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Rain is Bad News for Grain and Cotton Crops
Fri Jul 30, 2010 02:46 PM CDT
The grain sorghum and cotton crops of south Texas are in doubt because of recent heavy rainfall, KIII-TV Channel 3 reported on Wednesday. A year after a historical drought, farmers in the Coastal Bend area are now seeing the quality of their grain sorghum slowly be destroyed by flooded farm fields.
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Greenfield to Use Biomass Crops to Clean Up Radioactive Particles
Fri Jul 30, 2010 02:45 PM CDT
Land near the Chernobyl nuclear explosion that is plagued by radioactive particles could become greener from the use of biofuel crops, AZoCleantech, reported. A large bioethanol plant to be built by the government of Belarus and Ireland-based Greenfield, would use biomass crops grown on the contaminated land as fuel.
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Jamaica Sells Sugar Refineries to Complant
Fri Jul 30, 2010 02:45 PM CDT
Jamaica is scheduled to finalize the sale of three of the country's three remaining sugar refineries to China-based Complant International for a total of $9 million, 123Jump.com reported. The sale will hopefully support the construction of an ethanol refinery to help alleviate Jamaica's crude oil imports, as Complant is completing a feasibility study of building a $180 million, sugar-based ethanol refinery with a capacity of 220,000 gallons per year.
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Looking for Gold in Ethanol
Fri Jul 30, 2010 02:44 PM CDT
BioDimensions Inc. is developed its own crop of biofuel feedstocks near Jackson, Tenn., as well as testing an ethanol-fueled irrigation system in West Memphis, the Memphis Business journal reported. The studies come a year after a study commissioned by the Memphis Bioworks Foundation estimated a potential for an $8 billion biofuel and bio-productions production market in the Mid-South, as well as supporting as many as 25,000 "green" jobs in the next 10 years.
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Europe Lags Behind U.S., China on Biofuels Use
Fri Jul 30, 2010 02:42 PM CDT
Europe's lack of political direction is responsible for the fact that it lags behind the U.S., China and Brazil in biofuel development, according to Novozymes CEO Steen Riisgaard. The top three countries are moving ahead with plans, such as Brazil's goal to displace 10 percent of global gasoline use with ethanol by 2020, China's testing of corn-based ethanol or the fuel standards the U.S.
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Lawmakers Raise Issues About E15 Proposal
Fri Jul 30, 2010 02:42 PM CDT
Federal lawmakers are asking questions about the effect that increasing ethanol content would have on engines and the environment, the Des Moines Register reported. Top Democrats and Republicans on the house Energy and Commerce Committee posed a series of such questions Thursday in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Fraser Valley Crops Suffering in July Heat
Thu Jul 29, 2010 03:18 PM CDT
Dry July weather is causing damage to the crops of British Columbia, Canada, CTV British Columbia reported on Thursday. Opinder Bhatti of O'Bhatti Farm said he expects his sweet corn will yield about 40 percent less than last year.
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Gee Whiz: Human Urine is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer
Thu Jul 29, 2010 03:17 PM CDT
Researchers in Finland grew beets as an experiment using sustainable fertilizer -- human urine, Scientific American reported on Friday. Surendra Pradhan and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski, environmental scientists at the University of Kuopio used a combination of urine and wood ash, which they found worked just as good as traditional mineral fertilizer.
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Novomer Awarded $18.4M in Federal Stimulus Funds
Thu Jul 29, 2010 03:16 PM CDT
Novomer Inc. announced Wednesday is has been awarded $18.4M in federal funding from the Department of Energy to convert waste CO2 into various sustainable polymers, Market Watch reported. The CO2 would be used to manufacture such products as bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, as well as other wood and metal surface applications.
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Novomer Awarded $18.4M in Federal Stimulus Funds
Thu Jul 29, 2010 03:14 PM CDT
Novomer Inc. announced Wednesday is has been awarded $18.4M in federal funding from the Department of Energy to convert waste CO2 into various sustainable polymers, Market Watch reported. The CO2 would be used to manufacture such products as bottles, films, laminates, coatings on food and beverage cans, as well as other wood and metal surface applications.
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Alfalfa Joins Feedstock Choices for Ethanol
Thu Jul 29, 2010 03:13 PM CDT
Hay could be a possible feedstock for ethanol and offset some of the environmental concerns associated with corn, according to scientists at the Department of Agriculture's Dairy Forage Research Center in St.
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Zimbabwe Government to Allow Private Investment in Energy Sector
Thu Jul 29, 2010 03:12 PM CDT
Zimbabwe's government announced Tuesday it will open up the country's energy sector to private investors as independent power producers or public-private partnership arrangements, according to the Global Times.
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EU Shows Growth in Ethanol Production, Use
Wed Jul 28, 2010 03:40 PM CDT
European ethanol production is continuing to increase, Ethanol Producer reported. While ethanol production growth was nearly 60 percent in 2008, 2009 saw the European Union's production continuing to grow by 31 percent.
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Blender Pumps Get UL Certified
Wed Jul 28, 2010 03:40 PM CDT
Underwriters Laboratory has given final safety certification to new ethanol blender pumps from Dresser Wayne and Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Domestic Fuel reported. The Dresser Wayne pump has a dual hose, offering low blends on one hose for conventional vehicles and mid to high-level blends on the other hose for flexible fuel vehicles.
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Green Car Passes Test at NSS
Wed Jul 28, 2010 03:39 PM CDT
Green racing research data from the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago is proving successful, according to automotive researcher Forrest Jehlik. Jehlik has been crunching numbers collected during three days of testing at Florida's New Smyrna Speedway, the Daytona Beach News-Journal Online reported.
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Groups Rally to Fight Against E15
Wed Jul 28, 2010 03:38 PM CDT
A group of environmental organizations and companies are banding together to discourage Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from promoting widespread use of the E15 ethanol blend, Biofuels International reported.
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Some Crops Struggle, Others Thrive in Heat
Wed Jul 28, 2010 03:37 PM CDT
The hot and dry weather Pennsylvania has seen this summer has caused some of the state's crops to struggle to survive while others have thrived in the hot and dry field conditions, the Williamsport Sun Gazette reported on Wednesday.
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Deer Damage Expensive, can be Contained
Wed Jul 28, 2010 03:34 PM CDT
Deer can cause hundreds of dollars of damage to a field, but there are practices that farmers can employee to limit these losses, the Midwest Producer reported on Tuesday. "Deer love newly forming ears," said Scott Hygnstrom, with the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).
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Montana Hay Farmers See Biggest Harvest in Years
Tue Jul 27, 2010 03:27 PM CDT
Because of extra moisture and a mild spring, farmers in Montana are harvesting a record amount of hay, the Missoulian reported on Monday. Missoula County Extension agent Jerry Marks said the extra moisture this growing season has made it a good grass year with average alfalfa growth as well.
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Biomass Innovation Park Set for Construction
Tue Jul 27, 2010 03:26 PM CDT
Genera Energy plans to begin construction on what it is calling biomass innovation park in east Tennessee, the Knoxville News in Knoxville, Tenn., said, as part of a partnership with Dupont Danisco to produce cellulosic ethanol using corn cobs and eventually switchgrass.
