Biofuels Journal - January/February 2009 - (Page 48)

Brazil Brazil in 2008 set a record for sugarcane and ethanol production, producing 5.9 billion gallons, a 20.1% increase over 2007, the government announced in late December. Brazil’s sugar and ethanol industries processed 571.4 million tons of sugar cane into 26.6 billion liters (5.9 billion gallons) of fuel and 232.1 million tons of sugar, according to National Supply Company, or Conab. Research and Development in Marseille, France, have been looking into the process of converting water hyacinth, a weed known to devastate lakes, canals, and ponds, into biodiesel. Part of the initial research and testing processes will be to identify the micro organisms that will produce enzymes to degrade the complex sugars or polysaccharides in water hyacinth. that South Korean-based Ubiex, Inc. has signed a professional services agreement (PSA) with BlueFire to develop a cellulosic ethanol facility in South Korea. BlueFire will provide the preliminary engineering design and technical support for the proposed project. Sudan In mid-February, Sudan’s state-owned Kenana Sugar Co. (KSC) announced its intention to begin producing ethanol at its first ethanol plant at the end of March. The ethanol plant, built by Brazil’s Dedini Industrias de Base, is expected to produce about 61 million liters of ethanol a year from molasses. According to Sudan’s ambassador to Brazil, Omer Salih Abubakr, KSC has contracted to ship five million liters annually to the United Kingdom. Japan In late November, the Japanese Agriculture Ministry approved a third test project to use farm waste as a feedstock for ethanol plants. This project will utilize subsidies totaling approximately $32 million over five years to pay for construction and operating the plants . Japan, one of several resource-poor countries, is working on enzymes and other process technologies to take more energy from waste products of farming and forestry. China In early November, Hainan Yedao Group said it had received approval to startup its new 100,000-ton (33MMGY) ethanol plant in Haikou, located in the southern islands of China. The plant will use cassava, a woody schrub native to southern China, as its feedstock, which is the fifth-largest crop for the country. The Haikou plant will also produce 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year and will use 4,498 hectares of land in Laos to plant cassava for the plant. The first non-grain feedstock plant in China, located in Heihai, Guangxi, opened in December 2008 and is expected to produce 200,000 tons ofethanol and 50,000 tons of cellulosic ethanol from 1.5 million tons of cassava. Vietnam The Vietnamese governement announced in mid-October a plan to build five ethanol plants by 2010 to help meet growing domestic demand for blended ethanol-gasoline fuel. Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Van Lang said the plants will make a combined 100,000 tons of E5 fuel. The plants will use cassava as the feedstock and the first plant to be built will be in Phu Tho at a cost of $85 million. According to plant officials, the plant should be operational later this year and will have an annual capacity of 100 million liters of ethanol. Compiled from news reports by Adam Tedder, associate editor Peru In late November, Stratos Renewable Corp. announced they had secured enough land in the nothern region of Peru to produce up to 90-MMGY of ethanol. Stratos will use the land for sugarcane cultivation, milling, and distillation which will lead to exporting ethanol. Peru has been historically one of the world’s largest producers of sugarcane in the world. South Korea India The Department of Life Sciences at Kannur University and the Institute for BlueFire Ethanol Fuels, Inc., a cellulosic ethanol production technology based in Irvine, CA, announced Dec. 12 48 BFJ | JAN/FEB 09

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Biofuels Journal - January/February 2009

Biofuels Journal - January/February 2009 Contents Safety Training Expanding Safety Pays Top 2008 OSHA Citations Ethanol Terminal Safety Preventing Falls Fighting Ethanol Fires Biodiesel Safety Bridgeport Ethanol John Kruse, Global Insight Barley Ethanol New DDGS Market—Fish Mary Beth Stanek, General Motors RINs As Commodity POET BioRefining Ethanol Pipeline—Florida DDGS Causing E. coli Community College Biofuels Ethanol Plants in the Pipeline State Report: Ohio Ethanol World Profile: Adam Dunlap, BlueFire Ethanol When to Harvest Switchgrass, Miscanthus Indirect Land Use Change Profile: Greg Olson, POET-Corning Growth Energy Monthly Ethanol Production Case Study: Fuelzyme Ethanol Industry News Greg Poe, Ethanol Pilot Sponsored by Fagen Inc. Blackhawk Biodiesel Biodiesel Roundup Biodiesel World Peanut Biodiesel Pennycress Biodiesel Radish Biodiesel Profile: Joe Korpi, Renewable Energy Group Biodiesel Convention NBB Eye on Biodiesel Awards Calendar of Events Cellulosic Ethanol Plants Under Construction Cellulosic Ethanol Plants Construction Map Breaking Cellulosic Ground Show Me’s Collecting Biomass Inland Empire Oilseeds POET’s Project Liberty Update Vermeer’s Cob Harvester Iowa State Cob Harvest Research Europe’s Energy Parks Imported Deere Cob Harvest Kit/Case IH Coskata Sugar/Mascoma Update Range Fuels Update Tom Warne, Schutte-Buffalo Hammermill University of Illinois Biofuels Master’s Roger Ladig, Laidig Systems, Inc. Miscanthus vs. Switchgrass Biofuels Automation Scott Martin, LeMar Industries Biodiesel Financing EISENMANN Corp. GATX / Beta Tec ProSonics / S.K. Patil DOE Grant Action Unloaders Ad Index

Biofuels Journal - January/February 2009

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