Wood-based biofuel will be used to fuel FedEx jets within two years under a seven year contract between Red Rock Biofuels and FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. Red Rock, which is also supply bio jet fuel to Southwest Airlines, will produce 3 million gallons of low-carbon, renewable jet fuel per year for the company. First delivery is in 2017.

German Pellets, one of the biggest producers and providers of wood pellets in the world, completes the commissioning of the first construction phase of the American plant in Urania, Louisiana.

With the winter season under way the wood pellets market is heating up and several pellet manufacturers are making investment moves as well as looking to sell and for acquisitions.

Biomass producer Enviva LP said it will invest $214.2 million into two new pellet manufacturing plants in North Carolina, creating 160 jobs by 2017.

Nearly 21,000 tons of timber and woody debris damaged by February ice storms in the Southeast is being burned at Ameresco's Savannah River bio-energy plant in Aiken, SC. It represents 55% of the power plant's wood fuel purchases.

Nearly 21,000 tons of damaged timber and woody debris utilized for renewable energy in lieu of storm-related wood being sent to landfills.

Our research found that the best opportunity for converting commerical and industrial boilers to wood may be in highly-populated areas that have an abundance of commercial and industrial development and are fairly near to abundant sources of woody biomass.

Cool Planet Energy Systems, a developer of small scale bio-refineries for the conversion of non-food biomass into biofuels and soil enhancing biochar, as a member of the Bioenergy Alliance Network of the Rockies (BANR), was awarded a grant by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to develop the scientific underpinnings for using beetle-killed wood as a sustainable feedstock for distributed bio-refineries.

The potential of converting trees killed by spruce and pine beetles into liquid biofuel will be examined in a research project being led by Colorado State University.