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Top Story
 Biobutanol on the move: Green Biologics closes $25M series B funding round; demo funded; ready for first commercial in 2016
N-butanol pioneer gains altitude in tough market; Sofinnova and Swire Group join investor group.
Company receives CMEC shareholder approval on purchase agreement of 23 Mgy ethanol plant.
In the UK, Green Biologics announced the closing of a $25 million Series B round led by Sofinnova Partners with strategic participation by Swire Pacific Limited. Follow on investments were also made by Capricorn Venture Partners, Oxford Capital Partners, Morningside Ventures and ConvergInce Holdings LLC. "This investment round underlines the strength of Green Biologics' commercial and technical position, and will allow us to execute our plan to bring on stream our first commercial production facility in the U.S. in 2016, " said Green Biologics CEO Sean Sutcliffe. Green Biologics also noted that following on from the announcement on July 2nd, an asset purchase agreement has been executed and approved by Central MN Ethanol Co-op shareholders last week. The aim is to retrofit the 23 Mgy plant to produce renewable n-butanol and acetone in 2016. In today's Digest, we look at the outlook for n-butanol - in fuels, chemicals and for derivatives such as ethyl acetate and glycol ethers too. Plus, the back story on Green Biologics - who are these guys, anyway? - and more on their outlook, plans and timing for the US and China, today at biofuelsdigest.com.
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Producer News
In Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia announced it would begin moving toward the use of aviation boifuel in a drive for greater sustainability, but failed to give any specifics as to when or to what extent. "We are going for biofuel," said Emirsyah Satar, the airline's president director, at the Business for the Environment Summit in Jakarta on Thursday. In Wisconsin, a new property tax exemption awarded as a parity measure for biofuel efforts with solar and wind could potentially cost the state hundreds of millions of property taxes. The most recent change, made in the Legislature, expanded the tax exemption to synthetic biomass facilities, a controversial measures. In Denmark, Novozymes is looking into the Indian market for food and detergent applications. The company is also considering bio-ag in India, as the country has been growing at over 20% annually in India. In Romania, the Romanian Commercial Bank has entered a financing deal with First Biogaz to construct a 1.5MW biogas plant in northern Romania. The plant represents a $8m investment, and the output will cover the energy consumption of around 4500 households.
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Biobased Chemicals and Materials
In Texas, Benchmark Energy announced plans to develop its own coolant/antifreeze product line in the US. Mark Bateman, Chairman and CEO of BenchMark Energy commented, "Benchmark Energy is pleased to announce the development of its own line of coolant and anti-freeze products to potentially expand our revenue growth within the company. In Massachusetts, Cambrian Innovation announced the installation of EcoVolt, the world's first biologically enhanced wastewater treatment system, at Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, CA. Developed with assistance from the National Science Foundation, EcoVolt uses electrogenic organisms to generate clean energy from wastewater.
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Policy & Policymaker News
In Illinois, the RFS must be adjusted to reflect commercialization realities, rather than completely thrown out, argues a University of Illinois paper. The paper also argues that the categories of the RFS should be expanded to include all emerging technologies, as well as relaxing the sourcing constraints on biomass.
In Washington, ethanol may find an enemy in the hunting lobby as Pheasant hunting groups speak out against the effect ethanol production has on wildlife acres. The groups claim that while Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has lauded the success of conservation efforts despite dwindling conservation lands, the amount of land enrolled in the grassland reserve program has declined in every state, including a 50% reduction in Iowa.
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Financial News
In Canada, the Honourable Bernard Valcourt, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development announced $12 million in funding to go to AV Cell Inc. in Atholville, New Brunswick, for capital upgrades to treat two mill effluent streams using an anaerobic process. The Biofuels Digest Index, an index of publicly traded biofuels stocks, gained 1.05 percent to 66.30 as chemicals rallied. For the day, Metabolix (MBLX) soared 31.76 percent to $1.12, while Solazyme (SZYM) jumped 6.92 percent to $8.96. Among other equities, Amyris (AMRS) escalated 3.35 percent to $2.78. Overall, advances led declines 7 to 6 for the day.
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These stories and more are available at BiofuelsDigest.com. Your comments and story requests are warmly welcome: email me at [email protected].
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Digest Staff:
Editor & Publisher: Jim Lane
Senior editor: Meghan Sapp
Assistant Editors: Thomas Saidak, Isabel Lane, Lucas Santucci
Columnists:
Mike McAdams, President, Advanced Biofuels Association
Brooke Coleman, Executive Director, Advanced Ethanol Council
Brent Erickson, EVP, Industrial Biotechnology, BIO
Bob Dinneen, CEO, Renewable Fuels Association
Mary Rosenthal, Executive Director, Algal Biomass Organization
General Wesley Clark (Ret.), co-chairman, Growth Energy
Tom Buis, CEO, Growth Energy
Douglas Faulkner, "The Cleantech Conservative".
Digest Conferences (Alliance Biofuels Conferences LLC):
Managing partner and conference director: Bill Lundberg
Published by Ascension Publishing, Inc.
Flavia Marples-Lane, President
Disclosure: I do not own any renewable energy securities; no payments or other compensation is received in return for placing articles or favorable opinion in the Digest - Jim Lane, Editor and Publisher, Biofuels Digest.
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