In Colorado, Gevo and Alaska Airlines announced an alliance to purchase Gevo's renewable jet fuel and fly the first-ever commercial flight on alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ). The flight is expected to occur after Gevo receives ASTM International certification for its fuel, sometime in late 2015.

Gevo has been working through the rigorous ASTM process for six years. Once approved, this fuel can be integrated into existing distribution infrastructure and onto commercial aircraft.

"A sustainable biofuels industry would help insulate airlines from fuel price spikes, enabling them to offer economical air travel while remaining profitable, while helping meet their environmental goals, and spur economic growth within and outside of aviation," said Gevo CEO Pat Gruber.

BDI-BioEnergy International AG has successfully completed the expansion of a biodiesel plant in Spain. Low-grade oils and fats will now be converted into second-generation biodiesel.

As the general contractor, BDI completed this retrofit project on time and handed it over after a successful acceptance run. As part of the order, the complete process control system of the plant was also brought up to date.

"Biodiesel producers are currently facing major challenges as a result of uncertainties with regard to the future European biofuel policy. However, the use of waste and residual materials is safeguarded due to the positive environmental aspects. With the BDI RetroFit Program, we can already integrate the necessary, well-developed solutions in plants for the requirements of tomorrow," said Edgar Ahn, a member of BDI's board and the company's chief science officer.

Renmatix Inc., the global leader in affordable cellulosic sugars for renewable chemicals and fuels markets, announced its acquisition of the former Mascoma Corp.'s 56,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Rome, New York.

The new feedstock processing facility will be dedicated to the first step in conversion to cellulosic sugar using Plantrose process conditions. This move creates a secure supply for Renmatix and its development partners at the IPC in Kennesaw, Georgia, where the second step in production of Plantro sugars is performed.

"The opportunity to acquire the former Mascoma location and equipment allows us to economically utilize a broad range of biomass, and further optimize the operating conditions in our Plantrose process. This new equipment in our Rome location gives us increased flexibility and quality control that can be applied across multiple feedstocks,"said Mike Hamilton, the CEO of Renmatix.

Dr. Jonathan Wenzel, an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at Kettering University, is attempting to speed up the process of making biodiesel by hastening the reaction of soybean oil methanol.

"Our approach was to take methanol, heat it and pressurize it beyond its critical point to create supercritical methanol," Wenzel said. "Supercritical methanol can more readily dissolve the soybean oil, and combined with the higher temperatures we can react it without a catalyst."

Supercritical methanol is created by elevating the temperature and pressure of methanol to the point that it acts as a liquid and gas simultaneously. Using this methodology, Wenzel asserts that biodiesel can be made in under 10 minutes. The methodology, when increased in scale, may serve as an economic opportunity.

"There are no supercritical methanol biodiesel plants in the United States," Wenzel said. "With the data we produced, we had chemical engineering students conduct plant simulations to see if this was economically viable. The answer is yes, you can make a profit by producing biodiesel using this methodology."

National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers developed a set of environment-friendly techniques to produce biodiesel from waste grease more cheaply and efficiently.

Usually, waste grease is unsuitable for biodiesel production since catalysts could not process the waste grease in a single step. The NUS team led by Associate Professor Li Zhi developed an innovative one-step approach with a specially-engineered high-performance catalyst.

Aside from achieving impressive biodiesel conversion yields under optimal conditions, they can be easily separated from the biodiesel mixture at the end of the process for multiple reuses with little deterioration in performance.

Arabidopsis WRINKLED1 (AtWRI1) is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of genes that encode enzymes involved in the glycolytic pathway and fatty acid synthesis. Mi Chung Suh from the Chonnam National University in South Korea expressed AtWRI1 in Camelina sativa, an emerging oilseed crop.

The expression of AtWRI1 caused an increase of seed mass through an increase in size, but not through an increase in number of cells. The total seed oil increased by approximately 14% in the transgenic C. sativa lines compared to normal plants. The increase in storage oil was caused by the upregulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase E1α subunit and a biotin carboxyl carrier protein, both involved in fatty acid synthesis.

There was also an increased expression of C. sativa expansin1, which may be involved in cell wall loosening during cell expansion in transgenic C. sativa seeds. Transgenic C. sativa with enhanced seed oil contents will be useful for the production of non-petroleum-based biomaterials and biofuels.