Domestic Fuel

A biorefinery company based in Finland has opened a plant for processing non-food biomass into cellulosic ethanol in Oulu. The Chempolis facility was officially opened last week by the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen.

“The third-generation biorefining technology that we have developed enables us to produce multiple products from agricultural residues using all the vegetable matter they contain, maximising the added value that we can offer. This is a definite plus in terms of both operating costs and the environment,” says Matti Sundberg, the Chairman of Chempolis’ Board of Directors.

Chempolis has invested some €20 million in its new biorefinery, which also functions as a development and marketing centre for testing customer-sourced raw materials and producing sample batches of bioethanol, biochemicals, and papermaking fibres. The plant is capable of processing 25,000 t/a of non-wood and non-food raw material.

A Detroit-based technology company is looking to help make biodiesel more competitive in the marketplace.

Xconomy/Detroit says NextCAT wants to make a catalyst that will help convert some of the cheaper feedstocks, such as algae and recycled cooking oil, into biodiesel and hopes to get some funding to get the project going:

NextCAT, which is located at the TechTown business incubator in Detroit, signed an option agreement to produce technology developed at the National Biofuels Energy Laboratory at Wayne State University in Detroit. The company also recently received $50,000 from the Michigan Microloan Fund and another $50,000 from the First Step Fund, newly created by the New Economy Initiative, a Detroit-based philanthropic partnership.

Leppek says the company has “also received indications” that it will receive a Small Business Innovation Rearch Grant from the National Science Foundation as early as July.

NextCAT believes U.S. biodiesel plants can be retrofitted with the company’s new process and catalyst and can produce biodiesel cheaper.

E85 will sell for 85 cents off on opposite sides of the St. Croix River on Thursday, May 27. One station in Westland Lake, Minnesota and another in Hudson, Wisconsin will hold the promotions for flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) from 4 – 6 p.m.

The promotions are supported by the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, Holiday Companies, Erickson Oil, American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest and MN & WI Clean Air Choice Teams. Wisconsin’s Alice in Dairyland will also be on hand to help fuel FFVs on the east side of the border. The promotion locations are:
Holiday • 215 Manning Ave N, West Lakeland (Lake Elmo), MN
Freedom Valu Center • 210 South 2nd St, Hudson, WI

Minnesota Corn Growers Association President DeVonna Zeug recently made the statement, “Ethanol pumps $6 billion into Minnesota’s economy and is helping to sustain over 26,000 jobs. Ethanol is creating jobs and opportunity in communities across our state at the same time it is reducing our country’s dangerous and costly dependence on foreign oil.”

Brian Long, President of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association stated similar for his state, “Ethanol pumps billions of dollars each year into Wisconsin’s economy and farm families, while also helping reduce our nation’s costly dependence on foreign oil.”

Currently, Minnesota has the most E85 locations throughout the country with 355. Wisconsin boasts 143 stations.

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) believes that it’s time to throw out the whole debated theory of indirect land use change.

“In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts our corn farmers will produce more than 300 million more bushels than just three years ago, and do so on nearly 5 million fewer acres,” NCGA President Darrin Ihnen said in a news release. “International indirect land use change theory completely ignores or significantly downplays grower ingenuity and modern agronomy. This junk science needs to go the way of the horse-drawn plow.”

The unproven theory and models related to it are being used by the California Air Resources Board to implement that state’s low carbon fuel standard in such a way that ethanol made from corn would not qualify for use. Ihnen points to the recent Purdue study that found California is overestimating the greenhouse-gas impact of land use changes related to corn ethanol by a factor of two.

“The inclusion of model results in policy before the science has been fully established is not just a problem of rushing to judgment; in this case, it goes against the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Ihnen said. “By saddling corn-based ethanol with incorrect emissions, the California standard may actually increase its reliance on petroleum or foreign sources of ethanol, therefore worsening the environment and our national economy.”

The Purdue research also reflects the scientific community’s rejection of the initial paper that brought the land use change theory to the front burner in February 2008, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. Since then, the estimated emissions purportedly occurring from the indirect land use change penalty have fallen by nearly 90 percent.

