Biofuels

algae biofuel R&D

ExxonMobil has been quietly researching algae biofuel in partnership with California-based Synthetic Genomics Inc. for the past four years, and it just announced a new co-funding agreement last week.[read more]

E15 fuel/shutterstock

EPA approved E15 for the marketplace knowing that automotive and fuels experts were still studying its impacts. Rather than acknowledge approval was premature, EPA and DOE instead attack the research and the researchers.[read more]

ethanol/shutterstock

Texas Rep. Pete Olson, along with more than a dozen cosponsors reintroduced legislation this week that would permit natural gas-based ethanol to compete with corn-based ethanol for a federal biofuels mandate.[read more]

Gas vs. Ethanol

While it’s true that on a gallon-to-gallon basis ethanol historically has been cheaper than gasoline, ethanol contains far less energy than gasoline and therefore has cost consumers more to travel the same distance.[read more]

fat for energy?

Oil and fat accumulating under the streets of London is apparently causing a bit of an issue. However, the city is going to burn these fatbergs in order to create electricity — about 130 GWh of electricity per year.[read more]

garbage or energy?

Norway, along with many other northern European countries, has built a network of co-generation plants that produce heat and electricity from recycled waste.[read more]

fuel diversity/shutterstock

Alternative fuels have lost some of their luster in the US, lately. With this in mind, I spoke with former Shell Oil Company President John Hofmeister, who recently joined a group dedicated to expanding fuel diversity.[read more]

 

EU energy news

 

Hughes Belin, leading energy journalist for viEUws - the EU Policy Broadcaster, provides an extensive update on the latest policy developments and what to expect for the near future in the field of energy policy.[read more]

corn & ethanol/shutterstock

If RFA’s goal is to reduce oil consumption through use of home-grown fuels, as it claims, it should support cellulosic and other advanced biofuels. But RFA’s clear intent is to increase the market share of corn ethanol.[read more]

fuel price breakdown

The mission of Fuels America and the Renewable Fuels Association is a no-holds-barred defense of the corn ethanol industry and the defective federal biofuels standard, not the interests of U.S. consumers.[read more]

carbon neutral fuel?

A research team at the University of Georgia has discovered a way to create carbon-neutral biofuels using a microorganism that normally feeds on CO2, bypassing the inefficiencies associated with cellulosic ethanol.[read more]

Carolina K. Smith MD / Shutterstock.com

Despite an aggressive push with promotions and massive state investment, and more stations offering E85 for sale in Minnesota now than a few years ago, significantly less of it is being bought by consumers.[read more]

ethanol/shutterstock

Two members of the University of Illinois’ agricultural and consumer economics department have an article out this month that raises some important concerns about the Renewable Fuel Standard.[read more]

biofuels/shutterstock

By capping the production of these fuels, the European Union is hoping to create a larger production capacity for "second generation" biofuels, which are hoped to provide a more environmental friendly long-term solution.[read more]

hyrodgen from plants/shutterstock

A team has discovered a way to cheaply produce mass quantities of hydrogen using a simple sugar abundant in plants, opening potential to mass produce hydrogen fuel in an economical and environmentally friendly for the first time.[read more]