Last Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency released its proposed rule for the 2013 Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS2”) volume obligations. Every year the EPA is required to determine and publish the annual volume requirements for each class of renewable fuel that obligated parties will have to comply with for the upcoming year under the RFS2 program. The volumes required … Continue Reading
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. US Patent Pub. … Continue Reading
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 in … Continue Reading
Below are some perspectives from the recent 2009 Northern Plains Bioeconomy Conference, as attended (and prepared by) my colleague, Joel Dahlgren. According to Dr. Bruce Dale, a professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State University (MSU), in a carbon-constrained world, cellulosic biomass is the cheapest energy per dollar of gigajoule (GJ) of energy produced. At $60 per ton … Continue Reading
Advanced biofuels producers must enroll by August 11, 2009 to be eligible to receive payments from the USDA for FY 2009 production under Section 9005 of the 2008 Farm Bill. Eligible producers of advanced biofuels may receive payments for advanced biofuels produced from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009 (FY 2009). $30 million is available for distribution under this program … Continue Reading
Last week, the US EPA extended the rulemaking period on RFS 2 until September 25, 2009. This extends the period by 60 days. While this rulemaking is highly complicated and contentious, it is unclear that extending the comment period will improve this situation. In addition, the effective date of the regulations continues to be delayed. This … Continue Reading
Last week DOE released a new funding opportunity announcement for up to $480 million for pilot-scale and demonstration-scale integrated biorefinery projects. An integrated biorefinery uses an “acceptable feedstock” to produce a biofuel or bioproduct as the “primary product.” Acceptable feedstocks include: Algae Certain woody biomass Renewable plant materials so long as it is not generally intended for use … Continue Reading
The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels last week released Version 0.0 of its Global Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Biofuels Production.… Continue Reading
