Domestic Fuel

In what’s being touted as a first of its kind for the country, a city in Georgia says it will use its wastewater to grow algae to make into biodiesel.

The Daily Citizen of Dalton, Georgia reports Dalton Utilities plans to build a pilot project to use with its land application system along the Conasauga River:

“We are working on the design now,” said Mark Marlowe, Dalton Utilities’ vice president of water and wastewater engineering. “We hope to start construction in the fall or winter of this year, and complete construction in fall or winter. The startup will take several months. But it should be fully operational by the spring of 2010.”

“The target is 2,000 gallons (per acre per year),” Das said.

DU officials say they the algae will eat the phosphorous in the water, removing it from the wastewater… growing fuel while cleaning up the environment!

A Southern Florida biofuel refiner has plans to build a 15 million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant that will use oil from the jatropha plant and algae as its feedstocks.

This article from the Miami Herald says Ag-Oil, based in Delray Beach, is putting up the $20 million pilot-scale biodiesel production facility thanks to some federal stimulus dollars:

Teri Gevinson, CEO of Ag-Oil, said the company has planted 20 acres of jatropha, a fast-growing plant with seeds that contain oil, to make biodiesel. The biorefinery will use a patented technology to convert jatropha seeds, algae and related by-products into fuel.

Once operational sometime in 2011, the facility and plantation on 103 acres will maintain an estimated 128 direct jobs and 915 indirect jobs, the company said.

Other farmers in South Florida will also be growing jatropha for the plant.

A YouTube video of EPA official Margo Oge testifying before a House panel in May reveals her providing radically incorrect information about the amount of corn and soybeans it takes to make biofuels.

The blunder occurred when Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) asked Ms. Oge, who is responsible for regulating all emissions within the United States, about the indirect land use issue. “It’s my understanding that the EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard 2 methodology assumes that for every acre of soybean crop that is used to produce biofuel, an equal acre of ground is used in the Brazilian rainforest to replace that acreage, is that correct?” asked Schock.

“Obviously we know that it takes about 64 acres for a gallon of soy biodiesel,” she begins, and then corrects herself, even more incorrectly. “It’s actually the opposite. It takes 64 acres for corn ethanol and over 400 acres for a gallon of biodiesel.”

Actually, one acre of soybeans makes 64 gallons of biodiesel and one acre of corn makes over 400 gallons of ethanol. This may have been just a simple mistake - or maybe she really doesn’t know - but it is now possible that members of the U.S. House Small Business Committee believe that it takes a huge amount of corn and soybeans to produce biofuels because that is what she told them.

The YouTube video with commentary was posted anonymously by an account called “FreedomIs1st” and no one in the biofuels industry has taken credit for it - but it is very good and should be shared. In fact, it might be good for people in the industry to write to their congressional representatives, especially if they are on the House Small Business committee, to make sure they have the facts.

Two Arizona State University researchers working on biodiesel projects have been nominated for the 2009 World Technology Award, which recognizes individuals and corporations from 20 technology-related sectors.

They’ll be headed to New York for the World Technology Awards gala ceremony on July 16, 2009 at the conclusion of the two-day World Technology Summit:

Scientists Qiang Hu and Milton Sommerfeld in the College of Technology and Innovation at ASU’s Polytechnic campus, have been selected as nominees for the award for their work with algal feedstocks and biodiesel fuel. In November 2008, TIME magazine selected the researchers’ work as one of the top 10 best innovations for 2008.

Nominees for the 2009 World Technology Awards were identified based on an intensive, global process over a period of many months in which current individual WTN members — primarily elected WTN Fellows from previous awards cycles who now number over 1000, spread out over 60 countries — as well as others made their nominations based on who they think is doing the innovative work in their field of the greatest likely long-term significance. After the WTN gathers further information from nominees, WTN individual member then vote on their preferences within their category. The top five selections in each category are announced from the podium on stage at the awards ceremony, and inducted into the WTN membership as Fellows. The winner receives an award on stage and makes comments about their innovative work to those assembled.

You can find more information at www.wtn.net.

In a move to fight a proposed change that would basically shut out soy-based biodiesel… the bulk of the nation’s biodiesel production… from the Renewable Fuels Standard, the National Biodiesel Board has launched a Web site to give people the tools to make comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal.

The RFS2 Action Center gives those who want to stop the change examples of comments, where and how to send the comments, and this letter from NBB CEO Joe Jobe himself:

Dear Biodiesel Stakeholder:

Joe Jobe, CEO
National Biodiesel Board

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to extend the public comment period for the proposed rule on the Renewable Fuel Standard for an additional 60 days until September 25, 2009. A public notice dated Tuesday was posted on scribd.com and may be published in the Federal Register this week. However, no notice has yet been posted on the EPA website and the agency has not sent out a news release about the action.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) expressed concerns about the extension during his weekly telephone press conference with agricultural reporters. “There’s no doubt that the issue that EPA is dealing with is very complex, so I suppose we ought to have some appreciation for the extra time they’re taking,” Grassley said. “However, the delays threaten the viability of the biodiesel industry which needs the rule to set the level that must be used in 2010 for the RFS. It’s important that the rule gets finished to provide market certainty because biodiesel is not very good shape.”

