By Elwin Green, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A biofuels developer is building a plant in Westmoreland County to demonstrate a process for producing ethanol from biomass and waste products.

Executives from Coskata, based in Warrenville, Ill., are joining Gov. Ed Rendell; Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa.; and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this morning to announce the $25 million project in Madison.

The plant, which will be on the grounds of the Westinghouse Plasma Center, will employ about 20 to produce ethanol from a variety of materials, including municipal waste, more cheaply and efficiently than producing it from corn, said Bill Roe, Coskata's president and chief executive officer, in an interview with the Post-Gazette.

By Nick Hodge

Hundreds of millions of years ago, the earth was covered with shallow oceans filled with algae and other simple critters.

As landmasses shifted and grew, water was displaced, leaving thick masses of algal residue that were eventually buried and compressed.

Skip forward a few eons, throw in some heat and pressure and ta da . . . oil.

Then, in 1859, Colonel Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, PA, unleashing not only oil, but an economic juggernaut that would dictate our way of life for years to come.

The world began to use oil for everything from fuel to waterproofing, and since then has consumed over a trillion barrels. With such furious consumption - and no way to make more - world oil reserves are set to dwindle.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, today announced its subsidiary Southeast Biofuels LLC has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The agreement is under the direction of Dr. Bill Widmer of the USDA-ARS Citrus and Subtropical Products Laboratory at Winter Haven, Fla. His work focuses on conversion of citrus waste to ethanol.

Widmer’s USDA research is the subject of the April 2008 cover story in Biomass Magazine, called “Fresh-Squeezed Feedstock.” The story explores the innovative process developed by Dr. Widmer and Dr. Karel Grohmann -- showing how citrus fruit waste can be turned into ethanol. The story explains to readers, “Before you drink that next glass of OJ, consider that half of the orange used to make that juice becomes waste material.”

Source: Science Blog

A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation’s transportation fuel if production can be scaled up.

Along with cellulose, the cyanobacteria developed by Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. and Dr. David Nobles Jr. secrete glucose and sucrose. These simple sugars are the major sources used to produce ethanol.

“The cyanobacterium is potentially a very inexpensive source for sugars to use for ethanol and designer fuels,” says Nobles, a research associate in the Section of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

By: Alexandra M. Goho, Technology Review

Researchers design a crop that can break down its own cellulose.

In an effort to help boost the nation's supply of biofuels, researchers have created three strains of genetically modified corn to manufacture enzymes that break down the plant's cellulose into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Incorporating such enzymes directly into the plants could reduce the cost of converting cellulose into biofuel.

By Nick Hodge

Sobering Up from Ethanol Inebriation

In the past two years the price of corn in the United States has more than doubled, driven partly by demand for alternative fuels such as ethanol.

That is one of the key pieces of data being used to fuel the growing debate now known as food versus fuel.
And that debate has been increasingly in the limelight as global food prices continue to climb, causing unrest in numerous locations around the world.

In the past few weeks alone we've seen riots in developing nations including Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti.

But for all the now-known harms associated with using food for fuel, that action isn't the only thing causing food price angst.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, today reported financial results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2007, the company reported a net loss of $31.3 million, or ($1.09) per share, as compared to a $20.2 million net loss, or ($0.93) per share, for the same period of the prior year. The increase in the net loss was primarily related to non-cash charges of $18.3 million, including a $12.2 million impairment charge on property previously held for development. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, the weighted average number of shares outstanding was 28.6 million as compared to 21.6 million weighted average shares for the comparable period in 2006.

Tests are under way to test running a single Rolls Royce Jet engine on Boeing 747 running on a blend of kerosene and bio-fuel. A 747 needs 16 tonnes of fuel to take off and to get to cruising height.

Biofuel (also called agrofuel) can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass.

Biofuel is considered by some as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy security by providing an alternative to fossil fuels.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, today announced that its subsidiary Southeast Biofuels LLC has received a $500,000 grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Xethanol will use the grant to expand its work on converting waste to energy, using citrus waste as the raw material and converting it into cellulosic ethanol.

Xethanol plans to build a demonstration plant for converting citrus peel waste into ethanol. The company is negotiating an agreement to locate the plant at an existing citrus facility in Florida owned by one of the largest citrus processors in the state. The planned cost for the two-year build-out of the demonstration plant is approximately $5.9 million.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, has announced a $500,000 investment in Consus Ethanol, LLC of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania pursuant to a convertible promissory note. Consus has a permitted site in western Pennsylvania, where it plans to build the first of several ethanol plants. Its business model calls for a cogeneration plant using waste coal to power the companion ethanol plant -- allowing significant energy cost savings.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, has announced an investment in Carbon Motors Corporation, a new American automaker developing a specially-built law enforcement vehicle featuring a clean diesel engine that can run on biodiesel fuel.

