Alternative Energy / Biofuels

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,…

Dec 08, 2010 at 10:11 | Brian Westenhaus

It’s coming – research interest is moving toward seaweed from algae.  For algae enthusiasts, keep in mind that technically speaking common algae is micro algae and seaweed is macro algae. …

Dec 03, 2010 at 08:00 | Brian Westenhaus

So far the best use of CO2 whether as a fuel use byproduct or already in the atmosphere is get it back to a simple sugar.  From there the sugar’s…

Nov 30, 2010 at 10:30 | Robert Rapier

Ulterior Motives Behind the Ethanol Pipeline? Ethanol producers in the Midwest have lobbied for support to build a pipeline to ship their ethanol to the East Coast. As I…

Nov 29, 2010 at 11:03 | SciDev SciDev

The hardy jatropha tree as a biofuel source may not be the panacea for smallholders that some have claimed, say Miyuki Iiyama and James Onchieku. It sounds too good to…

Nov 19, 2010 at 08:42 | SciDev SciDev

Sustainable biofuel production strategies and second-generation options involving woody biomass and tall grasses that do not need additional land can help India realise its green targets, a review says. 

Nov 18, 2010 at 08:21 | Al Fin

GE Energy, a GE subsidiary, has jumped into the advanced biofuels race by throwing in $8 million with the startup CoolPlanetBiofuels. The startup claims to be able to produce a…

Nov 13, 2010 at 10:37 | Brian Westenhaus

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports for August that U.S. ethanol production rose in August to an all-time high, production averaged more than 869,000 barrels per day (b/d).  The Renewable…

Nov 09, 2010 at 12:09 | Robert Rapier

People sometimes ask which biofuels are competitive head to head with crude oil. By competitive, I mean those that can actually compete favorably with oil prices on a level playing…