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) also expressed concern about the extension, which will mean a delay in implementation of the rule. In a statement, NBB officials said, “It is important to note that RFS-2 was supposed to be in place at the beginning of this year, and extension of the comment period could further delay the implementation of the program, This will provide additional hardship to the U.S. biodiesel industry.”

The ethanol industry has not yet released any official comment on the notice of extension.

Biodiesel plant-building company SRS Engineering Corporation will put up a 10 million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant in Alberta, Canada for ReNvision Biofuels Inc.

This article from RenewableEnergyWorld.com says it will use a variety of local feedstocks, including animal fats, canola and camelina. In addition, the refinery will come just as Canada implements a biodiesel mandate:

The federal government of Canada recently mandated that the renewable fuel content for diesel and heating oil should be at least 2% by the year 2012 creating demand for 500 million liters/year (132 million gallons).

To promote mandates and to help with costs associated with technologies and market integration, the Alberta provincial government has set aside CAN $239 million [US $207.4 million] in funding. This funding has helped companies like ReNvision get started.

SRS Engineering will get a small stake in ReNvision for building the plant.

After a successful test earlier this year (see my post from February 4, 2009), Kinder Morgan today made the first commercial shipment of biodiesel through a pipeline in the U.S. through the Southeastern United States’ Plantation duct.

This Reuters story has details:

Kinder sent a 15,000-barrel batch of B5 — fuel that was 5 percent biodiesel and 95 percent diesel — from Collins, Mississippi, to Athens, Georgia, and Roanoke, Virginia. The product passed quality tests.

Kinder said it was optimistic it would be able to ship biodiesel on Plantation’s lateral Tennessee line serving both Chattanooga and Knoxville.

Company officials say they will be sending biodiesel only through the parts of the pipeline that move only gasoline and diesel while they work out issues of possible “trailback” of biodiesel into subsequent jet fuel batches.

A couple of issues might be coming to a head with one bill. As I told you back on May 22, biodiesel producers are none too pleased about an EPA proposal that would, in effect, exempt soy-based biodiesel from the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS)… putting biodiesel in danger of not being able to meet that standard, possibly undermining confidence in the green fuel.

But, as Biodiesel Magazine reports, with the passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009… aka the Climate Bill… in the U.S. House, soy-based biodiesel might be back in:

Among the provisions of a deal struck among the House leadership, biodiesel gets grandfathered in to the1 billion carve-out for biomass-based diesel without a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target, similar to the grandfather provision for ethanol. Biodiesel production from all plants in production or under construction in December, 2007, when the 2007 Energy Bill was enacted, is grandfathered into the RFS at 1 billion gallons or the EPA-set volume, whichever is higher.

The bill’s language also delays the use of international indirect land use change impacts in determining a fuel’s GHG emission profile for the RFS for several years while an independent scientific assessment is done. Six months after enactment, the bill says the USDA and EPA would jointly institute a three-year National Academy of Sciences study to determine whether or not it is scientifically valid to incorporate indirect international emissions. Upon completion, the Secretary of Agriculture and the EPA administrator would jointly determine whether to include indirect emissions in the GHG reduction targets for the RFS program, subject to public notice and comment. Congress would have one year to act on the joint USDA/EPA determination. The earliest an international indirect land use assessment for GHG emissions could be incorporated would be six years from enactment.

Now we’ll have to keep an eye on what happens in the Senate.

In the past couple of years, soybean growers have seen prices for their feedstock skyrocket as oil prices rose as well and motorists looked for alternatives to petroleum-based fuels. But those rising prices for soybeans put a lot of refineries in jeopardy, despite the growing demand for biodiesel.

Add to those issues, a new proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency that would basically shut out soy-based biodiesel from the Renewable Energy Standard, it’s no wonder Iowa Farmer Today has this story on how biodiesel and soybeans could be in for some tough times ahead:

“The biodiesel industry is hurting right now,” says Solon farmer Ed Ulch, treasurer of the National Biodiesel Board and a member of the Iowa Soybean Association board.

Without soy oil, the United States will not be able to meet renewable fuel goals. There simply isn’t enough animal fat and substitute oils available to meet the levels of production included in those goals.

The article concludes by saying biodiesel producers, large and small, active and idle alike, are just waiting for the change that will put them back on top of the game.