Domestic Fuel

November set yet another record for ethanol production in the United States.

According to the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. ethanol production hit a record high in November 2009 of 761,000 barrels per day (b/d). That is a 93,000 barrel increase from the previous year.

Ethanol demand, as calculated by the Renewable Fuels Association, also reached an all time high at 781,000 b/d in November, up from 683,000 b/d a year ago. Ethanol demand is averaging 702,000 b/d through November.

EIA also reports fuel ethanol imports of 12 million gallons in September.

A railroad will run one of its locomotives on hydrogen.

This article in the Orange County (CA) Register says the Burlington Northern Santa Fe will use the first locomotive powered by hydrogen-fuel cells:

Trains powered by hydrogen instead of diesel fuel could help solve two problems, officials said – provide an alternative to increasingly scarce fuel supplies and prevent millions of tons of carbon from being released into the environment.

The hydrogen-fuel train is a switch locomotive that moves train cars short distances and from track to track. It will initially operate in Los Angeles. The company plans to continue developing the technology, with the hope of eventually pulling entire freight trains through the region.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger calls it “the beginning steps of the technology.”

A group of federal researchers has figured out how to better extract biodiesel from biomass using a microbe that most of us try to avoid in our food.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has announced that researchers have engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria that can extract an advanced biodiesel directly from biomass:

“The fact that our microbes can produce a diesel fuel directly from biomass with no additional chemical modifications is exciting and important,” says Jay Keasling, the Chief Executive Officer for JBEI, and a leading scientific authority on synthetic biology. “Given that the costs of recovering biodiesel are nowhere near the costs required to distill ethanol, we believe our results can significantly contribute to the ultimate goal of producing scalable and cost effective advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals.”

“Biosynthesis of microbial fatty acids produces fatty acids bound to a carrier protein, the accumulation of which inhibits the making of additional fatty acids,” Steen says. “Normally E. coli doesn’t waste energy making excess fat, but by cleaving fatty acids from their carrier proteins, we’re able to unlock the natural regulation and make an abundance of fatty acids that can be converted into a number of valuable products. Further, we engineered our E. coli to no longer eat fatty acids or use them for energy.”

The researchers point out that using E. coli to convert biomass into biodiesel will eliminate a food source from the fuel chain.

One of the biggest advocates for renewal of the $1-a-gallon federal biodiesel blender’s tax incentive looks for renewal of the credit sometime next month.

Agriculture.com reports that Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has been working with the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus to get it restored very soon:

“It would be my hope that we would have this to the president by the week we take off for town meeting recesses — president’s holiday,” he told Agriculture.com on Tuesday.

Later, Grassley’s press aide, Beth Levine, said in an e-mail message that “Senator Grassley had a long discussion with Senator Baucus about tax extenders, and in particular about the necessity of extending the biodiesel tax credit.

Fellow Iowan Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, blames the delay on the Republicans. However, most Washington observers agree that the Senate was too busy debating the unpopular health care bill to get to the biodiesel tax credit. Harkin thinks it could get done by the end of February, but he’s not sure.

The new year brings in new hope, and it’s no different for the ethanol and biodiesel industries in this country.

You couldn’t blame the folks who make biofuels in the U.S. if they just wanted to forget about 2009 … especially when you consider the fights over food versus fuel, delays of regulatory implementations that would have helped both ethanol and biodiesel, indirect land use issues, and to cap it off, the loss of the $1-a-gallon federal biodiesel blender’s tax incentive.

But, as I said, a new year brings new hope, and the people who represent ethanol and biodiesel in this country, are hopeful they’ll see a new Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS-2) soon, and the green fuels industries will bounce back.

In this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, listen in on my conversations with Tom Buis, the CEO of Growth Energy, a group representing America’s ethanol producers; the Renewable Fuels Association’s Matt Hartwig; and Joe Jobe, Chief Executive Officer of the National Biodiesel Board, as they discuss how they believe each of their respective industries moves forward in 2010.

