Domestic Fuel

Wood waste has been one of the feedstocks most studied for viability as a biofuel. Today a new study evaluates the promise of wood waste biofuels by reviewing 12 technologies and 36 projects that convert wood to fuels including ethanol, butanol, diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel. This particular area of research has garnered strong public and private investment and drop-in fuels projects even more so. Yet according to Forisk Consulting and the Schiamberg Group, the authors of the “Transportation Fuels from Wood: Investment and Market Implications of Current Projects and Technologies,” biofuels derived from wood waste will fail to substantively contribute to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) either this year or through 2022.

According to co-author Dr. Bruce Schiamberg of the Schiamberg Group, major technical hurdles will disrupt commercialization for the majority of the technologies. The study finds an on average 11 year gap between estimated commercialization and actual full-scale production. However, the report says a promising approach of note is gasification technology under development from companies such as Rentech and ClearFuels whose goal is to produce drop-in diesel or jet fuel. In addition, the report highlights technologies from INEOS New Planet, Rappaport Energy and Coskata, and Kior who are pursuing producing biofuels with a combination of gasification and microbes, and catalytic fast pyrolysis.

The report also looked at the impact of biofuel development on US timber markets and found that they would be minimal with the highest potential for wood waste coming from Alabama, California, Michigan, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

“If all projects succeed, the total impact on wood raw material markets peaks at 8.8 million dry tons per year by 2030,” said co-author Ms. Amanda Lang, Managing Editor of Wood Bioenergy US. This represents just over 3 percent incremental wood use relative to the existing forest products industry.

Co-author Dr. Brooks Mendell added, “Ultimately, investors must think hard about allocating capital to projects that require 10+ years of technological development and rely on EPA renewable fuel mandates, which are essentially moving targets.”

The “Domestic Fuel for Enhancing National Security Act” has been re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who introduced the bill at the end of the last Congress, once again put forth the bipartisan bill which will allow Civilian Agencies and Military Agencies to extend multi-year contracts from the current limit of 5 years to up to 15 years for the purchase of advanced biofuels.

“No one knows better than the Department of Defense that energy supplies are critical to combat troops and our national security,” Inslee said during the bill’s introduction on Wednesday. “To ultimately realize these goals, we must dramatically scale-up advanced biofuel production in the United States. With added Congressional authority to purchase longer-term contracts, our defense sector could adopt domestically produced sustainable fuels for the security of our troops.”

Brent Erickson with the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) says the bill would help scale up advanced biofuel production in the United States. “Expanding the Defense Department’s ability to engage in long-term contracts would provide potential investors and advanced biofuel companies market stability when they commit capital to building new biorefineries,” said Erickson. “The Defense Department recognizes that domestically produced advanced biofuels are vital to our energy security, by for instance shielding the military from volatile energy supplies and prices.”

The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base is testing jet fuel derived from algae produced by Dublin, Ohio based Independence Bio-Products (IBP). The algae was grown in open ponds in Ohio and harvested with the company’s patent pending harvest system. The tests are part of federally funded project to examine Algae to Fuel (ATF) processing technologies. According to IBP founder and President Ron Erd, the testing of the jet fuel sample has confirmed that the composition of the fuel is similar to fuels derived from other feedstocks including sobyeans, jatropha or camelina. This feedstocks are also being tested as jet fuel replacements.

Ohio is in the process of expanding the states “algaculture” industry. Three organizations are jointly working together on the project including the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) of Brook Park, the Edison Materials Technology Center (EMTEC) of Dayton, and the Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT) of Toledo along with several other industry and university collaborators, including IBP. Three main areas are being researched:

1) selection of algae suitable for optimizing oil production based on climate factors
2) development of cultivation systems (growing locations, harvesting, dewatering, and separation techniques)
3) cultivation strategy (algae harvesting, processing into value-added products, etc.)

IBP has a proprietary technology where algae is cultivated in raceway ponds in Belmont County. Some of the ponds were heated using IBP’s patent pending system demonstrating operations throughout the winter. The algae was subsequently separated from water and dried followed by extraction and purification of the algae oil. The algae oil was upgraded to fuel by Applied Research Associates (ARA) of Panama City, FL using a catalytic hydrothermolysis (CH) process to convert the plant triglycerides to pure hydrocarbons very similar to their petroleum counterparts.

