Biofuels

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On Friday, December 10, 2010, EPA published in the Federal Register its final rule governing the underground injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) for geologic sequestration (GS) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). EPA released a pre-publication version of this rule back on November 22, 2010. Stoel Rives previewed the pre-publication version on our Renewable…

On December 2, 2010, the United States Patent Office published two Novozymes applications relating to bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass and an Iogen application relating to bioethanol production from lignocellulosic. On the same date, the World Intellectual Property Organization published a Solazyme application relating to biodiesel, renewable diesel and jet fuel production.

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EPA has completed the roll out of the complex RFS2 program by setting renewable fuel quantity requirements for 2011. EPA severely curtailed the cellulosic biofuels standard from 250 million gallons to six million gallons based on limited industry growth. Looking forward to 2012, however, the agency identified a potential surge to 300 million gallons of…

Don’t forget that the deadline for Phase I grant applications under the U.S. Department of Energy’s ("DOE") Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") and Small Business Technology Transfer ("STTR") programs is 8:00 p.m. Eastern, November 15, 2010.  Qualified small businesses with strong research capabilities in science or engineering in any of the research areas identified…

The Congressional Research Service has put out a useful and concise summary of federal programs that provide direct and indirect incentives for biofuels. The report lists over eighteen active programs administered by five different agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Department of Energy and Internal Revenue Service.   For each program, the report lists the authorizing…

On September 28, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the Algae-based Renewable Fuel Promotion Act of 2010 (H.R. 4168). The Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to (1) expand the definition of "cellulosic biofuel" to include algae-based biofuel for purposes of the cellulosic biofuel producer tax credit; and (2)  provide for accelerated depreciation of property used …

An alert written by Stoel Rives partners Seth Hilton and John McKinsey:

The California Energy Commission RPS staff has proposed some significant and potentially important revisions to the RPS Eligibility Guidebook and the Overall Program Guidebook.  Written comments on the proposed revisions are due September 10, 2010, by 5:00 p.m.  The CEC will consider approval…

There has been a wave of good and bad news this past week regarding the DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program.  On the positive side, Secretary Chu announced on Friday that the Department would be adding an additional compliance period for the Innovative Solicitation.  The current deadline for the Part I application under the program is August 24th.  Secretary…

From our colleague Edna Vassilovski:

On July 29, 2010, the following U.S. patent applications were published relating to biofuels:

U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20100191022 (Undisclosed assignee) relates to the use of Arundo donax feedstock in a gasification process to produce ethanol. According to the application, ethanol is produced substantially without by-products except for an…

From our colleague Edna Vassilovski:

The following U.S. patent applications published this week relating to biofuels.

U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20100184161 (The Regents of the University of California) discloses a thermophilic endo-beta-1,4 xylanase derived from Acidothermus cellulolyticus useful in the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material.

U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20100184151 (Iogen) discloses a process in…