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In general it appears that the biofuels industry is embracing President Obama’s focus on job creation in the clean tech sector. Today, Growth Energy not only applauded Obama’s plan for job creation, but also welcomed the words of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu. Today, Chu spoke about the importance of American energy independence during an appearance at the Washington DC Auto Show. Last week, Growth Energy announced a partnership with Ricardo to help improve fuel economy when using higher level blends of ethanol.

“Ethanol is an advanced technology fuel that has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs, which as we heard in last night’s State of the Union address is a top priority of this Administration. And Secretary Chu’s speech today highlighted the importance of investing in renewable energy sources – like ethanol as a transportation fuel – as a means of both creating American jobs and strengthening America’s energy and national security,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy.

Last year, Growth Energy filed a “Green Jobs Waiver” (or a waiver to increase the minium blend of ethanol from 10 percent to up to 15 percent) with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While the EPA has deferred on making any regulations on E15, research is continuing and the industry could see some good news by early summer. In a letter to Growth Energy, the EPA noted that if the testing proved favorable, they were “prepared to approved the E15 Green Jobs Waiver by mid-year.” A national study by the Windmill Group, out of North Dakota, estimated that moving to E15 would create 136,000 jobs in the United States.

Blendstar, LLC has announced the launch of a biofuel transload terminal to distribute ethanol and biodiesel in Bossier City, Louisiana, a suburb of Shreveport. The facility is expected to open late this month with capacity to serve the local market as well as future growth related to increased demand as a result of higher blends of biofuels in the U.S. fuel supply.

According to the Blendstar press release, fuel distributors in Northern Louisiana, Southern Arkansas and Eastern Texas will be able to obtain high-quality ethanol and biodiesel at the terminal, located on 4800 Viking Drive, Bossier City, LA. The Bossier City facility will be a common stock terminal with direct rail access via the Kansas City Southern Railroad and will offer rail to truck offload services, as well as customized services dependent on customer needs.

“We are committed to providing the most cost-effective access to biofuels to our customers so they in turn meet the demands of their customers,” said Matt Griswold, president of Blendstar, LLC. “With Bossier City and other strategic terminal locations across the Southern U.S., Blendstar is able to extend our ethanol and biodiesel offerings to improve blending efficiencies in numerous markets.”

With the addition of the Bossier City terminal, Blendstar will soon operate nine biofuel terminals in seven states. The Bossier City terminal will be open 24 hours, 7 days a week.

A school in Chicago is finishing up a $3,000, solar-powered biodiesel processor that will be sent to Haiti.

This story from Chicago Public Radio says a team of 10 girls from the private, Catholic, all-girls Mother McAuley High School have put the processor together in hopes of sending it to the small town of Pichon, Haiti to provide the town with a way to make biodiesel using only solar power and to give the village’s school electricity for the first time:

Dr. Roz Iasillo says the processor was built to provide electricity for an elementary school and will produce nearly 48 gallons of biodiesel fuel.

IASILLO: With any development in developing countries it’s the small scale projects that are the most successful. So we see this as, you know, providing them the opportunity to run a small scale, micro lending type of process, where they can kind of jump start their economy.

The processor was to be shipped this April, but the massive earthquake has put that on hold.

A chilly night in New England, but some of the good folks of Manchester, New Hampshire are warm and breathing easier thanks to the biodiesel-blend of heating oil known as Bioheat.

This article from Biodiesel Magazine says the Portsmouth, NH-based Simply Green Biofuels has partnered with M.L. Halle Oil Service Inc. to bring the green heat to homes:

M.L. Halle started delivering Simply Green Biofuel’s B5 blend late last year, becoming the first exclusive partner for Simply Green in the state thus far.

