Domestic Fuel

Increasing the approved level for ethanol that can be blended into gasoline is the number one priority for the ethanol industry this year, and recently support for that goal has been indicated by two major players in Congress and the administration.

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a recent New York Times interview that he thought government regulations that limit ethanol content to 10 percent should be reconsidered.

“I believe we could go to E-12, or E-14 or E-16 without causing any great problems with vehicle operation,” he said.

Bingaman said the EPA and the Energy Department are currently conducting tests on higher blends and results could be available within a year or so.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently said in an interview with Bloomberg that USDA and EPA are in discussions about raising the ethanol blend level, but they have no specific numbers yet. “I do think it’s important for us to look for strategies to make sure the infrastructure of the ethanol industry is preserved, because it is a key component to this new energy future the president’s laid out,” said Vilsack.

Increasing the blend level is seen as the only way to reach the Renewable Fuels Standard, which requires 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels, including ethanol, to be used this year. Vilsack says they should not have to change the RFS. “We’ve laid the markers down there and I think we have to work hard to meet it,” he said.

Galva Holstein Ag, LLC has opened their third E85 fueling location in Iowa. The site is located at 211 North Main Street (Highway 59) in Holstein. Other fuels offered include E10, E30 biodiesel and regular unleaded gasoline.

“Honestly, it took us a little longer than we had hoped to get this station up and running this winter,” commented Gary Brosamle, Energy Department Manager at Galva Holstein Ag, LLC. “But we are delighted that the site is now operational and excited to offer E85, E30 and higher biodiesel blends to our customers. The Renewable Energy Center is open 24 hours a day and accepts most credit cards including Galva Holstein Ag’s local card and CENEX credit cards.”

A grand opening is scheduled for May 5 and the date is symbolic. Galva Holstein opened their very first E85 station on May 5, 2005 at 1583 Market Ave. in Galva.

“Three stations in four years is something we are very proud of,” noted Anne Johnson of Galva Holstein.

The other week I was meeting with Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of the Shelton Group (you should check out their Energy Pulse research) and we were ruminating over how difficult it is to get through a Thomas Friedman book. I’ve been trying to finish Hot, Flat, and Crowded for several months and I’m proud to say, I’m finished! The effort was well worth it because Friedman has some great stuff in the book.

There is too much good info so I’m going to pick a few things that I think are insightful…for starters, “The Laws of Petropolitics.” The first law, “as the price of oil goes up, the pace of freedom goes down; and as the price of oil goes down, the pace of freedom goes up.”  The second law, “Today, you cannot be either an effective foreign policy realist or an effective democracy-promoting idealist without also being an effective energy saving environmentalist. 

In essence, we need to address our energy policy in conjunction with our environmental policy. The first step is to reduce our fossil fuel use – the greatest contributor to global climate change. Sorry, people, it looks like we’re ALL going green.
Read the rest of this post…

Renewable Energy Group, the leading biodiesel producer and marketer in the country, is helping miners learn how to use biodiesel in their underground operations.

REG will hold a webinar titled, “Biodiesel Utilization in Underground Mines: Successfully Meeting MSHA DPM Requirements” March 5, 2009 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. CST.

REG has been successfully supplying biodiesel to the underground mining industry since 2005. Many REG mining customers made the switch from #2ULSD to 100 percent biodiesel in all of their underground equipment in part because biodiesel creates less diesel particulate matter than conventional diesel.

Jon Scharingson, director of marketing at REG will be hosting the educational forum. In the Webinar, Scharingson will focus on how underground mining operations can significantly reduce DPM emissions and integrate B100 into existing infrastructure/engines. Those in the underground mining industry interested in taking advantage of the benefits biodiesel has to provide can also learn how to partner with the biodiesel experts at REG.

There’s no cost for the event, but they do ask you register ahead of time. Here’s the Webinar mining link. Or, you can call Alicia Clancy at 515-239-8118 to sign up.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reportedly developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into biofuel.

The process, published in a recent Journal of the American Chemical Society issue, uses untreated, inedible biomass as the starting material.

According to a story from the University of Wisconsin, the first step in the process is the conversion of cellulose into the “platform” chemical 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), from which a variety of valuable commodity chemicals can be made. “Other groups have demonstrated some of the individual steps involved in converting biomass to HMF, starting with glucose or fructose,” says Ronald Raines, a professor with appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and the Department of Chemistry. “What we did was show how to do the whole process in one step, starting with biomass itself.”

