Alternative Fuels
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Biofuels deal helps SeQuential play ball with heady Seattle businesses
A top Portland biodiesel producer has landed waste cooking oil recycling agreements with several landmark Seattle institutions. It helps that those institutions, particularly the Seattle Mariners’ Safeco…
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Future Energy Conference: Biomass communications
Could Oregon's forest-based economy be making a comeback? Absolutely, said four speakers at a Tuesday Future Energy Conference presentation on biomass. Presenters at the Northwest Environmental Business…
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ZeaChem plans layoffs despite Boardman successes
Several outlets are reporting that the biofuel company ZeaChem is laying off workers. While few details were immediately available, ZeaChem had begun producing a plant-based biofuel three weeks ago at…
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Boardman plant produces ZeaChem's first alt-fuels
A Boardman plant is ready to commercialize a biofuel form its operators forged from locally sourced biomass materials such as wood and grass. ZeaChem Inc. said it has produced "commercial-grade cellulosic…
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Oregon's energy dept. issues rural-aimed grants
Oregon's energy department and the U.S. Forest Service have kicked six grants over to small wood energy project operators.Each of the six projects, which will share the Oregon Department of Energy's $168,000…
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Poll: A clean sweep for clean fuels
The overwhelming majority of SBO readers responding to our poll last week disagree with one of Oregon's most-powerful lobbyists on the question of clean fuel standards. A full 87 percent of the 111 poll…
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Fuel fight revs up in Salem
Environmental groups and biofuel companies would love to see Oregon become the second state in the nation after California to implement “clean fuel” standards. Business group Associated Oregon Industries…
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New Mexico may repeal its biodiesel mandate
In 2006, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bill requiring that every gallon of diesel fuel sold in the state contain 5 percent biodiesel, a type of renewable energy. The measure was supposed to take…
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Ethanol market poised for recovery as former Cascade Grain plant plots new future
By almost every measure, 2012 was another banner year for U.S. ethanol producers. Every measure but one, anyway. The industry last year produced a whopping 13.3 billion gallons of ethanol, the second-highest…
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N.C. group lands federal grant to study alternative fuel stations
The North Carolina Solar Center said it’s getting a $500,000 federal grant to study how to add more alternative fuel stations in the state. The money will be used by The Alternative Fuel Implementation…
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Solazyme signs another $20M partnership deal
Solazyme Inc., a South San Francisco-based maker of renewable oils, has signed a $20 million partnership with Mitsui Co., to produce products that could be used in plastics, lubricants and household products. Product…
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Clean fuel backers seek Oregon program extension
Proponents of Oregon's Clean Fuels Program cosponsored an event in Salem Wednesday with Drive Oregon that brought a troupe of electric vehicles to the Capitol in Salem. On the heels of a report on Oregon's…
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North Carolina agencies cut fossil fuel use by almost 20%
Universities and other state government agencies have cut their use of fossil fuels by 19.9 percent since 2004, according to an analysis by the Clean Transportation Program at North Carolina Sate University's…
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Year-end numbers highlight cleantech VC slowdown
By the time another round of 2012 figures came out this week, the alarms around the dearth of cleantech venture capital had already been sounded. The annual report released Friday by PricewaterhouseCoopers…
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Central Ohio plans green industrial park
Central Ohio contractors interested in work on the 343-acre recycling and green-energy industrial park in Grove City must reserve space by noon Friday for a meeting next Tuesday to outline bidding opportunities…
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Alternative fuels will have a busy year, thanks to Congress
Rick Price is gearing up for a busy year, thanks, in part, to Congressional compromise. As executive director of Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities, a group that works to promote alternative transportation…
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Southern Research Institute gets $1.5M for alternative fuels work
The Southern Research Institute has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to test a method for producing liquid transportation fuels from coal and biomass, the organization announced…
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CleanWorld Partners opens second biodigester system in California
CleanWorld Partners of Gold River, Calif., is set to open its second organic waste recycling center, which will turn Sacramento food waste into natural gas, electricity and soil amendment products. The…
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Commission green lights first phase of Oregon Clean Fuels Program
Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission voted four to one Friday to start the first phase of the Clean Fuels Program, an effort to stimulate the use of more low-carbon transportation fuels that was put…
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Colorado researchers get $9M to 'rewire' E. coli to make biofuels
A research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder is getting a $9.2 million grant from U.S. Department of Energy to investigate ways to "rewire" E. coli bacteria to produce biofuels. The team…
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Coalition formed to oppose Oregon Clean Fuels Program
In advance of a meeting next week at the Environmental Quality Commission about the adoption of the Oregon Clean Fuels Program, a coalition of businesses have organized to opposed the effort. Oregonians…
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Portland Public Schools adds propane buses to fleet
Students at Portland Public Schools are now riding state-of-the-art propane buses thanks to an updated contract with First Student Inc. and a federal grant to CleanFUEL USA. As they hit the streets, those…
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Berkeley researchers go old school to make modern biofuel
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, resurrected a century old fermentation process and used it to make diesel fuel from sugar. Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, discovered…
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ZeaChem closes $25M investment, touts Boardman biorefinery
ZeaChem Inc. announced Monday morning the company closed a $25 million Series C investment and the completed construction of its demonstration biorefinery in Boardman. The refinery has the capacity to…
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Green chemistry startup sprouts in Wisconsin
A renewable chemical and biofuel production method developed by a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Ron Raines has been licensed to the company he founded. Raines, a biochemistry…
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