Domestic Fuel

A new report coming out of Great Britain says using biodiesel in place of ultra-low sulfur diesel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an amazing 94%… and reduce energy use by up to 97%.

Check out this story in Biofuel Review:

A summary of the research was launched today (23rd May) at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Renewable Fuels Group. The Chairman of NorthEast Biofuels, John Reynolds, said: “We commissioned this research to understand more about the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions during the whole production process for biodiesel. The findings are extremely encouraging and will help us in our future planning to ensure that we are optimizing our processes to make the maximum possible savings.

The research took account of the energy used and the greenhouse gases produced at every stage of the process. This included all the activity and materials used to produce the crop on the farm, from the time it is planted through to harvesting, transportation and storage, processing into biodiesel, and delivery for use.

Researchers say this should help dispel some of the recent criticisms that biodiesel is not all that environmentally friendly.

Biodiesel giant Imperium Renewables is looking to get $345 million in investments in an initial public offering. You might remember Imperium from our previous posts about how the Seattle-based company is building a 100 million gallon a year refinery (Feb. 2nd) – one of the biggest in the nation – and how it secured a record $214 million investment (Feb. 21st) and how building the big refinery on the West Coast is helping that area’s economy (March 8th).

This story in the Seattle Times says the company is continuing to grow and will have more than 400 million gallons of production capacity by the end of next year:

In a regulatory filing today, Imperium also said it has a contractual commitment from one large industrial user to buy at least 18 million gallons of biodiesel annually for approximately five years. It said that is “the single largest long-term biodiesel sales contract to an end user in the U.S.”

Biodiesel consumption is growing rapidly in the U.S., but so is production capacity. Use increased from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to an estimated 250 million gallons last year, according to Imperium’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stock is going to be sold under the proposed ticker symbol IMPR. Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and UBS Investment Bank will underwrite the offerings.

It was an afternoon of dodging the drivers of cars, trucks and SUVs. All were eager to find their place at the pumps that offered E10 fuel for just $2.25. Finally, I bumped into IndyCar Driver Scott Sharp. He seemed just as enthusiastic as the consumers. Scott said he thinks the growing use of ethanol is exciting. He said the IndyCar Series deserves a lot of credit for being on the frontier of the ethanol industry. He pointed out that the transition to 100 percent ethanol was a big transformation for the series. Ultimately, Scott said ethanol offers more power in the cars’ engines and better fuel economy. He asked, if IndyCar Drivers can be out running 230 miles an hour on ethanol, “why can’t every car in America?” As Scott dished on the benefits of ethanol, he also freely doled out his autograph:

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I made good time at the Gas America promotion and managed to keep a steady pace in tracking down the drivers. My chat with IndyCar Driver Sarah Fisher shed more light on what ethanol is doing for the Indy Racing League. She said it’s great to be a part of the first series to be thinking green. Sarah added more people thinking about ethanol means a larger industry that would potentially lead to lower rates for fuel. With the IRL running all of its cars on 100 percent ethanol fuel, she said one noticeable difference is the smell. But, more importantly, Sarah talked about how the fuel makes racing more efficient:

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In the consumer frenzy to get discounted ethanol gas at GasAmerica, I managed to flag down IndyCar Driver Jeff Simmons as he pumped fuel and passed out autographs. Jeff said a lot of motorists don’t know where to get ethanol blended fuel. He added that, often, consumers are putting an ethanol blend in their car and don’t even know it. He said EPIC is working to educate motorists about ethanol and where they can get the fuel:

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On my first pit stop on the road with Chuck, I caught up with EPIC and IndyCar drivers Jeff Simmons, Scott Sharp, and Sarah Fisher at GasAmerica on LaFayette Road in Indianapolis. EPIC teamed up with GasAmerica and offered E10 fuel, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline to consumers for $2.25 a gallon. They IndyCar drivers manned the pumps alongside EPIC personnel and scribbled autographs for consumers. The special rate was available from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m, but motorists I talked to said they were lining up around the parking lot as early as 8:00 a.m. David Petros joked that he came out to celebrate his birthday. He said he figured he would save some money and fill up his tank. David added that ethanol is moving the fuel industry in the right direction. Click here to hear more:

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When David pulled up to the pump he didn’t have to get out of his car. EPIC personnel were ready to top off his tank. He reminisces about fueling up in the old days:

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Another consumer, Kristian Gibson, said she’s counting on ethanol to be more cost-effective and says she’s hoping that motorists will get a fairer price for fuel as the ethanol industry continues to grow. Kristian says her job requires a lot of travel around Marion County. For her, saving money on tank of gas is worth a couple hours for the wait. Hear what else she has to say about ethanol and its impact on the price of fuel:

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EPIC officials say E10 fuel is warranted for use in any vehicle built after 1980, but the organization says E85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, requires Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFV’s). EPIC estimates there are more than 6 million FFV’s on the road today. EPIC sponsored the promotion to highlight the first year that all vehicles participating in the Indy 500 race will use 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.

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It was a long day out at the Gas America ethanol pump promotion today. Here’s Team Ethanol car driver Jeff Simmons entertaining representatives from Gas America. On the right is Laura Dolenz, Gas America Marketing Director. I interviewed her about the promotion and how and why they decided to put this event on today.

Laura says that Gas America has a real commitment to renewable fuels like ethanol and has had it included in their gas since 1980. She says they just never promoted that fact until now. She credits the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council with approaching them to see if they would be interested in doing this promotion. I interviewed her early before the gas pumps started but she was already very pleased with the way things were going.

You can listen to my interview with Laura here: indy-07-dolenz.mp3

Many of the pictures that Laura McNamara and I are taking here this week are being put into an online photo album which you can find using the following link:

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Activities we’re covering here in Indianapolis got started with a pump promotion at Gas America on Lafayette Rd. not far from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was an unbelievably successful promotion. We had hundreds of cars lined up for hours to get their chance at $2.25/gallon gas containing 10 percent ethanol. The price was set by the qualifying pole position speed for this weekend’s race.

I think every TV station was represented out here today covering the event. We had several helicopters hovering overhead and several radio stations doing live remotes. All in all I’m sure the folks at EPIC are very please with how things went. Laura and I have more pictures and some interviews for you which we’ll post just as soon as we can. We’ve got to be on site for one more promotional event that’s taking place this afternoon.

I’d like to introduce you to Laura McNamara. She’s the newest contributing editor to Domestic Fuel and other ZimmComm New Media news blogs. Laura is with me here in Indianapolis this week helping with our coverage of the Indy 500 and all events related to ethanol.

Laura spent the last nine months covering Missouri state poltics for a statewide radio network, The Missourinet. Before working at The Missourinet, Laura spent last summer working in Rome, where she mostly covered news from the Vatican. Her work at the television news agency, RomeReports, also included coverage of a Roman fashion show and up-and-coming European soccer stars. Laura earned her broadcast journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. While a student, Laura also worked as a television reporter and fill-in anchor for KOMU NewsChannel 8 in Columbia and as a radio reporter for Missouri Digital News out of the Capitol in Jefferson City. Laura wants to expand her reporting experience by covering events all over the world and we’re happy to be working with her. I think you’ll find reports from her here on Domestic Fuel from a variety of locations in coming months.

It’s race week in Indianapolis and that means working with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council once again since this will be the first Indy 500 with all the cars running on 100% ethanol fuel. There are lots of activities planned to promote ethanol this week. In fact they’ve already started. I’ll be covering as many of them as I can and this year I have some help. More on that later.

One of the main events takes place this Thursday. It’s the Ethanol Summit which will take place at the race track.

Learn more about the benefits of Ethanol and its use as the official fuel in this year’s 91st Running of the Indianapolis 500. A variety of ethanol industry leaders will be on hand to speak about a wide range of ethanol issues, from performance, environmental and economic benefits, to E85 initiatives, growing consumer demand and the renaissance of rural America. Speakers include:

Jeff Simmons # 17 Team Ethanol Driver
Will Steger, Will Steger Foundation
Tom Slunecka, Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC)
Terry Angstadt, President IndyCar Series
Jim Gentry, Gas America
Thomas Dorr, Under Secretary for Rural Development
Dave Vander Griend, ICM, Inc.

