Domestic Fuel

A police department near Birmingham, Alabama is the latest law enforcement agency to use propane for its cruisers.

The Vestavia Hills, Ala., Police Department recently converted 14 cruisers to autogas as a cost-effective, efficient way to go green, according to Alliance AutoGas which outfitted the Ford Crown Victorias with bi-fuel systems and installed an on-site autogas station to give officers easy fueling access.

“Converting to autogas is simply the most viable solution for law enforcement looking to save money and drive clean, without sacrificing vehicle performance,” says Alliance AutoGas President Stuart Weidie. “Not only is autogas about $1.25 per gallon cheaper than gasoline but vehicle conversions and fueling stations are more affordable compared to other alternative fuels.”

The Vestavia Hills department joins others who have made the switch to propane autogas including sheriff’s departments in Jackson County, Georgia; Augusta County, Va., and Iredell County, North Carolina and police departments in Raleigh, N.C. and West Point, Mississippi.

Smith Electric Vehicles is expanding its U.S. manufacturing facilities into New York state. The new facility will manufacture the zero-emission Newton, an electric vehicle (EV) that has a range of up to 150 miles and boasts an average yearly operational cost that is one-third to one-half that of driving a fuel-powered vehicle. The new facility is expected to be operational by 2012 and provide jobs for up to 100 people.

“This expansion reflects an important step in executing Smith’s localized assembly, sales and service strategy,” said Bryan Hansel, CEO and chairman of Smith. “Our approach creates jobs, provides Smith customers with more localized support and significantly reduces the costs associated with shipping completed vehicles to our customers.”

Simultaneously to this announcement, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of a federally-funded multi-year commercial EV buyer incentive program aimed at commercial fleets. The five-year program will help companies in the state covert fleet vehicles to EVs. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has committed $10M in federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funding for the first year. This will equate to an average of $20,000 voucher per vehicle.

Sam Ori, director of policy for the Electrification Coalition, added, “New York has shown tremendous leadership at the borough, city and state level in paving the way for commercial fleet electrification. This multi-year commercial EV incentive program is a strong example of the state’s commitment to accelerate deployment of this technology, which is critical for reducing U.S. oil dependence and enhancing long-term national and economic security.”

This will be Smith’s second US facility. The Kansas City, Missouri based company also have a manufacturing facility in Kansas City.

San Diego-based Buster Biofuels has formed an Alliance with LEGOLAND California, the San Diego Padres, hundreds of restaurants, hotels, and resorts to collect their grease and oil and turn it into biodiesel. Now this biodiesel is being used to fuel the San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD) school buses. Emissions from the use of the biodiesel are being reduced nearly 78 percent as compared to traditional diesel fuel.

“Organizations like LEGOLAND and the Padres have a huge amount of oil and there is just no way they can use it all themselves (in the form of biofuel),” said Buster Halterman, CEO of Buster Biofuels. “The concept is to take that oil and recycle it into biodiesel then to reduce carbon emissions locally by putting the fuel into the buses of the San Dieguito Union High School District.”

The school district is using a B20 blend in two of their buses and is in the process of converting its entire fleet to the biodiesel blend.

“We want to be at the forefront of green technology,” said Daniel Love, the director of transportation for SDUHSD. “It’s really exciting to work with Buster Biofuels and to know that we are some of the first ones making this change.”

Jason Biddle, Chief Sales Officer for Buster Biofuels added, “It’s about asthma, it’s about emphysema and it’s about helping out the kids! It’s about local companies helping local school buses via Buster Biofuels.”

HyperSolar has filed a patent application for its technology to produce natural gas using solar power. According to the company, the natural gas is a carbon neutral methane gas that can be used as a replacement for fossil-fuel based natural gas.

“The sun is our greatest source of energy and a method to use this energy to make clean, renewable fuel is a very significant discovery,” said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “We intend to focus all our energies and resources on commercializing this breakthrough technology.”

The technology was inspired, according to HyperSolar, by the photosynthetic processes that plants use to create energy. The company is developing a solar-powered nanoparticle system that mimics photosynthesis to separate hydrogen from water. The hydrogen is then reacted with carbon dioxide to produce the methane, which is the primary component of natural gas.

“With global consumption projected to surpass coal in 2035, natural gas will be the next great fuel, continued Young. “From sunrise to sunset, our proprietary nanoparticles will work in a water based solution to produce clean and environmentally friendly renewable natural gas that can be collected for later use in power plants, industrial plants and vehicles – anywhere and anytime.”

Young also noted that there has already been hundreds of billions of dollars invested in natural gas infrastructure. He believes a renewable natural gas fuel is a reality.

It looks like there are a lot of Ron Paul supporters out there. In our latest ZimmPoll we asked the question, “Which Republican candidate for President is best for ag?” The big leader was Ron Paul at 41% followed by Newt Gingrich, 16%; Herman Cain, 13%; Rick Perry, 8%; Rick Perry, 8%; Mitt Romney, 7%; Jon Huntsman, 6%; Michele Bachmann, 5%; Gary Johnson, 3% and Rick Santorum, 2%. Does this surprise you?

