Domestic Fuel

Dallas-based Evolution Fuels, Inc. has announced a plan to put the biodiesel it produces in five of its own truck stops.

This company press release says the company hopes that by controlling the entire supply-to-user chain, the venture will be successful:

The Company’s ownership in the Willie’s Place at Carl’s Corner Truck Stop located near Hillsboro, TX has provided valuable experience and insight into how and where to create similar truck stop operations. In May of this year, the Company announced the formation of its subsidiary, “Legends Travel Centers LLC,” to hold its ownership in truck stop projects, and is actively pursuing existing truck stop operations in Texas and Oklahoma with the concept of establishing five “Legends Travel Centers”-branded facilities.

The Company intends to produce sufficient biodiesel to supply the five truck stops for the biodiesel portion of the B20 (20% biodiesel/80% petroleum diesel) planned for sale at the high-speed commercial truck fuel dispensers. The Company has retained Informa Economics, Inc. to assist with the financial pro forma modeling of the entire operation, and anticipates aggressive margins as a result of the ability to utilize low-cost feedstock and the direct sales through the retail dispensers, thereby retaining all of the margins throughout the fuel supply chain.

In the future, Evolution wants to partner with makers of fuel dispensers to come up with new technology that would blend biodiesel and petroleum right at the pump.

A school bus in Michigan has just hit 300,000 miles, and the bulk of those miles have come while running on biodiesel.

This National Biodiesel Board press release tells the tale of Bus #14 of the St. Johns, Michigan Public School system, which started burning a 20 percent blend five years ago:

“Since switching to biodiesel, it is much cleaner and smells much better,” the 20-year veteran of the St. Johns, Mich. Public Schools said. “When fueling, you don’t have the smell on your hands all day. Your clothes don’t smell like diesel all day. It is a much better work environment and much healthier for the kids and the community.”

In October, 2002, bus #14 had 119,621 miles on the odometer. That was the first day of the rest of its life on B20. Since then, the maintenance on this engine has been very low with the only unscheduled maintenance being a $160 lift pump and a $90 injector, according to Hettler.

St. Johns officials add that due to the extra lubricity biodiesel brings to the table, the school district has been able to extend the mileage between oil changes from about every 6,000 miles to 12,000-18,000 miles, saving the district money on oil and filters. The district figures it has driven 3 million miles on B20.

The program hit a bit of a snag when rising biodiesel costs forced school officials to cut to B5, but they hope that they’ll be able to go back to B20 soon.

Coming to Omaha, Nebraska on November 10-12, the Operators’ School is designed to educate ethanol producers on the ins and outs of alcohol production, the latest troubleshooting techniques and technology used in the industry. The three day conference will be held at Scott Conference Center at 6450 Pine Street.

According to the Ethanol Technology Institute, the Delegates will be immersed in the complete ethanol processing system with lectures covering topics from raw materials, to distillation, to coproducts. Hands on functional demonstrations are also conducted as part of training. Leading industry scientists and academics, as well as Ethanol Technology Institute experts, will direct lectures.

To find a complete agenda for the training, click here. For a registration form, click here.

According to the Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC), they were recently announced that they have received an award from the U.S. Department of Energy as a team member on two different awards recently issued by the agency. Both projects will focus on increasing infrastructure and demand for biofuels like ethanol.

National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) to win a $1.6 million award from the Department of Energy to develop classroom materials to raise awareness of alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies. The award was one of 23 projects funded under DOE’s Clean Cities Program with $13.6 million for infrastructure, and was one of only three awards for educational projects.

“CFDC’s expertise with ethanol and its experience with consumer education, workshops, and publications is a perfect complement to a great team assembled by NAFTC,” said Douglas A. Durante, Executive Director, CFDC.

The second award included the Clean Fuels Foundation and the FlexFuel Vehicle Club teaming with the Tennessee Clean Cities program. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) was awarded up to $818,091 to increase the availability of E85 and B20 along I-75. This project will provide E85 and B20 every 200 miles or less, enabling drivers to travel from Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan to Miami, Florida using only one of these alternative fuels. The total project cost is projected to be $1,836,271.

In both of these awards, the actual scope and level of work has yet to be determined. CFDC is one of many groups involved in these efforts but the Coalition will have a significant role as it is very complimentary to current CFDC educational and outreach efforts.

President Clinton was the keynote speaker during the closing session at the 2009 National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) conference. His focus during his speech was the American economy, with a few words on the state of health care, education and energy in the mix. But the big question was: is the recession over? His answer: “Yes. No. Maybe.”

If you are an economics professor, the answer is yes. Economists tend to determine the state of the economy using the textbook definition that says that two consecutive quarters of growth signal the end of a recession. If you are a business owner, the answer is no. People are still losing jobs and unemployment is still on the rise and home foreclosures are still increasing. The maybe comes into play, says Clinton, in that we can come out of a depression, but if people get spooked and stop spending, we’ll be right back into the recession. What could cause this? The price of oil going back to $100 per barrel. This may not be that far off as last week saw prices rise to $80 per barrel.