In the second step, Raines says they converted HMF into the promising biofuel 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF). Taken together, the overall yield for this two-step biomass-to-biofuel process was 9 percent, meaning that 9 percent of the cellulose in their corn stover samples was ultimately converted into biofuel. Raines says DMF has the same energy content as gasoline, doesn’t mix with water and is compatible with the existing liquid transportation fuel infrastructure, having already been used as a gasoline additive.

The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a webinar next week on a new system for controlling renewable fuel credits known as RINs (renewable identification numbers).

The webinar will lay out EPA concepts for the new RIN Moderated Transaction System (MTS) and solicit feedback from regulated industry. According to an EPA announcement, webinar participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, and discuss EPA’s MTS concepts via e-mail after the webinar. The webinar will not address general RFS2 questions other than those specifically related to the MTS.

The webinar is scheduled for February 25 from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. EST and registration is limited to 200 participants. However, the presentation, including audio, will be posted on EPA’s website within a few days after the webinar has taken place. Registration is available by sending an e-mail with the subject line “EPA MTS Webinar Registration” to FuelsProgramsReporting@epa.gov.

The Clean Fuels Clearinghouse applauded EPA’s announcement of plans for the new Modulated Transaction System.

The company, which developed the RINSTAR renewable fuel registry, has been working in collaboration with EPA since December to serve the market need for valid clean fuel credits.

RINSTAR is currently the nation’s only renewable fuel registry, which has been operational since September 1, 2007, the first day the Renewable Fuels Standard was implemented.

Despite bankruptcies and attacks by environmentalists, the outlook for ethanol is improving, according to the chairman of USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board.

USDA’s February corn outlook says ethanol blender and producer margins have recently improved and weekly production of gasoline blends with ethanol is on the rise.

“We’ve seen relatively lower corn prices as of late and even producers now are going to go back in the black as opposed to being in the red before,” Outlook Board Chairman Gerald Bange said. “Whereas just a few weeks ago there was no real incentive to produce ethanol using either corn or sorghum, what we’re seeing now is somewhat positive returns for the production of ethanol. So things are looking a little bit better in the ethanol industry.”

Bange says the current blending credit is sufficient to provide a positive margin for blending as well.

USDA’s Economic Research Service last week released its latest long term forecasts for the food and agricultural sector.

For ethanol, USDA projects increases in corn-based ethanol production to slow over the next few years, but ethanol demand is expected to remain high and affect the production, use, and prices of farm commodities throughout the sector.

According to the report, “continued increases are projected for corn used to produce ethanol over the next 10 years, although the pace slows from the rapid gains of the past several years. Projected gains after 2009/10 are largely in line with moderate expected increases in overall gasoline usage in the United States.”

The projections assume the tax credit available to blenders of ethanol and the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported fuel ethanol remain in effect. By 2018, USDA predicts that ethanol production will account for about 35 percent of corn use and corn-based ethanol production will exceed 9 percent of annual gasoline consumption.

Solar panels are getting smaller and smaller… so small that one day they could be woven into your clothing!

Researchers at two major colleges in Illinois… Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign… are working together to come up with a thin, flexible silicon solar panel. Northwestern’s journalism school’s paper, Medill Reports, says the new panels will be able to go just about anywhere:

“Our silicon panel is so transparent that you can put it on your window,” said Yonggang Huang, an engineering professor at Northwestern.

The technology was announced last October and is now being refined. Researchers plan to submit their findings for peer review in the next few months, according to John Rogers, a University of Illinois engineering professor working with Huang.

Not to be left out, researchers at the University of Chicago are working on making solar panels out of a new polymer… not as efficient and long-lasting as the silicon but much more affordable to produce. The article says Solarmer Energy Inc., of El Monte, Calif., is using the new polymer in a solar cell it is developing.

Either way, it’s pretty exciting news!

Congress has passed the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package, and alternative fuels and energy saving measures will get nearly $62 billion in spending and another $20 billion in tax credits and bond provisions from the measure that Pres. Obama has promised to sign on Monday.

This article from ItsGettingHotinHere.org details how some of the money will be spent:

Research, Development and Demonstration – Subtotal: $8.2 billion

* $6 billion in loan guarantees for the Innovation Technology Loan Guarantee Program established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These loan guarantees are expected to support more than $60 billion in loans for renewable energy technologies and modern transmission technologies.

Other highlights from the bill include $3 billion for electrifying transportation, alternative fuels and efficient vehicles; $600 million to help develop the workforce for the new energy economy; and more than $13 billion in a three-year extension of the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (through the end of 2012)… just to name a few.