“The IBP development adds to the growing evidence that aviation fuel may be derived from domestically grown crops independent of foreign petroleum sources,” said Dr. Joseph Hager, Director Technology Transfer Programs. He continued by saying oil derived from Ohio-grown algae cultivated in open ponds demonstrates that this future fuel-producing crop may be sited in the harsher winter climates of the Midwest.

All energy of the bio variety – biomass, biogas, biodiesel and biofuels – were represented at the 4th International Biomass Conference and Expo on Monday during a panel featuring executives of seven different industry organizations.

Moderator Tom Bryan, Vice President of BBI International, asked the panel was what the top priorities for their organizations are this year.

“Just getting parity for algae,” said Algal Biomass Organization Executive Director Mary Rosenthal. She says they are also working on educating lawmakers about algae and keeping the funding they currently have for development from departments of energy, agriculture and defense.

Charlie Niebling with the Biomass Thermal Energy Council said they would like to see thermal incorporated into a true federal Clean Energy Standard. “We still face real challenges in just making sure people understand the role that thermal plays in addressing energy challenges in our country,” he said.

Biomass Power Association CEO Robert Cleaves says they support the development of a federal Clean Energy Standard as well and they want to retain the USDA Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). “BCAP for existing facilities may be the only game in town as a bridge to somewhere,” he said.

Inclusion and parity are also important for biogas, as well as working on a fundamental change in waste management. “Discontinuing policies that simply take all this organic matter, put it in a hole in the ground and create environmental issues. Instead we need to create policies to divert that to higher, better and multiple uses.” said Norma McDonald of the American Biogas Council.

For members of the Renewable Fuels Association, president Bob Dinneen says what is most important is education and certainty. “We’re looking at a situation where our tax incentive expires the end of this year,” Dinneen said. “What we’re trying to do is get to some reform of the existing incentive that reflects the fact that the industry has indeed grown, that will allow the industry to continue to grow and evolve, but do so in response to fiscal realities in Washington DC now.”

“The biodiesel industry is an example of what can happen when you have total policy failures in Washington DC,” said Joe Jobe with the National Biodiesel Board, referring to the non-renewal of the biodiesel tax for a year that caused many plants to shut down. Jobe says the industry is going strong again and plants are re-opening but they would like to see the tax credit extended again at the end of this year. “We just need a little more time to get a little more mature.”

Finally, Advanced Biofuels Association president Michael McAdams stressed the importance of keeping the Renewable Fuels Standard in place. “The RFS2 is the single most important public policy in the United States for first, second and third generations biofuels,” he said.

Listen the panel talk about priorities here: Biomass Conference Panel

Sun and algae go together like peanut butter and jelly. Just ask Karl Seitz, Co-Founder of Heliae. I sat down with Seitz during the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference in DC to learn a little more about his company and their technology. The first unique attribute of the company is their name. Heli is Greek for the sun and the ae was added for algae so their name is the combination of the sun and algae.

Heliae was formed about four years ago when the team met two professors at Arizona State University (ASU) who told them about a new process by which they could take algae and turn it into jet fuel. The more they heard and understood about the technology, the more hooked they became.

“We looked in to it more and what was of particular interest to us was that their particular strains of algae grew very rapidly, doubled its weight every day, it was high in oil content, greater than 30 percent, and it had the right oil components,” said Seitz. That means it has a component of carbon that goes from C8 to C16 and that happens to be roughly the same carbon string that kerosene has. Kerosene is the main component of aviation fuel.”

Another pro of algae, said Seitz, is that not only can you produce fuel, but also food.

Listen to my full interview with Karl Seitz: Heliae - Measuring Algae by the Barrel

I asked Seitz about their technology and how they were going to go from pilot to commercial scale. “We’re going to start off with our proprietary strains of algae and improve upon them. We do not use a GMO strain. We use a strain that has been chemically altered and provides us with higher oil content and a faster growth rate,” said Seitz. “We also combine that with our closed photobioreactor and then we use our proprietary and patented extraction formulas and techniques to get the fuel out as well as the protein and carbohydrates.”