Clinton then went on to say, “We (America) has got to change how we create and exchange energy. Climate change is real.” He also expressed concern that if we lose the ability to feed the people when we need it most, we are going to have water wars and resource wars that make the middle east look tame. Clinton noted that the UK, Germany, Denmark and Sweden are the only four countries to exceed their climate goals. Why? These countries outperformed the U.S. because they created new jobs when they changed how they created and delivered energy.

Although this country has some very difficult challenges ahead of it, Clinton ended his speech with some words of encouragement, “On balance, I am widely optimistic about the future.”

What do salt and oil have in common? In its time, the world was overdependent on the strategic commodity (oil today and salt more than 100 years ago).  Our country (nor the world) is “salt dependent” but the world is oil dependent, but not in the way that most people define oil dependence. “That is what energy independence means: that it no longer matters who holds the reserves, that oil becomes much less relevant to global affairs, that it becomes just another commodity,” writes Gal Luft and Anne Korin, in “Turning Oil Into Salt Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice.”

The authors, who co-founded Set America Free Coalition and are also co-directors of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), continue,”Contrary to popular conception, energy independence does not mean autarky – it doesn’t mean walling ourselves off from the global market. Independence means not having to kowtow to the various petrodictators that sit on the bulk of the world’s oil reserves. Independence requires that oil become just not that important any more.”

The meat of the book delves into what energy independence looks like and the strategies that are currently in place, which the authors note are not effective and write that, “America’s energy policy still suffers from institutional paralysis.” They discuss terrorism at length but make a point that most authors fail to make, “Energy independence will not stop terrorism and will probably not prevent rogue regimes from obsessively pursuing nuclear weapons.” (The reason the U.S. is supposedly in a war with Iraq.)
Read the rest of this post…

Representatives from the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) teamed up at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show in Las Vegas last week to promote the BYO Ethanol blender pump program.

Robert White (left) with RFA says blender pumps that can offer a variety of ethanol blends, from E10 to E85 and several steps in between, which gives consumers more choices and retailers more potential income opportunities. “With a blender pump for ethanol, you have a dispenser that everyone can use,” White said at the show. “Whether they’re fueling their lawnmower, their motorcycle, their legacy vehicle, their flex-fuel vehicle, there’s something for everyone.”

However, retailers have expressed concerns about liability issues in the event that consumers put the wrong type of fuel in a certain engine and it causes damage. “We promote standardizing labeling practices for the retailers because we want them to be protected. If they’re selling our product we don’t want any liability issues for them,” White said. The blender pumps are clearly labeled that blends above 10 percent are only for flex-fuel vehicles.

Domestic Fuel reporter Joanna Schroeder interviewed Robert about some of the ethanol blend issues they were discussing with retailers at the 2009 NACS show. Listen to or download that interview here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.2MB)

A Minnesota corn grower has been named to the board of directors for Growth Energy.

Gary Pestorious is a fifth-generation farmer and CEO of a family-run 12,500-acre farming operation in Freeborn County, Minn. He is a member of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association and has served as Chairman of POET-Glenville, a 44-million gallon farmer-owned ethanol plant, since production began 10 years ago.

Pestorious also served three years on the Board of Directors of the American Coalition for Ethanol, representing the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, as well as on the board of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, until its merger with Growth Energy last year, and previously served as a member of the Renewable Fuels Association in his role for the last 10 years as Chair of POET-Glenville. He also serves on the boards of POET-Hanlontown (Iowa), a 50-million gallon-a-year plant, and POET-Lake Crystal (Minn.), a 55-million gallon-a-year plant, and serves as Chair of SoyMor, a 30-million gallon biodiesel plant.

Pestorious takes the seat previously held by Darrin Ihnen, of South Dakota, who recently assumed new responsibilities as President of the National Corn Growers Association.

President Barack Obama was touting renewable energy during his visit this week to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Wall Street Journal reports that during a speech before 750 MIT faculty, local business leaders and politicians reminded those in attendance that green energy choices will lead the country to true economic prosperity:

Mr. Obama also touted the $80 billion in energy-related spending in the $787 billion stimulus bill he signed in February, saying it “makes the largest investment in clean energy in history, not only to help end this recession, but to lay a new foundation for lasting prosperity.” The stimulus package includes spending on battery technology for hybrid vehicles, energy efficiency retrofitting and renewable energy initiatives like wind and solar power.

The president’s aides had once hoped the Senate would pass a climate change bill before the United Nations’ climate change summit in Copenhagen in mid-December. But now, early next year is the soonest final legislation is expected to reach the Senate floor. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled to begin hearings next week on legislation to cut U.S. emissions 20% below 2005 levels by 2020.

The White House believes the legislation could be passed by January, but the article says few in Congress see that happening.

The U.S. Navy has launched a new program to green its fleet… and biodiesel and ethanol are important elements of that campaign.

This article in the Pacific Coast Business Times says that during a seech this week in Santa Barbara, California, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus launched the idea of a “Green Fleet,” an ambitious goal to use non-fossil fuels to produce half of the energy for the U.S. Navy’s sea and shore vehicles:

In a speech hosted by the Santa Barbara Council of the Navy League at the Dreier Building in Santa Barbara, Mabus noted that the Department of Defense accounts for 93 percent of the federal government’s energy consumption. Greening the Navy and Marine Corps’ energy sources will go a long way toward weaning the country off costly fossil fuels produced in “volatile” regions, he said.

