Burning Bio News

Minnesota Project helps set up an anaerobic digester for a 300 cow dairy in Minnesota. The digester was made by Andigen of Logan, Utah. Owner Kevin Pack was on hand for the delivery of the company’s 11th digester. Pack said the on-farm digesters can cash flow at 15 cents a kilowatt, without any tax breaks or subsidies.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co has signed a long-term power purchasing agreement with Finavera Renewables Inc, a Canadian company, testing a technology to convert the energy of ocean waves to electricity.

Officials of Pencor Masada OxyNol are still planning to have their waste to ethanol plant up and running this time next year as per their contract with the City of Middletown. But, they have agreed to ease off on some of their claims in an arbitration action they took against the city.

Pacific Ethanol Inc., which has an ethanol plant in Oregon, has suspended construction of its Imperial Valley ethanol plant near Calipatria, CA., citing the difficult market for ethanol producers.

Delaware’s prospects of attracting an ethanol producer are evaporating, experts say, diminished by the state’s tough coastal zoning law and limited agricultural resources, as well as the industry’s rapid growth elsewhere.

Chrysler LLC is partnering with Purdue University to test the powers of poplar trees to clean up environmental spills and, in separate work, develop poplars that can serve as feedstock for improved renewable biofuels. Purdue has developed a hybrid poplar that filters out industrial chemicals that will be tested. The poplar trees have also been modified so the lignin breaks down more readily.

Ethanol approval denied by Iroquois County Board (IL). 74 percent of the Board was in favor, but a resident with adjoining property who does not approve of the ethanol plant requested passage by a ’super majority’ of 75 percent. The plant vote did not achieve the super majority.

E85 Inc., which earlier said it hoped to start construction this year, has postponed its plans for the Corunna site. The $150 million, Corunna plant would produce about 116 million gallons of ethanol a year and would create about 50 permanent jobs.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture seized about $6 million worth of grain held at Central Illinois Grain when Central Illinois Energy, Canton, IL, went out of business. “We are, in essence, freezing the grain assets of the business to protect the producers who have supplied grain,” said Jeff Squibb, IDOA spokesman.

A 63 million gallon ethanol plant has been approved for an industrial park in Hanford, CA, by that city’s planning commission.

A 40 million gallon ethanol plant is being proposed for Warren County, NJ.

Panda Ethanol has decided not to build a 100-million-gallon ethanol plant in Wallace, NE.

Hopewell (VA)’s City Council has approved the sale of city land for the construction of an ethanol plant. The town is split over support for the 55 million gallon proposed ethanol plant. Opponents who were denied a temporary injunction against the plant, plan to go to the VA Supreme Court to stop the plant.

The international biotechnology company, Genecor, is expanding its Cedar Rapids, IA, manufacturing plant with a $3.5 million applications laboratory and pilot plant. The facility will primarily focus on fuel ethanol from corn and carbohydrate processing (corn sweeteners).

Treasure Island, just off-shore of San Francisco, built into an eco-city of 13,500 people consisting of the latest technology and natural systems that is expected to leave the slightest footprint on Earth. Treasure Island was originally built for 1939 Golden Gate Exposition, and is a man-made lump made up of 20 million cubic yards of sea floor soil sandwiched between 287,000 tons of rock and 50,000 yards of loam.

A federal judge dismissed the bankruptcy case of Earth Biofuels Inc., which distributes country music star Willie Nelson’s biodiesel fuel, after the company agreed to an interim restructuring deal put forth by a group of hedge funds.

Montreal-based Evergreen BioFuels USA inked an agreement with Centerview, Missouri-based Show Me Energy Cooperative, to engineer, build and manage a 100,000 ton biomass pellet fuel mill.

The Vertigro Joint Venture released test results from its high density algae field test bed plant in El Paso, TX. During a 90 day continual production test, algae was harvested at a rate of 276 tons of algae per acre per year. At that rate an algal species having a 50% oil content would deliver about 33,000 gallons of oil per acre per year.

Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, IA, has begun using red wiggler worms to treat their biomass solid waste. At capacity, the worm project is expected reduce the zoo’s waste by turning 9 tons of material per year into worm-casting fertilizer.

The Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel facility in Clayton, DE, has stopped production of their 6 million gallon biodiesel plant waiting for the market to turn around.