Domestic Fuel

Congress is considering some proposals that would fund studies to figure out if pipelines that would carry ethanol and biodiesel are viable options. Wallaces Farmer reports Democrat Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, and Republican Cong. Jerry Moran of Kansas have introduced the bill:

The Ethanol Infrastructure Expansion Act, H.R. 2426, would direct the U.S. Secretary of Energy to fund studies on the feasibility of constructing a dedicated ethanol pipeline and to study the technical factors that prevent the transportation of ethanol in existing pipelines.

This is an important bill for Congress to consider. “Ethanol and biodiesel are currently moved primarily by railcars and by truck. But the rapid growth in production of ethanol and also biodiesel production makes a study and determination of additional transportation options critical,” he says.

If the bill is passed, the Department of Energy would also have to study if existing pipelines could be modified to carry the biofuels. The measure is similar to a bill introduced earlier this year by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) (see Cindy’s March 13th post).

Nearly 50 years in the business of engine performance should be enough experience to earn one the title of "Auto Performance Expert." Gale Banks with Gale Banks Engineering started his business in 1958. His business, which consists of designing engines for various factories, manufacturing his own line of engines and developing after market performance products, is just a year shy of that half-century milestone; and that experience was expertise enough to earn him a spot on a video segment with Jay Leno. When Chuck dropped by Jay's garage last month, he spoke with Gale just before the taping about ethanol, the E85 ethanol fuel blend and what the food stock-based fuel means for performance:

jay-leno-garage-banks.mp3 3:36 mp3

VeraSun Energy, one of the country’s largest producers of ethanol, aims to expand its business as consumers become more educated about the fuel. Marketing Director Melissa Ullerich said VeraSun Energy supplies E85 fuel to more than 90 locations. Melissa said with plants in Aurora, SD, Fort Dodge, IA and Charles City, IA the company produces about 340 million gallons of ethanol. She adds that the company has three more plants under development in Welcome, MN, Heartly IA and Reynolds, IN – or, she said, otherwise known as BioTown.

Chuck caught up with Melissa at the 91st Indianapolis 500. She was attending “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” as a board member of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. She tells Chuck why EPIC is important to VeraSun Energy:

indy-07-ullerich.mp3 2:07 mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (499.9KB)

Clean energy innovator Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc has struck a deal with Stuttgart, Germany-based Bosch GmbH, a leading global supplier in the areas of automotive and industrial technology, customer goods and building technology, to allow Bosch access to key patents developed by Clean Diesel for selective catalytic reduction (SCR).

Dr. Walter Copan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Clean Diesel (you might remember my May 24th interview with him) says SCR is the preferred method of reducing oxides of nitrogen (NOX). He says Bosch applying Clean Diesel’s ideas to their motor supplies will mean a low-cost method of fixing biofuels problems with NOX.

“The unfortunate downside of biodiesel has been seen in some of the older engines (with biodiesel increasing the formations of NOX),” said Copan. “With the NOX control technology, such as SCR, there’s full compatibility with a high-quality biodiesel or biomass liquid fuels.”

Copan adds this new technology will mean more engines will be able to run more efficiently and cleanly.

“The SCR technology is very fuel flexible. Ultimately the goal is to have a system that is robust, that provides overall good fuel efficiency, and delivers the kind of environmental performance with a view to overall sustainability in the years to come.”

You can hear more of my interview with Dr. Copan below. More information about Clean Diesel Technologies is available at www.cdti.com.

CopanBoschIntvw.mp3

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Ethanol continues to get more than its fair share of blame for higher food prices, but Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns urges people to look at the whole picture.

Speaking to farm broadcasters in Washington D.C. recently, Johanns said that he hates to pick out one item in the food chain and start blaming it for rising costs. “Look at how much diesel fuel has gone up recently,” he said. “What’s a significant piece of the food chain? It’s moving that commodity from farm to table.”

The latest forecast for food price increases this year is between three and four percent. Beef and poultry are up already over 4.5% from last year. But the largest increases are in fresh fruits and vegetables, which are up six to eight percent over 2006. According to USDA economist Ephraim Leibtag, “Part of this is due to weather damage, but also we just have seen higher production costs overall and higher costs of transportation coming into the system more fully.”

So, when it comes to reports that increased ethanol production is the cause of increased food prices, Johanns said, “Again, I would just urge people to be very cautious about this story. It tends to be an interesting story but it may not have the significance that one would argue. We need to tell the whole story.”