Seitz said the other issue they are focusing on is developing algae strains that are suited for different parts of the country or different regions around the world.

There are still questions about whether or not algal fuels and products can be competitive with petroleum based fuels and products. Seitz said their initial goal was to produce one barrel per day per acre and at that rate they think they can be competitive. And while many other companies are measuring success by the liter or the gallon, Heliae is measuring success by the barrel. The reason is that the world needs billions of barrels of renewable fuels to replace just aviation fuels. So in the future, Heliae hopes to play a major role in helping the world achieve that goal.

Click here to view the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference flickr photo album.

It’s official. BioJet International, a developer of bio jet fuels, and Abundant Biofuels Corporation, an integrated feedstock development company, have merged. With this merger in place, Abundant is now a wholly owned subsidiary of BioJet but its affiliates will continue to operate under the Abundant name and brand. Abundant is best known for its Philippine Jatropha Project and today has more than 4 million hectares in 10 countries under development with ample nursery feedstock to grow enough jatropha over the next three years to produce nearly 20 million barrels of biofuel.

“The Abundant deal is a major step toward BioJet attaining its goal of becoming the world’s largest owner and developer of feedstock for renewable jet fuel and green diesel,” said BioJet Chairman Mitch Hawkins. “Ownership and control of feedstock is the absolute key to all biofuels. The strategic additional bandwidth brought by the team and assets of Abundant form a major building block in the expansion of our Camelina, Jatropha, Algae and Biomass projects in Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. This deal also fits in nicely with our plans for the recent US$1.2 Billion funding commitment we received from Equity Partners Fund.”

BioJet is the first Alternative Fuels Strategic Partner of the International Air Transport Association and they have operations covering various segments of the biofuel value chain including feedstock generation, technology, refining, logistics and distribution for end use by the aviation and transportation sector.

“The International Energy Agency projects that, by 2050, demand will reach $11+ Trillion. Consolidation of our companies creates the first fully integrated global biofuel company capable of addressing that challenge,” said Charles Fishel, Chairman of Abundant Group. “Competitors either focus solely on refining or, alternatively only on production of feedstock. BioJet will be one of the only (if not the only) international biofuels company that can control all of its feedstock.”

“This provides BioJet with the ability to control its internal allocation of resources for a significant cost control advantage while other companies are subject to severe fluctuations in cost and availability of feedstock,” Fishel concluded.

A national laboratory in Thailand has signed an agreement that will allow them to produce biofuels using the University of California, Riverside’s process to convert biomass and agricultural wastes into fuel. The project is a collaboration between the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering and the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research. The work will focus on utilizing steam hydro gasification as a means to convert the biomass into fuel. This is a thermal chemical process that turns carbon-based materials into “drop-in” fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

“It’s really an exciting project because Thailand is showcasing the UCR technology,“ said Joseph Norbeck, a professor emeritus at UC Riverside. “It’s a showcase for all of Asia.”

Norbeck, along with Dr. Chan Park and his students have led the development of steam hydro gasification at the College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). The steam hydro gasification process was recently determined by the U.S. Department of Energy to be the most efficient and least capital intensive of all gasification processes.

The duration of the partnership is currently set for three years and will allow an exchange of researchers to execute the research, an exchange of information and publications relating to the research, advice on related technology, implementation of cooperative research and joint publication of the research.

Norbeck has been working with researchers in Thailand for more than 15 years. The relationship has spawned several other collaborations between UC Riverside and Thai researchers including some work studying algae as a biofuel.

The agreement was signed on Monday with UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White. Also present from Thailand were Sutiporn Chewasatn, deputy governor of Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research and Chanchira Sinoulchan, foreign relations officer with the institute.

Reza Abbaschian, dean of the Bourns College of Engineering added, “It is critical to our mission that we be engaged with institutions and researchers throughout the world. Developing and sharing new knowledge across cultures and among nations ensures that we solve problems on a global as well as regional scale.”

Gevo has signed an engineering and consulting agreement with Mustang Engineering LP (Mustang) to convert Gevo’s renewable isobutanol to biojet fuel. The first step will be to focus on the downstream processing of isobutanol to kerosene (jet fuel) and from there to test the fuel in jet engines as well as in commercial planes.

