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Date Published:
09 July 2015

Volume 9, Issue 4


Low iLUC biofuels

Feature
Indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) is in the news. The ‘iLUC Amendment’ to the Renewable Energy and Fuel Quality Directives is now set to pass into EU regulation over the next few months after much negotiation and delay. While the magnitude of iLUC affects and iLUC factors are subject to a high level of uncertainty, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) has been working to... [read more]

Proposal under fire

Feature
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced proposed volume requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) programme for 2014, 2015 and 2016, while also proposing volume requirements for biomassbased diesel for 2017. The proposals’ release came after the EPA was taken to court by US oil companies due to the long standstill the decision had been stuck in. EPA says the... [read more]

Current price index

Feature
EU ethanol raised its game in the second quarter of 2015 after a poor start to the year. Idled production capacity in response to poor Q1 margins helped rebalance a previously oversupplied market, with subsequent production shortfalls driving both producers and endusers to briefly pay over €600 per m³ for product in April and improving margins relative to a recovering feedstock grain... [read more]

Good news all round

Feature
Spot soya methyl ester biodiesel prices in the US advanced during the second quarter of 2015, buoyed by the unveiling in late May of demand targets for the biofuel from 2014 through 2017, although the upside slowed late in the quarter on reduced demand for diesel while producer margins weakened. It was a good quarter for the industry, lent support by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),... [read more]

Pioneering advanced ethanol

Feature
On 5 June 2015 St1 Biofuels, an ethanol manufacturer and technology producer headquartered in Finland, officially opened its 5 million litre per year ethanol plant in Gothenburg, Sweden. St1 Biofuels delivered the facility to North European Bio Tech Oy (NEB), which is an associated company of supermarket chain SOK Corp. and St1. Production capacity of the plant will be leased to North European... [read more]

To 10% and beyond

Feature
The new EU framework requires a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 1990 levels, and an EU wide binding target for renewable energy of at least 27%. Traffic is rapidly becoming the largest single source of CO2 emissions in the EU, however no specific, official targets have been set for GHGs from the transportation sector. Transport emissions are not expected to change... [read more]

Unlocking the oil-renewables link

Feature
The development of the biofuels industry has introduced new levels of trade complexity to the much longer-established mineral oil and agricultural markets. Rainfall and pestilence were not even blips on most oil producers’ or traders’ screens until around 10 years ago. Similarly, farmers paid little heed to the impact of fuel supply balances or oil geopolitics on the size of the... [read more]

The plates to bring the gains

Feature
Establishing environmentally and economically sustainable processes in the ethanol industry is key to producers’ success. To be successful, an ethanol producer must reduce energy waste, maximise production and minimise maintenance operations. Plate heat exchangers (PHE) excel in all of these areas. Plants not necessarily interested in process optimisations can benefit from installing PHEs... [read more]

Pinching on energy costs

Feature
For many industrial sites, energy is the main cost of operations after raw materials. Not only is consuming energy very costly, but also most of the time a tremendous portion of this energy is lost due to inappropriate integration of heat. Consequently, the energy costs affect the total production cost of the final product. Improving the energy efficiency of processes thus represents a major... [read more]

Steam rising

Feature
The use of steam for heating is prevalent in most chemical processing industries, including the biofuels industry, due to its high energy density and versatility. Common steam applications in traditional first generation ethanol production include the initial heat-up of a starch slurry mixture and oil extraction of thin stillage via direct steam injection within a centrifuge. Steam is also used... [read more]

Driving down costs

Feature
Towards the end of 2014, Danish biotech company Novozymes launched a new enzymatic solution for the production of biodiesel from waste oils. Known as ‘Eversa Transform’, the enzyme process converts used cooking oil (UCO) and other lower grade oils into biodiesel. Enzymatic biodiesel is not a new concept, but the high costs associated with this technology previously meant commercial... [read more]

Feedstock for biodiesel: the good, the bad and the ugly

Feature
When raising the question of what is a ‘good’ feedstock for biodiesel production, the answer must always be: the cheapest. Consequently, ‘good’ does not include materials such as fresh vegetable oil, and ‘bad’ feedstocks – like used cooking oil (UCO) – are no longer state-of-the-art. Today, ‘ugly’ feedstocks, such as grease trap waste,... [read more]

Future-proofing your plant

Feature
Over the past 10 years, the production of biodiesel has been one of the most challenging business arenas. So many plants have been conceived, funded and built without vertical integration and have then fallen foul of the massive market shifts that have occurred. Virtually all mainstream biodiesel plants built by conventional process OEMs in the US and Europe have undergone at least one financial... [read more]

Cooking up a solution

Feature
The potential for biodiesel, generated from used cooking oil, is tremendous in regions such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is focused on driving its hospitality and tourism sector as part of economic diversification. With the number of hotels and restaurants in Dubai increasing – and set to grow, especially in the run-up to the 2020 World Expo and beyond – the ability to... [read more]

The third extinction: Getting real in biofuels

Feature
Some people love the term ‘creative destruction’. However, it seems often to be used as a flimsy excuse for destroying strong knowhow built over decades and replacing it with anarchy. But even in biofuels, nothing is permanent. There are far too many technologies competing for a place in the sun or against solar energy and plug-ins. Many must disappear so that the biofuel sector can... [read more]

The saponification of unsaponifiables

Feature
Sterols are natural constituents of vegetable oils in their acylated (ASGs) form. They consist of three chemically connected units: fatty acids, glucose and steroids. Sterols are the major part of the socalled unsaponifiables of crude plant oils. The level of sterols is high especially in palm and soyabean oil. But elimination through refining is never complete. What is left of the sterols (ASGs)... [read more]

Are your claims patent eligible?

Feature
As a leader in biofuel production, the US presents a key market for developing and protecting technology to convert biomass to biofuels. Patents, and their exclusionary rights, provide an important tool for commercialising biofuels and other bio-products, or otherwise participating in the bio-based economy. The US has seen a significant change in several aspects of its patent laws over the last... [read more]