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She shoots, she Skors

Feature

Last year, Emily Skor started her role as CEO of Growth Energy – a trade body that represents US ethanol producers. Here, Liz Gyekye catches up with her. How has your first year been in your role? It’s gone by very quickly. What a year. We had a presidential election with the outcome that we had. You also had things like the point of obligation as a major topic of conversation.You had... [read more]

All eyes on Africa

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Uganda has joined the growing number of African countries moving to put in place legislations requiring the blending of biofuels into fossil fuels – a crucial stage in attaining sustainable development for the country’s nascent energy industry. President Yoweri Musevenihas tasked members of parliament to pass the billon biofuels by the end of the year.

Say 'aloha' to sunflowerbased biofuels project

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Pacific Biodiesel Technologies (PBT) celebrated the four month anniversary of its first Maui biofuel crop project in June. In February, PBT founders Bob and Kelly King were joined by invited guests, including US Senator Mazie Hirono, US Representative Tulsi Gabbard, state and county lawmakers, local farmers and other community stakeholders, for a traditional Hawaiian blessing of the... [read more]

Transforming Colombia into a biofuels powerhouse

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Bioenergy, a unit of Colombian state-run oil major Ecopetrol, has begun commercial production at El Alcaravan, the Andean nation’s largest ethanol plant, raising the prospect of higher blends of the biofuel in gasoline by year-end. An official at Bioenergy,who asked not to be named,confirmed that a supply contract had been signed with Colombian fuel distributor Terpel, while similar deals... [read more]

Testing, testing, 1-2-3

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I once met a guy – nice guy, pony tail, dislike of socks, full beard, youknow, a typical biodiesel consultant (we shall call him Bruce), who told me, “You know Karl, pretty mucheveryone in the biodiesel industry is a bit mad, some of them completely barking”. I thought about my favourite pastimes: riding my Harley between the sand dunes at every opportunity, rocking my... [read more]

Unifying the biofuels industry

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Biofuel is becoming increasingly popular as a valid alternative fuel similar to conventional or ‘fossil’ diesel. Biofuel can be produced from straight vegetable oil,animal oil/fats, tallow and waste cooking oil. The largest possible source of suitable oil comes from oil crops such as rapeseed, palm or soybean. All of these sources can vary significantly in their colours.

Pretreatment process

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There has been a considerable focus in recent years onthe production o fadvanced biofuels, also known as cellulosic biofuels, and biomass-derived chemicalsin biorefining processes.These technologies use lignocellulosic biomass, which is mostly composed of the biopolymers of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Lignocellulosic biomassis highly abundant and is typically of a significantlylower cost... [read more]

Biojet crop set for European trials

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The production ofcarinata is being trialled as part of aglobal expansion programme being run by Agrisoma Biosciences, a Quebec-based companywhich is pioneering the crop’s development. Already grown successfully in selected regions of the US and Canada, often on marginal land and under demanding weather conditions, carinata is to be tested under European conditions next, most probably in... [read more]

Renewable2

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Biomass for energy production ranges from various types of agricultural wastes to industrial residues;that is, paper production or a brewery’s waste and wastewater. Unique tothis variety of biomass is waste resulting from the production of biobutanediol (1,4 BDO); a bio-based intermediate produced by the Italian company MaterBiotech (Novamont Group).

Jatropha through the generations

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Jatropha is here to stay, conquering all of the odds stackedagainst it. This is a welcome reality. Crop and agronomic research on jatropha has progressed in a structured way, thanks to the efforts of companies like JOil. The efforts and capital invested in these endeavours have started yielding the desired outcomes. JOil’s pilot jatropha plantation project in Ghana, spread over 500 acres,... [read more]

Green gold in a shrub

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A unique international partnership hasled to the 2017 breakthrough invalorising second generation drought resilient oleaginous crop: Jatropha Curcas Linnaeus. Jatropha, labelled as “The plant with a bad name” 1 in 2011 as well as being referred to as “Green gold in a shrub” 2 by 2015,has gone through a lot of ups and downs. Downs that have been overcome by Agroils... [read more]

Opportunities in Mexico

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Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) was hailed as a “miraclecrop” about ten years ago, but it wasn’t. It was sold as a biodiesel feedstock before enough scientific knowledge had been gathered about it. As a result, locally and globally, jatropha projects failed, mostly due to poor yields. Jatronergy, a jatropha breeding and services company (Lodemo Corporation) located in Yucatán,... [read more]