Consumers. We all have questions about ethanol and oftentimes don’t know where to go to find the answers. Now, you have a new resource for information – the monthly video series “Ask POET,” hosted by Nathan Schock. The idea is that for each episode, Nathan will take a question from the public and then identify and interview the most appropriate person within POET to provide the answer.

I had the opportunity to ask POET a question and it became the kick off for the first episode. I asked, “When do you think consumers will be able to go to the gas station and fill up their cars with cellulosic ethanol?” A point of reference, POET is the farthest along in the U.S. on commercially producing cellulosic ethanol from corn stover with their project coined Project Liberty. My question was answered in great detail and with great insight from POET CEO Jeff Broin.

In the next episode, Broin responds to a question from Jim Lane, Editor of Biofuels Digest who asked what the industry can do after E15 to prevent another “blend wall.” Lane also asked Broin to explore how America can change its fleet over to flex fuel vehicles so that higher blends of ethanol can be more widespread and available.

“As the nation’s largest ethanol producer, we need to take an active and visible role in helping the public understand the many issues surrounding ethanol,” Schock, POET’s Director of Public Relations, said. “Although the ethanol industry is still relatively young, POET has been around for more than two decades and is in a great position to answer the many questions that come up regarding the renewable fuel that is being used in most cars today. ‘Ask POET’ will help do that.”

For upcoming episodes, no question is off limits. You can subscribe to POET’s RSS feed and get updates about the program here.

Alliance AutoGas, with the support of the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), have received $8.6 million in funding from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 to fund a Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program. The program will help to build at least 17 propane refueling stations as well as convert 1,200 vehicles to propane in nine southeast states. According to PERC, propane, when used to power on-road vehicles, is known worldwide as autogas. Nearly 90 percent of propane supplies are produced in the U.S. and 7 percent is imported from Canada.

“We are encouraged that this grant provides an opportunity to showcase the viability of autogas and its benefits,” said Stuart Weidie, president of Alliance AutoGas. “Autogas is recognized as the number one alternative fuel worldwide. It’s almost entirely domestically produced and is available right here, right now.”

Project management for the program will be shared by Virginia Clean Cities and James Madison University. Alliance AutoGas’ founding partners, Blossman Gas and American Alternative Fuel, along with certified conversion partners, will perform the vehicle conversions and provide the infrastructure for both private and public fueling stations. Vehicles that will be targeted for conversions include taxis, limousines and vans.

It is projected that the program will displace at least 15 million gallons of gasoline over four years as well as reduce harmful tailpipe emissions. A website that will track the conversion information along with the greenhouse gas emission reductions will launch later this year.

“The rollout of this Alliance AutoGas project will result in the wider use of propane vehicles, which will help us reach our county’s environmental and national energy security goals,” concluded Brian Feehan, vice president of PERC.

So you’re a bit frustrated with the state of the climate and pretty concerned with our fossil fuel use. So what do you do? You become the No Impact Man. Colin Beavan, a writer from New York who was struggling with how to deal with climate change, decided that he, along with his wife, two year old daughter and dog, would spend a year trying to have no negative impact on the climate. This experience, which he blogged about every day, led to the book, “No Impact Man The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet.”

Beavan was extreme. No “throw away” products made from trees, rarely any motorized transportation including elevators (did I mention he lives in NY?), all locally grown food within 250 miles and no meat, no buying of new things (but they could purchase used items), and if that weren’t enough, no electricity for three months! So what did he learn? We should be able to keep the things that improve our lives, yet not at the expense of the environment. And yes, he says, this can be done.

As an energy writer there was one chapter that I felt was extremely compelling and that was when he and his family turned out the electricity. Yep – no electricity for three months with the exception of a solar panel he used to power his laptop. In this chapter, Beavan talks about the true cost of fossil fuel use – something that many are trying to get consumers to understand, including me.

He writes, “The fact of the matter is that fossil fuels are not less costly than renewable energy. Fossil fuels cost us and our planet much more to use. The problem is that the true costs of the use of coal and oil are not immediately apparent in the price.”
Read the rest of this post…

Ford has announced a handful of models for their 2011 flexible fuel line-up. The company, who began producing FFVs in the mid 1990′s will offer more than 12 models in the upcoming year, according to a Growth Energy press release.

