Wood Bioenergy | a Hatton-Brown publication

Natural gas prices have hit rock-bottom in Minnesota, undercutting the state’s taxpayer-supported efforts to promote statewide biomass energy projects. Minnesota has invested more than $11 million in taxpayer and utility funds to advance technologies that burn biomass for heat and electric generation or convert it to a synthetic gas, but it’s now getting difficult for [...]

Torrefied biomass is on the brink of becoming a viable feedstock for utility-scale electricity generators, potentially displacing coal as well as some conventional untreated biomass and wood pellets. A new report by Hawkins Wright forecasts that favorable renewable energy policies in Europe, North America and Asia would result in global demand of more than 70 [...]

ZeaChem Inc., a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into sustainable fuels and chemicals, recently announced it has been selected for a $232.5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program. The conditional commitment enables the financing and construction of ZeaChem’s first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefinery, a [...]

Revenue from a coal emissions tax is being used to fund grants encouraging biomass fuels in Manitoba. New Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn recently announced that the province will provide up to $400,000 in grants to get coal users to switch, boosting support for Manitoba’s biomass industry. “Biomass is a made-in-Manitoba fuel that can be produced [...]