Domestic Fuel

SeQuential Biofuels, maker and seller of biodiesel and ethanol, has been honored as one of five recipients of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski’s Gold Awards, recognizing “greatness in Oregonians.”

This story from the Portland (OR) News says the award was handed out recently at the Oregon Convention Center:

SeQuential, which opened the nation’s first biofuels station in 2006 on McVay Highway in Eugene, will open additional stations in Portland and Eugene in 2008. The company sells biofuel blends for every vehicle, with no engine conversion required. SeQuential’s products include E10, which can be used in every gas vehicle and decreases carbon dioxide emissions by about seven percent. Its E85 bioethanol, for use in Flex Fuel Vehicles, decreases carbon dioxide emissions by 59 percent. B99 biodiesel is suitable for most diesel vehicles and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent. SeQuential also sells reduced-carbon B5 and B20 biodiesel blends suitable for any diesel engine.

The company, which was founded in 2002, also operates the largest biofuels retail network in the region with more than 35 biofuel pumps at independent retailers and 5,000 loyal customers. It is a partner in the SeQuential-Pacific biodiesel production facility in Salem, which will expand capacity from one million to five million gallons in 2008.

SeQuential is in pretty good company with this award. Previous winners include Intel and Nike. Check out the SeQuential crew below. Congrats guys!

The high cost of soybeans, brought on by the popularity of biodiesel, has forced another biodiesel plant to stop operations while waiting for prices to subside.

This story in the Salisbury (MD) Daily Times says the Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel plant in Clayton, Delaware has had to quit producing biodiesel:

The Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel facility has the capacity to refine up to 6 million gallons of biodiesel fuel per year. The plant opened in September 2006, but the rising price of soybean oil forced the plant to halt production this spring .

Ross says soybean oil is currently priced too high to make biodiesel production profitable.

This news comes just about a month after an Evansville, Wisconsin biodiesel plant had to suspend operations because of high soybean prices (see my November 17th post “The Vicious Cycle of Irony”).

special secret surprise!!!
the baddest assest biodiesel “el camino” ever
with your own b100 biodiesel pump + station!!!

That’s how the ad for Daryl Hannah’s own El Camino (that she says she has driven everyday for the last four years) reads. The eco-friendly actress is selling her biodiesel-powered El Camino AND biodiesel pump and station with easy instructions on how to make biodiesel. You can see the car and an all-terrain, biodiesel vehicle called the “ranch bio-beast” at her web site dhlovelife.com (this is the products main page). Click on the fantasy play things icon (no, not THAT kind of fantasy).

Hannah promises more details on the El Camino, such as price, on December 20th… maybe a green stocking stuffer? I also need to give props to the web site ecorazzi for pointing me toward this story.

“The Future of Things” has a feature on a future bio-fueled sports car called CCXR.

The elite Swedish sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg has created a new bio-fuel powered sports car named CCXR. This Limited Edition CCXR is the first homologated car currently in production to reach over 1,000 Brake horsepower, and a top speed of over 400 km/h (250+ mph). In addition, the CCXR is environmentally friendly, as it runs on E85 (bio-fuel). Keonigsegg plans on displaying the new edition CCXR at the Geneva International Motor Show scheduled for March, 2008.

According to Keonigsegg, the CCXR’s performance is even better than that of the standard CCX thanks to the bio-fuel, “the ethanol in bio-fuel has the positive side effect of cooling the combustion chambers, as well as a higher octane value, well over 100 RON, which gives the high power.” The company explains that for this reason, the power reaches up to 1018 hp at 7200 rpm, and the torque can reach up to 1060 nm at 6100 rpm.

The price of corn has less to do with the price of food than many other factors, according to an extensive new study by Informa Economics based on 20 years of price data.

The Informa report identifies the so-called “marketing bill”—the portion of final food costs that excludes grains or other raw materials—as a key driver of the consumer price index (CPI) for food, largely due to rising energy and transportation costs. Another significant factor in consumers’ food bills is surging global demand for commodities.

“This analysis puts to bed the argument that a growing domestic ethanol industry is solely responsible for rising consumer food prices,” said Informa Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Scherr. “The statistical analysis plainly details that energy-intensive activities such as processing, packaging and transporting, as well as the cost of labor, have a far greater impact on consumer food bills than the price of grain. It may be politically convenient to blame ethanol for rising food prices but it doesn’t make it factually accurate. As far as Informa is concerned, this
debate is settled.”

The Informa study was funded by the Renewable Fuels Foundation and during a Monday morning press conference chairman Bill Lee commented that “our friends in the food, livestock and petroleum industries have been you could say “super sizing” the impact commodity prices have on food,” and he hopes this report will “be the end of the disingenuous comments from the food and livestock industries about the impact of corn prices and ethanol on food prices.”

