Tag: biofuels
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Biofuels Developer to Build North Carolina Refinery
Maverick Biofuels in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said today it plans to build a pilot scale biorefinery to produce mixed-alcohol biofuels from biomass and municipal solid waste. The pilot scale biorefinery, says the company, is the next step towards design and construction of a large-scale commercial facility. Maverick says it is raising its first round…
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Research Improves Canola Yields, Adds Benefits for Farmers
Canola, a flowering plant known for its low saturated-fat cooking oil, can also help winter wheat farmers in the Pacific Northwest control weeds, as well as convert into biodiesel, and produce cattle feed supplements. Those are the results and impacts of research conducted by Frank Young, an agronomist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) office…
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Chemists Streamline Cooking Oil Conversion to Biodiesel
As the U.S. seeks to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, the country continues to discard large quantities of waste vegetable oil — consider the quantity of oil used to cook one order of french fries, for example — that could be converted into bio-based fuels. But this process presents problems, notably the time and…
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City to Test Bio-Based Asphalt from University, Startup
A lab at Iowa State University in Ames has developed a potential green replacement for asphalt derived from petroleum, which will be put to a test in Iowa’s sometimes extreme winters and summers. The lab, in the Institute for Transportation’s Asphalt Materials and Pavements Program at Iowa State, developed the asphalt substitute, which will be…
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Algae Biofuels Technology to Capture CO2 from Coal Plants
OriginOil Inc. in Los Angeles, California, a developer of technology to convert algae into fuel, said today it agreed to a partnership with MBD Energy Limited, its first customer and a player in the field of CO2 capture using algae. MBD Energy as a company is experienced in the use of captured flue-gases as feedstock…
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Finnish Companies to Build Brazil R&D Center
VTT Technical Research Centre in Espoo, Finland and Kemira Oyj, a water-quality management company in Helsinki, are opening a new joint R&D center in São Paulo, Brazil, focusing on water chemistry and biomass. The center will open at the end of 2010. The São Paulo R&D center is expected to implement new water technology research…
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Researchers Getting Genetic Help for Biofuel Production
Researchers from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and Cargill are examining genetic materials from a cow’s digestive system to help break down plant fibers for conversion into biofuel. To convert corn stover and switchgrass into biofuel, the plant fibers must first be broken down into sugars. But cell wall polymers are cross-linked in various ways that…
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Patent Awarded for One-Step Diesel Fuel Process
Joule Unlimited Inc., a biotech company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said today it received a U.S. patent covering its process for converting sunlight and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) directly into liquid hydrocarbons that are fungible with conventional diesel fuel. Joule says it is the first to achieve and patent a direct, single-step, continuous process for the…
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Prof Creates High-Value Chemicals from Biomass
An Iowa State University researcher in Ames, Iowa has discovered a method for producing chemicals such as ethylene glycol and propylene glycol from biomass rather than petroleum. Both chemicals are used in a variety of commercial and industrial products. Walter Trahanovsky, an Iowa State professor of chemistry was looking to produce sugar derivatives from cellulose…
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Biofuels Plant Produces First Cellulosic Methanol
A Range Fuels Inc. plant in Soperton, Georgia — the company’s first commercial biofuels plant — has produced its first cellulosic methanol, using non-food biomass as the feedstock. The first phase of the plant’s operations uses Range Fuels’ two-step thermo-chemical process, which combines heat, pressure, and steam to convert non-food feedstocks, such as woody biomass…