniq will supply Flint Hills Resources Renewables its Cellunator technology which enables plants to mill corn and other plant materials into small, uniform pieces of feedstock that can be easily converted into sugars to produce biofuels. Edeniq is installing the technology at the first of four Flint Hills plants. Flint Hills expects further adoption of Edeniq equipment to produce cellulosic ethanol. Edeniq recently announced the company has raised over $30m in additional funding led by existing investors, as well as new investor Flint Hills Resources Renewables.

Sundrop Fuels, ThyssenKrupp partnership
Sundrop Fuels has partnere with engineering firm ThyssenKrupp Uhde to build a commercial green gasoline facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, with a capacity of up to 50m gal/year using biomass for feedstock. Sundrop Fuels will convert forest residues and thinnings as feedstock combined with natural gas into gasoline by using gasification, gas purification, methanol synthesis and a methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process. The company's first production plant will have a capacity of about 3,500 barrels of renewable gasoline per day.

Gevo collaborates with VP Racing Fuels
Gevo and VP Racing Fuels will jointly develop a product line of renewable, high-performance, isobutanol-based fuel blends for the small engine market while looking toward other performance applications for isobutanol as well. The relationship will allow the companies to initially assess market opportunities, positioning and distribution channels to commercialize renewable fuels for outdoor power equipment.

Butamax, Fagen partnership
Butamax Advanced Biofuels has partnered with biofuels engineering, procurement and construction contractor Fagen to retrofit ethanol plants for biobutanol production. Fagen has constructed over 85 ethanol plants totaling approximately 6bn gallons of annual production. Butamax also announced the formation of the Early Adopters Group (EAG), a consortium of biofuel production companies interested in
becoming early adopters of Butamax™ biobutanol technology. Lincolnway Energy of Nevada, Iowa; and Corn, LP of Goldfield, Iowa are the latest additions to the EAG.

Primus Green's green gasoline
New Jersey, US-based Primus Green Energy Ltd. has produced its first sample of high octane (93) renewable drop-in gasoline through a proprietary combination of biomass conversion technologies. The company recently broke ground on an automated demonstration plant and is planning to break ground next year on a commercial plant in eastern Pennsylvania that will be designed to produce 4.8m gal/year of gasoline from wood pellets and non-food, herbaceous crops.

Cool Planet Biofuels' cellulosic gasoline
Cool Planet BioFuels has achieved 4,000 gallons/acre biomass-to-gasoline conversion in pilot testing using giant miscanthus, an advanced bioenergy crop. The giant miscanthus was developed at the University of Mississippi and provided from a high yield plot by Repreve Renewables.

DONG Energy approves DSM enzymes
Royal DSM has been qualified as supplier of enzymes for DONG Energy - Inbicon's wheat straw to cellulosic ethanol process. The enzymes have been successfully used in the 1.5m gal/year demonstration scale biorefinery of DONG Energy - Inbicon in Kalundborg, Denmark. The plant produces cellulosic biofuel for Statoil which is distributed via gasoline stations throughout Denmark.

Lallemand, Mascoma market yeast
Lallemand Ethanol Technology and Mascoma announced that the Mascoma Grain Technology, or MGT, yeast product will be marketed under the commercial name TransFerm for use by the fuel ethanol industry. TransFerm is a bioengineered drop-in substitute for conventional fermenting yeast that will reportedly lowers costs for corn ethanol producers. TransFerm is manufactured and distributed by Lallemand and jointly marketed and sold by Mascoma and Lallemand through an exclusive partnership.

Novozymes' new plant and partner
Novozymes has inaugurated the reportedly largest enzyme plant dedicated to biofuels in the US. The $200m facility is located in Blair, Nebraska. Novozymes has also joined the consortium behind Maabjerg Energy Concept, which will use Novozyme's biotech expertise to design a new bioenergy production plant, which will produce 94m cubic meters of biogas, 73m liters (19m gallons) of bioethanol, as well as district heating for 20,000 households and electricity for several thousand homes. The Maabjerg plant is located in western Denmark near the cities of Struer and Holstebro in Jutland.

Neste Oil's waste fish fat diesel
Neste Oil has begun to produce its NExBTL renewable diesel using waste fat from fish processing industry at its Singapore refinery. The batch of waste fish fat complies with the strict sustainability requirements of the EU's Renewable Energy Directive and is also accepted as a raw material for renewable fuel in the US.

Cellulosic biomass technology developer GraalBio is planning to help build Brazil's biorefinery industry with a R$300m ($146m) investment of a new 22m gallons/year cellulosic ethanol plant to be constructed in Alagoas using sugarcane bagasse and straw for initial feedstock.

