Alfa Laval (STO:ALFA), the Swedish engineering company that specialises in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling, has acquired about 45 percent of the Swedish company Ageratec, that develops process solutions for the biodiesel industry. Ageratec's estimated sales 2008 are about SEK 80 million.

"Non-food based feedstock plays an increasingly important role in the production of biodiesel and the reuse of vegetable cooking oil is one very good example of this development. This is today also driving Ageratec's business", says Lars Renström, president and CEO of the Alfa Laval Group. "By acquiring a minority stake in Ageratec we will be in the frontline of the process development for the biodiesel industry."

A collaborative agreement to jointly research, develop and breed new cultivars for the emerging second-generation biofuels market has been launched by MMR Genetics, Richardson Seeds, and Mendel . MMR Genetics and Mendel will jointly establish a bioenergy nursery, which will be used to breed new, high-performing sorghum cultivars with unique biofuels characteristics. Richardson Seeds will produce commercial quantities of selected cultivars.

Biomass is likely to have a crucial role in Europe's ability to meet its targets for renewable use by 2020, according to a new report, ' Strategic Assessment for European Biomass Energy Markets' from Frost & Sullivan. Biomass, says the report, is the largest renewable resource in use and offers cost effective and sustainable opportunities that can meet the rising energy demand in Europe. In fact it forms almost two-thirds of all renewables in the fast growing renewable sector, owing to its competitive prices.

The US Patent Office has confirmed that the patent application by First American Scientific Corp (FASC) contains allowable subject matter which will result in the granting a new patent for the Kinetic Disintegration System (KDS) biomass processing system developed by the company.

Permission to build a 65mW biomass power plant in the north east of the UK has been granted to Helius Energy, by the UK's Department of Energy today (16th June). The power station is, says the company, the first phase of an integrated bioenergy development on a 36 hectare site 4km from the port of Immingham.

A research collaboration agreement, to work on a new approach for deriving ethanol from biomass, has been announced (12th June) between Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development and SunEthanol, Inc.

Under the agreement, Harvard Medical School researchers will work to develop new genetic strains of a proprietary natural bacterium that SunEthanol is using to convert cellulose into ethanol. SunEthanol is developing the 'Q Microbe' to produce ethanol from a variety of plentiful biomass feedstocks, including switchgrass, corn stover, wheat straw, sugar cane bagasse, and wood pulp.

Today's (13th June) announcement by the EU that it will initiate an investigation into imports of subsidised B99 biodiesel from the USA has been welcomed by the European Biodiesel Board (EBB). In a statement issued earlier today the EBB said; "The Commission decision to proceed with an investigation on the B99 case comes as an encouraging move for our industry. This is an important political signal from EU authorities in favour of a fair international trade of biofuels and it is crucial that this will lead to the timely imposition of countervailing measures against US biodiesel imports to the EU."

There is a clear role for ag and industrial biotech, according to Jack Huttner, vice president, Biorefinery Business Development at Genencor, and that is to increase yields of agricultural crops and other biomass crops for both food and biofuels and to commercialize second and third generation cellulosic biofuels. Huttner was outlining the industry's view on the market during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing held yestday (12th June) on the relationship between U.S. renewable fuels policy and food prices.