Domestic Fuel

Ethanol seems to have hit a bit of wall. While it has been great for mixing with regular unleaded gasoline at a 10 percent blend, the industry wants to up that amount to 15 percent, overcoming what is being called a “blending wall” that is keeping the green fuel from growing beyond its current levels.

While some might worry what 15 percent ethanol would do to their engines, ethanol advocates, such as Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy… an advocacy group for ethanol… says America’s drivers can rely on higher blends of ethanol even in non-flex fuel vehicles without worrying about damage to engines and pipes.

The federal government is considering changing the rules to allow the higher blend. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed raising the amount to 15 percent and is looking for comments about that idea. The comment period is currently until May 21st, but several ethanol groups are asking to extend that for 60 days. The American Coalition for Ethanol has a petition here that you can sign to encourage the upping of the ethanol blend.

In this edition of the Domestic Fuel podcast, you’ll hear from several of these groups pushing for the change, including Bob Dinneen, President of the Renewable Fuels Association, National Corn Growers Association first vice president Darrin Ihnen and Jessica Bennett, Director of Public Policy at NCGA, Buis with Growth Energy, as well as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Pretty interesting conversation and you can here it hear: DFCast-5-08-09.mp3

You can also subscribe to the DomesticFuel Cast here.

You can find more information about the proposed rule change at the Growth Energy Web site.

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ScienceDaily.com broke a story today about an article that will published in the May 22, 2009 issue of Science. The article focuses on what is more efficient – converting biomass to fuel or converting biomass to electricity? The study authors wrote in the online edition of the journal that the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity rather than ethanol.

Credit: Photo by Stephen Ausmus, USDA/Agricultural Research Service

They calculate that, “compared to ethanol used for internal combustion engines, bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80% more miles of transportation per acre of crops, while also providing double the greenhouse gas offsets to mitigate climate change.” Producing biomass for electricity would also provide another option to replace coal, highly criticized for its contribution of  greenhouse gas emissions and other climate change gases.

Chris Field, co-author of the study and director of the Department of Global Ecology at Carnegie Institution, said nobody has asked nor answered the question which is relatively obvious. “The kinds of motivations that have driven people to think about developing ethanol as a vehicle fuel have been somewhat different from those that have been motivating people to think about battery electric vehicles, but the overlap is in the area of maximizing efficiency and minimizing adverse impacts on climate.”

Here is what they did: they performed a life-cycle analysis of both bioelectricity and ethanol technologies, taking into account not only the energy produced by each technology, but also the energy consumed in producing the vehicles and fuels.

Here is what they found: Bioelectricity wins in the transportation-miles-per-acre comparison, regardless of whether the energy was produced from corn or from switchgrass.

They also discovered: Bioelectricity and ethanol differ in their potential impact on climate change. Some approaches make the problem worse, some make the problem better.

Although the researchers acknowledge that bioelectricity is the winner, they caution that the issue facing society in choosing an energy strategy are complex. Bioelectricity may win in terms of transportation and climate but could lose in other categories like water consumption, air pollution and economic costs.

The study, “Greater Transportation Energy and GHG Offsets from Bioelectricity Than Ethanol,” is available on Science’s website.

“The goal is to set America on a course for a secure and sustainable energy future.” DOE Energy Secretary Steven Chu

The alternative energy industry is already receiving the monies set aside to help spur the economy and reduce America’s dependence on fossil-fuel based energy sources. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory was the recipient of $110 million in funding, announced by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The funds were allocated as part of the Recovery and Investment Act.

The funds have been designated to accelerate the completion of the construction of NREL’s Golden Colorado campus. Once completed, this research facility will dramatically expand NREL’s capacity for renewable energy research. The facility will be equiped with the latest technologies to reduce energy consumption, a model for future buildings across America.

The remaining $10 million in funds will be used to improve NREL’s National Wind Technology Center located near Boulder, Colorado. NREL’s Director Dan Arvizu said, “These investments are an unmistakable signal from DOE about the Laboratory’s central role in advancing President Obama’s clean energy agenda. It is a significant investment in NREL’s future.”

The announcement was part of a half-day tour of NREL by Secretary Chu and included Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. Colorado has been positioning itself as a leader in renewable energy, and earlier this year President Obama went to Colorado where he signed the Recovery and Investment Act into law.

