20110818 1011 Biofuels Related News.

US PLEDGES $510 MLN, NAVY USE FOR NEXT-GEN BIOFUEL
WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The Obama administration pledged Tuesday to give the moribund market for next-generation biofuel a half-billion-dollar boost, promising the nation's fighter planes and navy craft would be ready customers.
Under a plan funded by the departments of the Navy, Energy and Agriculture, companies will be invited to bid on new biofuel projects in which the government would match the investment. They would produce ethanol from next-generation sources like wood chips and inedible parts of plants rather than corn, which is now the primary feedstock.

BRAZIL'S COSAN POSTS NET PROFIT OF $1.44 BLN
SAO PAULO,  Aug 16 (Reuters) - Brazil's leading sugar and ethanol group Cosan  posted a quarterly net profit of 2.3 billion reais ($1.44 billion), up from 400,000 reais a year before, after the creation of a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Plc , a market filing said early on Tuesday.
Excluding one-time effects on its results, including most notably the merger of the company's local assets with Shell into the joint venture Raizen, net earnings over the first quarter would have been 167.5 million reais.

PETROBRAS SEES $570 MLN FOR ETHANOL ACQUSITIONS BY 2015
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-led oil company Petrobras plans to spend $570 million over five years for ethanol-industry acquisitions, about a third of its planned biofuel investment during the period, a company official said on Thursday.
Petrobras, Brazil's largest ethanol purchaser and third-largest producer, expects to more than triple its sugar-cane ethanol output by the end of 2015 and double its share of the Brazilian ethanol market to 12 percent.

AMYRIS BIOFUELS BREAK THROUGH TRADE BARRIERS
SAO PAULO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Most people have never heard of the product manufactured by biotechnology company Amyris , but that may actually boost its business by helping it transcend established trade barriers that face other farm-based products such as ethanol.
California-based Amyris produces farnesene, an oily hydrocarbon, from sugar cane in a fermentation process using genetically altered yeast. Its production operations are focused in Brazil, the world's biggest and cheapest grower of cane.

US ETHANOL PRODUCTION RISES FOURTH STRAIGHT WEEK
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.S. ethanol production rose for a fourth straight week and notched the highest output in two months as plants continued to churn out fresh fuel amid healthy profit margins.
The Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that U.S. ethanol production totaled 908,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the week ended Aug. 5, up 30,000 bpd over the previous week. The weekly production of 6.356 million barrels is the highest since the week ended June 3.

UK APPROVES TWO NEW DRAX BIOMASS PLANTS
LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday approved two new 299 megawatt (MW) biomass plants proposed by power producer Drax , but the generator said its investment decision depended on whether soon-to-be-announced state biomass subsidies are high enough.
"I am very pleased to give the go-ahead for these two new biomass power stations in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. They will not only enhance our security of supply, but provide low-carbon electricity that reduces our carbon dioxide emissions," Energy Minister Charles Hendry said in a statement.