Monday Edition

01.05.09

GLOBAL

Crude oil rose for a third day, Monday, after Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip, escalating the conflict and threatening stability in the Middle East. Russia's dispute with Ukraine over natural gas and new unrest in Nigeria also contributed to the rise.

A Boeing 747-400 airplane powered by a 50-50 blend of jatropha oil and standard A1 jet fuel successfully completed a two-hour flight last Tuesday, Associated Press reports. The flight was a joint venture between Air New Zealand, Boeing, Rolls Royce and UOP LLC.

NORTH AMERICA

In partnership with the US EPA, the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transportation District, Energy Alternative Solutions Inc., the California Restaurant Association, Salinas Tallow Co. and the city of Santa Cruz, CA, have created a local biodiesel market with the Ecology Action “Fryer to Fuel’ program.

GreenHunter Energy has gained EPA approval to sell its animal fats-based biodiesel to on-road diesel fleets. Prior to receiving the on-road approval, GreenHunter sold its biodiesel overseas and to marine fleets in the Gulf of Mexico.

The 2009 Chevrolet HHR small sports utility vehicle will be General Motors' first four-cylinder, flexible fuel vehicle in its North American product line.

Soybean rose last week on speculation that dry weather in growing regions of South America damaged plants and will curb yields. High temperatures and a lack of rainfall in the next week will lower crop prospects and stress plants in Argentina and Brazil, DTN Meteorlogix LLC reported.

Biodiesel Advanced Research and Development announced that it has raised $40 million, half of the capital needed, for the construction of a 60 million gallon per year algal biodiesel plant in Philadelphia, PA.

The Colorado Agricultural Value Added Development Board has awarded over $620,000 in grants to fourteen agricultural projects as part of the "Advancing Colorado's Renewable Energy" program.

In Ontario, Canada, the Centre for Agricultural Renewable Energy and Sustainability at the University of Guelph has begun a project with local soybean and pork producers to build a model farm-scale oilseed processing and biodiesel production plant on campus.

SOUTH AMERICA

The Colombian Energy and Mines Ministry will keep petrol and diesel prices in January 2009 at their December 2008 levels. The government also announced that a 5% biodiesel blend will be distributed throughout the country by March.

Spanish companies Grupo Vento and Integral Bioenergies Systems have created an enterprise in Brazil to produce biodiesel from recycled vegetable and animal waste.

Petrobras has announced that their two Brazilian biodiesel plants that began operation in October 2008 have surpassed their production goal forecasts for 2008. According to the company, the two units had a combined total output of 2.3 million gallons, over 200,000 more than forecast.

EUROPE

The Spanish business organization CEOE-CEPYME together with four partners, will lead a project, "Probioner," that will use forest waste materials for biofuel production.

A study on producing fuel from marine biomass has been awarded $7.25 million in funding. The project is a joint effort between the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences, Queens University Belfast, University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, and the Institutes of Technology in Ireland.

ASIA / PACIFIC

Petrobras plans to open more fuel service stations in Japan in 2009 as part of a long-term effort to boost ethanol exports to Japan and other Asian markets.

After the successful first phase trial run of jatropha biodiesel, General Motors is likely to sign an agreement with Indian Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute for cultivation of jatropha on wasteland in India.

Last week, palm oil futures capped the worst annual drop since 1999, as supply increased and stockpiles jumped to an all-time high. The most-active contract tumbled 44% this year compared with the 45% decline in 1999, according to Bloomberg data.

AFRICA

Ghana-based Gold Star Biofuels, has secured a contract to build small facilities in Chile to produce 77 million gallons of biodiesel per year from Chilean jatropha oil. The biodiesel will be used to produce electricity at Energy Partners Chile’s power generation facility.

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