The golden dream may have become reality today as Mascoma Corporation announced a major technological breakthrough in the process strategy for production of biofuels from cellulosic biomass known as consolidated bioprocessing, or CBP. The major advantage of CBP is that is significantly reduces the cost to produce cellulosic ethanol by combining several steps into one through the use of a “super-organism”.  The high cost of cellulosic ethanol production has been a major concern facing the industry, and a barrier to entering the consumer market as a competitive fuel. This may now be a thing of the past.

CBP eliminates the need for the production of expensive enzymes that are typically needed to break down the lignen and covert it to sugar. Rather, Mascoma is using engineered microorganisms that produce cellulases and ethanol in one step. “This is a true breakthrough that takes us much, much closer to billions of gallons of low cost cellulosic biofuels,” said Dr. Bruce Dale, with Michigan State University. “Many had thought that CBP was years or even decades away, but the future just arrived. Mascoma has permanently changed the biofuels landscape from here on.”

Mascoma’s claims were proven during the 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals in San Francisco, during a demonstration given by Dr. Mike Ladisch, Chief Technology Officer. Additional advances with both bacteria that grow at high temperatures, coined thermophiles, and recombinant cellulolytic yeasts have been discovered.

These advances reduce the operating and capital costs required for cost-effective commercial production of cellulosic ethanol. This is great news and even more so in light of yesterday’s announcement of the creation of the Interagency Working Group which includes the funding of building and producing next generation biofuels.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association announced that Louis Dreyfus Commodities has began production of its 100 million gallon ethanol plant near Grand Junction, Iowa.

“Thanks to the fortitude of companies like Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Iowa’s ethanol industry continues to move forward,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “I can’t predict the future, but there is a sense that a corner has been turned away from the difficult ending of 2008. This new biorefinery creates green collar jobs and provides an attractive market for local farmers. That is what the ethanol industry has been about since day one and that won’t change.”

Jay Nelson of Louis Dreyfus Commodities stated: “We appreciate all the support we have received from our state, county and local partners in Iowa. Local partnerships have always been of paramount importance to Louis Dreyfus over the course of our 150-plus year history. We look forward to being an active part of the community for many years to come.”

Currently Iowa has 40 ethanol refineries producing 3.3 billion gallons annually and construction of future plants will produce almost 500 million gallons.

Lay down the red carpet. Former President Bill Clinton will be a headliner at this year’s Ethanol Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil June 1-3, 2009. The conference is hosted by UNICA,vthe Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), and is touted as one of the most important gatherings focused on biofuels in the world.

After eight years in the white house, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with a mission, “to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.” The Foundation has grown to more than 1,400 staff and volunteers around the world.

So what’s the tie between Clinton and Biofuels? There are several: the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative and the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative. The cross-over goals all the three campaigns are to fight worldwide climate change and develop sustainable growth, especially in Africa and Latin America.

There will be more than 90 speakers, in addition to Clinton, from every continent addressing challenges and opportunities during the summit. There will also be several panels and one will be moderated by The Economist. It’s not too late to update your passport and hop on a plane and engage in the worldwide discussion on biofuels.

For more information about the Ethanol Summit 2009, please visit: http://www.ethanolsummit.com.br/english

The president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association had a chat with the New York Times this week about the whole issue of indirect land use changes and ethanol.

Bob Dinneen is featured in a post today on the NY Times “Green Inc.” blog in a post by reporter Kate Galbraith.

Mr. Dinneen emphasized that his group was perfectly willing to factor in such indirect land-use changes. But he expressed concern that biofuels are the only industry for which this calculation is made. Petroleum, for example, does not factor in land use changes — and besides, he said, “Where’s the carbon impact associated with development in suburbia?”

“Right now, I think the model is too uncertain, the assumptions are out of whack and it needs to be promulgated more fairly,” he said.

Read the whole post here.

Scientists working for the federal government have found another way to turn algae into energy. The green pond scum has been found as a good source for biodiesel. Now, algae can be turned into natural gas.

This press release from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) says the feds have transferred the technology to the marketplace under a license between Genifuel Corporation and Battelle:

The method, called catalytic hydrothermal gasification, creates natural gas out of algae – more quickly, more efficiently and at higher yields than other biofuel processes. Genifuel expects the process also requires less capital investment. The license agreement moves this technology for renewable energy production a step closer to commercial reality. Battelle operates PNNL for DOE.

PNNL originally developed the catalytic gasification process to clean up industrial and food processing waste as an alternative to incineration. Over the past 10 years, PNNL scientists advanced the technology to include a more stable catalyst that enables it to also convert wet biomass, such as algae. PNNL has tested the gasifier with terrestrial plants, kelp and water hyacinths. It works especially well for aquatic biomass such as algae, because the feedstock doesn’t require drying before fuel production.