We’re going to have all the sights and sounds we can post so stay tuned to Domestic Fuel from Indy town.

Federal officials say North Dakota is poised to be an energy giant. This story in the Houston Chronicle quotes John Mizroch, the principal assistant secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, as the keynote speaker Monday at a renewable fuels conference at Bismarck State College:

“This state, it seems to me in particular _ which does have rich resources in energy and underused resources, particularly in wind _ I think could be an energy giant,” he said.

“It’s more than 300,000 megawatts of good wind power. The problem is, as with certain things in life, the wind energy is not where the populations are,” he said.

And of course, the farming state has plenty to contribute to ethanol and biodiesel production. North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan was a co-sponsor of Monday’s conference. He said his home state could turn out a million gallons of renewable fuels each year by the year 2012. Dorgan wants Congress to require refineries to produce and use at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.

Farmers are facing the same $3-plus-a-gallon fuel costs everyone else is today. According to this story in the Peoria (IL) Journal Star, Patrick Kirchhofer, manager of the Peoria County Farm Bureau says farmers can save by leaving residue on their fields, not plowing them. A University of Illinois study says a 1,000-acre farm that might normally spend $29,500 in fuel could save as much as $13,000 by using no-till.

And farmers are saving money by using homegrown biodiesel in their equipment:

Higher gas prices are also encouraging the use of biofuels by farmers, said Kirchhofer. “While higher gas prices aren’t good for either farmers or motorists, it does encourage the development of alternatives to imported oil,” he said.

One of those alternatives, biodiesel – a blend of vegetable oil and diesel fuel – is a favorite among farmers, said John Papenhause, an energy specialist with Agland FS in Pekin. “I’d say 80 to 90 percent of the farmers around here use some blend of biodiesel,” he said.

Venture capitalists are dumping an unspecified amount of money into a company called Transonic Combustion… a company working on engine compnents that would be able to run on any type of fuel – biodiesel, ethanol, gasoline, vegetable oils – just about anything.

Check out this story from the tech news blog section of C/Net.com:

The somewhat secretive company has come up with a highly efficient combustion system for conventional engines that increases gas mileage. It also allows cars to run on different fuels, which could help goose sales of things like biodiesel. There are other techniques for allowing engines to run on a variety of fuels, but they aren’t widespread. Transonic has built single-cylinder prototypes and will now try to build a four cylinder engine. It hopes to demonstrate the technology to the auto industry more fully in 2008.

When the green flag drops this weekend, over 300 million people across the globe will be watching and listening live as the ladies and gentlemen start their engines for the greenest Indy 500 in history.

This month, the “Greening of Racing” has really been in the spotlight, with major events at the National Press Club and the Chicago Board of Trade. This edition of “Fill Up, Feel Good” features comments from CBOT Chairman Charlie Carey, USDA Undersecretary Tom Dorr, EPIC Executive Director Tom Slunecka, IndyCar Series President Terry Angstadt, race car team owner Bobby Rahal, and IndyCar drivers Jeff Simmons and Tony Kanaan.

The “Fill up, Feel Good” podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link)
or you can listen to it by clicking here (7:30 MP3 File): epic-podcast-5-22-07.mp3

The Fill Up, Feel Good theme music is “Tribute to Joe Satriani” by Alan Renkl, thanks to the Podsafe Music Network.

“Fill up, Feel Good” is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

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Flex-fuel vehicle drivers in the Empire State now have at least one place to fill up with 85 percent ethanol.

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) reports that Campus Mobil, located near the State University of New York Albany campus, held a grand opening for the first public E85 pump this week.

KNC Holdings, the company which operates Campus Mobil, has a second E85 station opening soon in Warrensburg, New York.

KNC president Christian King, who is selling the fuel for $0.54 below the cost of unleaded gasoline, anticipates having an even greater per gallon savings due to constantly rising costs of traditional gasoline. “Today is the first step for New York consumers to do their part in helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by purchasing E85,” said King.

According to NEVC, this station development effort, combined with the estimated six new ethanol plants being planned in New York’s upstate region, is moving the Empire State toward the road to true energy independence, improving air quality in the balance.