Mabus said a variety of alternative sources — ethanol, biofuels, fuel cells and more — will be needed to achieve the Navy’s goals. The service already runs its submarines and most of ships with nuclear power.

The Navy has already commissioned the service’s first hybrid ship, the USS Makin Island, that uses a combination of gas turbines and electric drive. Mabus believes that innovations in the clean fuels business will make the Green Fleet a reality.

Two companies have formed an alliance to commercialize a patented process to economically and efficiently produce ethanol from cellulose feedstocks.

The ChemPro Group of New Jersey has joined with Mo-Fuel (Rural Bio-waste) of Sikeston, Missouri on the project. According to Steve Lavorerio, President of ChemPro, the process can handle a full spectrum of cellulosic feedstock, from wood chips and pulp-and-paper-plant byproducts to corn stover, rice straw, grass, and even municipal waste.

“The process, which lends itself to modular construction, is also economical as an add-on to existing corn ethanol plants,” said Lavorerio. “It can process the low-value waste product with the potential to increase yields of ethanol by 15% and improve the value of by-products by 50%.”

The first step being taken by the alliance is the construction of a mobile feedstock testing unit that will be used to generate process data from various types of cellulosic feedstock. The unit is expected to be operational in early 2010.

All of the major ethanol organizations in the country have made statements refuting an article in Science journal this week regarding indirect land use change effects of biofuels.

“Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error”, authored by recognized ethanol-detractor Timothy Searchinger, argues that biofuels and other bio-based energies should be accountable for the biogenic tailpipe and “smokestack” CO2 emissions that are absorbed by growing feedstocks and carbon emissions that could result from land clearing. The authors claim that existing and proposed regulations, such as the so-called U.S. cap and trade bill, create an accounting loophole that will lead to increased deforestation.

The Renewable Fuels Association says the authors propose an unnecessary and impossible system that would trace actual flows of carbon. “The real issue is not accounting tactics, but whether biofuels reduce GHG emissions compared to continued petroleum use. There is clear and substantial evidence that they do.” RFA noted in a statement.

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says that doing what the article suggests “would give an indirect benefit to oil – they’re saying it’s OK to pump oil out of the ground and use trees to absorb the carbon. But that does nothing to address our country’s dependence on expensive and carbon-intensive fossil fuels like oil, extracted from overseas oil fields or tar sands, where emissions are three to five times the rate of normal crude oil production.”

Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) notes that “Searchinger is not a scientist, economist, or agronomist who has taken the time necessary to study whether his theories about land use and biofuels are validated by on-the-ground measurements. He’s an attorney who appears to have a political ax to grind against biofuels. New technology makes corn ethanol more efficient and sustainable each and every day, while future sources of oil get less efficient and more harmful to the environment.”

The largest gathering of retailers who sell fuel to the public has been going on this week in Las Vegas. The NACS show, which is the annual meeting of the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, draws some 10,000 visitors from all over the country and even internationally.

It was the first opportunity for the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) to promote the recently introduced BYO Ethanol blender pump program to retailers. Domestic Fuel reporter Joanna Schroeder was there and talked to Robert White of RFA and Ron Lamberty of ACE about the program, blender pumps in general, and feedback from retailers for this edition of “The Ethanol Report.”

You can subscribe to this twice monthly podcast by following this link.

Listen to or download the podcast here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.1MB)

A new wind energy farm in Montana will more than double that state’s wind energy output.

The $500 million Glacier Wind Farm in Northern Montana is now the biggest in the state, putting out more than 210 megawatts and joins Montana’s Judith Gap farm, which produces 135 megawatts of power. This article in the Great Falls (MT) Tribune says Gov. Brian Schweitzer and NaturEner USA officials were on hand for the completion ceremony:

“This wind farm is one of the reasons Montana is on the map as a leader in wind energy development,” Schweitzer said.

San Diego Gas and Electric, an investor-owned utility in California that serves 1.2 million customers, is purchasing some of the power produced at the Glacier Wind Farm.

And yet another wind farm is planned for that area. The $800 million Rim Rock project will feature 206 turbines generating 309 megawatts of power, making it one of the largest wind farms in the Northwest United States.

A pair of pioneers in biodiesel production in Canada have been recognized for their green efforts.

Timothy Haig and Kevin Norton of BIOX Corp picked up the 2009 Ontario Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year – Cleantech Award. They were congratulated by the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association:

“BIOX is globally recognized as a biodiesel pioneer, and today’s cleantech entrepreneur award for Tim and Kevin is an affirmation of their pioneering efforts,” said Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association. “BIOX is proof of the promise of renewable fuels in Canada. They are reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, diversifying the fuel supply and creating new high value jobs.”

Th BIOX biodiesel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, one of the largest continuous flow biodiesel production facilities in the world, cranks out about 15 million gallons of the green fuel a year.