Officials say that electricity made from the natural gas will help utilities meet renewable fuels standards. In addition, the natural gas produced from the process can be shipped through existing pipelines and used in conventional natural-gas turbine generators.

The new, proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules for the Renewable Fuels Standard has the biofuels community split over if they will be good for the green fuels. The point of contention has to do with the impact Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) will have on biofuel production. Under the new rules, biodiesel made from soybeans has been deemed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by only 22 percent… while it must reduce those emissions by 50 percent if it wants to count toward the RFS 1-billion-gallon goal by 2012. There also are emission goals for ethanol, but existing corn ethanol plants have been exempted; existing biodiesel refineries did not get the same break.

So, what’s good news for ethanol… and welcomed in that community… is bad news for biodiesel. The National Biodiesel Board was on Capitol Hill today, where Vice President of Federal Affairs Manning Feraci told the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research that the new requirement would seriously imperil the biodiesel industry:

“By statute, EPA must consider significant indirect emissions when calculating a renewable fuel’s emission profile. Unfortunately, it appears that the proposed rule EPA unveiled yesterday relies on uncertain, inexact assumptions pertaining to Indirect Land Use Change in calculating biodiesel’s greenhouse gas emission profile. The result is that biodiesel produced from domestically produced vegetable oils are disqualified from the Biomass-based Diesel program. There are many factors unrelated to U.S. biodiesel production that impact land use decisions abroad. For example, in Brazil, forestry, cattle ranching and subsistence farming drive land use decisions, yet the EPA’s proposed methodology appears to attribute this change to U.S. biodiesel production. This assumption defies common-sense…

“As a result of these dubious land use assumptions, the EPA’s proposed rule restricts feedstock for low-carbon diesel replacement fuel to only animal fats and restaurant grease. Vegetable oils account for more than sixty percent of the feedstock that is available to meet the RFS-2 Biomass-based Diesel targets, and the RFS-2 volume goals simply cannot be met if vegetable oils are disqualified from the program. Even under the so-called pathway for biodiesel that is briefly outlined in the proposed rule, there will not be enough feedstock available to meet the RFS-2 volume goals for Biomass-based diesel. This outcome is not consistent with either sound science or sound energy policy.

Meanwhile, the folks in the algae-biodiesel business seem happy with the proposed EPA changes. Dr. John Scott, chairman of PetroAlgae, released a statement today in favor of the nearly $800 million in biomass funding that will become available:

“This is a good first step toward building America’s clean energy economy, but it’s not the end game. Going forward, two things will be critical: investing in micro-crops like algae that are more productive and do not jeopardize our food and water supplies; and making sure we back solutions that are commercially viable today and sustainable over the long term.”

The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday announced strong opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s just released proposed rulemaking on the Renewable Fuels Standard that includes impacts from indirect land use changes.

During a hearing to review the impact of the indirect land use and renewable biomass provisions in the renewable fuel standard, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) blasted the proposal as being unfair to corn ethanol.

“You’re going to kill off the biofuels industry before it even gets started. You are in bed with the oil industry,” Peterson said. “I want this message sent back down the street. I will not support any climate change bill. I don’t trust anybody anymore.”

Margo Oge, head of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, took the heat in the witness chair before the committee, attempting to clarify and justify the measuring of international land use changes, such as forest clearing in the Amazon, in determining lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for biofuels. Oge laid the blame back in the laps of the congressmen questioning her who voted for the 2007 Energy Information and Security Act. “EISA required EPA to look broadly at lifecycle analysis and to develop a methodology that accounts for all factors that may significantly influence this assessment, including indirect land use,” Oge said. “Ignoring such a large contributor of greenhouse gas emissions would render the concept of lifecycle analysis, which was mandated by Congress, scientifically less credible.”

The White House responded to Peterson’s comments with a statement that “There should be no question — the Obama Administration is committed to renewable fuels.”

Corn ethanol seems to have made out better than expected in the proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) announced this week by the Obama administration, mainly because it allows the industry to provide more input regarding indirect land use impacts.

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is pleased with President Obama’s commitment to the biofuels industry by the creation of the Biofuels Interagency Working Group and they hope that will help to inject more reason into the indirect land use debate.

“In our conversations with the Environmental Protection Agency, we understand that there is a great deal of work that needs to be done on modeling and a great effort that needs to be put into using current and correct data regarding indirect land use,” said NCGA President Bob Dickey. “NCGA will be working closely with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and EPA to ensure scientific data is used.”

