BREAKTHROUGHS IN GREEN GASOLINE PRODUCTION
Jessica Ebert, Biomass Magazine, July 2008
Significant investments have been made in technologies for the production of ethanol from corn, biodiesel from soybean oil or canola oil, and more recently for the conversion of nonfood biomass feedstocks into ethanol and biodiesel. To date, the technologies for producing hydrocarbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from biomass seem to have been overlooked.
>Read more: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=1731

CATALYTIC HYDROTHERMAL GASIFICATION OF BIOMASS
D. Elliott, Biofpr: biofuels, bioproducts & biorefining, June 2008, p. 254
This paper reviews the research undertaken developing biomass gasification using a pressurized water-processing environment to avoid drying of the biomass. Research includes liquid-phase, subcritical processing as well as supercritical water processing.
>Contact the ITC Library to obtain this article.

DEVELOPING CANADIAN SEED OILS AS INDUSTRIAL FEEDSTOCKS
P. Fobert, et al., Biofpr: biofuels, bioproducts & biorefining, June 2008, p. 206
Vegetable oils' potential as alternatives and replacements for fossil oil in high-value industrial applications is the focus of this research by the National Research Council.  In the next generation of industrial oil, the source may be found in the seeds of non-food crucifers.  Reviewed here: increasing the range of available fatty acids and improving the chemical homogeneity of Canadian crucifer seed oils.
>Contact the ITC Library to obtain this article.

DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING OF BIOMASS TO BIO-OIL FOR SUBSEQUENT PRODUCTION OF FISCHER-TROPSCH LIQUIDS
M. Wright, et al., Biofpr: biofuels, bioproducts & biorefining, June 2008, p. 229
This study compares centralized processing to distributed processing of biomass for subsequent production of Fischer-Tropsch (FTLs) at a centralized catalyticc synthesis facility.  The study indicates that centralized gasification can produce FTLS from biomass for $1.56 per gallon of gasoline equivalent.  Three distributed processing systems were investigated based on the scale of biomass processing capacity: on-farm, small cooperative, and large cooperative.
>Contact the ITC Library to obtain this article.

GRASS: IT’S NOT JUST FOR GRAZING
Susan Aldridge, Biomass Magazine, July 2008
Can grass be used for transportation fuel?  Steve Kelly, a molecular biologist at Swansea University in Wales, is one scientist working on a process that may eventually let motorists tank up on “grassohol.”  Preliminary calculations suggest ryegrass could be as good as or better than wheat or sugar beets as a source of ethanol.
>Read more: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=1732

PELLET PROPERTIES
Jerry W. Kram, Biomass Magazine, July 2008
"Buyer beware" when it comes to purchasing pellets for residential or industrial heating because information such as heat content, ash and chloride can be hard to obtain. The Pellet Fuels Institute is helping pellet manufacturers create testing programs to help consumers know what they are buying.  The standards committee has created a road map to investigate and promulgate an effective quality control program.  Standards are great, but only if there is some enforcement or legal requirement to use them.  ASTM International has no standard for fuel pellets, but the Pellet Fuels Institute specifications will follow the ASTM format.  For enforcement, the Pellet Fuels Institute is planning to implement a registration system for manufacturers, requiring pellet makers to show that they have a quality control program and submit quality data quarterly.
>Read more: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=1734&q=&page=2

NEW BIODIESEL STANDARDS APPROVED BY ASTM
Giles Clark, Biofuel Review, June 26, 2008
A trio of new ASTM specifications for biodiesel blends was recently approved by the organization's main committee.  Automakers and engine manufacturers have been requesting the specifications for biodiesel blends for several years.  Steve Howell, Chairman of the ASTM Biodiesel Task Force, said, "The new ASTM specifications for B6-B20 blends will aid engine manufacturers in their engine design and testing processes to optimize the performance of vehicles running on biodiesel. The new specifications will also help ensure that only the highest quality biodiesel blends are made available to consumers at the retail pump."
>Read more: http://www.biofuelreview.com/content/view/1634/
>Additional information: http://69.7.224.88/default.aspx?pageid=1436

Here...

MCGUINTY BACKTRACKS ON PROMISE TO REQUIRE 10 PER CENT ETHANOL AT ONT. PUMPS
Canadian Press, 7/9/08
The Canadian Press reports a long-standing promise to boost the ethanol content in gasoline sold at Ontario pumps may never come to pass, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday, just a few months after he reassured farmers he'd stick to the plan.  McGuinty said he was rethinking his commitment to increase the ethanol content in gasoline to 10 per cent by 2010, given the dubious environmental benefits of the biofuel and the impact it's having on food prices.  "The issue for us is whether it would be in the public's interest to stretch it to 10 per cent," he said.
>Read more: http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hquQpqqxKsfY_reEUDiA3ME7QnWQ

A MADE IN CANADA FOOD VS. FUEL DEBATE
Globe-Net News, July 6, 2008
Recent amendments to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (Bill C-33) passed by Parliament will give the Government authority to develop regulations for renewable fuels mandating a 5 per cent renewable content in gasoline by 2010 and 2 per cent renewable content in diesel fuel and heating oil by 2012. The government argues the renewable fuels strategy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 4 mega-tonnes per year. But some farmers, environmentalists and international development groups believe this will only add to the growing fuel vs. food crisis.
>Read more: http://www.globe-net.com/news/index.cfm?type=2&newsID=3626

Elsewhere...

