Domestic Fuel

Ground’s been broken on a new biodiesel plant in the Northern Missouri town of Moberly.

This story in the Moberly (MO) Monitor says the $16.5 million Producer’s Choice Soy Energy plant and soybean crushing facility could be in operation by the beginning of March 2009:

The almost 14-acre tract is filled with corn stubble today. But construction, to be done by Process Concepts of Pevely, MO, will begin soon. PCSE qualified for the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Producer Incentive program last October. Under those guidelines, the state will pay PCSE 30-cents per gallon on the first 15 mgy of biodiesel created during the first five years of operation. One of the conditions of the incentive, however, is that the plant must be producing biodiesel by March 1, 2009. It is estimated the plant could be completed in 10 months.

Mark Johnston, the general contractor, told the gathering Friday that Process Concepts had built four such plants in Missouri. He said the Moberly facility had a better chance of success than some others he was acquainted with since the plant here would be diversified by having the crushing plant in addition to the biodiesel. The plant is estimated to produce 5 million gallons of biodiesel annually with expectations to increase that to 30 million gallons in the future. In addition, the plant will have a capacity to mechanically crush up to 250 tons of soybeans daily. The soybean crush will provide feedstock for the biodiesel conversion as well as 65,000 tons of extruded soybean meal each year.

City officials say they will provide the infrastructure and tax abatements to ensure the success of the plant.

The first USDA forecast of corn acreage to be planted this year may be eight percent less than last year, but its still the second-highest acreage intention since 1949, according to the National Corn Growers Association.

NCGA officials also point out that the anticipated 86 million acres of corn is still only an educated guess at this point, since almost no corn has yet been planted.

“We’re always cautious when we review the March projections, because they are made before any seeds really enter the ground,” said Ron Litterer, NCGA president. “The corn acreage projections also have a tendency to go up. Last year, for example, there was a difference of more than 3 million acres between the March estimate and the final number.” Litterer pointed out USDA’s March report has underestimated actual corn acres in the each of the last four years.

If farmers actually did plant according to the forecast, they could expect to harvest about 79 million acres. If the average trend yield of 155.5 bushels per acre is realized, corn producers would be on track to produce approximately 12.3 billion bushels in 2008 – the second-highest production ever.

“Based on what we’ve heard from our growers, and if the weather goes our way, we’re confident we will produce another good crop,” Litterer said. “We’re committed to meeting all needs – food, fuel, feed and fiber, and we are heartened by the trend toward higher yields that maximizes how much corn is produced per acre.”

A more accurate estimate of planted acreage can be expected from USDA at the end of June.

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has responded to last week’s Time Magazine cover story “The Clean Energy Scam.” Executive director Toni Nuernberg sent the following letter to the editor of Time in response to the article:

In Michael Grunwald’s March 27 article “The Clean Energy Scam,” corn-based ethanol is the scapegoat of the week. Though Grunwald draws attention to the vitally important need for evaluation of global land-use changes, the environmental finger pointing at corn-based ethanol by his sources has come to the point of ridiculous.

The fuel behind this latest fiery round of environmental blame game is two studies posted mid-February in Science Express. The papers, authored by Timothy Searchinger and Joseph Fargione, reach conclusions regarding the greenhouse gas emissions associated with potential global land-use changes caused by increasing biofuels demand — specifically for corn-based ethanol. Their conclusions are considered debatable by others in the scientific community.
Read the rest of this post…

The nuptials of VeraSun Energy and US BioEnergy are now complete, following the blessing of all the family members.

VeraSun announced that the merger with US BioEnergy was approved by a majority vote of shareholders of both companies and is effective April 1, 2008.

At the same time, VeraSun announced the startup of its 110 million gallon per year production facility located near Bloomingburg, Ohio. The Bloomingburg biorefinery represents the 11th VeraSun facility in operation, pushing the company’s annual operating capacity to more than one billion gallons.

Seven other facilities are currently under construction or development. By the end of 2008, the company expects to have 16 production facilities in operation with a capacity of approximately 1.64 billion gallons, making VeraSun the largest ethanol producer in the United States.

Because we do lots of interviews and generate quite a bit of audio here at Domestic Fuel and because we are broadcasters by training, we thought it was about time we started our own podcast.

The Domestic Fuel Cast will feature people and news of interest in the alternative fuels industry. Expect it to run about 5-10 minutes in length and be produced every two weeks, starting now. You can subscribe to the podcast using the following url/feed link: http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/domestic-fuel-cast.xml. You can use your browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.) to subscribe or if you’d like to get it into your iPod or Zune then we recommend using iTunes or the Zune software. Of course we’ll always post a link like the following one that will let you listen immediately here. We’re also archiving the programs.

Our first podcast features aerospace engineer and author Robert Zubrin, who has been getting some media attention lately for his book, “Energy Victory,” in which he outlines a simple plan for “winning the war on terror by breaking free of oil.”