Making the announcement about the RFS Tuesday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson indicated that corn ethanol will continue to play a role in the development of renewable fuels for the nation. “EISA calls for investments in corn based ethanol, much of it grown in rural America and the Midwest, as well as a swift transition to advanced cellulosic ethanol,” said Jackson. “Working together we can have true energy independence, put billions of dollars back into our communities and create green jobs for rural communities across the nation.”

When pressed by reporters for details about how corn ethanol fits into the RFS, Jackson noted that 15 billion gallons of ethanol production are “grandfathered in” under EISA, most of which is corn ethanol. “Corn based ethanol is a bridge, it’s an extraordinarily important bridge, but it is a bridge to the next generation of biofuels,” said Jackson. In answer to another question, Jackson said, “This proposal lays out a number of pathways for us to include corn based ethanol” and she noted that EPA’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions calculations indicate that ethanol is “16 percent better than gasoline.”

Regarding indirect land use analysis, Jackson said they are specifically seeking scientific peer review on a number of factors, including “the satellite data used to project future land use changes, the land conversion greenhouse gas emissions factors, the estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from foreign crops, the methods to account for variable timing of greenhouse gas emissions, and the issue of how our models are used together to provide overall lifecycle greenhouse gas estimates.”

The ethanol industry is pleased and encouraged with the announcement made by the Obama administration regarding the future development of biofuels under the Renewable Fuels Standard and the creation of a Biofuels Interagency Working Group made up of USDA, EPA and DOE. See EPA’s proposed rulemaking for the RFS here.

This edition of “The Ethanol Report” includes audio from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen.

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here:
ethanol-report-32.mp3

Download audio for broadcast use here: Ethanol Report on RFS2

Or you can subscribe to this podcast by following this link.

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Back in November, 2007, I told you about a truck that was running from London, England to Timbuktu in Africa on chocolate-based biodiesel (see my post from Nov. 27, 2007). While that trip was built for endurance, the latest effort in the chocolate-biodiesel world is made for speed.

This story from TG Daily says researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK have now built a Formula 3 racing car capable of taking corners at 125 mph… running on biodiesel made from chocolate:

The car meets all Formula 3 racing standards except for its biodiesel engine, which is configured to run on fuel derived from waste chocolate and vegetable oil. Formula 3 cars currently cannot use biodiesel. The team hopes to enter it in some sort of race soon, though, said [project manager James] Meredith.

The biodiesel engine is configured to run on fuel derived from waste chocolate and vegetable oil. It also incorporates a radiator coated in a ground-breaking emission destroying catalyst.

In the future, the team plans on building more chocolate-biodiesel vehicles, including regular passenger cars, boats and maybe even Formula One racing cars.

But you gotta wonder… what is it with these Brits trying to run their cars on chocolate?

Citing its central location… in relation to the United States and the country’s wind power industry… officials at Siemens say they will build a wind turbine equipment factory in Hutchison, Kansas.

This Reuters story says the German company expects to employ about 400 people:

The new plant will manufacture nacelles, or the structures that house a wind turbine’s generating components, including the gearbox, drive train and control electronics.

The factory’s planned annual output is 650 nacelles, or 1,500 megawatts.

The factory will join other Siemens operations in the U.S.: a wind turbine blade plant in Ft. Madison, Iowa and a wind turbine research and a development center in Colorado.

While the new Environmental Protection Agency rules regarding the Renewable Fuels Standard have been welcomed by some renewable fuel advocates (see Cindy’s post from earlier today), the news is not as bright for backers of biodiesel.

According to this story in the Des Moines (IA) Register, biodiesel made from soybeans… very popular in the Midwest… won’t meet the new requirements for reducing greenhouse gases. And industry officials say that if the soy-biodiesel isn’t counted, it will be extremely hard to meet the 1-billion-gallons a year biodiesel requirement by 2012:

To qualify toward the annual targets, the 2007 energy law says biodiesel must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent compared with conventional diesel. The EPA is crediting biodiesel made from soybean oil with only a 22 percent reduction.

“They’re going to have to change (the rules) unless they want to take a step backwards in producing domestically produced low-carbon diesel replacement fuel,” said Michael Frohlich, a spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board.

The article goes on to say that some experts believe that mixing soy-biodiesel with biodiesel made from animal fat or waste grease could meet the new requirements.

I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of this one. Stay tuned.

Cindy listened in on today’s press conference and has this audio from the biodiesel question Des Moines Register reporter Philip Brasher posed: brasher-question.mp3

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