Domestic Fuel

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack would love to see the ethanol blend rate increased to 15 percent, but right now he would be happy with 12-13 percent.

“Our view is that we can get to 12 to 13 percent by just simply understanding that it’s significantly not much different than 10 percent, it’s an insignificant difference, and under the rules and regulations EPA could do that,” Vilsack said Monday. “If you get to 15 percent or higher, there may be more review required, and we appreciate that. But the help is needed now.”

Vilsack made his comments during a press conference Monday to introduce rural stimulus funding. Of the six questions he was asked by reporters, half of them pertained to increasing the allowable blend rate for ethanol in gasoline, and he repeated his emphasis on the 12-13 percent level three times.

“Right now my focus is on 12 to 13 percent because I think it’s doable more quickly, and it sends, I think, the right set of signals to the industry that we are with them,” the secretary said.

Vilsack also noted that USDA will continue to work with ethanol production facilities in financial difficulty to reconfigure their loans under a rural loan guarantee program. “That could be of some benefit, especially if the bankers are willing to work with us in restructuring the terms so that they are a bit more favorable either in interest rates or payments or principal,” said Vilsack. He stressed that the ethanol industry is still an “infant industry and so it’s going to have some growing pains. It’s going to have some ups and downs. And what we need to do is to provide some degree of stability.”

Listen to all of Vilsack’s ethanol related comments here: vilsack-ethanol.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.5MB)

You may not have heard about Phibro Ethanol Performance Group but what they offer is what they believe is the top performing antibiotic in the ethanol industry. According to Tom Slunecka, Phibro’s VP of Marketing, testing has shown that their base product, LACTROL, “outperforms all other products on the market.” Phibro Ethanol Performance Group is a subsidiary of PhibroChem, a third-generation family owned business that has specialized in animal health for more than 60 years and expanded into the ethanol industry a few years ago.

Antibiotics are an important element in the ethanol production process because during any type of  fermentation process an infection can incur. Infections thrive in environments of high moisture and temperatures and ethanol plants create an abundance of both. 

As margins continue to be tight in the ethanol industry, I asked Slunecka to give the industry some advice when it comes to choosing products and services for their plants. “Just like how consumers purchase automobiles, the time is right to be selective in the products they choose and the services they ask for,” answered Slunecka. “It’s vital that all inputs be maximized in order to generate the greatest return on investment.” 

According to Slunecka, you need to ask the question, “were the products chosen for their efficacy or overall performance package or were they chosen back in the boon days when these decisions didn’t hit the bottom line like they are now?” The reason is that the integrity of a company’s services and products is paramount.

Phibro Ethanol Performance Group is dedicated to the industry and is growing their team so that they can continue to provide a quality product and service package to an industry that they are confident will continue to grow. 

Listen to my full interview with Tom here: cc-09-joanna-slunecka.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.2MB)

While large-scale infrastructure projects grab the headlines, the recently passed gargantuan-sized $787 billion economic stimulus bill might end up helping a small, emerging, renewable energy business in the United States.

This story from CNN says the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009… with its 30 percent investment tax credit for those who buy wind turbines for homes or small businesses… could give a real kick to the small wind turbine industry:

Even amid a recession, this tax credit “is going to blow the top off the market,” said Ron Stimmel, a “small-wind” advocate with the American Wind Energy Association.

To conservation-minded home or business owners, the turbines are an investment in clean energy and one way to ease America’s dependence on foreign oil. In the right location, a 10-kilowatt turbine could supply the entire electricity needs of an average American household. The newly subsidized larger models can help power small businesses, farms and schools.

Of course, there are some limitations to where these wind turbines can go up. Most of them need to have at least an acre of open ground around them, without trees or buildings to dampen the wind. But new technologies are being developed to have more rooftop wind turbines with either corkscrew or paddle-wheel designs put up on buildings in some of those urban areas. The potential sure seems to be there.

Biodiesel is a great, clean-burning fuel for most of the country for most of the year, but there are some issues regarding gelling in extremely low temperatures. Just like petroleum diesel, biodiesel will gel when the temperatures drop. But a group from Indiana thinks it has the answer and is testing it in one of the harshest cold climates this time of year: the Arctic Circle.

