The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) recently launched by the UK government has been met with mixed reactions.

The £860bn pound scheme is expected to increase green capital investment by £4.5bn by 2020 and will stimulate a new market in renewable heat. The number of industrial, commercial and public sector (more…)

Biomass generation plants primarily burn waste wood, but as their role in clean energy is expanding, more wood will be needed. Where will it come from?

Xcel energy has developed a demonstration project to test which tree species, soils and climates will be most conducive to “biomass plantations” – trees (more…)

An Indian company has developed a technology that converts discarded rice husks into energy, so far providing electricity to 60 rural villages and more than 150,000 people. Adapting a decades-old biomass gasification method, Husk Power Systems created a design they say is so simple that even a high school-educated villager can be trained to operate it. (more…)

(Reuters) – Sugar cane ethanol pioneer Brazil, which touts the efficiency and environmental qualities of its biofuel, could soon begin making it from less-efficient corn to soak up excess grains in remote areas.

The combined industry and governmental (more…)

Our country needs a strong, vibrant rural economy. Advanced biofuel production will help create it. Not only will biofuel production from non-food sources create new jobs and new streams of farm income, it will improve environmental quality and reduce our dependence on fossil fuel imported from foreign countries. (more…)

In September, the UK’s University of Bath completed construction on a small building whose walls are insulated with the shredded woody inner core, or shiv, of the hemp plant (not to be confused with bast, the fibrous outer part under the bark).

The hemp plant, which can’t be grown in the United States because one variety, (more…)

When most people look out on the hot, dry desert, they see the potential for a serious sunburn and probably a mirage or two. When Chilean entrepreneur Mario Llanis looks out on the cactus-riddled desert of his native country, he sees the possibility for a bio-energy source that could change the industry forever. (more…)

A leading environmentally-sustainable winery in New Zealand has received funding from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) to construct a purpose-built boiler designed to turn vine prunings into energy.

The new Bio-Mass boiler will help Yealands winery save around 22 tons of LPG a year, (more…)

Sustainable fuel manufacturer Zea Chem has announced that it has succeeded in producing biomass-derived ethanol at a capacity that can be scaled to commercial production.

In a statement from the company’s headquarters, Zea Chem described the completion of a suite of products including biorefined cellulosic ethanol. “The next step is to integrate these known processes to achieve the ultimate target of commercial production of economical and sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals,” said CEO Jim Imbler. (more…)

Earlier this year, the United States’ government announced several grants going towards algae research, one of the largest going towards the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts. This consortium received $44 million and is headed by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. In addition to this investment, other areas of the government have financially vested themselves in algae biofuels as well.

However, it seems that the U.S. government isn’t done investing in the future of algae fuels. Just last month, the government announced that it will be investing even more into the algae research field, $24 million more to be precise. This grant will be split between three different consortiums, each focusing on a different area of research. (more…)