After a decade of promise, advanced biofuels makers are entering a crucial make-or-break period with the first of a new generation of production facilities about to come on line.

The new facilities are designed to take biofuels beyond corn-based ethanol and begin to shift the industry to "advanced" fuels made with a lower carbon footprint derived from products that will not compete with demand for food.

After a decade of promise, advanced biofuels makers are entering a crucial make-or-break period with the first of a new generation of production facilities about to come on line.

The new facilities are designed to take biofuels beyond corn-based ethanol and begin to shift the industry to "advanced" fuels made with a lower carbon footprint derived from products that will not compete with demand for food.

Husky Energy Inc said on Thursday it has begun operating a carbon-capture and storage facility at an ethanol manufacturing plant at Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, and will use the gas to boost output from its heavy oil fields in the region.

Husky, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, said the project will capture 250 tonnes a day of carbon-dioxide produced during the ethanol fermentation process, liquefy it and then truck it to Husky's heavy oil fields, where it will be injected into the ground to boost production.

NEW DELHI: Rapping the rural development ministry's land resources department for the "inordinate delay" in finalising a bio-fuels programme, a parliamentary panel has sought for the matter be placed before the cabinet at the earliest for a decision on its continuance.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Iogen Corp have scrapped plans for a commercial-scale biofuel plant in Manitoba, spelling the loss of 150 jobs and raising questions about widespread and near-term use of fuel made from agricultural waste in Canada.

The Iogen Energy joint venture had been studying building a plant to make ethanol from straw and other plant waste, rather than from food crops such as corn and sugar. One location discussed was Portage la Prairie, west of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Researchers have found that climate change is likely to have far greater influence on the volatility of corn prices over the next three decades than factors that recently have been blamed for price swings — like oil prices, trade policies and government biofuel mandates.

The new study, published on Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests that unless farmers develop more heat-tolerant corn varieties or gradually move corn production from the United States into Canada, frequent heat waves will cause sharp price spikes.

Twenty companies, including Archer-Daniels-Midland Co and Cargill Inc, have been cleared to produce the new ethanol grade called E15, a significant step toward putting the higher blend biofuel on sale, the government announced on Monday.

Most fuel sold at filling stations is a 9-to-1 blend of gasoline and corn-based ethanol. The ethanol industry proposed E15, a 15 percent blend, three years ago.