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Biofuels

EIA’s annual energy review

The Annual Energy Review 2009 (AER), released on August 19, 2010, provides the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) most comprehensive look at integrated energy statistics. Summary statistics from the report indicate some interesting data.

Flint Hills buys two Iowa ethanol plants

Flint Hills Resources plans to acquire the Hawkeye ethanol plants in Menlo and Shell Rock, Iowa. The Menlo and Shell Rock ethanol plants opened in 2008.

Linde opens ethanol/CO2 plant in New York

Linde North America has begun production at one of its newest plants, which makes carbon dioxide (CO2) from ethanol in Fulton, New York. The new 600 tpd CO2 plant is located at the Sunoco ethanol plant, housed in a former brewery in the Riverview Business Park, some 25 miles north of Syracuse.

Fluor to aid Cobalt in commercializing biobutanol

Cobalt Technologies has signed an agreement with Fluor Corp. Under the agreement, Fluor will provide engineering consulting services as Cobalt gears up to commercialize its biobutanol production technology. Additionally, Fluor will offer a broad range of EPCM services for Cobalt’s demonstration and commercial-scale butanol production plants.

Mewah Group invests in Malaysian palm oil refinery

Mewah Group is investing RM150 million to set up a 900,000 metric tpy palm oil refinery in Lahad Datu, Malaysia.

Solazyme raises over $50 million

Solazyme, Inc. has raised $52 million in its Series D financing round. Solazyme uses microbial fermentation to produce renewable oil that can be used for clean and scalable fuels, chemicals, nutritional food ingredients and health and wellness products.

Gevo purchases ethanol facility in Minnesota

Gevo has signed definitive agreements to acquire Agri-Energy’s ethanol production facility in Luverne, Minnesota.

Firm selected to provide a biomass pretreatment reactor system for US DOE

AdvanceBio Systems LLC, has a contract with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, to provide a biomass pretreatment reactor system for its integrated biorefinery research facility.

Xebec to build a biogas upgrading plant in Canada

Xebec Adsorption Inc. has signed a significant contract to build a complete biogas upgrading plant for Terasen Gas in western Canada.

Algae: A potential source of future fuels?

Algae have been studied for many years as a potential renewable energy feedstock to produce motor fuels. Below, we discuss the attributes of algae that make it potentially attractive and some of the technological and economic challenges in algae cultivation, harvesting, and oil extraction that must be addressed before algae-based fuels can be commercially produced.