GraalBio is also developing a new type of cost-competitive biomass called Energy Cane, a cross hybrid of sugarcane varieties with selected types of grasses producing low sugar content but high fiber. An experimental site in Alagoas is expected to produce 100,000 Energy Cane seedlings by the end of the year. The company is hoping to achieve productivity target of 100 tons of dry mass/hectare.

GraalBio said the cellulosic ethanol facility will be Brazil's first. Construction is expected to start in July and start-up of operations is expected by the end of 2013. For pretreatment and conversion of biomass, GraalBio has licensed the PROESA technology from Italy-based Beta Renewables - a joint venture between Chemtex (a division of Italian plastic producer Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi) and investment firm TPG.

Chemtex will provide engineering services, equipment and technical field services to GraalBio's facility. Danish firm Novozymes and the Netherlands-based DSM will provide the enzymes and industrial yeasts, respectively.

By the way, Novozymes said it has been looking for locations in Brazil to build its new enzyme manufacturing plants dedicated to support the country's growing advanced biofuel industry.

"The location of new plants will, among other things, depend on where the industry is expected to scale up, where Novozymes' partners are located, and where the best framework conditions exist," says Peder Holk Nielsen, Novozymes VP.

"While the maturity of second-generation biofuels technologies in Brazil is materializing, the U.S. is building 29 biorefineries for several products obtained from the conversion of cellulose. GraalBio is in negotiations with patent holders to license, purchase and apply industrial solutions in Brazil, and it will look for partners in Brazil in different areas, including co-development, supply of feedstock and new projects." - GraalBio

The blog is accumulating a lot of biofuel news for the past month.

Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the first application submitted  for registration of E15 ethanol (a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline). Registration is a prerequisite to introducing E15 into the marketplace.

Biofuel advocates are currently pushing for E15, which if approved by the EPA, would allow producers to expand production to keep pace with the Renewable Fuel Standard's (RFS) 15bn gal/year cap on ethanol derived from corn starch.

E10 (a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline), which is currently distributed at the majority of gas stations in the continental U.S., is fast approaching a "blend wall," in which production exceeds the volume of fuel that can legally be blended into the U.S. gasoline market.

Before E15 can be sold, however, manufacturers must first take additional measures to help ensure retail stations and other gasoline distributors understand and implement labelling rules and other E15-related requirements, the EPA said.

ICIS colleagues who attended the American Fuel & Petrochemicals (AFPM) event in San Antonio, Texas, last week, tried to get some reactions on this recent news. According to one ethanol broker, the E15 approval will unlikely increase demand for the biofuel because of concerns about liability.

One liability is that drivers could mistakenly put the E15 fuel in automobiles made before 2001 and service stations could be potentially liable if those automobiles are damaged. E15 is not permitted for use in motor vehicles built before 2001 model year and in off-road vehicles and equipment such as boats and lawn and garden equipment.

In addition, relatively few service stations can handle the E15 blends making it unlikely that they will purchase the fuel, the broker said.

The AFPM association, meanwhile, noted at the conference that the EPA decision is "irresponsible" claiming E15 blend could "endanger the safety of US consumers and severely damage vehicles and gasoline-powered equipment."

With gasoline at around $4/gal, the ethanol industry claims the need for more affordable alternatives to foreign oil. The Renewable Fuels Association also released its "E15 Retailer Handbook" to provide fuel retailers with regulatory and technical guidance in order to legally store and sell E15 ethanol blends.

According to Pike Research's latest report Biofuels Markets and Technologies, U.S. ethanol production in 2011 reached 13.6bn gal/year (BGY), up from 13.2 BGY in 2010.

Another consulting firm, Clean Edge Inc., estimated global biofuels production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel reached a record $83bn in 2011, up from $56.4bn the prior year. The increase was mostly due to a rise in ethanol and biodiesel prices, the result of higher costs for feedstock commodities - mainly sugar for ethanol and rapeseed and other vegetable oils for biodiesel.

In the meantime, here are more big biofuel news piled up in the blog's inbox:

• Virent and Virdia (formerly HCL CleanTech) successfully converted cellulosic pine tree sugars to drop-in hydrocarbon fuels within the BIRD Energy project, a joint program funded by the US Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure and the BIRD Foundation.


• Neste Oil joins aireg, Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany, which promotes the development and deployment of biofuels in Aviation. Neste Oil also said that it has quadrupled its use of certified raw materials in terms of tonnage in producing its renewable diesel in 2011. Neste Oil aims to increase its usage of certified raw materials a further 10 percentage points on the 2011 figure during 2012.