“If we’re going to reduce emissions, clean the air, and increase our energy independence, we need to ensure that our entire vehicle fleet and fuel infrastructure are ready to use expanded U.S. ethanol production,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy. “Each additional flex fuel vehicle model gives consumers the option of filling up with domestic, homegrown renewable fuel and enhances our national security, all while creating U.S. jobs and greening our environment. We commend Ford Motor Co. for their continued commitment to manufacture FFVs and we urge Congress to pass legislation that will encourage all vehicles to be flex-fuel and support the construction of blender pumps and ethanol dispensing equipment.”

Today, more than eight million vehicles on U.S. highways are flexible fuel vehicles, out of over 246 million vehicles on the road. Ford’s commitment to manufacture more Flex Fuel Vehicles will help ensure that we meet Congress’ goal of 36 billion gallons of biofuel production by 2022 as enacted in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, Buis said.

No bulls, not even the mechanical kind, but the U.S. Army is hosting a rodeo … the inaugural Renewable Energy Rodeo and Symposium (RERS), June 8-9, 2010, at Fort Bliss, Texas, evaluating the latest energy technologies that could reap immediate benefits for the military and the nation:

RERS, co-hosted by the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and Fort Bliss, serves to advance energy initiatives affecting all levels of the Department of Defense, from ground vehicles to installations.

“Energy security remains a top priority for our warfighters and our Nation,” explained TARDEC Director Dr. Grace M. Bochenek. “As we aggressively pursue the latest in renewable energy capabilities and alternative energy technologies, it is vitally important we tap the best-of-the-best from industry, academia and government.”

It’s only fitting that Fort Bliss is hosting the energy rodeo, since the post is the Army’s Center for Renewable Energy. Officials expect some “game-changing technologies and innovative solutions.”

More information is available here.

Auto giant General Motors (GM) has teamed up with Hawaii’s The Gas Company (TGC), the state’s major gas energy provider, to make hydrogen more available for GM’s growing fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles.

This GM press release says TGC will send the hydrogen, along with synthetic natural gas, through its utility gas stream and separate the hydrogen at key points along the 1,000 mile utility pipeline:

“This is the type of enabler that a hydrogen transportation infrastructure needs because it addresses both the source of the hydrogen and a feasible way to deliver it for fuel cell vehicle use,” said Charles Freese, executive director of GM Global Fuel Cell Activities. “The Hawaii infrastructure could eventually support tens of thousands of fuel cell vehicles.

“We have been delivering as much as 12 percent hydrogen made from renewable sources to our gas customers over the last two to three years and expect we can deliver even greater quantities of hydrogen as demand increases,” said Jeffrey Kissel, president and CEO of TGC. “By delivering hydrogen through our existing infrastructure as vehicle fuel wherever we have gas, The Gas Company expands its key role of supporting Hawaii’s clean energy future.”

Officials believe the price for the hydrogen could be equal to or less than gasoline.

Usually, we talk about using high-tech computer programs to help producers get more biodiesel out of their operations. But this time, it’s the low-tech components that are the platforms for growing a feedstock for the green fuel.

Treehugger.com has this post about how students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have put together an algae bioreactor called the Bio-Grow to cultivate large amounts of algae for biodiesel using old computer parts:

“If someone had one of these in their homes, they would cultivate algae and extract it,” says Megan Kenney, one of the members of the five-person undergraduate team. “Then they could take it into a gas company that was set up with an oil filtration facility and get credit off their gas.”

“Algae’s best growth factors are within the red and blue spectrums of light at a ratio of four to one,” Kenney explains. “We also knew that it needed to be 62 to 82 degrees.”

The hope is that people will be able to grow algae as part of a larger system and take that algae to a central collection point. The lipids in the algae would be extracted and sent to a refinery to make biodiesel, while the by-products would go into livestock feed, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals. The Bio-Grow team believes just under 7 percent of American homes would need to have a device to grow enough algae to replace petroleum with algae biodiesel.

Four biodiesel producers from around the nation took their story to the media today, increasing their call for Congress to immediately and retroactively reinstate the federal biodiesel tax incentive which was allowed to expire five months ago. The producers included a small family operation in Arkansas, an energy group in Washington state, a plant that is laying off people in Georgia, and the largest biodiesel producer in the country with plants in five states.

