
An international collaboration led by RMIT University has developed a powerful, low-cost method for recycling used cooking oil and agricultural waste into biodiesel and turning food scraps and plastic rubbish into high-value products.

New catalytic process for biodiesel production [Full subscriber]
A new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and two US Department of Energy (DOE) consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio) and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative.

Cost-competitive production of biodiesel from sewage sludge and glycerol [Registered]
Researchers at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) claim to have developed a fairly cost-effective process to produce biodiesel from washed municipal secondary sludge fortified with crude glycerol mediated by the oleaginous yeast, Trichosporon oleaginosus.

Canada – Forge to build biodiesel/jet fuel plant costing US$22.4 million [Full subscriber]
The Canadian biofuel start-up FORGE Hydrocarbons Corp recently announced an equity investment from Shell Ventures and a follow-on contribution from Valent Low-Carbon Technologies, which will help build a first-of-its-kind CA$30 million (US$22.4 million) commercial-scale, biofuel production plant in Sombra, Ontario, Canada.

Biowaste converted into biodiesel via hydrothermal liquefaction [Full subscriber]
Researchers from the universities Illinois’ (Prairie Research Institute) and Massachusetts (Lowell) report that they have succeeded in converting wet biowaste, such as swine manure and food scraps into biodiesel.

USA – New Planet Energy plans to build waste-to-biofuels US$700 mln plant in New York [Registered]
New Planet Energy is proposing to build a US$700 million recycling plant that will convert the region’s municipal garbage into fuel in Stony Point.

Argentina – 2017 likely to be a record for biofuels output [Registered]
First quarter data on biofuels output in Argentina suggests that it will be a record according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC).

Australia – Queensland Premier inaugurates pilot biodiesel plant processing waste [Registered]
The Premier of Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk inaugurated a pilot biodiesel plant in Gladstone on 1st June that will process a variety of feedstocks deemed to be waste products.