This story from the Fairbanks (AK) News-Miner says the Indiana Soybean Alliance went north to Alaska to test a type of biodiesel that won’t gel… even in the extreme cold of the tundra:

What the Indiana Soybean Alliance is selling, starting next winter, they hope, is a refining process that alters the chemical composition of biodiesel to prevent it from gelling in temperatures down to 60 below…

On Saturday, the scientists drove to the Arctic Circle using Permaflo and ran a generator on the fuel.

And according to the alliance’s blog, the test was a success:

The wind has picked up quite a bit. The generator is still chugging along like it doesn’t care that it’s -23 degrees F. The Permaflo Biodiesel is 100 percent. Crystal free and flowing like a champ.

What these folks might have found is a way to make sure that 100 percent biodiesel can be used in any climate, and places such as Alaska can enjoy the benefits of biodiesel without some of the previous drawbacks.

The folks in Salem, Oregon are hoping to get some of federal money to build a new biofuels research and processing plant… the first of its kind in the state.

This story from the Salem Statesman Journal says a group of biofuel advocates, a local college and businessmen are hoping to get $10 million from Washington, DC to build the acility next to the state’s only commercial biodiesel production facility and biofuels analytical laboratory:

The project’s partners — Chemeketa Community College, Wildwood Inc. and Pacific Biodiesel Technologies Inc. — submitted the proposal to Oregon’s Congressional delegation, the first step in acquiring a federal “earmark” for 2010.

“What we do well and want to do more of is train workers for employable jobs with skills that employers in our district need,” said Greg Harris, Chemeketa’s public information officer. “Chemeketa is not a research institution … we are more about practical skills. I think we wouldn’t be training future scientists as much as we would be training future technicians.”

Once the college finished training the students, they would go to study at private industries in the area.

In remarks to farmers meeting in Arlington, Virginia on Monday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack endorsed a request to the Environmental Protection Agency for an increase in the ethanol blend rate up to 15 percent.

“We can move fairly quickly to move that rate up from 10 percent to maybe 12 or 13 percent in the interim and then take an even further jump to 15 percent or even 20 percent over the course of the next couple of years,” Vilsack said to the National Farmers Union (NFU) convention. The ethanol industry formally petitioned the EPA to increase the blend level to 15 percent on Friday. Growth Energy, one of the groups requesting the increase, recently hired NFU president Tom Buis as CEO, effective next week.

Meanwhile, the agriculture directors of 10 Midwestern states sent a letter to President Obama Monday also endorsing the acceptance of 15 or 20 percent ethanol blends.

The letter reads, in part, “American ethanol production has nearly reached 10 percent saturation. We must move to a base blend of 15 or 20 percent in 2009 in order to continue growing this vital industry. By working together to promote domestic production and improve market access, we can continue to deliver a clean, renewable fuel that has a positive impact on our domestic economy.”

Letter signers include the heads of state agriculture departments in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Montana and Ohio.

You wouldn’t think of the bright lights of the casinos of Atlantic City, New Jersey as the place for energy conservation, but the East Coast’s gambling center is the home of a pioneering solar energy project.

This story from CNN says government officials were on hand to show off solar panels on top of the city’s convention center, the largest single-roof solar-panel array in the U.S.:

The 13,321 photovoltaic panels will produce an average of 26 percent of the convention center’s energy, according to consultants. The panels cover most of the roof’s usable space, leaving room for walkways and other equipment.

In greener terms, authorities estimate the solar panels will avoid the release of 2,349 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — equivalent to removing 390 passenger vehicles from the road or reducing oil consumption by 4,956 barrels per year.

The solar panels are already paying off. Even in the short, darker days of January, they put out 15 percent of the convention center’s power.

Gotta give props right up front to the readers of Domestic Fuel who passed along this story to us. What was a big waste product for the biodiesel industry could soon be fueling turbines and industrial boilers and offsetting coal use at power plants.

