In a sharp about turn Agriterra Ltd has said that it no longer intends to pursue the proposed acquisition of Equatorial Biofuels (Guernsey) Limited, from Equatorial Palm Oil Plc. The deal was initially announced a little over a month ago (18th August) as a MoU between the companies. However, in a terse statement today (23rd September) Agriterra said; "following further evaluation, the company believes that the project was not synergistic with its existing operations in Mozambique and was outside its current expertise within the agricultural sector."

Scientists at Purdue University have suggested that a blend of degummed soybean oil and No. 2 fuel oil can be used as an alternative heating fuel and reduce sulfur emissions. The Purdue findings bring biofuels into the heating oil market, which has previously proved to be a difficult sector for a variety of reasons.

Klein Ileleji, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, tested blends of 20 percent, 50 percent and 100 percent degummed soybean oil – an unrefined and cheaper product to produce than soy methyl esters, commonly known as biodiesel – and found that the 20 percent blend didn't degrade a home furnace's parts or heat output. The only issue found with the 20 percent blend was a slight early degradation of the furnace's seals and gaskets, which manufacturers could fix by switching to a higher quality product. Ileleji's findings were reported in the recent early online version of the journal Fuel.

More than 200 scientists and economists issued a letter today (23rd September) calling on Congress and US federal agencies to account for emissions from indirect land use change in biofuel laws and regulations. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which organized the letter, is running advertisements in Congress Daily this Wednesday and Thursday to publicize the letter.

A Bio-SPK forward contract for the sale of 4 million barrels of aviation bio jet fuel has ben executed by the BioJet Corporation and E85 LLC.  In a joint statement issued yesterday (21st September) the companies saidd that the fuel delivered under this contract will meet ASTM International specifications. The companies did not to release any other terms of the contract.

The UK could reduce its carbon emmissions, and benefit wildlife, by growing short rotation coppice (SRC) willow and miscanthus grass as energy crops according to researchers from the UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy and Land Use Programme.

Dr Angela Karp at Rothamsted Research led an interdisciplinary team from the universities of East Anglia and Exeter, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, in a major research project to identify the effects of increasing the amount of land used to grow these new crops.  Their calculations suggest that planting biomass crops to generate electricity does lead to net savings in greenhouse gases, compared with current emissions.

The Agro-ecological Zoning of Sugarcane, a legislative proposal announced today (18th September) in Brazil by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been broadly welcomed by the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, (UNICA). In a statement commenting on the new legislation UNICA said; that the move represents an important step to ensure the disciplined and organized expansion of sugarcane harvesting and its products, while addressing unsubstantiated claims against the industry.

It is expected that the Australian biofuels industry will exceed the, 350 million litre by 2010, target by the end of this year, according to the annual report on country’s biofuel industry released on Monday (14th September) by APAC Biofuel Consultants. The sector is currently contributing a record 290 million litres per annum to the country’s national transport fuel supply, says the report, but new ethanol production scheduled to come on stream will boost production to meet the target.

Salt-loving algae could be the key to the successful development of biofuels as well as being an efficient means of recycling atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to Professor John Cushman of the University of Nevada. Speaking at the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, last week (10 September), Professor Cushman explained that the current major limitation of biofuel production is the lack of adequate feedstocks, but halophytic (salt-loving) micro-algae can be grown on marginal lands with brackish or salt water unsuitable for traditional agriculture.