New landfill gas power plant completed in Michigan

Around 12,000 homes in Michigan are going to be using renewable power derived from waste with the recent completion of the Pine Tree Acres Renewable Energy Facility in Lenox. The newly completed energy plant from Waste Management is designed to generate 12.8 megawatts of electricity using landfill gas. It can use up to 4,800 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas to produce electricity.

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Benefits of biofuels overestimated – study

The environmental benefits of using biofuels tend to be overestimated due to some omissions in calculations of the fuel's greenhouse gas emissions, a scientific paper claims. The study led by University of Edinburgh Professor Keith Smith refers to biofuel production’s Life Cycle Analysis, a technique which measures and compiles all factors relating to the production, usage and disposal of a fuel or product.

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Ethanol reduced gas prices by $1 per gallon in 2011 – research

The use of domestically produced ethanol as a fuel additive by Americans has reduced wholesale gasoline prices by an average of $1.09 per gallon in 2011, according to research from the University of Wisconsin and Iowa State University. The researchers say higher oil and gasoline prices, increased ethanol inclusion, and ethanol having larger discounts to gasoline were the primary factors for the price drop last year.

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30% of liquid transportation fuels from biofuel achievable – report

Recent technological advances mean that plant-derived biofuels could meet about 30 percent of the global demand for liquid transportation fuels without having an impact food production. According to Chris R. Somerville and Heather Youngs of the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, research shows that non-edible biofuel crop plants can be engineered or bred to grow on the almost 600 million hectares of abandoned farmland worldwide, without significant effects on food production or the ecosystem.

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E.P.A. approves E-15 ethanol for model year 2001 vehicles

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has approved applications for registration of E-15, gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol. Ethanol, a renewable fuel that can be mixed with gasoline, has been blended into the fuel for over 30 years. But the law limited it to 10 percent by volume for use in gasoline-fueled vehicles.

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Jet fuel developed from high-quality cellulosic sugars

Virent and Virdia announced that they have converted cellulosic pine tree sugars to drop-in hydrocarbon fuels that can be used as gasoline and jet fuel, the latter reportedly having completed the United States Air Force Research Laboratory’s tests. “This fuel passed the most stringent specification tests we could throw at it (such as thermal stability) under some conditions where conventional jet fuels would fail,” said Tim Edwards of the the AFRL. “This fuel is definitely worth further evaluation.”

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Researchers complete genetic map of miscanthus

Researchers from American energy crop company Ceres, Inc, and Aberystwyth University have completed the first high-resolution, comprehensive genetic map of the perennial grass known as miscanthus. Miscanthus is considered a promising source of biomass for the production of alternative fuels and clean energy. It is fast growing, tough and capable of growing on marginal land. However, it is difficult to establish the crop as it is planted from cuttings or rhizomes.

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U.S.’s largest federal biomass cogeneration plant starts production

Delaware-based energy services company Ameresco, Inc. has begun operations at its biomass cogeneration facility in South Carolina, the United States’ largest publicly run plant of its kind. The Savannah River Site Biomass Cogeneration Facility will convert biomass, consisting of local forest residue and fuel chips and bio-derived fuels, to power. It will have the capacity to combust 385,000 tons of forest residue into 20 megawatts of electricity annually.

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Pepco to put $5.3 million energy saving devices at Virginia Tech

International oil and gas company ExxonMobil Corporation has entered into a research and development alliance with leading biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI) to develop next generation biofuels from photosynthetic algae.

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World’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant finds partner

Poet L.L.C.’s next business strategy, first revealed in 2009, is picking up pace following news yesterday of a joint venture with a Dutch food and chemicals company with whom it will produce ethanol using just corn stalks and cobs.

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