They found this story in Biodiesel Magazine about how Virginia-based Xcelplus Global Holdings Inc. is beginning commercial production of two fuels made from glycerin: GlyClene, for standard turbine engines and industrial boilers… and GlyCoal, to replace coal at power plants. Both are liquid fuels:

Crude glycerin directly out of the biodiesel process is the primary component of both GlyClene and GlyCoal. “We take 100 percent waste glycerin from a biodiesel plant, and we crack it, so the components are really all glycerin,” said Bill Smith, Xcelplus Global Holding’s chairman. The glycerin is treated with a chemical and thermal heat process to create the fuels. The chemical facilitating compound accounts for less than one percent of the formula, Smith continued. Patents are pending on the proprietary technology.

Xcelplus Global Holdings recently tested GlyClene as a boiler fuel source in Sony International’s Dothan, Ala.-based plant, Smith said. That test showed the fuel produced 119,000 British thermal units per gallon. Additional testing is pending at a variety of other facilities, including a chicken plant, a carpet company and an asphalt company. In addition, GlyCoal was recently tested at an 80 megawatt power plant in West Virginia. The fuel was injected directly into the boiler system, said Smith, and resulted in a 10 percent offset of the plant’s coal consumption.

And this story from EnergyCurrent.com says there is definitely a market for the fuel. Construction contractor Oldcastle Materials has entered into a contract to buy Glycoal and GlyClene, while poultry giant Perdue Farms will be buying GlyClene.

The world faces some serious challenges… as pointed out in a Farm Foundation report released last December (see my post from December on AgWired.com). That report identifies six major areas of challenges with a role in agriculture’s ability to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world: global financial markets and recession; global food security; global energy security; climate change; competition for natural resources; and global economic development.

To help find solutions to these problems, Farm Foundation has announced a competition to award $20,000 in prizes for the most innovative and public policy options coming from the public:

“Agriculture globally faces the challenge of how to provide food to a world that is expected to have 9 billion people by 2040,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “This challenge exists at the same time that we are already seeing pressures on global resources, as well as increased demand for agriculture to provide not only food, but feed, fiber and fuel.

“It is not clear that today’s public policies-designed to deal with issues of the last century-provide appropriate tools and incentives to address the challenges of the next 30 years,” Conklin continues. “Farm Foundation is offering this competition as a catalyst for innovative ideas and approaches.”

If you have an idea, get it into the Farm Foundation through this Web site (more information is also available there) by June 1, 2009.

The project is directed and led by Farm Foundation with financial assistance from the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Pork Producers Council, and the United Egg Producers.

According to the Detroit News, California’s top air regulator said her state could agree to the nationwide carbon-emissions standards that the auto industry seeks. But the details of such a plan, which could supersede the attempt by California and 13 other states to impose their own rules, are likely to bring their own contentious debate, even as years of fighting over California’s rules begins to ebb.

“I think we may be very close to being on the same page,” said Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the powerful California Air Resources Board. She and dozens of industry experts, environmental activists and private citizens testified during an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on California’s request to set its own rules for tailpipe emissions.

The Bush administration denied the request a year ago, but within days of taking office, President Barack Obama ordered a review of that decision. The administration has sent strong signals in recent days that it plans to set nationwide greenhouse gas limits.

General Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, addressed the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series today in Washington, DC.

Clark talked about the ethanol industry’s petition to the Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline. “When you are talking about energy, you’re talking about the fundamentals of national security,” said the retired general and former presidential candidate.

“The EPA regulation (of 10 percent ethanol in gasoline) is a 30 year old regulation and frankly is just outdated,” Clark said. “The ethanol industry has essentially capped out, so this is a necessity for us to move forward.”

“We hope that we will be able to work with the USDA and EPA to get us at least to E12 or E13 for immediate relief, until the waiver can work it’s way through the administrative process,” Clark said.

He referenced a Growth Energy report out earlier this week that found increasing the blend rate to 15 percent would support 136,000 jobs.

Clark says they believe E15 is perfectly acceptable for all vehicles. “We want the EPA to approve up to E15, we’re not saying all gasoline has to be E15,” he said.

Listen to Clark press conference here: growth-energy-pressclub.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (13.5MB)

A broad alliance of ethanol industry groups have joined together to formally petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline for motor vehicles, according to the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE).

In addition to ACE, the alliance includes Growth Energy, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), and the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC), as well as several major ethanol companies.

