Neste Oil announced that on June 21, 2015, a team of motorsport enthusiasts will drive from Florida's Atlantic shoreline to California's Pacific coast on a single tank of NExBTL renewable diesel.

Kaisa Hietala, executive vice president of renewable products at Neste said "One team is taking a different approach to this long-distance challenge: drive coast-to-coast on one tank of fuel that is made of completely biobased raw materials. We believe this may be a first time for this type of trip."

Among the participants joining the event is Tanner Foust, a U.S. Rallycross champion. Other participants include top officials of CLP Motorsports. The car to be used is a Superlite Coupe (SLC) custom-built by CLP Motorsports with a modified Volkswagen 1.9-liter diesel engine.

The Ethanol Producers Association of the Philippines (EPAP) is pushing for the modernization of the sugar industry to spur the Philippines' ethanol production so that it can be harnessed as an alternate fuel resource.

According to Jose Maria Zabaleta, EPAP chairman emeritus, said that the idea of developing a sustainable ethanol industry has gained the attention of millers in the Philippines. Zabaleta also says that the sugarcane industry should adopt new technologies to produce more sugar as well as other by-products such as fuel, bioplastics, and pharmaceuticals.

Zabaleta, one of the pioneers of ethanol production in the Philippines, knows the huge potential of the country's future in energy and fuel if ethanol production is increased.

Singapore's Public Utilities Board, the national water agency, has started the nation's first project to produce biogas through co-digesting used water sludge and food waste.

Water sludge from the Ulu Pandan Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) will be mixed with food waste collected from the Clementi district and treated in a co-digestion demonstration facility. Due to the "higher calorific value in food waste", this new combined treatment has the potential to produce more biogas.

The plant can treat up to 40 tons of combined food waste and used water sludge. It will adopt the Omnivore^TM process of the energy company Anaergia, which uses anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. The plant is set to be completed by September 2015.

If successful, the process could potentially be implemented at the future Tuas Water Reclamation Plant and the National Environment Agency's Integrated Waste Management Facility.

Genetic and genomic resources have recently been developed for the bioenergy crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Despite this, little research has focused on finding loci involved in natural variation of bioenergy traits. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping is typically used to discover loci that contribute to a trait. Once identified, they can be used to improve important traits through marker-assisted selection.

David B Lowry of Michigan State University, led researchers and conducted QTL mapping in Austin, Texas of a full-sib mapping population from a cross between tetraploid clones of two major switchgrass cultivars (Alamo-A4 and Kanlow-K5).

The team discovered 27 significant QTLs across 23 traits, including QTLs for biomass production. The study also found negligible effects of reduced watering on traits, with no significant effect on biomass production. The results of the study sets future crop improvements through marker-assisted selection breeding.

Sebacina vermifera (MAFF-305830) is a symbiotic mycorrhizal fungus that has been shown to be beneficial in enhancing biomass in the bioenergy crop switchgrass. With this, the team of Kelly D. Craven of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation developed a bentonite clay particle-based delivery system for mass production and dissemination of S. vermifera.

The team evaluated the delivery method for S. vermifera in both wild type and transgenic, low lignin switchgrass lines and compared it to an efficient in vitro colonization method. The fungal colonization enhanced biomass regardless of delivery method. However, the percentage of fungal biomass in planta increased with the clay-based delivery system.

This research reports the development of a delivery system for mass production of any symbiotic microbe and suggests that they can be packaged and effectively delivered to a target host plant.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have identified the exact mechanism and structure of two key enzymes isolated from yeast that, together, provide a new, cleaner route to the production of hydrocarbons.

Professor David Leys, lead investigator of the study, try to determine how common yeast can produce kerosene-like odors when grown on food containing the preservative sorbic acid. They found that yeasts use an unknown form of vitamin B2 to support the production of hydrocarbons.

For this study, the researchers focused on the production of alpha-olefins, high value hydrocarbons that are key chemical intermediates in a variety of industrial applications including pipes, gear oils, detergents and lubricant additives. However, their results provide the basis for the development of new applications in biofuel production.