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Will higher cost (13%) of Thanksgiving dinner affect your meal?” The increased cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal comes from an announcement by the American Farm Bureau Federation last week.

AFBF’s 26th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $49.20, a $5.73 price increase from last year’s average of $43.47.

You can find the announcement here.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

California has reached a major milestone in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure with 100 upgraded EV charging stations installed.

EV Connect, a leading provider of electric vehicle infrastructure solutions and Clipper Creek, producers of the world’s first Underwriters Laboratories listed vehicle charge stations, announced the 100th charging station deployment this week. It is located in the Waterfall Building garage in downtown Sacramento. The public access garage serves primarily government employees and the EV spaces are consistently full.

EV Connect and ClipperCreek have been upgrading legacy charge stations throughout California to be compliant with the North American SAE-J1772 standard connector for electric vehicles. The statewide upgrade, slated for at least 600 EV charging stations, is being completed by EV Connect’s North American network of over 150 qualified, trained and certified contractors.

“Upgrading legacy infrastructure is critical to making electricity a viable fuel for the growing number of EV owners in California. There’s great momentum, with many automakers delivering plug-in vehicles to dealerships in the next 18 months and the California Energy Commission estimating 1.5 million electric vehicles on state roads by 2020,” said Jordan Ramer CEO of EV Connect.

“As California leads, the rest of the country is sure to follow,” said Jason France, CEO of ClipperCreek. “We’re proud to be leading the charge.“

Engaging the consumer to grow demand and improve industry image for biofuels will be among the topics addressed at the 2012 National Ethanol Conference by the CEO and Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures, Dr. James Canton.

Canton is a renowned global futurist, social scientist, keynote presenter, author, and visionary business advisor who has been insightfully predicting the key trends that have shaped our world for over 30 years. He founded the Institute for Global Futures in 1990 as a leading think tank to advise business and government on future trends.

Canton is scheduled to deliver the keynote address during the opening general session of the National Ethanol Conference on Thursday morning, February 23, in Orlando. Registration is now open for the Renewable Fuels Association 17th Annual National Ethanol Conference – Accelerating Industry Innovation. The conference will be held February 22-24 in Orlando, Florida at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center.

More information can be found on the conference website – NationalEthanolConference.com.

The bacteria that is most commonly associated with triggering food recalls could be a catalyst to convert sugars into biodiesel.

Researchers at Stanford University believe that Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli, could convert sugar to biodiesel at “an extraordinary rate.”

Biodiesel can be made from plant oil or animal fat – usually the former. Used cooking oil from restaurants is common, but for biodiesel to contribute significantly to reducing fossil fuel use, there needs to be a way to mass produce it from plant-derived raw materials. The problem is that synthesizing biodiesel is complicated. That is where E. coli comes in.

It turns out that like any high performance engine, the catalytic process in E. coli can only attain peak efficiency when all the controls are tuned just right. The research is described in a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Khosla is a coauthor of the paper, which is available online.

Crown Express Mart is opening Raleigh’s first E85/Biodiesel fuel station today.

Crown Express owner Kargo Corporation will join with the N.C. Solar Center/N.C. State University and Protec Fuel to celebrate the offering of two cleaner-burning renewable fuels to North Carolina’s capital city with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the first commercial fuel station offering both E85 and B20 biodiesel. The celebration will include a special promotion of E85 fuel for 85 cents a gallon for 85 minutes, sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association.

Speakers at the grand opening will include representatives from Kargo, North Carolina House, Protec Fuel and the state departments of administration, commerce and transportation. The event is taking place starting at 3:00 pm Eastern time.

DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE) is now DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol.

In addition to the shorter name, the company has a new leadership team for the business. Steven J. Mirshak has been named business director, DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol. He was most recently the president of DuPont Tate and Lyle Bio Products, a joint venture between DuPont and Tate and Lyle in Loudon, Tenn. DuPont also named Keith Gibson as the plant manager for the planned cellulosic ethanol facility in Nevada, Iowa. Gibson joins DuPont Industrial Biosciences from Iroquois Bio-Energy Company, LLC, where he served as the general manager and president. At Iroquois, he was instrumental in the company formation, operation, financing, and marketing of ethanol.

DuPont is applying expertise from its Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business to work with corn farmers and Iowa State University to establish best practices for securing high-quality, cost-effective corn stover for its planned biorefinery. At the same time, DuPont continues to make advancements in its Vonore, Tenn., demonstration facility in preparation for scale up to commercial operations. The area is also the focus of test harvests of switchgrass by DuPont’s partner Genera Energy LLC. Currently, the Vonore facility can produce 250,000 gallons of ethanol per year while plans for the Iowa facility are set to produce 27.5 million gallons per year.

A short animated video just released by Pearson Fuels shows the benefits of biofuels for the United States.

Produced with the support of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), “Fuel Better in Sixty Seconds” is a short but sweet summary of why alternative energy is important for the nation and how it is making a difference. “With the election season ramping up and daily conversations occurring in the media around budget cuts and tax policy, it is important that the public be educated on a few facts about alternative fuels,” said Pearson Fuels co-founder Mike Lewis. “The bottom line is that alternative fuels, and biofuels in particular, displace a massive amount of foreign oil every day in this country. Once Americans understand the benefits of alternative fuel, they can demand the same from their government leaders.”