“The American Coalition for Ethanol is pleased to be part of this unified effort to submit scientific data to EPA so they may approve the use of mid-level blends of ethanol, such as E15, in motor vehicles nationwide,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE. To encourage greater support in Congress for the mid-level blend waiver, ACE and 30 of its grassroots members traveled to Capitol Hill on March 2-3 as part of its “Biofuels Beltway March.” A varied group of ethanol advocates – including ethanol producers, farmers, investors, lenders, engineering and technology firms, agriculture groups, and rural electric cooperatives – met with more than 70 Members of Congress and with Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, to discuss E15 and other issues.

Meanwhile, Growth Energy co-chairman General Wesley Clark will be delivering a speech about higher blends and the future of the ethanol industry as part of the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series today at noon eastern time. They will also be holding a technical briefing after the press conference at 1:30 eastern.

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) attended the 2009 Commodity Classic last week in Grapevine, Texas. The group has attended the event for more than ten years promoting E85 and flexible fuel vehicles. This was my tenth Commodity Classic attendance on behalf of the NEVC.

Phil Lampert, my Executive Director, NEVC Membership Director Haley Wansing and I met with many of the state corn grower groups to inform them of our successes and what our outlined plans are for the future. NEVC Vice-Chairman and Ohio Corn Growers Executive Director Dwayne Siekman said, “The Commodity Classic is an important time for policy development for the Ohio Corn Growers Association and we often confer with partnering organizations for background information. Without groups like the NEVC and their knowledge on higher ethanol blends and updates on certification of dispensing equipment, the policy development process may not be complete.”

As part of the NEVC staff, I was pleased to see such an intense interest from every state on ethanol policy. Our group appreciates the support of the National Corn Growers Association and each of our fourteen corn grower state organizations.

The NEVC also sponsored a booth in the Commodity Classic’s exhibition hall. Displayed were two flexible fuel vehicles: a 2009 FFV King Ranch F-150 and a 2008 FFV GM Silverado (provided by CleanFUEL USA). I believe the attendees enjoyed seeing the FFV options that Ford and GM have available for use on their farms.

According to Reuters, members of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition said they want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue a waiver to allow the sale of 13 percent ethanol blends. U.S. governors who want to see more ethanol production said they are optimistic regulators will soon boost the allowed blend rate for ethanol in gasoline to 13 percent from 10 percent.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, vice chair of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition said, “The EPA is going to take a very serious look at that 10 percent waiver, and we’re encouraged. We’re optimistic, and we think we have people in place, like (Agriculture Secretary Tom) Vilsack in particular, that can help us make the case on a daily basis out here.”

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, the coalition’s chair, told Reuters he hoped the EPA would act on the waiver request “within weeks or months.” He said the increase to 13 percent was just the first step. “We want to continue that effort to increase the percentage blend into fuels into the fuel supply,” Hoeven said.

Ethanol makers have been pushing to boost the blend rate as high as 20 percent to encourage the development of the industry. Any increases to ethanol blend rates would also need the support of the auto industry, which is concerned about the effects of higher blends on fuel lines and catalytic converters, Hoeven said.

Alternative fuels, such as biodiesel and natural gas, and hybrid electric vehicles could be the keys to cleaning up the world’s ports, polluted by the running of petroleum diesel enginesto onload and offload the goods coming and going through these points of commerce.

This story from NGVGlobal.com quotes a study, “Container Ports and Air Pollution,” published by Energy Futures, Inc.:

Reliance on diesel fuel for goods movement has contributed to a reputation for container ports being among the world’s biggest sources of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Now, progress is being made toward reducing harmful emissions. The study found that natural gas is currently the leading alternative fuel for goods movement at U.S. container ports, while hybrid electric vehicles are gaining popularity in Asia.

The new Energy Futures study updates and expands on a report titled “U.S. Container Ports and Air Pollution: A Perfect Storm,” which was published in February, 2008. That study identified environmental protection alternative fuel programs at each of the Top 10 U.S. container ports, including their use of natural gas, biodiesel or hybrid electric vehicles.

The 77-page report is a call for leaders to push for more alternative fuel use to help, not only those port communities, but the world community as a whole.