Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA is extending for five years its agreement to work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other partners to help develop a viable biofuel for the aviation industry. The Secretary signed the agreement with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at the Advanced Biofuels Summit at Gaylord National Harbor [...]
Beta Renewables Sees 2015 As Boom Year For Cellulosic Biofuels
Biofuels made from wood waste and sugarcane have languished well below expectations for years but new production coming on line promises explosive growth by 2015, the chief executive of producer Beta Renewables said on Monday. The United States produced just 20,000 gallons of so-called cellulosic biofuel last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. [...]
Results Are In From Inaugural Biofuel Flight
Results from the world’s first civil flight powered by 100% biofuel released today by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) show that the biofuel used in the flight last October is cleaner than and as efficient as conventional aviation fuel. Information collected in-flight and analyzed by a team of experts revealed an important reduction [...]
RFP To Build Wood Pellet Plant In Thunder Bay, Ontario
Resolute Forest Products plans to build an industrial wood pellet plant in Thunder Bay, Ont., which will turn residual material into a source of renewable energy. The Montreal-based forestry company said construction of the plant is expected to begin shortly and should be completed in 2014. It will invest about $10 million into the plant [...]
KiOR Turning Wood Chips Into Gasoline
KiOR, a renewable fuel start-up based in Pasadena, Tex., said Thursday that it had produced a crude oil made from wood chips at a plant in Mississippi and expected to refine it into gasoline and diesel and sell it commercially later this month. That would be a first for the cellulosic biofuel sector. In a [...]
UBC First Canadian University To Produce Heat and Electricity From Biofuel
Recently, the University of British Columbia officially opened a pioneering $34-million clean energy facility, making it Canada’s first university – and one of a few institutions worldwide – to produce both clean heat and electricity for its campus from renewable bioenergy. UBC’s Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF) will generate enough clean electricity to power [...]
Northwest Researchers Look To Turn Waste Wood Into Jet Fuel
A hotel ballroom full of engineers, chemists and economists hope they can cobble together a new industry for Montana’s remaining loggers. “There are a lot of biofuel companies involved in corn making ethanol,” said Michael Wolcott, a Washington State University engineering professor and member of the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance. “We want to transfer that [...]
Biojet Project Takes Off In Missoula
Re-energize Montana’s wood products industry while “greening” America’s airline industry. Reduce dependence on foreign oil while improving the health of forests. On paper, the potential benefits of turning forest wood waste into jet fuel look almost too good to be true. But this isn’t just pie-in-the-sky science fiction. It could soon become pine-in-the-sky reality. “Can [...]
Biofuels Project Planned In Louisiana
Sundrop Fuels, Inc., a gasification-based drop-in advanced biofuels company, has agreed to purchase 1,200 acres near Alexandria, La. for the construction and operation of the company’s first production facility. The Sundrop Fuels plant will reportedly use sustainable forest waste combined with hydrogen from clean-burning natural gas to produce up to 50 million gallons annually of [...]
Hardwood Sawmiller Turns To Biomass
Beasley Forest Products, LLC (BFP) and Land Care Services, LLC (LCS) have entered into a joint venture to develop a 56 MW biomass fueled power plant at a current industrial site in southeast Laurens County near Dublin. The new business, Green Power Solutions LLC (GPS), has received approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission and [...]