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ClearFuels looking for finance
F O C U S BASF Shanghai plant produces emissions control catalysts On 29 Mar 2010, BASF announced that catalysts produced at its Shanghai plant had enabled the removal of over 18 M tonnes of pollutants from the Chinese environment since 2000. Since being commissioned by BASF in Mar 2000, the plant has produced 10 M mobile emissions catalysts. The plant, which has undergone three significant expansions since 2000, is now BASF’s headquarters for mobile emissions catalysts in the AsiaPacific region. A state-of-the-art R&D facility is helping BASF to develop products that enable compliance with more stringent emission control legislation. During 2010, Stage III regulations will be implemented for motorcycle emissions and Stage IV regulations will be phased in for those from both light and heavy duty vehicles. Having already invested in excess of €50 M at the Shanghai site since 2000, BASF envisages further investment to increase its production capabilities. China Chemical Reporter, 6 Apr 2010, 21 (7), 12
British Airways, Solena Group, team up for waste-to-jet fuel plant British Airways, which is aiming for a 50% reduction in its net carbon emissions by 2050, has entered into a jv with Solena Group Inc to develop a 16 M gallon/y waste-to-jet fuel plant in eastern London, UK. The new plant will be based on Solena’s plasma gasification process and Fischer Tropsch technology; it will have a capacity to convert 500,000 tonne/y of municipal solid waste into jet fuel. The plant will also produce bionaphtha, an oil blending component and raw material for petrochemicals production. British Airways has inked a letter of intent to buy the plant’s entire output to fuel part of its fleet. Solena is funding the construction and subsequent operations of the plant, which is projected to cost $280 M. Construction work will take about two years to complete, and supply of the fuel to British Airways is expected to begin in 2014. Biomass Magazine, Apr 2010 (Website: http://www.biomassmagazine.com)
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ClearFuels looking for finance ClearFuels Technology Inc has tapped BNP Paribas to serve as its financial advisor as it tries to obtain secured debt funding for its commercial biorefinery projects. As part of the agreement, BNP Paribas would consider arranging and becoming a primary lender for the senior debt funding at market terms for the initial three projects. The US Department of Energy recently awarded ClearFuels a $23 M grant to build a gasifier at the Energy Technology Centre of Rentech in Colorado and incorporate it with Rentech’s existing Product Demonstration Unit. The demonstration project is expected to be completed in 2011. Immediately after, construction of the commercial projects will begin in 2H 2011. The integration of ClearFuels gasification and Rentech Fischer-Tropsch’s conversion processes gives way to the design of more versatile biofuels manufacturing units with better conversion efficacy and flexibility. ClearFuels has started development of multiple commercial-scale biomassto-energy projects in the southeastern United States, Hawaii, and internationally. The projects are expected to be based on an integrated ClearFuels-Rentech design. Renewable fuels made using ClearFuels-Rentech processes are expected to have a life-cycle carbon footprint of almost zero, depending on the feedstock and the alternate application of such feedstock.
Pemex Refinación and Haldor Topsoe have signed a contract The contract includes the modernisation of eight existing diesel hydrotreaters and licensing of one new diesel hydrotreater at the Pemex Tula and Salamanca Refineries in Mexico. State-of-the-art catalysts: The redesign will enable Pemex to supply the market with ultra low sulfur diesel with less than 15 wt ppm from the Tula and Salamanca refineries. The latest generation of Topsoe’s state-ofthe-art TK BRIM catalysts are applied providing Pemex with operational and cost benefits. “This project further strengthens Topsoe’s position as the leading supplier of ultra low sulfur diesel technology and catalysts in Mexico as well as worldwide,” says Vice President Peter Thoft Knudsen, Technology Division. Scope of supply: Topsoe’s scope of supply includes license, pilot plant testing, revamp studies, basic engineering, catalysts, and proprietary reactor internals. Press release from: Haldor Topsoe A/S, Nymollevej 55, PO Box 213, DK 2800 Lyngby, Denmark. Tel: +45 4527 2000. Fax: +45 4527 2999. Website: http://www.haldortopsoe.com (6 May 2010)
Lignol and Novozymes team up
Novozymes Inc and Fiberight LLC exhibited their advanced biofuel derived from government waste paper called trashanol at the 2010 Washington Auto Show in Jan 2010. The unveiling was featured in the ‘Ride ‘n Drive’ event for government officials to test drive vehicles powered by trashanol. Meanwhile, Novozymes was awarded an Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit of $28.4 M for the construction of a new enzymes plant in Blair, NE.
Canadian company Lignol Energy Corp and Novozymes have inked a memorandum of understanding and have drawn up the framework of a multi-year agreement to collaborate on the optimization of the latest generation of Novozymes’ enzymes for application in Lignol’s cellulosic biofuel process. Lignol’s technology currently makes use of hardwood chips as feedstock but will start running softwood later in 2010. Research on enzyme performance will be conducted at Lignol’s 100,000 litre (26,417 gallon/y) fully-integrated pilot unit in Burnaby, BC, Canada, beginning in 2010. Final designs will be created for a commercial demonstration unit, and Lignol plans to set up large-scale biorefineries that will be based on its process using Novozymes’ enzymes. The company is in talks with the US DOE as regards financing for a plant that would be completed by end-2012, possibly to be located in the Pacific Northwest.
