Team biogas.se Takes Home Gold and Silver in 2011 STCC

After an exciting final weekend at Mantorp Park, Sweden’s “greenest” racing team, racing biogas fuelled vehicles, can call themselves Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) champions. The celebration was only dampened by the fact that Fredrik Ekblom missed the gold in the individual competition after a much-debated incident in the final heat.

“This win is proof of the project’s success,” said Kristoffersson as he lifted the heavy trophy, following an outstanding season of biomethane-powered performance at the top level of touring car motorsport. The project, involving E.ON, Volkswagen and Team biogas.se, commenced with the first race of the 2009 season.


Last year, Team biogas.se just missed the gold. This season, Fredrik Ekblom and Patrik Olsson stood on the podium throughout the season, demonstrating the consistent performances of the VW Motorsport Scirocco GT 24s. Ekblom finished second and third in the two final heats of the season, while Olsson finished fourth and fifth. Those finishes gave the points needed for Team biogas.se to overtake Volvo Polestar in the team rankings.

“It’s fantastic. This win is well-deserved for everyone in the team,” said Ekblom. “Every team member put in the time and energy that was needed to take us the whole way.”

Read more : http://www.ngvglobal.com/team-biogas-se-takes-home-gold-and-silver-in-2011-stcc-0928

British Gas and Bio Group in £5m power plant joint venture

A new £5m power plant in Stockport will heat homes using leftovers from the region's restaurants.
The scheme is a joint venture between British Gas and renewable energy developer Bio Group.
It will take food waste from local restaurants, takeaways, hotels and offices and process it to produce biomethane gas.

The plant will be on a former landfill site in Ashton Road and will be able to power up to 1,400 homes when it becomes operational next April, diverting 250,000 tonnes of food from landfill a year.

Some of that waste will come from British Gas offices in the region.
Steve Sharratt, chief executive of Cambridgeshire-based Bio Group, said: “This facility has been designed using our ground-breaking technology as the next stage of a national roll-out of anaerobic digestion plants.

“It will make a real make a real difference to the future use of renewable gas across Greater Manchester.”

Read more : 
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/business/innovation/s/1457755_british-gas-and-bio-group-in-5m-power-plant-joint-venture

Focus on biogas plants

To meet the domestic fuel and bio-fertiliser needs, 3,680 biogas plants are planned to be set up in rural areas by June 2012, according to Pakistan Centre for Renewable Technologies. 

The Centre says that over 2,100 family-size biogas plants — against the target of 2,500 — have already been set up throughout the country.

The programme, supported by NGOs, farmers’ bodies and the rural support programme netwok, is being implemented by Pakistan Biogas Development Enterprise.

The construction of 30,000 biogas installations planned for next four years will be funded by the four provinces including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with an investment of Rs2.7 billion. A sum of Rs244 million will be disbursed as investment rebate support to households.
Often animal waste is usually not used productively. In Landhi alone, a suburb of Karachi city, around 0.35 million cattle heads are kept in a three kilometre area that produces thousands of tons of waste but 80-90 per cent of it is thrown into the sea. A Canadian firm Highmark Renewables and the KESC jointly intend to set up a biogas plant at a cost of around $70 million which would produce 30 megawatts of electricity besides 400 tons of residue bio-fertiliser.

Read more : http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/26/agriculture-and-technology-focus-on-biogas-plants.html

Air Force And Navy Turn To Biofuels

The Pentagon's hunt for an alternative to petroleum has turned a lowly weed and animal fat into something indistinguishable from jet fuel, and now the military is trying to kick-start a new biofuel industry.

"To flip the line from Field of Dreams, if the Navy comes, they will build it," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a recent speech.

The Air Force and the Navy have been busy testing their aircraft — everything from fighter jets to unmanned spy planes — on jet biofuel. Together with the Departments of Energy and Agriculture, the Navy has launched a project to invest up to half a billion dollars in biofuel refineries.
Mabus says he is committed to getting 50 percent of the Navy's fuel for aircraft and surface ships from renewable sources by 2020 because dependence on foreign oil makes the U.S. military vulnerable.

Read more:
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/26/140702387/air-force-and-navy-turn-to-bio-fuels

Waste to Energy Must Prove Itself to Take Off in U.S.

An aversion of debt investors to 'technology risks', combined with public reticence to provide capital or financial guarantees is holding up development of Waste to Energy projects in the U.S.

According to a recent report published by Renewable Waste Intelligence - Waste Conversion Technology: A Progress Report North America - this situation is exacerbated by the fact that most waste to energy projects have yet to achieve commercialisation.

However, in the report, John May, managing director at the invest¬ment bank Stern Brothers, explains that "the rating agencies have said to us that properly structured insurance can lead to a better rating on a piece of debt".

In terms of equity investment, as opposed to taking on debt, May goes on to add that while equity investors are prepared to take greater risks, the return they are looking for is typically in the region of 15% to 20%. 


Read more : http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display/6371794524/articles/waste-management-world/waste-to-energy/2011/09/Waste_to_Energy_Must_Prove_Itself_to_Take_Off_in_U_S_.html

Waste to Energy Appeal Approved in Gloucestershire

The secretary of state has approved SITA UK's appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, against the refusal of planning permission for the Severnside Energy Recovery Centre (SERC).

The company submitted its original proposals for the waste to energy facility to South Gloucestershire Council in November 2009 and it was subsequently refused by the Council's Development Control West Committee in June 2010.

In November 2010, SITA UK submitted an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

According to the company, the proposed facility, located on a site approximately five miles north of Avonmouth, would be capable of diverting up to 400,000 tonnes of non-recycled commercial and industrial waste per year.

The facility is expected to generate up to 32 MW of electricity - enough to power approximately of 50,000 homes. SITA claim it would also help local businesses by relieving a multi-million pound landfill tax burden. 

Read more  : http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display/0741157947/articles/waste-management-world/waste-to-energy/2011/09/Waste_to_Energy_Appeal_Approved_in_Gloucestershire.html