Here is the Domestic Fuel Cast #1:
df-podcast-1.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.2MB)

USDA’s highly anticipated prospective plantings report is predicting that farmers will plant eight percent less corn and 18 percent more soybeans. Growers intend to plant 86.0 million acres of corn and 74.8 million acres of soybeans in 2008.

Expected acreage is down from last year in most states as favorable prices for other crops, high input costs for corn, and crop rotation considerations are motivating some farmers to plant fewer acres to corn.

Despite the decrease, the report says, “corn acreage is expected to remain at historically high levels as the corn price outlook remains strong due in part to the continued expansion in ethanol production.”

Algae is already being used to make biodiesel by companies like Solazyme of California. Now researchers are looking into using algae to make ethanol.

According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, a group of Western Michigan University researchers gave U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) a presentation of their ideas last week.

Chemistry professor Steven Bertman said, “The unifying theme is recovery of energy from waste.”

Bertman, along with Sarah Hill, assistant professor of anthropology, and John Miller, associate professor of chemistry, are awaiting a $984,000 U.S. Department of Energy grant to support the research.

They expect to project to take two years.

Team Ethanol is off to its best start of the Indy Car Series yet, finishing 7th in Saturday’s opening race in Homestead.

Driver Ryan Hunter-Reay ran a great race and stayed in the top ten with all the big name drivers for the majority of the race. The 2007 Rookie of the Year was hoping for a better finish for the start of his first full season with the Indy Car Series, but he got passed up by two drivers in the final restart of the race after Tony Kanaan got knocked out of first place. Before the restart, the #17 Ethanol car was holding on to fifth place. The Homestead 300 trophy ultimately went to Scott Dixon.

This is the second year the Indy Car Series is running on 100 percent fuel grade ethanol and Hunter-Reay is a big believer in the alternative fuel. “Basically, it’s an American product that’s creating American jobs,” he says. “Every drop of ethanol you put in your car is one less oil tanker out there.”

Check out this post from The Fueling Station on Saturday’s race.

Officials with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute say biofuels will drive agriculture for at least the next 10 years.

This story from Southeast Farm Press quotes FAPRI livestock analyst as saying “It’s hard to talk about a baseline without saying something about biofuels.”

“We’re expecting in 2008 that ethanol production from corn to be nearly 11 billion gallons and continuing to grow to 15 billion gallons. The recently passed legislation (by Congress mandating biofuel usage) certainly has an effect on ethanol production long-term.”

For soybeans, FAPRI sees “nearly 70 million acres being planted. We continue to watch this closely. These numbers were done back in January and market prices have changed and the acreage mix will continue to make adjustments. Until we get to spring planting, these numbers could move substantially given the types of price changes occurring.”

Brown says the combination of high feed prices along with increased fuel prices will make it pretty tough on livestock producers’ bottom lines for the next several years.

Legendary oil investor T. Boone Pickens wants the U.S. to get off its addiction to foreign oil and fossil fuels.

The 79-year-old multi-billionaire was on CNBC earlier this week talking about energy, oil prices and ethanol. According to Delta Farm Press, Pickens has changed his mind about ethanol.

Pickens, who admitted he once opposed ethanol, said on CNBC’s daily “Squawk Box” program that America’s purchases of foreign oil are costing the country a half a trillion dollars every year.

Acknowledging he didn’t think much of ethanol’s claims in the early years, he said he now supports increased production. “I’d rather have ethanol and recirculate the money in the country, than to have it go out the back door on us.”

Pickens has a company called Clean Energy Corporation that provides natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicle fleets via fuel stations and last year he announced that he intends to build the world’s largest wind farm by installing large wind turbines in parts of four Panhandle counties.

CleanFUEL Distribution and General Motors held a grand opening event for a new E85 fueling station in Grapevine, Texas owned by Classic Chevy/Hummer. Over 3,200 gallons of E85 sold for 85 cents per gallon this morning to celebrate the opening.

Classic Chevrolet/HUMMER spent more than $500,000 to install nine pumps dedicated to E85, E10 and biodiesel at its new Classic Clean Fuels station.

In 2007, the Hummer dealership sold more Chevrolet trucks than any dealership within the United States. Charles Martin, general manager of Classic Chevrolet/Hummer said, “We sell a lot of trucks capable of running on alternative fuels like E85 and, even though there has been some increased availability, we saw a need for more E85 pumps where drivers could fill up. This was the right thing for us to do for our customers and it’s good for the Metroplex.”

CleanFUEL Distribution provided Classic Chevrolet/Hummer with a turnkey biofuels station handling everything from equipment to fuel supply.

