69 Articles
Green
Making the most of our roads, two ways

Paris reclaims pavement for pedestrians, The Cloud Collective farms algae near the freeway.

Creating green space for pedestrians or growing algae for energy are two practical solutions for when there's too much roadway.

Recharge Wrap-up: Minnesota first to require biodiesel, maglev in Israel, Toyota FCV in Aspen

Isuzu Looking Into Biofuel In Japan

A new Minnesota law that requires biodiesel blends goes into effect in just a few days, says KELO. Diesel drivers in Minnesota will be pumping soybeans into their tank beginning July 1. Every year, diesel will be sold as a B10 blend (ten percent

Study
Algae Biomass Organization says biofuels getting cleaner and cleaner

Algae-derived biofuel burns cleaner than petroleum fuels and is often less resource-intensive than first-generation biofuels. That's the conclusion the Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) reaches from the first-ever study that analyzed results from an existing algae-to-energy demonstration scale farm.

Official
Biofuel company Sapphire Energy pays of $54.5m government loan early

In the "lightning strikes twice" department, another California company in the green transportation field has said it paid off its federal government loans ahead of schedule. In this case, San Diego-based Sapphire Energy, which specializes in converting plant algae to crude oil, says it has paid off its $54.5-million loan, originally granted by the US Department of Agriculture, ahead of schedule.

Video
Translogic visits Solazyme, finds algae diesel works well in VW Jetta TDI, navy ships

As we learned when we visited last fall, Solazyme is doing some interesting things in its South San Francisco lab. Now, our friends over at Translogic put together a video showing the algae-derived diesel being used in a Volkswagen Passat TDI – as well as getting burn

Propel Fuels adding hundreds of biofuel stations soon

Propel Fuels is acquiring $21 million in funding to add more than 200 fuel stations in new and existing markets over the next two years, offering more drivers E85 ethanol and biodiesel blends. The company currently sells fuel out of 31 existing retail stations in California and Washington, sharing gas pumps with gasoline and diesel.

Report
Researchers pressure cook algae into crude oil in one minute

Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered a fast way to turn algae into biocrude oil, a clean substitute for conventional crude oil. Chemical engineering professor Phil Savage and doctoral student Julia Faeth were able to pressure cook microalgae in 1,100-degree-Fahrenheit sand for about one minute, converting 65 percent of it into biocrude.

Solazyme IPO nets $227.2 million

Solazyme, a renewable algae-based fuels company headquartered in San Francisco, CA, has announced the closing of its initial public offering (IPO). According to the renewable fuels firm, the company netted $227.18 million by letting 12,621,250 shares fly at a price of $18 per, above the previously estimated $15 to $17. Additionally, the underwriters exercised their 30-day option to purchase an additional 1,646,250 shares of common stock to cover o

Solazyme lets 10.975 million shares fly at $18 in IPO

Solazyme, a renewable algae-based fuels company, has priced its initial public offering (IPO) of 10.975 million shares of common stock at $18 per share, above the earlier estimated range of $15 to $17.

Study: Fuel from algae could cut oil imports by 17% by 2022

Approximately 17 percent of oil imported into the U.S. to be burned in vehicles could be replaced by algal fuel by 2022, according to a study conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). That is, if the U.S. makes a commitment to reduce its dependency on foreign oil by focusing on production of algal fuels. Mark Wigmosta, lead author of the study and a PNNL hydrologist, said in a statement that:

Solazyme files for $100 million IPO

We've featured San Francisco-based Solazyme several times over the past few years, most notably for creating jet fuel from algae. Back then, the company estimated its algae-based fuel would be competitive with $40- to $80-per-barrel oil prices, to say nothing about the current $100-a-barrel prices.

BioJet receives $1.2B to fund renewable aviation fuel projects

BioJet International Ltd. has received a whopping $1.2 billion of financial backing from Equity Partners Fund SPC. The massive amount of capital will allow BioJet, an international supplier of renewable aviation fuels, to fund its biofuel development and launch projects aimed at expanding the use of renewable feedstocks.

DOE's Biomass Program hosting algae webinar today

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Biomass Program will host a webinar entitled "The Promise and Challenge of Algae as a Renewable Source of Biofuels" later today (2-4:30 p.m. EDT). This online conference marks the beginning of the DOE's series of webinars that will focus on the development of renewable fuels, power and products from biomass resources.

Biodiesel algae developer PetroAlgae hoping to go public without a product

Melbourne, FL-based PetroAlgae has filed an S-1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the hopes of raising $200 million from an initial public offering. Unfortunately, despite the promise that algae shows as a feedstock for biofuels, PetroAlgae doesn't appear to have much to offer.

Japan gets back into algae biofuel (and algae-based foodstuffs)

Making biofuel from algae is not a new technology (getting it to work in commercial-scale plants at reasonable costs, that's another story), but it's also not one that is fully developed. Japan, for example, started a national algae biofuel project in the 1990s, but $10 barrels of oil killed that pretty quick. Now, Toyota has announced it will work with Hitachi and 40 other Japanese companies on a new national algae project. This one will try to make algae-basd biofuels, cosmetics and food. So,

What are 3rd and 4th generation biofuels and when are they coming?

Back in the early days of mass-produced biofuels, corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel were all the rage. But criticism about food vs. fuel and scalability abounded and, by 2008, cellulosic ethanol became known as a so-called second-generation-biofuel and, maybe, the answer to our oil-addicted prayers. Blame Nik Bristow

Capturing bio-diesel from sweating plants - can this really be done?

We never really knew that plants sweat. Nor were we aware that when some of them sweat, it's good ole biodiesel pouring out. If that's the case, then let's turn up the heat and get rewarded with all the fuel we will ever need. A little-known American company called Joule Unlimited claims that perspiration from a new type of gene-altered single cell organism actually contains usable biodiesel

There's a fungus among us (other biodiesel feedstocks)

Researchers in Spain have demonstrated that they can transform fungus directly into commercial-grade biodiesel.Through a process we admittedly don't pretend to completely understand, the fungus mucor circinelloides is made into ASTM-D6751-spec biodiesel without first having its oils extracted, a process called dir

/ 4