Informa press release
Complete study
Reuters story

Silverado Green Fuel Inc. has contracted China business development experts to spearhead its “Silverado Asian Business Development Team”. Synergy Management Group Ltd. will serve as Silverado´s portal into North American-Chinese joint ventures.

Synergy represents an extensive network of key China-based contacts. The company’s North America-China, deal-making expertise has assisted a number of other North American companies in successfully accessing the China marketplace. Synergy also delivers ‘Think China’ government and business workshops, and provides corporate mentoring.

Silverado Green Fuel Inc., the world leader in low rank coal-to-liquid fuel technology, remains committed to America’s energy self-sufficiency, security and domestic energy supply. Silverado is a partner in an upcoming $26 million Demonstration Plant Joint Venture with the State of Mississippi. In the United States, low rank coal represents centuries of domestic energy resources, and is currently a highly under-utilized resource.

Sivlerado says its Green Fuel can be used to power oil-fired power plants directly, or be used as a feedstock for further processing to produce transportation fuels (jet, diesel, gasoline), key agricultural compounds (fertilizers, synthetic petrochemical feedstocks, urea), industrial products (oils, lubricants, synthetics) and even consumer products (plastics, packaging, etc.). The fuel can also be further processed to produce pure, clean hydrogen to power fuel cell automobiles and electric generation (power) plants.

Indiana utility regulators have given Duke Energy the go-ahead to construct a new clean coal power plant. The plant will be constructed in Edwardsport, IN.

If the project proceeds, it will be the first commercial-scale coal gasification power plant built in the United States in the last 10 years. The approximately 630-megawatt plant will use advanced integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology.

An air permit is still necessary from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. If that permit is approved, Duke Energy could begin construction early next year and start producing power from the site by early 2012.

Duke Energy says construction of the plant will cost approximately $2 billion. More than $460 million will come from local, state and federal tax incentives. Duke says the plant will provide an average electric rate increase of approximately 16 percent phased in from 2008 through 2012.

The Germany Energy Agency wants to promote energy efficiency around the world, so it´s sponoring an international competition for the Energy Efficiency Award 2008.

The award, in its second year, recognizes outstanding projects to increase energy efficiency in trade and industry. A total of 30,000 euros in prizes is available.

A prize of 15,000 euros will go to the first-place winner, 10,000 euros to the second-place winner and 5,000 euros to third place. The winners of the competition will be announced during the World Energy Dialogue at the Hannover Messe on April 22, 2008.

The trek from Fairbanks to Vancouver along the Alaska Highway is more than 2,300 miles long. Toyota says its Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle not only logged all those miles in seven days, but it averaged well-above 300 miles per tank.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A, Inc., revealed a significant achievement in its ongoing hydrogen-hybrid fuel cell development program at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show. A recent 2,300 mile trek in a Toyota Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle (FCHV) from Fairbanks, Alaska to Vancouver, British Columbia along the Alaska-Canadian (ALCAN) highway confirmed substantial progress in reliability and durability, cold-weather operation and extended range capability of Toyota’s hybrid fuel cell system.

To add a sense of risk and adventure, Toyota engineers planned to accomplish the feat with no practice runs and no pre-trip evaluations. Just get in the Highlander FCHV and drive. If they made it to Vancouver, great; if not, it would be chalked up to research and development.

Toyota adds that the company just began shipping the second-generation Highlander Hybrid mid-size SUV to dealerships, nationwide. The new Highlander Hybrid will the latest addition to Toyota´s hybrid line-up, which includes the Camry Hybrid and Prius Hybrid. Toyota says its hybrid products account for more than a quarter million hybrid sales for 2007 and more than 275,000 total hybrid sales for Calendar 2008.

Invenergy Wind LLC is looking ahead to 2009. The energy company plans to secure 800 MW of wind turbines for 2009 projects in both North America and Europe.

Invenergy Wind LLC announced that it has contracted with General Electric Company to purchase an additional 800 MW of wind turbines for use in projects slated for construction in 2009 in North America and Europe. Along with Invenergy’s previous purchases of 600 MW for 2007 and 700 MW for 2008 from GE, this provides 2,100 MW of wind turbines for Invenergy’s 2007, 2008 and 2009 build programs. These turbines are slated for Invenergy’s projects in the US, Canada and Europe.

Currently, Invenergy projects include more than 1,200 megawatts of wind energy either in operation or under construction at 13 different facilities. Invenergy estimates that these projects will generate more than 3.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricty each year. The company says that´s enough “clean and renewable” energy to power nearly 400,000 homes.

