The UK government's announcement that the duty differential for Used Cooking Oil biodiesel will continue for two years from April 2010, made in last week's Pre Budget Report, has been welcomed by UK Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (UKSBA). In an announcement made today (15th December) the UKSBA said that it had been lobbying against the loss of the 20 pence per litre duty differential that the government had proposed for next year.

Cetrel and Novozymes have announced a research partnership to develop the sugarcane to fuel stream in Brazil. Using Cetrel’s knowledge in waste-stream treatment and Novozymes’ biotech expertise, the partners aim to enable sugar and ethanol production plants in Brazil to turn bagasse into biogas using enzymes.

“Our agreement with Cetrel is perfectly aligned with our vision to develop a bio-based society, where biorefineries convert agricultural residues and waste into energy, chemicals, and other materials, thereby substituting fossil fuels. The project also offers strong technical and commercial synergy with our efforts on advanced biofuels,”, says Thomas Videbæk, Executive Vice President, Novozymes.

A $25 million loan to support an innovative private biofuels project currently being developed in the department of Piura, Peru, has been approved by the Inter-American Development Bank it was announced today (15th December). The deal is the initiative of Maple Energy Plc, an energy company that has focused solely on Peru since 1994 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market and on the Lima Stock Exchange, the project is known as Maple Etanol and requires a total investment of $245.5 million.

Recent campaigns by Western environmental groups against palm oil produced in developing countries are bogus and also potentially devastating for millions of poor in those regions according to a report released today by the NGO World Growth. The report - "Collateral Damage: How the Bogus Campaign Against Palm Oil Harms the Poor" - was released today (15th December) at the UN Climate Change Conference, in Copenhagen, claims that production of palm oil raises living standards and reduces poverty in developing countries.

A cellulosic biofuel technology developed at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota, and described by the company as "novel and groundbreaking", is about to be commercialized by EERC and the Whole Energy Fuels Corporation, it was announced today (11th December). The agreement sees Whole Energy receiving global, exclusive licensing rights to EERC Foundation's technology, which converts biomass and other recycled material into liquid biofuels.

In an agreement announced today (10th December) PRAJ and Novozymes have said they will collaborate to optimize the enzymatic hydrolysis processes and the use of enzymes in the production of advanced biofuel. The collaboration agreement was signed in Copenhagen by Pramod Chaudhari, Chairman of PRAJ, and Steen Riisgaard, President & CEO of Novozymes A/S, to mark the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.

The alternative energy industry's equity compensation practices are behind those of historically high-growth technology and life sciences industries, according to a new analysis by Radford. Although investors believe that parallels can be drawn between the alternative energy industry to the early-stage Internet companies in the 1990s, equity granting practices of alternative energy companies lag measurably behind those firms in historical analysis. While Internet companies widely utilized stock options to motivate employees, the same cannot be said of alternative energy companies, despite their similarities in growth potential and the human capital of knowledge workers required to realize that growth.