BRAZIL'S 'ORGANIC' PLASTICS
Joshua Schneyer, BusinessWeek, June 24, 2008
As oil prices soar, Brazil is aiming to become a global hub for plastics made from plant-based materials, including sugar cane.  The "factories" they have in mind are more like farms: A sugar cane plantation, with 11-foot stalks for miles around, surrounding a plastics plant that runs entirely on cane, emits a fraction of the greenhouse gas spewed by conventional plants, and, by the way, generates enough extra electricity to light a city of 500,000.  Dow plans to open its first plant in 2011.
>Read more: http://tinyurl.com/55vy8w

CELLULOSIC ETHANOL PLANT OPENS
Kevin Bullis, Technology Review, May 28, 2008
A biorefinery built to produce 1.4 million gallons of ethanol a year from cellulosic biomass has opened in Jennings, LA. Built by Verenium, based in Cambridge, MA, the plant will make ethanol from agricultural waste left over from processing sugarcane.   With the demonstraton plant, the company hopes that it can create ethanol for $2 a gallon, which it hopes will make the fuel competitive with other types of ethanol and gasoline.
>Read more: http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/20828/?nlid=1101

NEW STUDY TO FORCE MINISTERS TO REVIEW CLIMATE CHANGE PLAN
Julian Borger and John Vidal, The Guardian, June 19, 2008
Do you ever wonder how much forethought (a.k.a., research) goes into government policy-making?  And then, after legislation is enacted and a number of funding sources are put into place for research and development, suddenly a realization is made that requires government to backtrack.  Think of the taxpayers' money saved had they paid attention to research up front -- or at least waited until further proof-of-concept unfolded.  Being seen as a leader can often overshadow common sense.  The UK and other European communities (perhaps even North American) are being forced to fundamentally rethink a central part of their environment strategy after a government report found that the rush to develop biofuels has played a "significant" role in the dramatic rise in global food prices, which has left 100 million more people without enough to eat.  "The Gallagher Review of the indirect effects of biofuels production" marks a dramatic reversal in the role of biofuels in the fight against global warming. As recently as last year, corn ethanol and biodiesel derived from vegetable oil were widely seen as important weapons in that fight.  Now even their environmental benefits are in question.
>Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/19/climatechange.biofuels
>Report: http://www.dft.gov.uk/rfa/_db/_documents/Report_of_the_Gallagher_review.pdf

IT'S THE PLATFORM, STUPID: BABY STEPS ARE THE WAY TO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE.
Robert X. Cringely, PBS' The Pulpit, June 6, 2008
In Robert Cringley's weekly column he shares about his experience with covering the oil industry during the 70s and some of the similarities (or not) of today's oil crisis.  Mr. Cringley, though, states that although he's unsure whether the lessons of the past and present will stay learned after prices subside somewhat (prediction based on what happened in the 70s), he believes what is important this time is "the moral of this story -- the importance of platforms and standards, and when and how to abandon or change them."  .. "If some car company comes up with a way to get 100 miles per gallon, it is likely that no more than 10 percent of us will be getting mileage like that a year from now. The rest of us are stuck with old technology until we can afford to change: we're on the old platform."  "This is our dilemma: we want to make radical energy improvements but these typically require expensive platform changes and platform changes can take a decade or more to happen. A better solution would be to leave the platform alone and find a single variable that could be changed for everyone practically overnight."  Something such as SwiftFuel might do the trick.
>Read more: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080606_005036.html

SCIENTISTS WARN OF LACK OF VITAL PHOSPHORUS AS BIOFUELS RAISE DEMAND
Leo Lewis, UK Times, June 23, 2008
Researchers in Australia, Europe and the United States have given warning that phosphorous, which is essential to all living things, is at the heart of modern farming and has no synthetic alternative, is being mined, used and wasted as never before. Crop-based biofuels, whose production methods and usage suck phosphorus out of the agricultural system in unprecedented volumes, have, researchers in Brazil say, made the problem many times worse.
>Read more: http://tinyurl.com/5wmj7n

BIOENERGY FEEDSTOCK INFORMATION NETWORK
BFIN is a gateway to a wealth of biomass feedstock information resources from the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and other research organizations.  The site contains fact sheets, full-text articles and reports, presentations, news and events and more - on every bioenergy topic imaginable. 
>Check it out: http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/

WEATHER AND CLIMATE EXTREMES IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3, 2008
Weather and climate extremes affect all sectors of the economy and the environment, including human health and well-being.  The U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research today released a scientific assessment that provides the first comprehensive analysis of observed and projected changes in weather and climate extremes in North America and U.S. territories. Changes in extreme weather and climate events are among the most serious challenges to society in coping with a changing climate.  Some of the questions tackled by this report include: What Changes Have Already Occurred?  Why Have These Changes Occurred?  How Will Extremes Change in the Future?
>Obtain Report: http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-3/final-report/default.htm

August 18-22, 2008
Short Rotation Crops International Conference:
BIOFUELS, BIOENERGY, AND BIOPRODUCTS FROM SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST CROPS
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Details: http://www.cinram.umn.edu/srwc/

September 16-17, 2008
BIOENERGY: DEVELOPING TRENDS AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR A CHANGING FOREST INDUSTRY
Halifax, NS
CANBIO & Canadian Woodlands Forum
Details: http://www.canbio.ca/documents/Halifax08.pdf

October 6-8, 2008
BIOENERGY: FROM WORDS TO ACTION
CANBIO Annual Bioenergy Conference & Trade Show
Ottawa, Canada
Details: http://www.canbio.ca/events.html