Virent announced it has successfully received fuel registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its BioForm® Gasoline in blends of up to 45%. As a registered fuel, Virent’s biogasoline can now be used in on-highway motor vehicles.
Virent BioForm® Gasoline blended with conventional gasoline underwent testing at Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) with the results demonstrating that the emissions from the blended fuel were well below the maximum permitted by current regulations. The fuel was manufactured by Virent at its demonstration plant in Madison, Wisconsin, which is capable of producing up to 10,000 gallons of biofuels and biochemicals per year.
The EPA testing work was funded by Virent partner Royal Dutch Shell. Virent BioForm® Gasoline is a high octane, direct replacement fuel made from plants that offers the benefits of high performance and blend rates, complete compatibility with existing refining and distribution infrastructure networks, and reduced carbon footprint.
Virent CEO, Lee Edwards, recently presented at the Jefferies Annual Global Industrials Conference, and had some interesting information for both its bio-PX and BioForm® Gasoline developments, which I will report on Tecnon OrbiChem’s Bio-Materials newsletter later this month.
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If the above information is accurate, BioForm would be a vast improvement on traditional bio gasoline blends such as ethanol. However, I noticed the article didn’t mention if this biofuel reduced performance by in combustible engines like other biofuels and if BioForm was more expensive than its counterparts?
Honestly, this information should be automatically included in these types of articles but something tells me that the fact that it wasn’t suggests that the answer to both questions above is “Yes”.
Posted by Enviro Equipment, Inc. | August 18, 2014, 3:38 pm