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Dragons Swoop Down On Bamboo Toilet Paper Offer
By Peter Rusland – Cowichan News Leader Pictorial Published: October 17, 2013 9:00 AM Updated: October 21, 2013 9:19 AM A Cowichanian and his business partner rolled out of the Dragons’ Den Wednesday with a $200,000 investment in their bamboo Silk’n Soft toilet-paper business. Shawnigan Lake’s Brad Kornelson — the lake’s former fire chief — and Victoria lawyer James Legh convinced CBC-TV’s millionaire dragons Jim Treliving and Arlene Dickinson to invest in their firm. In return, the dragons got a 35% stake in the toilet tissue arm of the company during Wednesday’s airing of the popular show. The partners told the dragons three-ply, bamboo-cotton Silk’n Soft saves thousands of trees. Their toilet tissue also costs about the same as tissue made from wood fibre. Their company sells about $320,000 worth of the bathroom product annually, they noted. Eco-minded Treliving — owner of Boston Pizza — and venture capitalist Dickinson learned Silk’n Soft is BPA-free, and Kornelson and Legh have an exclusive deal to distribute their tissue. Snarly dragon Kevin O’Leary was interested in the privy product, but wanted payment in dividends. Kornelson and Legh also grabbed dragons’ attention with their bamboo meat-trays — to replace oil-based Styrofoam ones — plus bamboo paper-towels. Kornelson said the investment will help his entire True Earth Paper corporation. Continue reading
US Leads Global Advanced Biofuels Market
The US is the dominant force in the advanced biofuels market, with 67 percent of current global projects based in America, according to a study by Navigant Research. The US’ Renewable Fuel Standard, which calls for 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuel production by 2022, will help keep the US at the epicenter of the market in the coming years, according to Advanced Biofuels Country Rankings. However, emerging opportunities for advanced biofuels growth, across a diverse range of non-food feedstocks and conversion platforms, are beginning to coalesce in a number of countries outside the US, the report says. Growth in advanced biorefinery infrastructure will be moderate through 2015, according to the report, as new commercial facilities seek to demonstrate viability at scale and government support retreats from post-stimulus highs across the US, Europe and China. Over the medium term (2015-2018), however, a wave of retrofits and capital light deployments co-located alongside conventional biorefinery infrastructure is expected to usher in an expansion of advanced biorefinery capacity, followed by an increase in greenfield projects, the report says. In other biofuels news, Chempolis, a Finland-based biorefining technology corporation, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian oil and exploration company ONGC that investigates building India’s first biorefinery project. Further to the first biorefinery, Chempolis and ONGC are targeting at larger production of sustainable biofuels in India. California-based biofuels company Biosynthetic Technologies has announced that operations of its demonstration production plant within chemical company Albemarle’s existing Baton Rouge facility have commenced. Biosynthetic Technologies is now moving forward with development of a full-scale commercial production plant. Additionally, Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad has launched a public-private partnership that aims to expand the market for mid-level biofuels blends. Through the use of current funding, “Fueling Our Future” aims to establish more blender pumps containing petroleum with a high ethanol content and biodiesel at gas retailers around the state. According to research released this week by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory there is no evidence that petroleum blends containing higher amounts of ethanol cause damage to engines, contradicting an earlier study. The NREL study found that the available literature did not show any “meaningful differences” between a 15 percent ethanol blend, or “E15,” and a 10 percent blend, or “E10,” in “any performance category,” directly conflicting a controversial study released by Coordinating Research Council earlier this year. Continue reading
EU Biofuel Regulations Set To Be Delayed Until 2015
Advanced biofuels producers criticise “bad day for industry and investors” as Environment Committee vote pushes back debate on new rules By Will Nichols 18 Oct 2013 EU lawmakers have effectively postponed the creation of a stable policy regime for biofuels until 2015 in a move that is “bad news for industry and investors”, companies across the sector said yesterday. The Environment (ENVI) Committee of the European Parliament yesterday voted against allowing negotiations with member states on a draft law to cap the use of food crop-based biofuels and measure indirect emissions arising from biofuels production from 2020. The European Parliament approved revising the current biofuels regulations last month. But the motion to start negotiations with the European Council, made up of ministers from member states, was only passed by one vote, which meant it required a second reading before a final vote. MEP Corinne Lepage, rapporteur of the biofuels draft law, was bidding to start a fast-tracked second-reading procedure, arguing the overwhelming majority of industry stakeholders want “a quick result” that could deliver policy certainty prior to next year’s European elections. The proposal split the biofuels industry. Earlier this month, Danish company Novozymes, BA, DONG Energy, WWF and Transport & Environment were among 15 companies and NGOs to call on the EU to start early second-reading negotiations in the hope of delivering a “sustainable, lasting, and stable policy framework for the biofuels industry” before the elections in May 2014. But fast-tracked negotiations were strongly opposed by conventional biofuel producer groups, who would be most affected by new rules requiring firms to calculate indirect land use change (iLUC) emissions arising from deforestation, draining of peatlands and other land clearance for biofuels. In a letter sent this week, six industry bodies argued the science underpinning iLUC calculations is too imprecise to be used to underpin legislation and urged Council representatives to reject a second reading, arguing “no hasty decisions” should be made because of time pressure before May 2014 and that EU institutions needed time for “a healthy debate … before reaching definitive conclusions”. The move to fast track a decision was subsequently quashed by ENVI yesterday, so it is now unlikely that a decision on new biofuels regulations will be taken before 2015. The move was welcomed by Raffaello Garofalo, secretary general of the European Biodiesel Board (EBB). “After the publication of up to date authoritative studies on ILUC a widening range of decision makers supports a more prudent and open-minded approach,” he said in a statement. “Even MEPs close to Ms Lepage realised that early second reading would not have provided sufficient time to assess the relevance of science used in policy.” But campaign groups warned EBB and the rest of conventional biofuels lobby was simply engaging in stalling tactics because the status quo benefits them. Nusa Urbancic, clean fuels manager at campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E), said: “This is an unfortunate case of vested interests winning out over innovators willing and able to produce more sustainable biofuels.” The decision also drew criticism from Kåre Riis Nielsen, director of European affairs at Novozymes, who said the ENVI decision was “bad news for industry and investors who need clarity”. “Once again policy-makers are delaying decision-making on iLUC,” he added. “Ongoing regulatory uncertainty is jeopardising all the parallel EU efforts to attract much needed investments in innovative renewable energy technologies, including in advanced biofuels. “Despite the absence of mandate, we are urging Member States to continue the negotiations on the iLUC proposal and finalise their 1st reading position before the end of the Lithuanian Presidency.” Continue reading