• Mascoma and Lallemand Ethanol Technology have entered into a commercial agreement with Pacific Ethanol Columbia for the use of MGT Grain Technology (MGT) yeast in Pacific Ethanol's 40m gal/year facility. The MGT product is a bioengineered drop-in substitute for conventional fermenting yeast that lowers costs for corn ethanol producers
  


• The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif., has awarded a manufacturing contract to specialty chemical firm and catalyst supplier Albemarle to complete its first biojet fuel production run based on biobased n-butanol provided by Cobalt Technologies. For this production run, Albemarle will utilize NAWCWD alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) fuel technology to convert Cobalt's biobased n-butanol into biojet fuel at its Baton Rouge, La., processing facility.


• Celanese has received key government approvals necessary to proceed with its previously announced plans to modify and enhance its existing integrated acetyl facility in China at the Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park to produce ethanol for industrial uses. The unit, based on Celanese TCX® ethanol process technology, is expected to startup in mid-2013.
  


• Mendel Biotechnology and BP Biofuels have signed a four-year agreement to conduct a demonstration field trial of Mendel's PowerCane™ Miscanthus and evaluate its performance as feedstock for biofuel production at BP Biofuels' demonstration plant at Jennings, Louisiana. A total of 100 acres of PowerCane™ Miscanthus will be planted in early 2012 near BP's Jennings facility and the first biomass harvest from these fields is expected in 2013.
  


• Cool Planet Biofuels announced its use of REPREVE® Renewables' FREEDOM™ giant miscanthus to manufacture tank-ready gasoline. REPREVE Renewables provided feedstock to Cool Planet Biofuels for testing in its process. Cool Planet reported that they were able to achieve a 4,000 gallons/acre conversion rate, which the company said outperforms other feedstocks such as corn, switchgrass and wood on yield.
  

Compilation of biofuel news that came up within the past few weeks ...

Zeachem bags Itochu investment
Japan-based Itochu Corporation has acquired shares in Zeachem and the companies have teamed up to acquire partners in Japan as well as in the US to expand Zeachem's technology worldwide. The two companies plan to create a new business through project investment and development in the bioethanol and renewable chemicals sectors.

...and gets $12m USDA contract
ZeaChem has successfully completed contract negotiations to receive $12m of the total $40 million grant from USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Regional Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP). The USDA project will establish regional systems for the sustainable production of bioenergy and bio-based products. Zeachem will implement the AFRI project at its existing 250,000 gal/year integrated demonstration biorefinery, located at the Port of Morrow, near Boardman, Ore.

Shell builds pilot plant using Virent tech
Royal Dutch Shell has built a next generation biofuels pilot plant at Shell's Westhollow Technology Center in Houston, USA, to produce drop-in biofuels using a thermo-catalytic process technology licensed from its commercial partner Virent, which is similar to the process being used at the Virent pilot plant in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. The Westhollow plant will use a range of feedstocks, starting with sugars and with the completion of an expansion currently under way, non-food cellulosic alternatives to produce a range of products, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Fluor gets Joule engineering contract
Fluor was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract by Joule Unlimited to design and build a biofuels demonstration facility in New Mexico. The facility is intended to scale up a pilot process currently producing liquid fuels via Joule's novel technology, which uses sunlight to convert proprietary organisms and carbon dioxide into liquid hydrocarbons and ethanol

Lignol gets $2m funding
Lignol Energy's subsidiary, Lignol Innovations Ltd., has been awarded up to $2.06m in additional funding contributions from Sustainable Development Technology Canada ("SDTC"). The award is in addition to the $4.72m awarded to date from SDTC's SD Tech Fund, representing an aggregate contribution to Lignol from SDTC of up to $6.78m. Lignol is working on industrial scale facility for the production of ethanol and renewable chemicals focusing on the use of hemicellulose-derived sugars

Dynamic Fuels in biofuel contract
Dynamic Fuels and Mansfield Oil Company signed an agreement to supply renewable diesel to Norfolk Southern Corporation, one of the nation's largest transporters of coal and industrial products. Dynamic Fuels produces renewable and synthetic fuels from animal fats and greases as "drop in" fuel that can replace 100% of petroleum diesel in a diesel engine without engine modification. at its Geismar, La., plant.

PetroAlgae changes name to Parabel
PetroAlgae Inc. has changed its name to "Parabel Inc." Parabel has developed proprietary technology to enable customer licensees to grow, harvest, and process locally-available, aquatic micro-crops to create products for agriculture and energy markets. The company said its priority is to commercially-produce animal feed and potentially human food ingredients, using non-genetically modified and "non-algae micro-crops."

GTI opens 2nd gen biofuels pilot plant
Illinois-based R&D firm Gas Technology Institute (GTI) has opened a new pilot-scale IH2 plant, which converts any type of biomass feedstock into hydrocarbon fuels and/or blend stocks. The IH2 technology uses catalytic thermochemical process. GTI has licensed the IH2 technology to CRI Catalyst Company (CRI) for worldwide deployment, which is expected in early 2014.

