110 Advanced Biofuels Projects Now in Development

Biofuels Digest releases its advanced biofuels tracking database for Q1 2011.

Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest
January 14, 2011 | 4 Comments

Biofuels Digest is projecting that global advanced biofuels capacity will reach 4.003 billion gallons by 2015, based on company announcements to date. Today, the Digest released version 1.7 of its free Advanced Biofuels Tracking Database, projecting advanced biofuels capacity for the 2011-2015 period.

The new database, which is the quarterly update tracking new projects and changes in capacity announced since October, includes updates on 13 companies and their projects in Australia, Austria, Brazil, India, the Netherlands, Norway and the US.

Companies updating their guidance include Algae.Tec, Amyris, Avantium, Dupont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol, Helios, Ignite Energy, LanzaTech, Maverick Biofuels, Neste Oil, Photon8, Praj Matrix, Qantas/Solena, Tetravitae, Velocys and Weyland /Statoil Hydro.

The database now tracks 110 advanced biofuels projects, and projects that advanced biofuels capacity will reach 718 million gallons in 2011, 1.522 billion by 2012, 2.685 billion by 2013, and 3.579 billion gallons by 2014.

The new projects are primarily pilots and demonstrations, notably the collaboration between Praj and Qteros in India, a cellulosic ethanol pilot in Pennsylvania from Helios, and a proposed 16 million gallon renewable jet fuel project under investigation by Qantas and Solena for Australia.

Major projects scheduled to come online in 2011 include: the Enerkem waste to ethanol facility in Alberta, the 8 million gallon Ineos BIO waste to ethanol project in Florida, the 10 million gallon renewable diesel project in Florida for LS9, the Neste Oil renewable diesel project in Rotterdam, and a 5 million gallon US Biofuels project in California.

Renewable drop-in fuels (renewable gasoline, and renewable diesel, and biobutanol) have climbed to 59 percent of planned advanced biofuels capacity by 2015.

The latest Advanced Biofuels Tracking Database can be downloaded here.

This article was originally published by the Biofuels Digest and was reprinted with permission.

4 Comments

Greg Morgan
January 25, 2011

Big Oil, BP in particular, may have secrets deep in their valts, though that seems unlikely if their modus operandi is simply to use up available funds. Big Oil will control the outflow of their petroleum reserves to maintain the highest profit obtainable, given that they operate, not in a vacuum, but in a market very heavily biased toward OPEC and Russia. When the price of liquid fuel reaches that level which supports similar profit margins from biofuels, the secrets will be transformed into marketable production. From there it will be a relatively short time before petroleum, supply falling and price rising, becomes a white elephant; biofuel then is unleashed by its universality to the demands of competition and falling prices. There are many paths by which this end can be reached, but it will surely be reached.

John Gregson
January 25, 2011

October 2009, I was part of a 19 person working group considering renewables for the Petro-Chem industry in the UK.

As the feedstock, for when oil runs out due to the expcted rise in the worlds population.

Two of us from that group, have agreed to join forces. Him with his AD design expertise and myself with my exprience of hazardous area working where plant safety is of paramount importance.

Having worked on Teesside, for some large Chemical companies mainly on the North bank of the River Tees. We are expecting to start either in February or March, constructing an 100 tonne per day plant.

Completion date, we expect should be in either August or September 2011.

John Gregson + 44 (0) 772 427 761

Sam Salamay
January 19, 2011

JimW, you are so right. Big oil has always invested in new and clean technologies. A perfect personal example is BP, supposedly Beyond Petroleum which invested heavily in solar. We were promised price parity Years ago through their efforts. They have the solution deep in their vaults. Companies such as EPEC Biofuels has the solution but consistently gets ignored. The distributed model of growing biofuels is not the centralized corporate way. Algae and cellulosic is kept at bay even though billions are poured into these technologies, only to be controlled by big oil which takes our money via matching funds. If EPEC ever gets the chance, it can immediately create a viable distributed model which will be the people's model for prosperity, one community at a time. Looks like we are screwed again...

Jim Warden
January 16, 2011

It has just been revealed in the new year that BigOil has been funding biofuel and algae projects, in fact any technology which they think wont work and in many cases getting matching government funding for same, thus using up available public funds so less will be available for green technology which might could work including electric and GreenNH3, GreenGas.cc ect. In Canada the conservative govt (backed by BigOil) supported a clean air bill through the lower house only to sack it in the upper house. In this time of new technology getting to the point of actually working, they need to start using desperate measures and the 2000 plus lobbyists and strategists are on full alert. Sadly even if these new workable technologies where to be in full force today there would still not be enough fuel to make up for the shortage of peak ( Scientific American 2014). They can sell all they can supply at inflated prices, yet they still dont want the new guy to set up shop till they are dead.

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Jim Lane

Editor & publisher of Biofuels Digest, the most widely-read biofuels daily and newsletter. The Digest covers producer news, research, policy, policymakers, conferences, fleets and financial news. It is home to the Biofuels Digest Index™,...