by Ann Perry

Sorghum's potential as a biofuel crop will be explored at the International Workshop on Sorghum for Biofuels which begins in Houston, Texas, tomorrow (19th Aug). More than 100 international experts from government, academia, the private sector and the agricultural community are expected to participate in the conference.

Pure Biofuels Corp opened its new biodiesel production facility at Port Callao, Peru, last week(14th Aug). The 52.5 million gallons per year facility, includes a mooring facility capable of receiving Panamax vessels of up to 60,000 MT of bulk liquid cargo, and the two longest underwater pipes in Peru, running 4.1 kilometers both with a 14” diameter. The pipelines run to Pure’s tank farm, for reception and delivery of raw materials, and allow access to other fuels for blending, and for terminaling services.

A new protein, trigalactosyldiacylglycerol 4, or TGD4, necessary for chloroplast development has been identified by scientists at Michigan State University. The discovery, they say, could ultimately lead to plant varieties tailored specifically for biofuel production. "This protein directly affects photosynthesis and how plants create biomass (stems, leaves and stalks) and oils", explained Christoph Benning, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Venture capital investments in US cleantech companies grew by 41% to US$961.7 million in Q2 2008, up from US$683.5 million in Q1 2008, according to an Ernst & Young report based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource. This is the highest total cleantech investment on record, and comes amidst a quarter in which overall venture capital investment was down by nearly 8%. Year-on-year cleantech investment follows this upward trend, increasing 83% from Q2 2007.

The third largest segment this quarter was alternative fuels, which comprised 13% of the overall US cleantech market. The segment made up entirely of biofuels transactions, attracted US$129 million of investment, down 44% from the previous quarter.

The Biofuel Energy Corporation has revealed potential losses of $46 million following the recent sharp decline in the corn market. The company announced that as of the close of business yesterday (11th August), it had realized approximately $26.1 million of losses resulting from closing out various corn, ethanol and natural gas hedges.

An easily accessible, web-based genomic database of information on crops that can be used to make ethanol is being created by scientists at Michigan State University. The project, backed by federal funding to the tune of $540,000, will create a database that contains information on the molecular biology and genetics of a particular species.

AE Biofuels opened its integrated cellulosic ethanol commercial demonstration facility in Butte, Montana yesterday (11th August). According to the company, the Butte plant is one of the first such cellulosic demonstration plants in the United States, and the first to integrate the use of both cellulose and starch based feedstocks, the 9,000 square foot demonstration facility is now operational.

The first production trial of Amelot Oil's Barbados refining facility ended in the successful production of approximately 100 gallons of refined biodiesel last week (8th August). Following the trail additional staff have been hired at the facility and  regular production is scheduled to begin in September, 2008.