The U.S. Energy Department is investing up to $4.3 million in a pilot biomass project that will convert the stalks and leaves of corn plants into diesel fuel using a new chemical process.

The pilot plant in Indiana will be run by Mercurius Biofuels, whose goal is to convert the corn biomass (more…)

In recent test flights, NASA researchers have confirmed that commercial airliners can safely fly on an alternative jet fuel blend and that under some conditions the biofuel mix produced 30 percent fewer emissions than typical jet fuel.

After flying DC-8 aircraft using a biofuel blend (more…)

The Heslin Rothenberg firm’s Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) 2012 Year in Review was published earlier this month. Always an interesting read, the CEPGI is a quarterly publication that tracks grants of U.S. patents directed to clean energy technologies.

The 2012 roundup reports that granted green patents hit an all time high of 3061 for last year, a (more…)

Algae biofuel is an alternative to fossil fuel that uses algae as its source. Several companies and government agencies are funding efforts to reduce capital and operating costs and make algae fuel production commercially viable. Taking an approach similar to that used for discovering new therapeutic drugs, chemists at the University of California, Davis, have (more…)

We’ve been tracking the major biobutanol patent litigation between advanced biofuels company Gevo and BP-DuPont joint venture Butamax, e.g., here, here and here.

In a significant decision, a Delaware federal court judge recently ruled on several motions and cross- (more…)

A long-term genomic analysis of the common peach has revealed important insights into how scientists can improve the biofuel potential of other plant species, including the fast-growing poplar tree, a new study says.

Three years after a team of scientists first released a draft description of the annotated peach genome, (more…)

A number of green patent complaints have been filed in the last several weeks in the areas of biofuels, compressed air turbines, and LEDs.

Biofuels

Neste Oil, OYJ v. Dynamic Fuel, LLC et al. (more…)

I had meetings all over Southern California on Thursday, and driving to and from them enabled me to listen to the radio and absorb news that I otherwise would have missed.

I had barely backed out of my driveway when I heard this story about a scandal surrounding the biofuels trade between the U.S. and Canada. It (more…)

Chemical giant DuPont has started construction of a large-scale cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Iowa capable of converting corn stalks and leaves into a biofuel that could be used in place of fossil fuels at some power plants.

The $200 million facility, which will be among the first (more…)

A U.S. company this week began pumping a mix of an algae-based biofuel and gasoline at gas stations in California, a pilot project the company hopes will be a first step in providing a large-scale alternative to fossil fuels.

The fuel, known as Biodiesel B20, contains 80 percent petroleum and 20 percent algae grown by (more…)