To the chorus of voices sounding the alarm on the broken Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) – AAA, automakers, outdoor power equipment manufacturers, marine manufacturers, turkey and chicken producers, restaurant companies, grocery manufacturers, environmental non-profits and anti-hunger groups – add another: the advanced biofuels industry. Given the fact the RFS was designed to encourage development of… Keep reading →
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is methane produced from biomass that is cleaned to pipeline quality standards and blended with fossil natural gas. RNG, also known as biomethane, is carbon-neutral and chemically identical to fossil natural gas allowing it to be blended without restriction. Renewable natural gas is produced from a variety of (mostly waste) resources… Keep reading →
Converting natural gas to liquid fuels using Fischer-Tropsch conversion is not a new idea but it has always been a big one, meaning it has always required very large and expensive production facilities. Royal Dutch Shell and South Africa’s Sasol have been the industry leaders in Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) for decades but their existing GTL plants… Keep reading →
Following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent decision to emphasize the use of biogas in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has come out with their own Biogas Opportunities Roadmap to promote biogas as a valuable form of renewable energy. The USDA is working together with the EPA, the Department… Keep reading →
The EPA recently announced changes to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) that improves opportunities for biogas to be utilized as a vehicular fuel by qualifying it as an advanced cellulosic biofuel. Biogas-derived Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) produced from landfills, municipal waste-water treatment facility digesters, agricultural digesters, and separated MSW digesters… Keep reading →
Who’s the biggest turkey of them all? Creating year-end lists is usually an exercise in positive thinking and congratulatory back-slapping. But as the popularity of this year’s list of deceased solar companies showed us, GTM’s readers are far more interested in the morbid and the sarcastic. In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, here is our… Keep reading →
There will be enough workers to “keep the lights on” at key agencies if the shutdown persists. At 12:03 a.m. this morning, after lawmakers in Congress failed to reach agreement on funding the government, thousands of federal employees lumbered out into the streets of Washington, D.C. looking for taxpayer money to spend. They knocked over… Keep reading →
Supporters of coal have called the planned new rules from the EPA on CO2 emissions from coal-fired power generation a war on coal and have pledged to fight the rule-making process. It is true that there will almost certainly not be a new coal-fired electric generating station built in the U.S. for at least the… Keep reading →
The EPA released its finalized 2013 Renewable Fuel Standard yesterday, which laid out modified volumetric requirements for renewable fuels blended into the fuel supply, as well as more flexibility in meeting the standard. This year’s volumetric requirement is unchanged from a previous proposal, at 16.55 billion gallons this year. Of that volume, 1.28 billion gallons must be… Keep reading →
If turning that corner within a decade is acceptable, then the answer is yes. At least according to a major study released today that includes input from a wide range of stakeholders including the investment community, regulators, government and academia. The study, completed by Midwest Aviation Sustainable Biofuels Initiative (MASBI), seeks to develop an “actionable… Keep reading →
