Amyris opens a pilot plant for No Compromise™ renewable diesel

Amyris have recently announced that they have opened their first pilot plant for the production of what they are calling No Compromise™ renewable diesel fuel.

Shell and Virent convert plant sugars directly into biogasoline

Shell and Virent have been collaborating for a year on technology that can convert plant sugars directly into petrol and petrol blend components, rather than ethanol. This biogasoline matches petroleum gasoline in functionality and performance.

Airbus fly an A380 with one engine using synthetic jet fuel

An Airbus A380 aircraft has successfully completed a flight with one of its four engines running on a blend of synthetic jet fuel and normal aviation fuel. The three hour flight from Filton in the UK to Toulouse, France, is the first in a test flight programme that is designed to evaluate the environmental impact of alternative aviation fuels.

Asia looking hard at coal-to-liquids

An article in The Australian today suggests that the ever increasing price of oil is encouraging Asia, holders of one-third of the world’s coal deposits, to have a good hard look at coal-to-liquids plants for the production of synthetic petrol and diesel.

The Price of Biofuels – Do we really have any alternative to biofuels?

This excellent series three part series written by David Rotman and published in the MIT Technology Review is well worth reading if you are at all interested in biofuels. It is very US and ethanol focussed but appears to be a well balanced summary of what I’ve been reading lately. Biodiesel doesn’t get a mention [...]

Syntec acquires ethanol catalyst technology to convert biomass to alcohol

Canadian company, Syntec Biofuel Inc. (Syntec). Syntec has acquired ethanol catalyst technology which has been developed to convert biomass into ethanol, butanol, methanol and propanol. Biogas and syngas from wood waste, organic waste, corn stover, sugar bagasse, switch grass, poplar etc. is becoming economically viable for some producers so Syntec are starting to test their catalysts in an industrial environment in order to quantify the life of the catalysts prior to commercialization.

US Defense contracts design of portable synfuel plant

Diversified Energy Corportation and Velocys Inc. have been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to design a transportable system that can convert waste products generated at military installations into 50 – 500 barrels per day of high performance renewable fuels such as diesel and aviation fuel.

Linc Energy moves to clean up its coal-to-liquids

Linc Energy has formed a joint venture with BioCleanCoal to develop a bioreactor which will convert CO2 into oxygen and solid biomass through a photosynthesis process. The aim is to permanently and safely remove CO2 from Linc Energy’s coal-to-liquids processes thereby preventing it from entering the atmosphere.

USAF tests synthetic fuel blend for C-17 certification

A C-17 Globemaster III has flown using a blend of synthetic and JP-8 fuels in all four fuel tanks as part of the certification process for C-17 use. Fleet-wide certification is planned for the first quarter of 2008.

Chevron to research algae biofuels

Chevron and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have announced that they have entered into a collaborative research and development agreement to study and advance technology to produce liquid transportation fuels using algae.