Engineering company China New Energy yesterday reported that it had recorded profits of USD6.5 million profit for 2011. In a statement the company says that revenues were up by 29.4 per cent from USD21.9 million in 2010 to USD28.4 million last year.
Boeing and a smaller rival Chinese aircraft manufacturer, The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), yesterday announced that they have entered an agreement to jointly promote energy saving and emission reduction in the civil aviation industry.
China Petrochemical Corp, or Sinopec Group, announced yesterday that it had successfully produced China’s first jet biofuel at its chemical plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province
China's biggest egg producer said Friday it will cooperate with a major US meat supplier to establish a bio-fuel company in the United States with a total investment of USD1.8 billion, according to a report in Xinhua.
Indonesia’s state run Antara News Agency reported yesterday that the country is preparing to file an objection to a United States’ plan to impose biodiesel standards which, among other things, disqualifies biodiesel made from palm oil as a renewable fuel.
Biofuel start-up LanzaTech, founded in Auckland but now headquartered in Chicago, is aiming to boost its presence in Asia following a round of fund-raising that brought USD55.8 million to its coffers.
The money will be used to continue developing processes for converting the carbon monoxide generated as a waste gas from industrial operations and other sources into biofuels and chemicals. It has already won international air fuel contracts.
Total new investment in global clean energy increased 5 percent to set a record of USD260 billion in 2011, despite the sluggish global economy and a painful squeeze on manufacturers, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.Most notable, according to the report, is that the US reclaimed its crown from China for clean energy investment for the first time since 2008, with total investment surging by 33 percent to USD55.9 billion compared to China’s USD47.4 billion, which was only an increase of 1 percent over 2010.
Data released by the International Energy Agency shows global biofuels production dropped to 1.819 million barrels a day (b/d) last year from 1.822 million 2010, the first decline in a decade. According to the Financial Times, the decline can be attributed to poor margins in both the US and Brazil.
Malaysia’s national innovation agency has called upon the country's oil palm businesses to get on with exploiting the industry's biomass potential. It is thought that the industry could generate MYR30 billion (USD9.45 billion) for the country but it would need industry and government co-operation.
Algae-based biofuel is being tested by shipping giant Maersk Line between Europe and India. The importance of cutting emissions from global shipping as more vigorous calls for carbon tax on the industry grow takes on a greater significance.
Israeli company FuturaGene, a biofuel feedstock developer, has opened a China headquarters in Shanghai, building on a number research projects it has been pursuing in the country over the past few years.
India’s Mysore City Corporation (MCC) is planning to set up a biogas plant to convert waste into a fuel that can be used in vehicles after completing a fact-finding mission to Sweden recently, according to the Times of India.
In a first for the country Air China and Boeing, along with energy partners, have conducted China's first sustainable biofuel flight. The one-hour flight from Beijing Capital International Airport highlights the viability of using sustainable aviation biofuel sourced in China.
The trial was part of a Sino-US energy co-operation program and marked a milestone in the two countries' joint efforts regarding biofuel and high technology,
The drama of the debates at last month’s “Greener Skies” Aviation and Environment Conference in Hong Kong was heightened earlier this month when a senior European Union legal officer advised the EU Court of Justice that the inclusion of aviation into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was lawful. The Court usually accepts the legal officer’s advice.
Air China has become the first Chinese airline member of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG), which is committed to support the commercial use of lower carbon renewable fuels, derived from environmentally and socially sustainable sources.
New Zealand bio-fuel pioneer, LanzaTech, has landed a multi-million dollar project with airline Virgin Atlantic and plane manufacturer Boeing. While the first ethanol plants are to be built in New Zealand, contracts have also been signed for factories in China and India.
A new report from Pike Research predicts the biofuel industry will double in size to USD185 billion by 2021. Meanwhile in the European Union – the world's largest biofuel market – the European Biodiesel Board (EBB), a producers group, has rejected the findings of a EU-funded study into the indirect land use change (ILUC) effect of biofuel production as unscientific.
Biomass power plant provider DP CleanTech has been contracted to convert an ageing coal-fired power plant in Thailand to operate on waste wood such as eucalyptus bark.
International charity and pressure group Oxfam has released a report highlighting the problems that a modern “land rush” is bringing to poor communities. Fingers have been pointed at palm oil corporations and agribusinesses as being primarily responsible for many of the land deals that have left local communities without homes or livelihoods.The report, Land and Power, says that as many as 227 million hectares have been sold, leased or licensed in large-scale land deals since 2001, mostly by international investors.
Transportation and energy ministers from 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific region have agreed to make their transportation systems cleaner and more energy-efficient for livable, low-carbon communities.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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