“Our work with Mustang is another important step in the development of our biojet fuel business and Mustang is an ideal partner to advance our efforts in this important market,” said Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo.”Their refining and chemicals industries engineering and project management expertise will help us bring an integrated, turnkey solution to the refining industry.”

Gevo has also disclosed that its “fit for purpose” testing at the Air Force Research Laboratory continues and they anticipate releasing a final report in June. Once this “fit to purpose” testing has been completed successfully Gevo will begin jet engine testing with various engine manufacturers.

“The advent of the jet fuel carbon tax on international flights landing in the European Union is motivating the airline industry and fuel suppliers to seek cost-effective, renewable alternatives to petroleum jet fuel,” said Scott Baker, executive vice president of Mustang’s Process Plants and Industrial business unit. “Mustang is excited about this opportunity to further support Gevo in the development of the next generation of alternative fuels. The processing steps required to make this bio-jet fuel lend themselves well to integration into refineries and petrochemical facilities.”

Interjet, Mexico’s domestic airline carrier, along with Airbus received praise today from The Consejo de Promocion Turistica de Mexico for the first successful test flight using biofuels. The test was conducted earlier this month with an Airbus A320 aircraft using a 30 percent biofuel blend produced from jatropha. The biojet fuel blend was made from locally sourced jatropha grown and harvested in Chiapas, a southern Mexican state. In the region, jatropha is also used by the indigenous Seri people of Sonora to make baskets as well as to tan leather.

Many countries around the world are looking to produce biofuels from jatropha including Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil. In 2007, these regions were cited as the best candidates for future biofuel production by Goldman Sachs. Although this was the first biofuel test flight in Mexico, it is anticipated that others will commence and Interjet and Airbus intend to speed up the development and commercialization of aviation biofuel in the country. This movement was spurred by the National Development Plan mandated by Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa. This plan calls for Mexico to include the environment as one of the elements for competitiveness, economic and social development.

“The test flight is the realization of a two year ambition for Interjet to develop a production chain for renewable biofuel, with the purpose of creating a Mexican platform for sustainable aviation bio-kerosene,” said Interjet President Miguel Aleman.

In addition to developing biofuels for the aviation sector, Mexico also expects to produce 100 million liters of biodiesel by 2012 from its biodiesel pilot plant in Chiapas.

Avjet Biotech (ABI) is on the move again. Today they have announced negotiations are underway with BioJet International to form a strategic relationship. Avjet has developed small 10-15 million gallon per year refining systems and BioJet is an international supply chain integrator for biojet fuel and related co-products. The agreement gives BioJet the license to use Avjet’s patented RWR System to build aviation biofuel refineries from native feedstocks throughout the world.

“Our unique small distributive refining systems blueprint is perfectly matched to BioJet’s goal to increase international use of sustainable biofuel,” said Marty Oliver, president of ABI. “The refineries that BioJet will be able to place will help the aviation industry continue to find renewable sources of energy.”

Don Evans, chairman and CEO of ABI added, “The aviation industry continues to face increased regulations regarding emissions and demonstrated use of biofuel. BioJet’s use of the RWR System will increase the availability of aviation biofuel for commercial air carriers.”

Most recently, ABI completed a license agreement with Professor Roberts, who works in the biofuels program at NC State University. The partnership allows ABI to commercialize all patents and intellectual property related to Roberts’ work.

Mitch Hawkins, CEO of BioJet concluded, “We are committed to helping airlines increase their use of sustainable biofuel, and this technology will allow us to place refineries that will turn native feedstock into aviation biofuel. Avjet is one of the first companies to have the technology that allows for the creation of small, distributive refineries, and we are looking forward to implementing it at multiple locations world-wide.”

The U.S. military plans to up its share of biofuels, including biodiesel and ethanol, by nearly a billion gallons over the next few years.

But this article from Biofuels Digest says officials warn that won’t be enough to be the sole driver in the market:

Mark Iden of the Defense Logistics Agency confirmed that the US government proposed to purchase several hundred million gallons of drop-in advanced biofuels by 2016, citing an expected demand of 336 million gallons from the Navy and 587 million gallons from the Air Force.

