Alternative Energy / Biofuels

May 17, 2011 at 09:07 | Green Futures

Keen-to-be-greener airlines really do want biofuel to fly. Lufthansa was set to start using it from April, for a six month trial period, in a 50/50 mix with kerosene on…

Apr 28, 2011 at 07:48 | Charlotte Dudley

Global biofuel use could increase more than 13-fold by 2050 and meet more than a quarter of demand for transportation fuel, without jeopardising food and environmental security, the International Energy…

Apr 22, 2011 at 08:13 | Brian Westenhaus

High oil prices, environmental and economic security concerns motivate a powerful interest in using algae-derived oils as an alternative to fossil fuels. Keep in mind that growing algae can require…

Mar 30, 2011 at 04:03 | David Caploe PhD

The race is on to find alternate sources of fuel and energy and quit dependence on oil, especially with ever increasing and volatile oil prices. But are alternate energy sources…

Mar 11, 2011 at 07:24 | Robert Rapier

History is littered with examples of ideas that seemed to be good for a while, but were later discovered to have unpleasant consequences. The pharmaceutical industry is full of cases…

Mar 03, 2011 at 09:18 | Andy Soos

Butanol may be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. Because its longer hydrocarbon chain causes it to be fairly non-polar, it is more similar to gasoline than…

Feb 24, 2011 at 07:58 | Graham Cooper

BP is poised for a major advance in its biofuel operations, as it is completing commissioning of the world’s first biobutanol pilot plant and plans to begin full–scale production later…

Feb 10, 2011 at 08:09 | Brian Westenhaus

Jennifer Johnson at Wahpeton North Dakota’s Daily News has looked into ethanol smack in the midst of America’s prime oil boom of the Bakken oil field. For all the naysayers,…

Feb 10, 2011 at 07:57 | Al Fin

India's Institute of Chemical Technology is aiming to reduce the cost of producing oils from algae from Rs 500 per litre to roughly Rs20 per litre. Using a combination of…

Feb 07, 2011 at 07:41 | SciDev SciDev

Seaweed biofuel farms have come a step closer to reality with an improvement in the way seaweed sugars can be converted to ethanol. Dried seaweed can be fermented to produce…

Jan 29, 2011 at 12:14 | Gloria Gonzalez

Two federal agencies are providing loan guarantees worth hundreds of millions, but the sector still faces funding and technology issues that are challenging its ability to scale-up operations. The US…

Jan 25, 2011 at 07:11 | Robert Rapier

This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the use of 15% ethanol fuel blends (E15) for 2011-2006 model year cars: EPA Grants E15 Fuel Waiver for Model Years…

Jan 16, 2011 at 21:52 | Ed Dolan

U.S corn farmers and ethanol distillers are among those celebrating passage of last month's tax bill. A little-noticed provision of the law extends ethanol tax credits ($.45 per gallon, plus…

Jan 14, 2011 at 08:38 | Al Fin

Using marginal lands not suitable for food crops, 50% of the world's liquid fuels can be produced, according to U. of Illinois scientists. Published in the ACS journal Environmental…

Jan 13, 2011 at 07:46 | Al Fin

First British Airways, and now Qantas are teaming with the Solena Group to build commercial plasma gasification and Fischer-Tropsch plants to create synthetic jet fuel from carbonaceous biomass waste. Solena's…

Jan 12, 2011 at 10:37 | Gail Tverberg

Brian Westenhaus, over at New Energy and Fuel, has been telling me what a good product corn ethanol is. He is very familiar with raising corn for ethanol, and can…

Jan 05, 2011 at 08:38 | Brian Westenhaus

Let’s start with a lie, albeit most likely the lowest level of lie, everyone is lying about ethanol.  It has gotten so that the lies are pervasive, even such that…

Dec 20, 2010 at 11:32 | Brian Westenhaus

Getting biofuel supplies from seaweed has taken a giant leap forward from work by Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois Assistant Professor of Microbial Genomics and a faculty member…

Dec 16, 2010 at 09:35 | Al Fin

focusing on beet ethanol makes sense for a number of reasons. Green Vision’s figures show that beets produce twice as much ethanol per acre as corn and require about 40…

Dec 13, 2010 at 11:45 | Brian Westenhaus

There’s another bubble blown up and ready to pop. Its farmland all across the U.S. priced off the chart.  For the alternative fuel future this is an extreme danger moment,…