Listen to Johanns’ comments here: dc-johanns.mp3 1:20 mp3

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It looks like a 50-million-gallon-a-year ethanol plant is in the works at a site near Nevada, Missouri… just up the road from $90 million plant that will make soy-based biodiesel.

Officials with Ozark Ethanol LLC recently met with the Vernon County Commission and citizens to discuss the plant. According to this AP story in the Springfield News-Leader, not much officially is being said about the plant except a general location of where it will be built in Southwest Missouri:

But Vernon County Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord said the location being discussed is near the intersection of Missouri 43 and U.S. 54, which is just down the road from the soybean-diesel plant now being built by a company called Prairie Pride.

Vernon County lies in west-central Missouri on the Kansas border, with roads and rail lines that would easily connect the plants with farmers in both states supplying the corn and soybeans.
But it’s not just location, location, location that’s driving the two plants:

Gary Marshall, chief executive officer with the Missouri Corn Growers Association, said four ethanol plants are operating in Missouri right now, and five are under construction.

“The demand is very, very strong and continues to be very strong,” he said of ethanol.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is on the forefront of developing plants that could be used as future energy sources through the NRCS Plant Materials Program. National Program leader for Plant Materials Bob Escheman says that is part of their mission to solve resource concerns.

“The Plant Material program began back in the middle ‘30s when the Soil Conservation Service was established,” Escheman said. “We are now getting into bioenergy where we are working with universities and other producers.”

One of the plants they are working on developing for energy is switchgrass, which became famous when President Bush mentioned it last year in his State of the Union address.

“We’ve been growing switchgrass since the 1950s and we are trying to find where we can best grow the plant for bioenergy uses,” said Escheman.

One of the main problems of using switchgrass as a biofuel has been the amount of ash which is created after burning it. To solve this problem, the Plant Materials Centers (PMC) at Knox City, Texas and Elsberry, Missouri, along with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and Mississippi State University are cooperating on a study to investigate how the timing of harvesting affects biomass yield and the biofuel-quality of switchgrass.

There are 27 regional NRCS Plant Materials centers nationwide, including one in Brooksville, Florida. State Conservationist Niles Glasgow, who is also chairman of the National Plant Materials Advisory Committee, says bioenergy research is an exciting area for the program.

“One of the big things we have to start looking at is what kind of plants are going to produce the most amount of mass that can be turned into fuel,” said Glasgow.

He notes that Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson is very interested in making the Sunshine State a major player in alternative fuels. “And we know that will not be from growing corn, it will be from growing grass” or different types of sugarcane.

Both Escheman and Glasgow believe that the role of the Plant Materials Program in developing sources for alternative fuels is just beginning.

University of Missouri researchers are testing to see if glycerin, left over from biodiesel production, is a viable feed source for beef.

In a press release on the MU web site, Monty Kerley, professor of ruminant nutrition in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, is looking at how effective feeding glycerin would be. He’ll be testing the rowth of 60 calves through November, feeding some groups 5%, some groups 10%, and some groups 20% glycerin of their total diet. There will also be a control group that gets none. Kerley will look at growth performance and meat quality:

“We’re really looking at the energy value and how it compares to corn,” Kerley said. “When the animal consumes glycerin, it’s absorbed, and the glycerin is used to make glucose. Actually, it’s like feeding sugar to a cow. Because it’s liquid, there are two things we worry about – one, how much can be used in the diet before it changes the form of the diet; and two, is there a limit to how much glycerin can be processed by the animal? We’ll feed it to them for a period of 160 to 180 days.”

Similar experiements are being conducted at Iowa State University where researchers are looking at using glycerin for poultry and swine feed (see my post on April 12th).

Kerley says economics will play a large role in determining glycerin’s use as well. Right now, glycerin goes for about 4 cents a pound… corn costs 8 cents a pound. If glycerin as a feed source takes off, it will make those biodiesel plants just that much more viable.

I think I know how Don Scott feels. Don works for the National Biodiesel Board and is following Jay Leno’s EcoJet car on Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour. Jay’s car runs on biodiesel.

You might remember me being invited by New Holland to go along on a trip to Jay Leno’s Garage with NBB CEO Joe Jobe. We got to meet Jay and see the EcoJet being worked on in preparation of this national tour. The EcoJet will also be on display in Nashville June 10 at the CMA Music Fest where New Holland will once again be working with country music star Michael Peterson on their second annual Celebrity Tractor Race. I’ll be writing from there here and also on AgWired.

Getting back to Don. He’s writing about his trip on the NBB website so you might want to follow along with him.