“The partnership between Simply Green and M.L. Halle sends a message to the community that the future of heating oil—Bioheat—is in their backyard,” Nazzaro said. “When two leaders in their respective market come together for a win-win relationship, it’s great news for the markets that they serve. “

Halle is even running its fleet on biodiesel. Simply Green says its biodiesel, made from waste vegetable oil, can be used up to a B20 blend without any system modifications are needed to run up to a B20 blend.

The nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the global clean economy and America must be that nation,” said President Obama tonight during his first State of the Union address. “I will not accept second place.”

There were several major focuses of his speech including the support of small businesses, building a stronger financial institution and the creation of new jobs, especially in the clean tech sector. “We need to put more Americans to work building clean energy systems,” said Obama. He also wants to give incentives to consumers who add energy efficiency technologies to their homes, the purchase of these will help to support clean energy industry, he explained.

Obama continued that the House has already passed a bill that will do some of these things, and expressed hope that the Senate would as well. “I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.”

In anticipation for Obama’s support of clean tech jobs, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President, Bob Dinneen sent out a statement saying, “America’s ethanol producers stand with the President, ready to provide good paying jobs and economic opportunity in a cleaner and more sustainable manner. “In just the past 10 years, ethanol production has helped create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for engineers, construction workers, chemists, accountants, maintenance supervisors, and countless others. With new technologies on the precipice of commercialization, this industry is once again poised to bring unparalleled economic opportunity to small, rural communities all across the nation.”

Obama continued, “No area is more ripe for investments than energy…but to create more of these clean energy jobs, we meed more production, more efficiencies and more incentives. He then laid of some of the elements that are needed to create the clean energy industry including continued investments in advanced biofuels. Finally he said, “And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy profitable energy.”
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If renewable energy advocates had hoped for a big mention during Pres. Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address, they probably are walking away from tonight’s speech feeling a bit left out.

While the president did make quick mentions of solar, biofuels and clean energy, Obama did not unveil any grand plan to use renewable energy to help move the nation forward. The Washington Times reports that, unlike his predecessor, Pres. George W. Bush, who in 2006 talked about the need to stop the nation’s “addiction” to foreign oil and to embrace ethanol and other renewable fuel sources, Obama seemed to leave most talk about renewable energy, especially biodiesel and ethanol, by the wayside. And while it might seem trivial, a mention in the State of the Union can make a big difference:

“It can have a very significant impact,” said Bob Dinneen, chief executive officer of the Renewable Fuels Association.

“It really teed up a discussion about energy policy and led to the passage of the energy bill in 2007 that resulted in the renewable-fuel standard in this country,” Mr. Dinneen said. “So it was an important catalyst.”

But of course, one speech is not the end-all and be-all for any program, and we’ll really need to see how Obama does make clean energy a priority … and the role renewables will play.

In his 2010 State of the State address, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland focused on the state’s ecomic challenges but named ethanol as a way to create green jobs.

“I believe in Ohio because we have made a commitment to advanced energy and we are seeing results,” noted Gov. Strickland. “When I took office Ohio had the nation’s weakest advanced energy standard for electricity production. Today, Ohio has the nation’s seventh most aggressive standard. In 2007, not one drop of ethanol was produced in Ohio. Today, four ethanol facilities in Ohio are producing 295 million gallons annually. In renewable and advanced energy manufacturing projects, Ohio now ranks first among the 50 states. The Council of State Governments scoured the nation to tally the total number of new green jobs created last year. And what did they find? Ohio ranks first. We’ve made it this far, this fast on advanced energy because we pursued smart, responsible policies and we made smart, responsible investments.”

Opisnet.com reports that there are five ethanol plants in Ohio producing this renewable product in Leipsic, Fostoria, Marion, Greenville, and in Bloomingburg plant.

Gov. Strickland will be able to speak more on Ohio’s energy rich status in just over a month. He is expected to be the keynote speaker in an energy leadership forum on March 1 in Washington, D.C. The event is a gathering of national industry leaders and policy makers in the area of advanced and renewable energy.

