BY Avril Group After two years marked by a contrasted economic situation in all its business lines and a context that remained difficult at the start of 2018, the Avril Group recorded a notable recovery in its activities during the second half of the year. READ MORE

BY Next Renewable Fuels Inc. Next Renewable Fuels and BP Products North America have entered into a long-term feedstock supply agreement whereby Next will purchase approximately 13.2 million barrels per year of renewable feedstocks for its planned Oregon renewable diesel plant. READ MORE

BY Yum China Holdings Inc. Yum China Holdings says it is the first restaurant company in China to get the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification for its used cooking oil that will be converted into sustainable biodiesel following a successful pilot project. READ MORE

BY The National Biodiesel Board The USDA, FDA and EPA recently announced April as Winning on Reducing Food Waste Month and the National Biodiesel Board sees biodiesel as an active player in reduction. Billions of pounds of food waste is made into biodiesel each year. READ MORE

BY The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association Funding for a soybean crush and biodiesel plant in Crookston has passed a key hurdle in the Minnesota legislature. The proposed Soy Innovation Campus at the University of Minnesota Crookston will receive $5 million in funding as part of a new bill. READ MORE

BY Ron KotrbaNeste announced an expanded partnership with the city of Oakland, California, in which waste oil from the city is being collected and shipped overseas to Singapore for processing into renewable diesel, after which Neste will ship the biofuel back. READ MORE

BY The Renewable Fuels Association A new study published in the academic journal Biomass and Bioenergy exposes the fatal methodological flaws and erroneous conclusions regarding biofuels and land use change (LUC) found in recent studies paid for by the National Wildlife Federation. READ MORE

BY Ron KotrbaSpotlighting the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, which championed the nation’s first biodiesel mandate as a way to add value to surplus soybean oil, and RPS, whose co-located biodiesel process adds 12 cents a pound to ethanol producers’ DCO. READ MORE

BY Ron KotrbaAlthough lawmakers were not in session, soy growers met with legislative staff on Capitol Hill to push for completion of the USMCA trade agreement, implementation of the Farm Bill and reinstatement of the lapsed biodiesel tax credit. READ MORE

BY Ron KotrbaA first-of-its-kind South American renewable diesel project has moved one step closer to construction. Paraguay President Mario Abdo Benítez and ECB Group President Erasmo Carlos Battistella met at Palacio de los López where an MOU was signed Feb 25. READ MORE

BY Louisiana State University Tatiana Mello of Piracicaba, Brazil, a mechanical engineering graduate student at Louisiana State University, is currently working on genetically engineering and optimizing E. coli to produce bioproducts, like biodiesel, in a cost-effective manner. READ MORE

BY Marshall Swearingen, Montana State University News Service Costs associated with supplying algae with supplemental CO2 from sources such as coal-fired power plants have discouraged commercial production. MSU researchers think a recently discovered strain of algae could be cultivated using only ambient CO2. READ MORE

BY UFOP Following China’s ban on U.S. soybeans, the U.S. has been in need of new buyers. The EU-28 benefits from this situation as its imports of U.S. soybeans have multiplied. Three-quarters of EU soybean imports are now coming from the U.S. READ MORE

BY The National Biodiesel Board American Soybean Association farmer-leader Rob Shaffer and the National Biodiesel Board’s senior feedstock advisor Alan Weber were featured on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s program Cattlemen to Cattlemen recently. READ MORE

BY Marc Kellens Marc Kellens, the global technical director for Desmet Ballestra, takes us through the history and future of biodiesel production, identifying key milestones and cultural shifts, including the introduction and proliferation of renewable diesel. READ MORE