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New process helps overcome obstacles to produce renewable fuels and chemicals

Source: https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/green/newsid%3D37023.php&ct=ga&cd=CAAYATIaYWEyM2Y0NGUxMDY0YzRmNjpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNEuugg0Raqo03vpiAt5qRMF0DllXw
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There’s an old saying in the biofuels industry: “You can make anything from lignin except money.” But now, a new study may pave the way to challenging that adage. The study from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) demonstrates a concept that provides opportunities for the successful conversion of lignin into a variety of renewable fuels, chemicals, and materials for a sustainable energy economy.

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Turning Waste Coffee Grounds Into A Different Kind Of Fuel: Powering Your Car

Source: http://www.fastcoexist.com/3033742/turning-waste-coffee-grounds-into-a-different-kind-of-fuel-powering-your-car
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When people talk about waste at a coffee shop, they tend to fixate on the massive pile of disposable cups that ends up in landfills. But the average coffee shop also throws out around 22 pounds of coffee grounds a day; in a city like London, that adds up to around 200,000 tons a year. Now, a new startup plans to start turning that waste into fuel for cars and energy to heat local homes.

 

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NRDC report helps guide major fuel buyers to sustainable biofuels procurement

Source: https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://bio-based.eu/news/nrdc-report-helps-guide-major-fuel-buyers-sustainable-biofuels-procurement/&ct=ga&cd=CAAYAzIaM2I2ZDI0OTdhODYxZjlkMDpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNGiNqFTEV6b1oSn_-OaWbMIVECNMw
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The report “Biofuel Sustainability Performance Guidelines,” was commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and authored by LMI, a not-for-profit government consultancy. It comes as large fuel consumers begin to pivot toward more plant-based fuel options to boost their “green” credentials and sustainability efforts while reducing their use of fossil fuels. The report is intended to help guide fuel buyers such as federal, state and municipal bulk fuel procurement officers, contractors and suppliers, and corporate sustainability officers.

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Water leads to chemical that gunks up biofuels production

Source: http://phys.org/news/2014-08-chemical-gunks-biofuels-production.html
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Trying to understand the chemistry that turns plant material into the same energy-rich gasoline and diesel we put in our vehicles, researchers have discovered that water in the conversion process helps form an impurity which, in turn, slows down key chemical reactions. The study, which was reported online at the Journal of the American Chemical Society, can help improve processes that produce biofuels from plants.

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Here Comes Cheaper Oil: Why Prices Are Set to Fall

Source: https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomaslandstreet/2014/08/20/here-comes-cheaper-oil-why-prices-are-set-to-fall/&ct=ga&cd=CAAYADIaZWU0YWJkY2QyMmM0ZGJmZTpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNE2Ww0G3F0OQJPPc7Vd0yVnfST6zA
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I learned from Art Laffer that government is the 800lb gorilla in the economy and that investors can profit from changes in government policies. But a practitioner has to accept the framework – that government policies drive incentives as much or more than any other single driver. The charts that follow should prove that out. They show how a proposed change to the RFS ethanol mandate drove corn prices down 30% almost instantaneously. Similarly, in 2008, oil prices plunged at the mere suggestion that a moratorium against drilling on the outer continental shelf (OCS) might end.

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Federal Tax Credits For Plug-In Hybrids, Electric Cars: What You Need To Know

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/cars/federal-tax-credits-for-plug-in-hybrids-electric-cars-what-you-need-to-know/2014/08/20/0ae02718-2886-11e4-8b10-7db129976abb_story.html
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If you want to get a special incentive for driving a hybrid, you’re a few years too late; but a tax credit applies to nearly every electric car and plug-in hybrid on the market and it can, in some cases, effectively reduce your cost for such a model to that of an ordinary gasoline vehicle (or even less).

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Study: Ethanol co-product may offer low-fat product for use in swine diet

Source: http://www.farmersadvance.com/article/20140820/NEWS/408200308/Study-Ethanol-co-product-may-offer-low-fat-product-use-swine-diet
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Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are a co-product of the ethanol industry and have been an affordable source of energy and protein in swine diets for decades. In recent years, ethanol plants have begun to centrifuge the solubles from ethanol production to extract oil, which is sold to the biodiesel industry.