Missouri’s State Senate has moved forward on a measure to require a 5 percent biodiesel mix in every gallon of diesel sold in the state… again.

Sen. Bill Stouffer (R-Napton) has once again introduced the measure… and once again, it has passed the Senate Ag Committee. Stouffer has sponsored similar measures in the past but has been unable to get final passage:

“We have had the research on this for a few years. Missouri is already leading the nation with a standard for ethanol.” Sen. Stouffer said. “This bio-diesel standard is a win-win-win. It is a win for consumers, the environment and the rural economy.”

“Fortunately, gas and diesel prices are down,” Sen. Stouffer said. “But who’s to say we couldn’t see another upturn in prices like we saw last year? This would keep higher prices from hurting truckers and ultimately keep prices lower on the goods we buy that are carried by big rigs.”

Stouffer’s measure comes on the heels of the Virginia Legislature moving forward on a 2 percent mandate earlier this week. You can read the entire contents and follow the progress of Stouffer’s bill here.

Every day we hear the doom and gloom of another company announcing layoffs. Well, it’s time for a little good news.

Wind turbine maker Vesta Wind Systems has announced it will hire nearly 3,000 more people in the U.S.

This story from Marketwatch.com says the Denmark-based company believes it will be able to cash in on Pres. Obama’s push for alternative energy:

While other major corporations lay people off to preserve their shrinking bottom lines, Vestas’ fortunes have grown as the world attempts to wean itself off fossil fuels and promote sources of power that don’t contribute to global warming.

For Engel, the U.S. offers some of the best wind resources in the world, and he’s gearing up to put 4,000 employees on the Vestas payroll here, up from about 1,200 now, during the worst economic downturn in a generation.

Engel goes on to say that the U.S. has the best wind resources in the world. He likens not harvetsing wind in America to not drilling for oil in Saudi Arabia.

He and other wind companies will be closely watching Friday’s vote on the economic stimulus package.

Renewable energy could get a share of the nearly $800 billion in the compromise version of the U.S. House and Senate’s economic stimulus bills.

This story from CNNMoney has details:

The provisions in the bill – a deal hammered out between House and Senate negotiators late Wednesday that still needs to be passed by both chambers – will primarily give a major boost to renewable energy, electricity transmission and energy efficiency sectors…

With record growth to around 25 gigawatts of total wind capacity last year, the U.S. is now one of the world’s biggest producers of renewable energy. But between 200 gigawatts to 300 gigawatts of drafted wind projects remain stranded on paper because there isn’t the transmission capacity to link them to demand.

The story goes on to say that lawmakers have also put $6 billion in loan guarantees and $2.5 billion in research grants for renewable energy into the bill. The U.S. Senate will take up the measure late Friday (Feb. 13th).

Recognizing the power of social marketing Web sites, the National Biodiesel Board has launched a channel on what’s been called the MTV of this generation: YouTube.

The new National Board YouTube Channel, available to the 70 million YouTube viewers each month, will give the public credible, helpful and entertaining videos on biodiesel:

“Sites like YouTube and Facebook are more than just fun and games today,” said NBB Director of Communications Jenna Higgins. “They drive public awareness, public opinion and mainstream media coverage. We want to have a voice in this forum and ensure that an opportunity to learn about the benefits of biodiesel is reaching the people who seek it.”

The NBB first unveiled the channel at last week’s National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in San Francisco. Videos from the conference that have been posted include a San Francisco Road Trip, highlighting the many biodiesel users in the host city, and videos featuring industry leaders talking about sustainability and other key issues. Singer Melissa Etheridge addressed the conference attendees, and her inspirational remarks are also available. Additional conference videos will be posted in coming days.

You can subscribe to the new channel and get updates when new videos are posted… just go to www.youtube.com/NationalBiodiesel.

This week at the Chicago Auto Show, a wide array of vehicles are being displayed; many of which are alternative fuel vehicles. Even though the price of gasoline is much lower than in past months, the CAFE rule that mandates auto manufactures average 35 mpg for their fleet of vehicles still applies, meaning more vehicles are being offered with an alternative fuel-capable engine.

General Motors is displaying 15 of its 20 vehicles available with a flexible fuel engine. Both Chrysler and Ford have also displayed many of their E85 compatible vehicles. All three automobile manufacturers have promised to produce more and more vehicles with this E85 capable engine in years to come.

A complete listing of E85 vehicles, including those models in 2009, can be found at www.E85Fuel.com.