“Many Americans don’t realize the contributions that alternative fuels like ethanol make to the economy and our environment,” said RFA director of market development Robert White. “Pearson did a great job in getting the message across in an educational and entertaining way.”

California-based Pearson Fuels has been a leader in providing alternative fuels to both the public and government entities, opening the nation’s first Alternative Fuel Station in 2003. Located in the center of San Diego and specializing in bringing alternative fuels to the public, Pearson was the first facility of its kind and pioneered the first public E85 station on the West Coast.

Watch the video here.

Propane supplies are in good shape going into the winter, according to Randy Miller, GROWMARK director of propane operations.

Regarding total inventories, Randy says 60 million barrels is the total to shoot for to feel comfortable going into the winter. “And we just did get to 60 million,” he said recently. “We’ve had some pretty good inventory increases the last few weeks.”

He says that Midwest stocks are pretty good, but stocks overall are behind last year and the five year average. “Nothing to feel short about but we are behind some nine percent compared to a year ago,” he said. “Most of that is on the Gulf Coast where we’ve seen a lot of propane exports.”

Propane exports from the U.S. are up this year, although they have dropped off a bit in the last month or so. “But still we are seeing tremendous exports compared to what we’ve ever seen before in history,” Miller said.

GROWMARK is a leading provider of a full range of energy products and services, including a complete line of quality lubricants, fuel and fuel additives, and dependable heating and drying with GROWMARK propane.

Listen to an interview with Randy Miller about propane supplies: Randy Miller Interview

The National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) has released a new study to look at the economic impacts of the Propane Green Autogas Solutions Act of 2011 should it be passed. The Economic Impacts of the Propane Green Autogas Solutions Act of 2011 was performed by ICF International and utilized market data from propane autogas fuel providers, vehicle manufacturers and fleet consumers. The report found that the growth in propane vehicle sales and use created by the tax credits could generate economic activity between $4 and $5.7 billion and provide 30,000 – 42,000 new jobs by 2016.

“H.R. 2014 and S. 1120 would extend for five years federal alternative fuel tax credits for propane used as a motor fuel, propane autogas vehicles and propane autogas refueling equipment,” said NPGA President and CEO Richard Roldan. “The Propane GAS Act offers certainty to the marketplace to further solidify propane autogas as a competitive alternative transportation fuel.”

“Autogas vehicle market incentives are good fiscal policy. The Propane GAS Act provides incentives to make the switch to an American-made alternative fuel and with clear policy benefits,” added Roldan who concluded by noting that in the short-term, no one fuel can displace conventional fuels but propane autogas can have an immediate impact.

Birmingham, Alabama is going to be the new home of an ethanol unit train terminal located on the BNSF Railway, owned by BlendStar, LLC, a subsidiary of Green Plains Renewable Energy. The new terminal will have 160,000 barrels of storage and accept 96-car unit trains of ethanol per day. Expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2012, it will solely serve BNSF.

“We believe Birmingham is a significant growth market, and development of this unit train terminal is a part of our ongoing effort to expand and diversify our business platform along the value chain,” said Todd Becker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Plains. “With superior services provided by BNSF Railway and BlendStar, operation of this new terminal will provide better transportation economics to shippers, as it will be the eastern most point for direct ship on the railroad to receive ethanol from the Midwest. This will result in improved ethanol distribution through one of the most modern and efficient ethanol terminals in the U.S. when it is completed.”

The new terminal will offer a fully-automated rail unloading system with the capacity to distribute nearly 385,000 barrels of ethanol per month with loading service offered 24-hours per day. BlendStar is currently in multi-year negotiations with customers. Once complete, the terminal will be retrofitted to handle other biofuels and liquid products.

Kevin Kaufman, BNSF’s Group Vice President Agricultural Marketing added, “We are very excited about this terminal being built on the BNSF Railway. This shows our commitment to shippers to deliver the most efficient solutions for their logistical needs. BlendStar is the perfect partner to bring this strategic project on-line and operational next year.”

USDA has issued a loan guarantee that will allow a biofuels firm to construct a facility in New Mexico to produce “green crude” oil from algae which can be refined into transportation fuel.

The loan is going to Sapphire Energy, which intends to design, build and operate a $135 million integrated algal biorefinery (IABR) in Columbus, N.M., for the production of advanced biofuel that is a “drop-in” replacement for petroleum derived diesel and jet fuel. The IABR will be capable of producing 100 barrels of refined algal oil per day, equivalent to at least one million gallons per year. The oil will be shipped to the United States Gulf Coast to be refined by Sapphire’s refinery partner, Dynamic Fuels, located in Geismar, La.

The funding is provided through USDA’s Biorefinery Assistance Program. On December 3, 2009, USDA issued a conditional commitment for an 80 percent guarantee on a $54.5 million loan. The loan closing and issuance of the Loan Note Guarantee for this project took place on October 21, 2011.