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Algae 2020:
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460 pages, published June 2009
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| | | | | | Top Story
 Ethanol revival?
Murphy Oil's $92 milliopn purchase of 110 Mgy Hankinson plant is another signal of "return to normalcy"
In North Dakota, more signs of an ethanol revival appeared with the purchase of the 110 Mgy ethanol plant in Hankinson by Murphy Oil. Murphy, which paid $92 million in the form of non-recourse debt for the plant, said that it will invest $15 million in working capital to restart the plant, which debuted in July 2008 but went idle last October due to industry economic conditions. Murphy becomes the third oil company - after Valero and Sunoco - to purchase idle ethanol plants.
The ethanol recovery news in North Dakota was echoed by the restart of Suncor's resumption of work on expansion of its St. Clair ethanol plant in Ontario, Canada, a project that will expand plant capacity to 105 million gallons.
Ethanol's fortunes have been largely revived by a fall in the price of corn - with the USDA projecting prices in the $3-$3.50 range for the near-term, creating a viable "crush spread" between the price of the underlying feedstock and the price of ethanol. Recently, POET CEO Jeff Broin confirmed that his company had seen a return to relatively normal economics after the crisis of 2008-09.
More on ethanol's revival at biofuelsdigest.com.
| | 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy: Candidate profile
Rentech
Based in: California
2008-09 ranking: Unranked
Business: The Company's Rentech-SilvaGas biomass gasification process is the technology used in the only biomass gasifier operated at commercial scale in the United States. It can convert multiple biomass feedstocks into synthesis gas (syngas) for renewable power production, and can be integrated for conversion of syngas into complex hydrocarbons by the patented Rentech Process based on Fischer-Tropsch chemistry. The final products after upgrading are ultra-clean synthetic jet and diesel fuels, specialty waxes and chemicals
Model: Developer/owner/operator/licensor of synthetic fuels, power facilities and energy conversion technologies.
Metrics: Revenue for the last twelve months ended June 30, 2009 is $233 million. 2008: $211 million. 2007: $132 million. Rentech-SilvaGas biomass gasification technology operated at a commercial scale of 400 tons per day. Product Demonstration Unit is a demonstration scale plant that produces 10 barrels per day of synthetic jet and diesel fuel.
More on Rentech including milestones and quotable quotes at biofuelsdigest.com.
|  Algae Biomass Summit
October 7-9, 2009
San Diego Marriott and Marina (California)
Exploring the emerging industry of algae as feedstock for biofuels and its related products.
Registration, sponsorship and speaking info. | | Producer News
In Virginia, Norwegian energy giant StatoilHydro has granted $3 million to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, for a project that will convert York River algae into biodiesel. The goal of the project is to reduce pollutants in the river and the Chesapeake Bay. Captured nutrients will be used to feed algal blooms, that will be harvested for conversion into biodiesel at the VIMS labs.
In Nevada, Desert Hills Dairy Biodigester has acquired land and commenced development of the first Nevada-based anaerobic digester, at Desert Hills Dairy in Wabuska, 40 miles east of Carson City. The project is at least the fourth renewable energy project for the small town of 150, which has arguably been the site of more renewable project development - per capita - than any other town in the US. The current project will use digester technology from GHD in Wisconsin.
| | World Opinion
Canada.com: "Ottawa's push to use high-level ethanol fuel in cars is doing little or nothing to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions nor will it, says a government briefing note prepared for Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt and obtained by Canwest News Service.."
Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy: "Market watchers forecast American farmers will produce 13 billion bushels of corn this year - a yield increase of 7 percent over last year, planted on 5 million fewer acres. The productivity of the American farmer continues to give us more grain from fewer acres. The RFS already includes safeguards that protect conservation land. For a fuel to qualify for the RFS, it cannot come from new land."
| | International News
In Canada, Suncor said that it has restarted work on increasing the capacity of its St. Clair ethanol plant in Sarnia, Ontario to 105 Mgy. The $120 million project was halted in January due to economic conditions. The company had cut its capital expenditures by 70 percent for 2009.
In Kenya, Time Magazine ran an article on poor promotion and information on jatropha cultivation from the national government. Meanwhile, The East African is reporting that the Kenyan government has halted grants of land to outside biofuel investors, and the BBC 20,000 local farmers are themselves facing eviction from the Mau forest area after it was discovered that the farmers had cleared as much as 25 percent of the Mau forest reserve for food production.
In Germany, with a change in the structure of the federal government imminent after election results made a center-right coalition of the Free Democrats and the Christian Democrats all but inevitable, a report was filed in Environmental Finance that the country will be poised to reduce its EEG, the national renewable energy subsidy law.
| | Research News
In Washington, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, "Potential Effects and Challenges of Required Increases in Production and Use," calling for an end to the ethanol industry's 45-cent tax credit. The report was requested by Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
The report can be downloaded via biofuelsdigest.com.
| | Policy & Policymakers
In Washington, the Department of Energy said that more than 200 people attended a recent Business Opportunity Session in person in Washington, and 300 attended online - and described the Department's first webcast as "our most successful yet!" despite reports from Digest readers that the presentation crashed on some computers. The video of the presentation is available via biofuelsdigest.com.
| | Consumer, Fleet and Event News
In Oregon, Kinder Morgan announced that it has commenced shipping B2 blended biodiesel through a 115-mile Oregon Pipeline, which runs between Portland and Eugene. The company, which recently tested biodiesel transit in its Plantation Pipeline in the Southeast, said that it transported 100,000 barrels of B2 through the pipeline successfully.
| | Financial News
The Biofuels Digest Index™ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, edged up 0.15 percent to 62.08 as Big Grain fell and algae advanced. For the day, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) fell 1.49 percent to close at $28.43, while The Anderson (ANDE) fell 2.14 percent to $33.76. Among small caps, PetroAlgae (PALG.OB) jumped 66.33 percent to $24.95. Overall, declines and advances were even for the day.
| | Biofuels jobseekers, employers
In the first three weeks, Digest job seekers have recorded more than 1,800 job listing page views at the Digest job portal. Biofuels-related career opportunities are available at the Biofuels Digest job portal.
Job of the Day: Sriya Innovations is hiring an Electrical Project Enginner.
Employers: Post jobs for free through 12/10/09 by using the promotion code PromoBD1. Jobs posted directly through the Digest will be prioritized in the job display.
| | Free subscription to Geothermal Digest
The web version of Geothermal Digest is now online at geothermaldigest.net.
To receive Geothermal Digest free on a weekly basis, simply click on the "Update Profile/Email Address" link at the bottom of this email, which will take you to a page where you can check off interest in receiving GD.
| | Hot Topics from Past Issues
Benjamins for Biofuels: the Financing of Bioenergy Part V. Part IV. Part III.
Part II. Part I
Algae's Baby Bloomers: the young companies making algal fuels the hottest topic in bioenergy
The Top 10 Stories of the Year
The 10 Most Overlooked Stories of the Year
Drop In, Tune Out, Turn On: new thinking for new days in bioenergy. The importance of drop in fuels, the unimportance of the current debate over first-gen fuels.
The Blunder Crop: a Biofuels Digest special report on jatropha biofuels development
The Hottest 50 Companies in Bioenergy
| | These stories and more are available at BiofuelsDigest.com. Your comments and story requests are warmly welcome: email me at jlane@biofuelsdigest.com.
Disclosure: I do not own any renewable energy securities; no payments or compensation of any kind is received in return for placing favorable opinion in the Digest - Jim Lane, Editor and Publisher, Biofuels Digest.
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