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Last update: 09.07.2011

January 2011

Scandinavia goes viking in advanced biofuels

Source : biofuelsdigest.com

In the Old Norse, the term "viking" meant to "undertake an expedition" and it later came to characterize the raiders, settlers and traders that epitomized an era of Scandinavian expansion that impacted Europe, Asia Minor and the Americas for a hundreds of years. At the heart of the Scandinavian technology, for so many years, has been their understanding of wood - how to grow, harvest, refine and use - from the famous Viking longships of an earlier age to the significant advances in technology brought by Scandinavians to the global forest products industry from the 19th century to today. It should be of little surprise, then, that the Scandinavians have become world leaders among the developers of advanced fuels and materials made from wood - and their resulting mastery of enzymes that catalyze those conversions. Less expected, but no less impressive, has been their mastery of the art of making fuels from straw, and their astute financial and strategic leadership. Overall, there is no region that has done so much for, and within, the global biofuels industry - based on comparable population and geographic size - as the Scaninavians, and in today's Digest we round up on some of the latest and greatest of their advances.