Ethanol Producer Magazine, Apr 2010 (Website: http://www.ethanolproducer.com)
Biomass Magazine, Apr 2010 (Website: http://www.biomassmagazine.com)
Nitrogen + Syngas, Mar/Apr 2010, (304), 10
Fiberight, Novozymes partner on ‘trashanol’
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British Airways, Solena Group, team up for waste-to-jet fuel plant British Airways, which is aiming for a 50% reduction in its net carbon emissions by 2050, has entered into a jv with Solena Group Inc to develop a 16 M gallon/y waste-to-jet fuel plant in eastern London, UK. The new plant will be based on Solena’s plasma gasification process and Fischer Tropsch technology; it will have a capacity to convert 500,000 tonne/y of municipal solid waste into jet fuel. The plant will also produce bionaphtha, an oil blending component and raw material for petrochemicals production. British Airways has inked a letter of intent to buy the plant’s entire output to fuel part of its fleet. Solena is funding the construction and subsequent operations of the plant, which is projected to cost $280 M. Construction work will take about two years to complete, and supply of the fuel to British Airways is expected to begin in 2014. Biomass Magazine, Apr 2010 (Website: http://www.biomassmagazine.com)
JUNE 2010
O N
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ClearFuels looking for finance ClearFuels Technology Inc has tapped BNP Paribas to serve as its financial advisor as it tries to obtain secured debt funding for its commercial biorefinery projects. As part of the agreement, BNP Paribas would consider arranging and becoming a primary lender for the senior debt funding at market terms for the initial three projects. The US Department of Energy recently awarded ClearFuels a $23 M grant to build a gasifier at the Energy Technology Centre of Rentech in Colorado and incorporate it with Rentech’s existing Product Demonstration Unit. The demonstration project is expected to be completed in 2011. Immediately after, construction of the commercial projects will begin in 2H 2011. The integration of ClearFuels gasification and Rentech Fischer-Tropsch’s conversion processes gives way to the design of more versatile biofuels manufacturing units with better conversion efficacy and flexibility. ClearFuels has started development of multiple commercial-scale biomassto-energy projects in the southeastern United States, Hawaii, and internationally. The projects are expected to be based on an integrated ClearFuels-Rentech design. Renewable fuels made using ClearFuels-Rentech processes are expected to have a life-cycle carbon footprint of almost zero, depending on the feedstock and the alternate application of such feedstock.
Pemex Refinación and Haldor Topsoe have signed a contract The contract includes the modernisation of eight existing diesel hydrotreaters and licensing of one new diesel hydrotreater at the Pemex Tula and Salamanca Refineries in Mexico. State-of-the-art catalysts: The redesign will enable Pemex to supply the market with ultra low sulfur diesel with less than 15 wt ppm from the Tula and Salamanca refineries. The latest generation of Topsoe’s state-ofthe-art TK BRIM catalysts are applied providing Pemex with operational and cost benefits. “This project further strengthens Topsoe’s position as the leading supplier of ultra low sulfur diesel technology and catalysts in Mexico as well as worldwide,” says Vice President Peter Thoft Knudsen, Technology Division. Scope of supply: Topsoe’s scope of supply includes license, pilot plant testing, revamp studies, basic engineering, catalysts, and proprietary reactor internals. Press release from: Haldor Topsoe A/S, Nymollevej 55, PO Box 213, DK 2800 Lyngby, Denmark. Tel: +45 4527 2000. Fax: +45 4527 2999. Website: http://www.haldortopsoe.com (6 May 2010)
Lignol and Novozymes team up
Novozymes Inc and Fiberight LLC exhibited their advanced biofuel derived from government waste paper called trashanol at the 2010 Washington Auto Show in Jan 2010. The unveiling was featured in the ‘Ride ‘n Drive’ event for government officials to test drive vehicles powered by trashanol. Meanwhile, Novozymes was awarded an Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit of $28.4 M for the construction of a new enzymes plant in Blair, NE.
Canadian company Lignol Energy Corp and Novozymes have inked a memorandum of understanding and have drawn up the framework of a multi-year agreement to collaborate on the optimization of the latest generation of Novozymes’ enzymes for application in Lignol’s cellulosic biofuel process. Lignol’s technology currently makes use of hardwood chips as feedstock but will start running softwood later in 2010. Research on enzyme performance will be conducted at Lignol’s 100,000 litre (26,417 gallon/y) fully-integrated pilot unit in Burnaby, BC, Canada, beginning in 2010. Final designs will be created for a commercial demonstration unit, and Lignol plans to set up large-scale biorefineries that will be based on its process using Novozymes’ enzymes. The company is in talks with the US DOE as regards financing for a plant that would be completed by end-2012, possibly to be located in the Pacific Northwest.
Ethanol Producer Magazine, Apr 2010 (Website: http://www.ethanolproducer.com)
Biomass Magazine, Apr 2010 (Website: http://www.biomassmagazine.com)
Nitrogen + Syngas, Mar/Apr 2010, (304), 10
Fiberight, Novozymes partner on ‘trashanol’
3