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Date Published:
02 November 2012

Volume 6, Issue 9


NYC warms up bioheat enthusiasm as US biodiesel nears mandate

Feature
Even with sluggish demand for distillate fuels in the US this year, which is trailing the 2011 consumption rate by 3.7% through mid-October, US biodiesel producers had something to cheer in opening the fourth quarter as a 2% mandate for New York City went into effect. As of 1 October, all heating oil sold within the city of New York’s five boroughs must contain 2% biodiesel regardless of... [read more]

Another five-year wait

Feature
The much awaited announcement from the European Commission came in mid-October revealing that fuel suppliers will not be accountable for indirect land use change (ILUC), but confirming that it will stick to strict new limits on the amount of food crops that can be used for biofuel. This is contrary to draft versions that included proposed mandatory ILUC factors which many felt were not backed up... [read more]

European clash of the year

Feature
To counter-act allegations of spreading false rumours and involvement in fraudulent actions in regard to biodiesel origin and custom tariffs, Norwegian producer Uniol will take legal action against the parties representing its competitors making these claims in a bid to prove its innocence. Uniol hopes that, by commencing legal proceedings, it can claim compensation and have the allegations... [read more]

Making the price right

Feature
KLM ambitiously set out a goal to increase its biofuel consumption to 1% of its total fuel use by 2015. Considering biojet fuel is three to four times the price of fossil fuel, this is no easy task. ‘From 2013-2015 we have clear steps to significantly increase our use of biofuels,’ Caryn explains. ‘We will increase the frequency of biojet flights on intercontinental routes and... [read more]

Project Thunderbird is go

Feature
Across Native American tribal lands from Washington to New York, a new bioenergy initiative is underway named Project Thunderbird. The aim of the project is to build $3 billion (€2.3 billion) worth of industrial facilities to produce bioenergy, synthetic fuels and bioproducts from a variety of feedstocks including crops, biomass and natural gas. It is due to last around 10 to 15 years in... [read more]

Riding the rollercoaster

Feature
Although a number of southeast Asian countries have introduced minimum biofuel blending mandates, not all governments have succeeded in enforcing them, with biofuel producers in some countries exporting unused production capacity while waiting for domestic demand to increase. Bioethanol manufacturers in Thailand and biodiesel producers in Indonesia, for example, have increased export shipments... [read more]

Four times a charm

Feature
What is large, green and been causing ripples on a global scale? Nope, we’re not talking about the re-emergence of comic book character The Incredible Hulk but of the humble organism algae, which has been causing plenty of noise in the biofuels arena recently. Hailed as a potentially major future feedstock in the creation of second and third generation biofuels, many companies involved in... [read more]

Thai-ing themselves to biofuels

Feature
Thailand authorities have this November stepped up the country’s biodiesel programme by raising the compulsory blend ratio of palm methyl ester from 4% to 5% following a previous shortage of crude palm oil supply. This move, according to the Thai Biodiesel Producer Association, is expected to raise local demand by the transport sector from 2 million litres per day up by another 500,000. The... [read more]

Setting the record straight

Feature
The ethanol sector in Pakistan has been the subject of much controversy in recent months, with producers being accused of unfairly insisting on a 15% export tax on the feedstock molasses to discourage sugar mills from purchasing it. The Terminals Association of Pakistan (TAP) and Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) allege that the ethanol producers misled the government and pointed out that... [read more]

Weeding out Scottish fuels

Feature
Since news that Europe may be capping foodbased biofuels at 5% of the total amount of renewable energy used in transport, interest in alternative non-food feedstocks such as marine biomass has exploded. Scotland-based Sustainable Project Partners (SPP) is one such company looking at the feedstock’s potential. The company has plans to build three ethanol plants in as many years, producing... [read more]

Combining two proven technologies

Feature
As the ethanol industry continues to search for methods and technologies that improve margins in a high-input cost industry, several key aspects of these improvements require evaluation. Proven performance, diversification (i.e. reducing co-product market risk), capital cost, return on investment, cash flow improvement, RFS2 compliance, greenhouse gas reduction, and any other potential benefits... [read more]

Scaling up step by step

Feature
The recommended approach for scaling bioenergy and biofuels technology follows a similar stage gate process to that used in traditional Chemical Process Industry (CPI) processes. But the processing leads to some subtle differences, and unique challenges, that need to be considered. Bench scale and lab scale systems are important early-stage tools for assessing and scaling new biofuels technology.... [read more]

Time for change

Feature
The world is changing faster and faster every day. Paper, fax machines and landline phones are something from the last century. For babies that are coming into the world in developed countries right now, these things will be as old as horse drawn carriages or black and white movies are for us right now. And this evolution does not happen only to top brand mobile phones, it also happens in... [read more]

Last of the losses

Feature
Neste Oil saw Asian palm as an advantageous feedstock platform for renewable diesel years ago and has used the feedstock to build one of the leading biofuels operations in Europe. It has been included in many sustainability and innovation indexes and exchange traded funds and its stock has been a steady earner in 2012 – all this despite using the biofuels industry’s most controversial... [read more]

Who takes the blame?

Feature
Feeling the heat of RFS waiver requests from food and feed producers over high corn and soyabean prices, biofuels stakeholders have said blame should really be placed on ‘speculators’ – the investment banks and hedge funds now investing billions of dollars in commodities markets – for 2012’s record commodity price run. ‘The recent run-up in prices has... [read more]

Co-products key to profitability for US ethanol producers

Feature
US ethanol producers continue to become more diversified in the types of products they refine for sale, thus improving their ability to sustain profits in times of high feedstock costs and relatively low ethanol prices, according to the annual Biofuels Benchmarking Industry Report produced by Christianson and Associates. A Midwest accounting and consulting firm which serves the renewable fuels... [read more]

Comparing the new with the old

Feature
If a biodiesel feedstock has higher free fatty acid (FFA) than say 1%, a preprocessing step has to be deployed to be able to either eliminate or reduce the amount of FFA in the oil which then could be sent to transesterification process. If a feedstock with a FFA content of higher than 1 or 1.5% is taken into transesterification process, the FFA results in soap. Soap is acidic in nature, and in... [read more]

Amperometric detection

Feature
Today many biodiesel manufacturers use an alkali catalyst in the transesterification process as reaction rates under acid or enzyme catalysts are relatively slow in comparison. Incomplete reaction leads to the formation of residual glycerol intermediates such as mono-, di- and triglycerides (bonded glycerols). In contrast, complete conversion creates highly water-soluble glycerol (free glycerol)... [read more]

Automating analysis

Feature
Biodiesel sold within the EU must fulfill several quality criteria in order to avoid damages to modern diesel engines. All relevant parameters, their limits and the appropriate test methods for determination are mentioned in the European standard EN 14214. Biodiesel test methods are mainly based on analytical standard instrumentation that is also applied in petrochemistry for quality control of... [read more]

Establishing the economics

Feature
Despite a tremendous amount of research that has been carried out on lignocellulosic feedstocks, the technology is still not available on a commercial scale yet. This success very much depends on multiple factors such as technology innovation, technical feasibility, economical possibility, governmental policy and environmental regulations. However, there are several sub-factors to consider too.... [read more]

Increasing bioethanol yields with solid-state fermentation products

Feature
Industrial applications such as bioethanol and animal nutrition require an ever-wider variety of raw materials. This long-term trend calls for the creation and development of increasingly elaborate biocatalysts. At present, most of the enzymes used are obtained via submerged fermentation, enabling particular enzyme activities to occur. The enzyme combinations needed to process complex raw... [read more]