“Classic Chevy has taken a true leadership role by making E85 and other biofuels available to the citizens of Grapevine and allowing all customers who purchase a flex fuel vehicle to drive off with a full tank of E85,” said Karl Doenges, president of CleanFUEL Distribution. “Classic Chevy has gone a step further and configured their station so all municipal, county, state and federal fleets around the Grapevine-DFW Airport area can seamlessly use this site with their existing fleet management program. Everyone can now do their part for energy independence, the environment and growing our economy.”

Shipping giant UPS, affectionately known as Brown, is doing its best to be known for its GREEN practices.

The company has announced it is adding 167 compressed natural gas (CNG) powered delivery trucks to the roads in Texas, Georgia and California as part of its global alternative fuel fleet, designed to cut down on the company’s carbon footprint and its reliance on dependence on fossil fuels:

Of the 167 new CNG trucks, 25 have been deployed in Dallas; 42 in Atlanta, and the remaining 100 in five California cities: 30 to Sacramento, 14 to Los Angeles, five to Ontario, 10 to San Ramon and 41 to Fresno. They join more than 800 CNG vehicles already in use by UPS in the United States. Previous CNG vehicles in UPS’s fleet were converted from gasoline and diesel vehicles in the 1980s to run on alternative fuels. The new vehicles are originally manufactured for alternative fuel use.

The CNG truck bodies are identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that now comprise the UPS fleet although they will be marked as CNG vehicles. The trucks are expected to reduce emissions by 20 percent and improve fuel economy by 10 percent compared to the cleanest diesel engines available today.

The press release goes on to say that this brings the UPS “green fleet” up to 1,629 trucks, using CNG, LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), propane, electric and hybrid electric vehicles worldwide… the largest alternatively-fueled private fleet in the transportation industry.

A requirement that all diesel sold in Missouri contain at least 5 percent biodiesel has passed the State Senate.

Radio station KWMU (St. Louis) reports the measure, set to go into effect in 2010 if it becomes law, passed by a wide 20-11 margin:

The bill’s sponsor, State Senator Bill Stouffer (R, Napton), says B-5 will cause less pollution and reduce wear and tear on commercial trucks.

“It gives us an opportunity to raise fuel in Missouri and keep those dollars inside the state, instead of going to Texas, or the Mid-East or Venezuela,” Stouffer said.

The measure now goes on to the Missouri House. If it passes there, Governor Matt Blunt has indicated he will sign the bill. Blunt called for the mandate in his State of the State address in January.

Shell and Virent Energy Systems of Wisconsin have announced a joint research and development effort to convert plant sugars directly into gasoline and gasoline blend components instead of ethanol.

According to the companies, “the sugars can be sourced from non-food sources like corn stover, switch grass, wheat straw and sugarcane pulp, in addition to conventional biofuel feedstock like wheat, corn and sugarcane.”

Virent’s BioForming(TM) platform technology uses catalysts to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at a petroleum refinery. Traditionally, sugars have been fermented into ethanol and distilled. These new ‘biogasoline’ molecules have higher energy content than ethanol (or butanol) and deliver better fuel efficiency. They can be blended seamlessly to make conventional gasoline or combined with gasoline containing ethanol.

The companies have so far collaborated for one year on the research.

The Corvette Racing team will make its debut race on cellulosic E85 in the upcoming American LeMans Series Acura Sports Car Challenge in St. Petersburg, Florida April 4-5. GM Racing program manager Doug Fehan says they are very excited about it.

“GM is the leader in the production of flex fuel vehicles, we produce over 2.5 million and we are the largest producer in the world,” Fehan said during a teleconference on Wednesday. “Corvette has always tried to position itself as a leader in GM and within the racing community and this was a chance for Corvette again to demonstrate that leadership.”

Fehan says they had some challenges perfecting the fuel cell for using E85 in the race car, which kept them from using the fuel in the ALMS Twelve Hours of Sebring but they have resolved that issue. Comparing E85 to gasoline, Fehan says there is a difference in fuel mileage “but from a power and performance standpoint, it’s virtually the same.”

The Corvette Racing C6.R driven by Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows captured ninth overall and first in the 12 hours of Sebring in Florida, the season opener for the American Le Mans Series.

O’Connell agrees that performance with the cellulosic E85 is identical. “There has been absolutely no loss in performance at all (running the E85 in the Corvette) it’s as amazing as it’s always been,” he says. Because of the lower fuel mileage he says they do have to carry a little more fuel which makes the car a little heavier at the start, but “we’ll make that up on the other side” when the car is lighter.

O’Connell is especially pleased with the environmental benefits of running E85. “We all want to be as green as we possibly can and recognize that we do need to change things to keep racing in our culture as we go forward,” said O’Connell.

Corvette Racing has a technical partnership with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council to spotlight E85 in the ALMS, and the cellulosic E85 for the race is being provided by KL Process Design Group of South Dakota. Two other teams – the Intersport Racing Lola and the Drayson-Barwell Racing Aston Martin – are also running on E85 in the ALMS series.

Listen to part of the press conference here: corvette-conference-edit.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.7MB)