In Washington, advanced energy employment in Iowa is more than 22,000 strong and on pace to reach nearly 24,000 jobs in 2015, according to the first-ever comprehensive industry survey conducted for the Advanced Energy Economy Institute.

The AEE Institute is a nonprofit educational and charitable affiliate of Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a national business association. Prepared by BW Research Partnership, a leading workforce and economic development research firm, the Iowa Advanced Energy Employment Survey report is available at http://info.aee.net/ia-jobs-report-14. The AEE Institute published a similar report on California’s advanced energy industry, California Advanced Energy Employment Survey, last week, which is available at http://info.aee.net/ca-jobs-report-14.

Advanced energy comprises a significant part of Iowa’s economy, employing 1.3 percent of Iowa’s total workforce. Employment in advanced energy-related businesses is greater than employment reported for crop production, general freight trucking, and animal production in Iowa. Advanced fuels, which include ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, and biodiesel, account for 4,737 jobs in Iowa.

In California, Greenbelt Resources announced it has successfully achieved its goal of raising $550,000 from individual qualified accredited investors. The investments were offered in the form of either restricted common stock or unsecured interest bearing convertible debentures, with substantially all of the proceeds directed to common stock purchases.

The net proceeds will be used for working capital needs including the transition of the company’s existing RD facility to an operational biorefinery. The funds will also allow Greenbelt Resources to conduct target market research to identify feedstocks that provide the highest potential financial returns from conversion to commercially viable products including advanced biofuels, feed and fertilizer.

VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

In Rhode Island, the U.S. District Court in Providence has sentenced two septuagenarian brothers to two years of probation, six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, $3,000 in fines and as-of-yet undetermined restitution for coordinating the theft and transport of more than 200,000 gallons of used cooking oil from restaurants in the state and Massachusetts as well as its sale to a biodiesel plant in New Hampshire.

VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

In Connecticut, researchers at UConn have found that the fiber crop Cannabis sativa, known as industrial hemp, has properties that make it viable and even attractive as a raw material, or feedstock, for producing biodiesel. The plant’s ability to grow in infertile soils also reduces the need to grow it on primary croplands, which can then be reserved for growing food, says Richard Parnas, a professor of chemical, materials, and biomolecular engineering who led the study.

With his graduate student Si-Yu Li and colleagues James Stuart of the Department of Chemistry and Yi Li of the Department of Plant Sciences, Parnas used virgin hemp seed oil to create biodiesel using a standardized process called transesterification. The group then tested the fuel for a suite of characteristics in the Biofuels Testing Laboratory at UConn’s Center for Environmental Science and Engineering.

The hemp biodiesel showed a high efficiency of conversion – 97 percent of the hemp oil was converted to biodiesel – and it passed all the laboratory’s tests, even showing properties that suggest it could be used at lower temperatures than any biodiesel currently on the market.

In Illinois, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has deferred the vote on the proposed E15 availability mandate for the city, saying the proposal still needs tweaking so as not to negatively impact small businesses. The bill’s proponent, however, says it has already been weakened so smaller stations don’t have to comply, leaving just a quarter of the city’s gas stations required to install E15 pumps.

The Biofuels Digest Index, an index of publicly traded biofuels stocks, shed 0.51 percent to close at 60.97 as chemical stocks fell.  For the day, Metabolix (MBLX) dropped 19.76 percent to $0.30, while Gevo (GEVO) dropped 7.41 percent to $0.30. Among other equities, Ceres (CERE) jumped 8.26 percent to $0.25. Overall, declines led advances 9 to 7 for the day.

Neste Oil’s renewable diesel will soon be powering ferries in Finland. This company news release says Neste agreed to provide its low sulfur marine diesel oil to Tallink Grupp’s ferries making port calls in Finland.

“We are eager to partner with Tallink Grupp as it is a well-known brand in the Nordic countries and the Baltic States and a major player in the cruising industry. Tallink Grupp shares our vision of cleaner traffic fuels and our low sulfur marine fuel delivers clear environmental benefits.” says Olli Vesamo, Director in Neste Oil’s Direct Sales.

“This collaboration opens up new market potential for Neste Oil. We are already a major player in the Baltic Sea region on petroleum products used on land and in the air. The new EU Sulfur Directive with its stringent environmental requirements and our capability to produce cleaner traffic solutions now enables us to take foothold also in the marine sector,” he continues.

“Neste Oil’s marine fuel solution meets our needs. The environmental and technical quality of the product and the reliability of Neste Oil as a supplier, as well as Neste Oil’s expertise in logistics convinced us of the benefits of this partnership. The new marine diesel oil will clearly reduce sulfur and particle emissions in our marine traffic. Our customers will benefit a cleaner environment that we as the leading and preferred shipping company in the region can provide,” says Mr. Tarvi-Carlos Tuulik, the Head of Ship Management of AS Tallink Grupp.

The company says this new low sulfur marine diesel oil meets requirements of the EU Sulfur Directive, which will come into force at the beginning of 2015.