Friday Edition

11.21.08

NORTH AMERICA

In overnight electronic trading, January soybeans ended $0.02 lower at $8.54 and December soyoil ended 7 points higher at $0.3107 per pound. The overnight session was under pressure from carryover selling from Thursday's late collapse.

General Electric has expressed willingness to increase financial support for infrastructure projects in 2009 in a bid to ensure that they go ahead even if the credit markets refuse to thaw. GE Capital plans to extend new loans totaling $130 billion to $150 billion next year to customers of its industrial operations including biofuels and wind energy.

The Agriculture Secretary said that the USDA is accepting applications for loan guarantees under the Biorefinery Assistance Program authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 for new biofuels technologies.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association will provide two $2,500 Biodiesel Backer Award grants to help schools in Iowa educate their communities about biodiesel and incorporate biodiesel into school education. Applications for the grants will be accepted through June 30, 2009.

Renewable Energy Group Inc. has received a $740,000 grant from the Iowa Power Fund to staff a new state-of-the-art biodiesel research and feedstock commercialization lab at its headquarters in Ames, Iowa.

In Pennsylvania, Bard Biofuel Advance Research & Development announced that it will construct a 60 million gallon per year soybean-based biodiesel plant that will start operation in 2009.

The Giving Tree Band has announced its production of the world’s first carbon-neutral album. The band also purchases offsets to reduce its carbon footprint, uses instruments made from reclaimed wood with a non-toxic finish and a biodiesel tour bus.

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina’s Agriculture Secretariat announced that it expects a record 18 million hectares of soybean for the coming 2008/09 soybean area, up from 16.6 million hectares a year ago.

EUROPE

Parajet will test its SkyCar, a biofuel powered land/air hybrid vehicle that it says will deliver rally car performance on the ground and light aircraft performance in the sky, in a matter of months.

Petrotec AG of Germany cut its net loss to $35.9 million for the first nine months from $48 million a year ago, yet it downgraded its 2008 outlook.

Sofiproteol said it had agreed to buy Belgian oleochemical company Oleon as part of its efforts to boost presence on the plant-based chemical market.

ASIA / PACIFIC

An industry regulator said Malaysia may see a decline in record stocks of palm oil from December as inclement weather will impact output and the government’s biodiesel and replanting plans begin, Reuters reports.

Crude palm oil futures on Malaysia's derivatives exchange fell as much as 3.5% Thursday on a fall in crude oil, Dow Jones reports. The benchmark February contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended at $405/mt.

The Kerala, India Transport Minister said that the government is holding talks with a Russian LNG firm to purchase biodiesel for the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses.

Cellennium (Thailand) Co. will promote its vanadium fuel cell technology, which is designed for electricity generation, conversion and storage and can be used with renewable sources including solar power and biogas from algae, globally after receiving investment capital from MFC Energy Fund.

Hyundai has announced its new Blue Drive automobile line that includes hybrids, hydrogen fuel-cell and biofuel vehicles.

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