Industry News

American BioFuels is relocating its production operations to Bakersfield, Calif., as part of a joint venture with Hondo Chemical of Bakersfield. American BioFuels, based in San Diego, will move from a building in Adelanto which processed 2.5 million gallons of biofuel annually to Hondo's Bakersfield site, which can process 50 million gallons annually. Initial production is aimed to reach 15 million gallons per year as market demand increases. Production at the Hondo facilities is slated to begin in February 2003.

The $17.9-million Regional Transportation Center is under construction in San Diego. Located on a 1.4-acre site in City Heights, the project will feature a 60,000-sf facility that will promote awareness of alternative fuel vehicles. The building is being funded via a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and by the San Diego Environmental Foundation, Ford Motor Co., Pearson Ford, California Air Resources Board, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the city of San Diego.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is planning to begin construction on its new 208,000-sf offices in Washington's Suitland Federal Center. Housing millions of dollars of technical equipment, the facility will feature a 140,000-sf "green" roof that functions as a self-sustained bed for local plant life.

Northwestern University recently opened the 40,000-sf Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly in Evanston, Ill. The facility encompasses wet chemistry and complementing laboratories, shared microscope and laser facilities, offices, a seminar room, and other support spaces. The facility is the first federally and privately funded nanotechnology center in the country and will provide a scientific basis for technological advances in the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases and in monitoring the environmental factors that can cause illness.

Drexel University will partner with Swarthmore-based e4n-6 Corp., a computer forensics lab, and El Segundo, Calif.-base Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit defense research firm, to create the Institute for Advanced Forensic Engineering. Aerospace Corp. will provide access to its $140-million worth of computers and communications technologies, accommodating the Institute's research into advanced cyber- and physical forensics.