Carbon Motors, based in Atlanta, Georgia plans to build the vehicle using a global partnership and supply network that includes a world-class automaker, as well as Lotus Engineering in the UK, along with product input from hundreds of law enforcement officers and officials across the United States.

Xethanol joins in the Carbon Motors investment with the Advanced Technology Development Center Seed Fund in Atlanta, and the Ariel Savannah Angel Partners LLC. Terms of the investment were not released.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, has announced that its latest laboratory research results show significant increases in the rate of cellulosic ethanol production.

Researchers working at the Forest Products Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture in Madison, Wisconsin are developing technology to reduce the net cost of renewable fuel made from wood and agricultural residue. Dr. Thomas Jeffries leads that effort.

By Bob Drummond

High on a wall facing celebrity gene researcher Craig Venter's desk, there's a poster-size photo of unique colonies of bacteria that look like two luminescent sky- blue blobs. Venter's researchers made the microbes in his lab northwest of Washington by transplanting the entire genetic code of one species of bacteria into the cellular body of another type. Like horror-movie zombies, the intruder genes switched on and took control of their hosts.

Groundbreaking in its own right, the genome transplant was a practice run for Venter's more audacious project: creating a new life form -- in this case, a species of built-to-order bacteria --using only man-made DNA.

Ever wonder what it would take to turn your car into a green machine?

With biodiesel, turns out it's not as hard as you might think. We're in Asheville, NC with the folks from Blue Ridge Biofuels, who explain how to make a "seamless" transition to fueling up with biodiesel including where to fill up and how much it will cost.

We also find out what farmers and truckers think about the infrastructure of biofuel. And for all you DIY fans out there, we even catch a glimpse at how to fill up with plain, old, unprocessed vegetable oil.

Meet the people who are driving biodiesel forward.

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, has announced that its Chief Executive Officer and President David Ames has joined the prestigious CEO Council, at the invitation of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) in Washington, D.C.

By Charles Clover, Environment Editor

High grain prices and new carbon-saving crop varieties will force Europe to rethink its opposition to genetically modified crops, the Oxford farming conference has been told.

Neil Parish, Conservative MEP for the South West and chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, said that the likelihood of high grain prices for the foreseeable future would create a gap between domestic livestock and imports fed on cheaper GM grain.

At the same time, the latest GM wheat and oil seed rape crops now predicted to hit the market within three years by Monsanto, the genetic engineering company, were capable of reducing the need for nitrogen fertiliser by 30 per cent.

Xethanol Corporation, a renewable energy and clean technology company, today announced an extension of its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) on cellulosic ethanol feedstocks, with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. The agreement has been extended through March 7, 2008. The NREL lab is operated by the Midwest Research Institute under contract to the US Department of Energy.

"Extending this CRADA with Xethanol is another step the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is taking to develop the technologies that will help the nation meet presidential and Department of Energy goals of reducing the country’s dependence on imported oil," NREL Commercialization Manager Richard Bolin said.

The original agreement dates back to January 2005, for work directed toward a method of biomass feedstock separation. The research focuses specifically on clean fractionation of cellulosic feedstocks into their component parts.

Learn why algae biodiesel is the only biofuel that has the potential to replace petroleum.

Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent processed fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional diesel fuel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles.

Biodiesel is distinguished from the straight vegetable oils (SVO) or waste vegetable oils (WVO) used (alone, or blended) as fuels in some diesel vehicles.

Engages Leading Intellectual Property Law Firm

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, has announced it has refined its strategy to pursue opportunities in clean technology. Xethanol has engaged a leading intellectual property law firm, Fish & Richardson P.C., to help it assess the company’s intellectual property portfolio.

David Ames, President and CEO of Xethanol, commented, “We are refining our strategic plan for the company in view of the changing ethanol markets and other economic factors affecting our current business.” Added Mr. Ames, “We have several encouraging research projects underway to develop alternative energy sources.”

Xethanol Corporation (AMEX: XNL - News), a renewable energy company, today announced that its subsidiary Southeast Biofuels LLC has filed a grant application with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to expand the company’s work on converting waste to energy, using citrus waste as the raw material and converting it into ethanol. Only about 50 percent of a citrus fruit is used to produce juice and related products. Currently, most citrus waste is turned into low-value animal feed.