Vivergo biorefinery to start in Spring 2012
The UK-based Vivergo Fuels expects to start production at its biorefinery at Saltend near Hull in Spring 2012 as construction is now 96% completed. The biorefinery. said to be one of the largest in Europe, will produce 420m liters/year of bioethanol and 500,000 tonnes of animal feed using 1.1m tonnes/year of locally grown feed wheat. Vivergo Fuels is a joint venture between British Petroleum (BP), Associated British Foods and DuPont.

Arcis, Cetna Energy biofuel supply deal
Arcis Resources has entered into marketing and distribution partnership discussions with Cetna Energy Partners for distribution of Cetna's biofuel product that will be produced at its' thermochemical biofuels production facilities currently under development in California. The companies anticipate that Cetna will produce over 3.5 million gallons per year of liquid fuels at the new facility.

The Andersons buys Iowa ethanol plant
The Andersons will acquire an ethanol production facility in Denison, Iowa from Amaizing Energy Denison and Amaizing Energy Holding Company. The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter. The operations consist of an ethanol facility with an adjacent 2.7 million bushel grain terminal, both with direct access to two Class 1 railroads in Iowa.

Market studies:

• A new report from Rabobank's global Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory department stated that it does not expect the removal of the U.S. import tariff will have a large impact on U.S. ethanol production in the near term, first because it is likely that Brazilian ethanol prices will continue to be higher than U.S. prices, and second because the significant duty-free ethanol imports via the Caribbean did not noticeably impact U.S. corn ethanol production in years past.

• Pike Research's analysis finds that the global market for biofuels will more than double over the coming decade, increasing from $82.7bn in 2011 to $185.3bn by 2021. Although growth is expected to climb steadily through 2016, more robust growth is expected between 2017 and 2021, as a combination of higher oil prices, emerging mandate obligations, availability of new feedstock, and the scaling up of advanced technologies drive increased investment in the industry. Ethanol production is expected to maintain its dominance, reaching 49.5bn gal/year by 2021, as compared to biodiesel's 16.2bn gal/year production.

Germany-based gas producer Linde via its engineering business Linde Engineering Dresden has acquired the Carbo-V technology of the insolvent biofuel producer CHOREN (insolvent means bankrupt by the way, according to Google).

The Carbo-V technology is a multi-stage biomass gasification process, which was CHOREN's main asset. Linde said it will offer the technology as licensor and also as an engineering and contracting company for commercial projects.

CHOREN filed for insolvency in July 2011 because of financial difficulties in starting up its synthesis gas demonstration plant in Freiberg, Saxonia. CHOREN processes biomass such as wood and wood wastes into synthesis gas, and in turn into biofuel - ethanol in particular.

ICIS actually wrote an article about CHOREN's insolvency last year where there was an allegation reported that the company may have misled government officials about feedstock costs and its technology to gain financing support for its Freiberg plant project. (A bell rings in the blogger's ears...who is that well-financed biomass ethanol producer in the US that had the same bankruptcy fate???)

The blog actually covered CHOREN's first bout of financing problems in November 2009 when one of its biggest investors, Dutch oil company Shell, sold its shares in CHOREN to remaining shareholders that include a group of Hamburg-based entrepreneurs and carmakers Daimler and Volkswagen.

Shell started working with CHOREN in 2005 in the development of biomass-to-liquid (BTL) fuels using mostly wood products and wood-based waste as feedstock. Shell did not comment at that time on its specific reasons for exiting CHOREN.

Last October, administrators sold CHOREN's components business, which makes specialised gasification components and equipment.

The blog previously posted in August 2010 about these researchers from the Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland who have have developed biobutanol using whisky byproducts for feedstock.

It turns out that a few a weeks ago, these researchers launched a new company called Celtic Renewables to commercialize their biobutanol process for biofuel application after receiving government funding at each stage of their product development.

Celtic Renewables' initial research project received £267,000 from Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept Programme, as well as a £70,000 Scottish Enterprise SMART: Scotland grant to assist the technology scale-up and commercial feasibility.

The company's production process can also produce acetone and ethanol as well as high grade sustainable animal feed, and based by this, I'm guessing their process is via acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation route, which produces n-butanol.

Celtic Renewables is now working with Scottish Enterprise to produce the biofuel on an industrial scale using two main by-products of whisky production - 'pot ale', the liquid from the copper stills, and 'draff', the spent grains.

According to the company, Scotland's £4 billion malt whisky industry produces 1.6bn liters of pot ale and 500,000 tonnes of draff each year.

Doug Ward, founder of Scotland's largest biofuel producer, Argent Energy, has been appointed as chairman of the start-up, which has secured significant private investment from Adelphi Distillery co-owner, Donald Houston.