Nova Biosource announced that its Illinois-based refinery has reached the million gallons milestone after 25 days of production. The plant is expected to reach 60 million gallons of ASTM standard biodiesel per year using three processing trains, although the milestone was reached with only one. Other Nova refineries in Wisconsin and Mississippi have a single train that produces 20 million gallons each. The company's global production is estimated between 180 and 220 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

Nova claims to use locally generated, low-cost feedstocks, including rendered animal fats and oils and recycled vegetable and animal-based greases which are not suitable for human consumption.

[Source: Nova Biosource]

Tuesday night the PBS science program NOVA will feature an Earth Day look at "the Car of the Future." WGBH, the Boston PBS station that produces NOVA sent us an advance copy of the show to take a look at. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, who are perhaps better known to fans of the NPR show Car Talk as Click and Clack, travel the world from Iceland to China and back to their alma mater at MIT. The "Tappet Brothers" are definitely an acquired taste and not everyone is fan of their shtick on the radio show. However, those who have not acquired that taste need not worry as their presence in Car of the Future is actually fairly minimal. John Lithgow does most of the narration tying the various segments together.

For those that are regular readers of our little corner of the web, most of what is discussed in the show will be familiar territory. Nonetheless the show is still a good primer on all of the various technologies that are being worked on including cellulosic biofuels, batteries, plug-in hybrids, weight reduction and more. The guys visit with Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute, Martin Eberhard at Tesla (while he was still there), Andrew Frank at UC Davis and plenty of others. During a segment filmed during the introduction of the Chevy Volt last year, Tom and Ray speak with GM VP Energy and Environment Beth Lowery about choice. Keep reading after the jump.

Update: Check your local listings for time, but NOVA typically runs at 8 or 9 pm on most PBS stations.

Nova Biosource Fuels has two refineries that make ASTM standard biodiesel that are either up and mostly running or on the mend. The two plants, when both are working at full capacity, can make 80 million gallons of biodiesel a year. The capacity isn' quitet there yet, and Nova's eventual goal is an annual capacity of 180-200 mgpy.

In Seneca, Illinois, Nova's refinery is operating at 75 percent capacity turning animal fats and vegetable oils into biodiesel. Nova has commissioned the first train on the way to a 60 million gallons per year production. Over in Greenville, Mississippi, a 20mgpy biodiesel plant was damaged after a mechanical pump failure. Nova representatives are on the site (it's a Scott Petroleum Corp. plant) and will be working to repair the facility.

Earlier this year, Nova sponsored the Sundance screening of Josh Tickell's Fields of Fuel documentary.

[Source: Nova Biosource Fuels, Inc.]

The guys that make all the traditionally staid staff at NPR cringe whenever they come on the air will be making an appearance on NOVA this week. Tom and Ray Magliozzi will be going in search of the car of the future on the PBS science show on April 22 (which is, of course, Earth Day). To those of you who listen to NPR on Saturdays, Tom and Ray are more commonly known as the "comedic" mechanics Click and Clack who host Car Talk. Having heard these guys in the past, I'm not sure how much they know about cars of the future.

One interesting aspect of this program is PBS has set up a special section of their website called Open Content. You'll be able to go there and select from 230 raw video clips running 1-3 minutes each that were recorded during the making of the show. The clips will be downloadable so that you can compile your own program by mixing Nova's footage with your own. You can then upload your version of the show and perhaps Nova will put it on the site. At the very least, if you do a re-mix let us know where it is and we'll compile of list of links here on ABG.

[Source: PBS, thanks to Yanquetino for the tip]

Take one part NOVA (the PBS show), two parts Click and Clack, and a smattering of narrator John Lithgow and open source mentality and you've got the blueprint for the upcoming "Car of the Future" show. This program will air on public television stations in the U.S. at 8 pm on Earth Day, April 22nd (a day that will also mark AutoblogGreen's 2nd birthday). The NOVA cameras follow Tom and Ray Magliozzi (why is is never Ray and Tom?) through "showrooms, labs and test tracks on the road to perfecting the cars of the future," as some of the promotional material puts it. The technologies covered in the show include hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol and BEVs powered by li-ion cells.

The open source angle for this show can be seen in the preliminary script. Here, interested parties have drafted a version of the show that also looks at topics like lightweight materials, hybrids, and squeezing more out of the gasoline we do have. There's also a discussion forum for people to weigh in on the show as it gets finalized. We'll have more on this show as we get closer to airtime.

[Source: PBS]