Bernie Crowley of Delta American Fuel in Helena, Ark. says the tax credit was the reason they got into the biodiesel business in 2005. “I’ve basically spent my last five years investing our hard-won capital over 50 years of business in this industry,” Crowley said. Now that his plant is up to production level and he could add another 35-40 jobs in one of the most impoverished counties in the country, “we’ve been on pause since January 1″ and could end up having to lay off people instead.

Gen-X Energy Group in Pasco, Washington is a privately-held group with investors and president Scott Johnson says they have expanded into global markets this year to stay profitable without the tax credit and they closed a plant last year because of uncertainty about the tax credit. “The Gen-X vision is to be one of the leading biofuel producers in the United States, with or without the federal biodiesel tax credit, however the time line to achieve this vision can be significantly decreased through federal support,” said Johnson.

Bobby Heiser with Nittany Biodiesel, headquartered in Pennsylvania, says they invested $30 million on a versatile biodiesel plant just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. “Since January, we held on with the expectation that Congress would deliver,” he said. “With mounting losses, we’ve continued to operate, but we can’t sell at even a break-even production level at this point.” Three weeks ago, they ran out of money and had to layoff 20 out of 35 employees, all but shutting down the plant.

REG (Renewable Energy Group) owns 180 million gallons of biodiesel production and markets another 180 million owned by others. The company has plants in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas. However, CEO Jeff Stroburg says not having the tax credit has reduced that capacity by more than 75 percent. “So all of that capacity is practically idled right now, there’s very little demand for biodiesel in the market place as a result of the uncertainty.”

National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe says they are pleading with lawmakers to get the biodiesel tax credit reinstated before the Memorial Day recess to avoid the loss of more green jobs.

Three rental car companies at the San Antonio, Texas airport have decided to combine their efforts and run their shuttles on biodiesel.

The San Antonio Business Journal says Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental are sharing shuttles, cutting the combined fleets from 16 to seven vehicles:

All of the shuttle buses are also being fueled by 20 percent biodiesel, a cleaner-burning alternative fuel.

“Combining our shuttle bus service supports the San Antonio International Airport in reaching its goals of reducing congestion, especially at a time when our market share is growing at the airport,” says William Gold, vice president and general manager for Alamo, Enterprise and National in San Antonio. “More importantly, customers have reacted positively to the combined shuttles, noting the significance of our environmental efforts and the use of biodiesel in our buses.”

Officials say the move will ease congestion and help clear the air.

The indirect land use change (ILUC) debate will take center stage at the upcoming 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC), scheduled for June 7-9 in Atlanta.

National Corn Growers Association Director of Biofuels & Business Development Jamey Cline is chairman of the plenary session “Land Use Conundrum…Corn, an Advanced Biofuel?” which will focus on the role land use criteria played in the decision that corn does not currently meet the qualifications of an advanced biofuel. The session will include both presentations and a panel discussion and will also explore how the United States will meet its greenhouse gas reduction mandates given that corn is currently the only significant source of ethanol in today’s marketplace.

Chuck Zimmerman talked with Jamey about CUTC in general and this session in particular. Listen to or download that interview in the player below:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.6MB)

The Environmental Protection Agency has designated Renewable Energy Group’s biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa as the nation’s first “RFS2 Ready” RINs generating facility.

The facility has completed the first two steps in the three-part compliance preparedness timeline and is now listed as having “Completed & Accepted Registration” status:

REG Newton’s engineering process review has been submitted to the EPA. This engineering review, along with all other re-registration materials, is awaiting final review to meet “Approved Registration” status.

“Being the nation’s first biodiesel plant re-registered and ready to supply EPA-compliant RINs along with high quality biodiesel to meet volumetric requirements of RFS2 is an important signal to the petroleum industry,” explained Gary Haer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Renewable Energy Group. “Renewable Energy Group, specifically—and the biodiesel industry, in general—are committed to helping our petroleum partners meet their compliance requirements on time. We look forward to quickly reaching ‘Approved Registration’ status to be fully compliant within EPA’s guidelines for RFS2.”

The plant is capable of producing 30 million gallons of biodiesel a year. REG hopes to have all of its biodiesel plants re-registered and eligible to generate RINs by the July 1, 2010 compliance date.