Allstate Insurance Company is making a “green” donation to 2,000 Texans. The insurere is wiring selected homes into the wind grid in an effort to provide clean, renewable, wind energy for one year. Allstate purchased 24.5 million kilowats of wind energy from the Horse Hollow II wind energy farm in West Texas for its 2,000-home donation.

Allstate has made a significant financial contribution to eco-energy organization Carbonfund.org for the purchase of clean energy credits. These credits are being used to fund wind energy for Texans and reforestation projects in Kansas and Louisiana.

The purchase of clean energy credits helps offset the company’s current greenhouse gas emissions, but Allstate says this is part of a growing, balanced approach to going green that includes real reductions.

Investments in bioenergy are smart investments for Allegro Biodiesel. Allegro is moving to diversify the bio-energy sector and acquire a biomass energy company in Colorado.

Allegro Biodiesel Corporation has announced that it has extended a $500,000 bridge loan to Littleton, Colorado-based Community Power Corporation as a first step in potentially acquiring the company.

CPC develops automated, modular energy systems under the BioMax(R) trade name. These systems are designed for on-site conversion of biomass residues to clean energy for farms, schools, small manufacturing enterprises, communities, military encampments and other on-grid and off-grid applications.

CPC says the potential market for its modular biopower systems is more than $3 billion per year. Comer says Allegro will aim to drive CPC technology to the next level of commercialzation.

The future of energy and fuel isn´t just in the hands of Congress. This spring, the 2008 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas will give today´s youth the chance to develop their own technologies for the transportation of tomorrow.

50 student teams from North and South America? Check. Young engineers bringing innovative thinking to the future of transportation? Check. Prototype vehicles that travel nearly two thousand miles per gallon as part of a global effort to change the way the world uses energy? Check, and check. The Shell Eco-marathon(TM) Americas may not be the fastest race you’ve ever seen, but it’s probably the most fuel-efficient. In 2008, the stakes are high as student teams prepare their eco-friendly vehicles to drive the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel and break the 1,902.7 miles per gallon record set by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2007.

“Shell is working aggressively to help meet the energy challenge head-on and long-term, and we understand the importance of encouraging technology and innovation in the minds of tomorrow’s leaders and engineers,” said David Sexton, President of Shell Oil Products U.S. “The Shell Eco-marathon promotes fuel efficiency, and we’re challenging students from North and South America to build environmentally friendly vehicles to inspire future transportation.”

Student teams will take up the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas challenge April 10-13 at the California Speedway in Fontanta, CA. The winning team will receive a grand prize of $10,000, which will be awarded to the team´s educational institution.

Biofuels is the biz to be in for Continental Energy Corporation. The energy company is expanding to incorporate biofuels in Delaware.

Continental Energy Corporation has announced that it has cofounded a new, partially-owned, special purpose, joint venture subsidiary incorporated in Delaware named Continental Biofuels Corporation. The Company subscribed and purchased 1,000 shares of the 2,500 issued and fully paid share capital of CBC representing a 40% stake, and largest single shareholding, in CBC. The remaining 60% stake in CBC is held by a cofounder group of five private investors led by Casimir Capital Group LLC of New York which includes two Directors of the Company, each of whom purchased a 10% stake.

The Company and its management have a long track record in oil and gas exploration in remote areas of Indonesia. This experience provides contacts, knowledge of local business practices, and long standing personal relationships with Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil plantation owners and local government plantation permit providers. As a result, the Company is in a unique position to act in the role of facilitator and strengthen CBC’s SE Asian operational capability and assist CBC to capitalize on palm oil plantation acquisition or development opportunities.

Continental Energy Corporation describes itself as an international oil and gas exploration company, focused on making major oil or gas discoveries in Indonesia.

New quality specifications for 6-20 percent blends of biodiesel have been unveiled by ASTM, the organization that standardizes specifications for products in the marketplace.

This press release from the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) says the standards came during ASTM meetings this week in Phoenix after six years of collaboration by industry representatives and will mean more automakers will approve B20 in their engines:

“This is a huge step forward for the biodiesel industry, as major engine companies and petroleum refiners joined the biodiesel industry in voting for passage of this ballot,” said Steve Howell, chairman of the ASTM Biodiesel Task Force. “We have known for years that B20 made with in-spec biodiesel is a good quality, reliable fuel, but OEMs, regulators and customers have demanded formal ASTM passage of a B20 blend spec in order to broaden their support for biodiesel blends. The biodiesel industry is delivering that.”

The majority of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) view the adoption of an ASTM blended fuel specification as a key component for full, universal acceptance of B20, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petrodiesel. Chrysler has previously announced the company plans to issue formal support for B20 once ASTM has formally approved B20 specifications.

The measure will still need approval by the ASTM’s Main Committee when it meets in June.