Category: Blog entry
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Some Biofuel Feedstock Estimates ‘Overstating’ Yields
– March 4, 2014. Source: Environmental Leader Estimates for potential biofuel feedstock crop yields from some widely cited research studies may overstate those yields by as much as 100 percent, according to research by the International Council on Clean Transportation. One key factor in developing a sustainable biofuels policy is to realistically estimate the amount of biomass that can…
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Group Descries Logging in Northampton, MA Watershed
– by Rebecca Everett, March 17, 2014. Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette Chris Matera of Northampton said he was driving through Whately to go skiing two weeks ago when he noticed piles of fresh-cut logs at the mouth of a trail into a forest. “I said, ‘Wait, isn’t that the watershed?,’” he recalled recently. Matera, who heads…
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Biomass Industry Needs to Prepare for Water Constraints
– by Phil Ciciora, March 5, 2014. Source: University of Illinois News Office Debates surrounding the sustainability of bioenergy have emerged in recent years relating to water quality and quantity, and those debates will only grow louder as big urban areas in the U.S. start running out of water and environmental groups and the Environmental Protection…
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Biomass Industry Needs to Prepare for Water Constraints
– April 14, 2014. Source: KDUZ/KARP St. Paul, Minn.– The ethanol plant in Buffalo Lake formerly owned by Minnesota Energy is in the process of correcting water and air quality permit violations, and must pay a $10,000 civil penalty, according to an agreement with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). In October 2012, Renville County officials…
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Biofuel Producer Warns of Default, Bankruptcy
– by Christopher Martin, March 18, 2014. Source: Bloomberg Businessweek [Read more about Khosla: Cellulosic Ethanol: A Bio-Fool’s Errand -Ed.] Kior Inc. (KIOR:US), the Vinod Khosla-backed operator of the first U.S. commercial-scale cellulosic biofuel plant, fell the most on record after management told regulators they have serious doubts about staying in business. Kior declined 41 percent to 63 cents…
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Genetically Engineered Trees as Biofuel Feedstock
[Now that corn ethanol has fallen out of favor politically, the bioenergy industry will be focusing more and more on forests.] – by Alex Maragos, November 28, 2014, WLFI Ethanol made from corn already powers millions of cars and trucks on the road, but a group of researchers at Purdue University wants to make biofuel better.…
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Study: Logging Destabilizes Forest Soil Carbon
– by John Cramer, December 2, 2014, Dartmouth College Logging doesn’t immediately jettison carbon stored in a forest’s mineral soils into the atmosphere but triggers a gradual release that may contribute to climate change over decades, a Dartmouth College study finds. The results are the first evidence of a regional trend of lower carbon pools in…
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UK Biomass Project Halted, Developer Blames “erosion of support” for Biomass
UK biomass project halted, developer blames “erosion of support” for biomass – by Nina Chestney, March 7, 2014. Source: Reuters Renewable energy developer RES has stopped a 300-million-pound ($500 million) project to build a biomass plant in Northumberland, northeast England, due to what it called inconsistent government subsidies. The 100-megawatt (MW) plant was scheduled to be…
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Fanning the Northeastern Biomass Flame
[The biomass industry is teaming up with environmentalists to increase the amount of forests burned for polluting energy in the Great North Woods.] Fanning the Northeastern Biomass Flame – by Joseph Seymour, March 11, 2014. Source: Biomass Magazine Migrating 1 million homes to biomass heat is optimistic—let alone 6 million—but recent developments in the northeastern U.S.…