Geothermal energy is potentially the largest—and presently the most misunderstood—source of energy in the United States and the world today,” writes Al Gore in his new book, “Our Choice, A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.”

According to the most recent draft of the National Geothermal Action Plan, geothermal resources could account for 100,000 MWe of base load electric generating capacity by 2050. The catch—the government and private investors must support the growth of the industry. This increased attention for geothermal power now offers new investment and exploration opportunities that will be discussed during the GeoPower Americas 2010 national conference in San Francisco, Cali. on February 16-17.

“Geothermal energy is often left off the table when discussing key alternatives to fossil fuel based energy,” said Sarah Ellis, Managing Director, Green Power Conferences. “What the experts don’t understand is that geothermal could, if properly developed and funded, provide enough energy to offset fossil fuel use.”

Partho Sanyal, Director of Energy & Power Investment Banking with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will be speaking to industry experts during the GeoPower Americas conference. “2010 will likely follow the momentum gained in 2009 in the U.S. geothermal sector. Industry players are looking to either jump start stalled projects from the credit crisis or reexamine strategic alternatives. The market seems to be rewarding players with scale, proven reserves and the ability to fund development,” said Sanyal.

Additional speakers include the keynote address from the U.S. Department of Energy; Dian M. Grueneich, California Public Utilities Commission; Charles Visser, NREL; Charles Baron, Google.org; Elaine Sison-Lebrilla, Sacramento Municipal Utility District; Curt Robinson, Geothermal Resources Council; and more.

For a full list of speakers and to register, visit www.geopowerseries.com. Enter code 4RC-203 for 20 percent off the current registration rate.

The U.S. wind industry has broken all records with the announcement that nearly 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity was installed in 2009–enough to serve more than 2.4 million homes for one year. This according to the Q4 report released by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). However, not all the news was good as the U.S. still lags in manufacturing; yet the recent announcement of Recovery Act manufacturing incentives are designed to improve this situation.

These new projects put wind energy in a tie with natural gas as the leading sources of new electricity generation for the country, which together account for 80 percent of all new capacity.

“The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “But U.S. wind turbine manufacturing – the canary in the mine — is down compared to last year’s levels, and needs long-term policy certainty and market pull in order to grow.  We need to set hard targets, in the form of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), in order to provide the necessary stability for manufacturers to expand their U.S. operations and to seize the historic opportunity we have today to build up a thriving renewable energy industry.”

This was a welcome surprise as many analysts predicted that wind development might drop as much as 50 percent as compared with 2008. Although new generating capacity for the 4th quarter was slightly down as compared to 2009 (4,041 MW completed), the total for the year was up. The industry also expects the passing of a national Renewable Electricity Standard will also help the development of the industry.

In other news, the report showed that Texas is still the leader in wind energy followed by Iowa, California and Washington, who pulled ahead of Minnesota last year. The full report can be accessed on AWEA’s website.

Photo Credit: West Central Tribune

The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) has approved an agreement for the final $5.25 million in financial assistance for Project LIBERTY, Poet’s cellulosic pilot project that will convert corn cobs to ethanol. The announcement ups the total of Iowa’s financial contributions to the project to $20 million. Poet and IDED has been in talks since 2008.

“The state has shown vision and leadership in helping our nation continue down this important path to eliminate the need for dirty and imported oil,” said Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant. “We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Iowa in commercializing cellulosic ethanol.”

Project LIBERTY is a 25 million gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa that uses corn cobs as feedstock. POET plans to begin construction this year on the plant, which will be co-located with POET’s current grain-ethanol plant at the site. POET’s pilot-scale plant in Scotland, S.D. is already producing cellulosic ethanol at a rate of approximately 20,000 gallons per year.

In addition to the funds from the state of Iowa, the project has also received funds from the Department of Energy.

*post update* See more photos from the POET Project Liberty media event here.