But Iden, likened the government, although a large customer, to a large commercial airline in terms of purchasing power, and cautioned biofuels producers that the Department of Defense would be a large buyer but not in enough quantity to “singlehandedly drive a market.”

Meanwhile, Navy officials say they will be undertaking a “biorefinery development analysis” to gauge the Navy’s participation in green fuels development.

The 411th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base successfully flew an F-22 Raptor at supercruise on March 18 on a 50/50 blend of conventional petroleum-based JP-8 and biodiesel produced from camelina. The flight was the capstone in a series of ground and flight test events where ultimately the Air Force selected the F-22 weapon system to be the biofuel blend flight test pathfinder aircraft.

The purpose of the test was to evaluate whether the biofuel blend was suitable for use in the F-22 weapon system. According to the Air Force, testing consisted of air starts, operability, and performance at different speeds and altitude throughout the flight envelope. In addition, the F-22 Raptor performed several maneuvers including a supercruise at 40,000 ft. reaching speeds of 1.5 Mach. Supercruise is supersonic flight without using the engine’s afterburner.

“The F-22 flew on Friday, March 18 and performed flawlessly on the biofuel blend citing no noticeable differences from traditional JP-8,” said Jeff Braun, director of the Alternative Fuels Certification Division, part of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The Air Force has deemed the flight a success and determined that another milestone has been completed. The Alternative Fuels Certification Division is supporting the Air Force’s 2016 acquisition goal to cost-competitively acquire 50 percent of the domestic aviation fuel requirement via alternative fuel blends.

The camelina blend that was used during this test flight falls within the parameters of this goal. More specifically, it falls into a class of hydro-processed blended biofuels known as hydrotreated renewable jet fuels, or “HRJs.” The HRJ fuel can be derived from a variety of plant oil and animal fat feedstocks. In February of 2011, Air Force officials certified the entire C-17 Globemaster III fleet for unrestricted flight operations using the HRJ biofuel blend.

Energy was part of the agenda when President Obama visited Brazil over the weekend.

During his visit, Obama and Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff agreed to launch a Strategic Energy Dialogue, to focus on both oil and biofuels. “Now even as we focus on oil in the near term, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the only long-term solution to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels is clean energy technology,” Obama said in his address at the at CEO Business Summit in Brasilia, Brazil. “And that’s why the United States and Brazil are deepening our cooperation on biofuels and why we’re launching a U.S.-Brazil Green Economy Partnership, because we know that the development of clean energy is one of the best ways to create new jobs and industries in both our nations.”

The two presidents noted the progress achieved under the Memorandum of Understanding to Advance the Cooperation on Biofuels and stressed “the importance of mobilizing public and private research institutions in the two countries to intensify cooperation in developing innovative technologies to produce advanced biofuels, and committed to enhance the bilateral and multilateral dialogue on sustainable production and use of bioenergy.” They also expanded the existing MoU to include the Partnership for the Development of Biofuels for Aviation, with the goal of developing sustainable aviation biofuels.

President and CEO of the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Marcos Jank, was able to witness some of the Obama visit to Brazil firsthand and noted that several companies are developing aviation fuels based on sugarcane, including a three-way partnership between Brazilian regional jet manufacturer Embraer, engine manufacturer General Electric and California biotech company Amyris. In 2012, the trio intends to stage the first-ever flight using jet fuel produced from sugarcane, using an Embraer aircraft equipped with GE engines and owned by Brazil’s Azul Airlines.

“These developments add to the signs of growing awareness we’ve been witnessing in the United States in recent months about the need to develop clean energy solutions cooperatively and reduce barriers to its trade and development. Even avid supporters of heavy subsidies and steep tariffs that prevent Brazilian ethanol from entering the U.S. market competitively are now openly discussing what happens next, both in terms of technologies and policy. Without admitting it, they’re in fact recognizing that the current situation can’t last much longer because it works against everyone’s best interests. U.S. consumers are being denied access to clean, renewable Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, which could be contributing to lower greenhouse gas emissions and save Americans money at the pump,” said Jank.

The big, beautiful cargo plane you see here is the C-17 Globemaster III, capable of bringing in everything from beans to bullets, as well as taking to war and bringing back home the men and women who serve our country so proudly. And U.S. Air Force officials have certified it for unlimited usage of biofuels, more specifically, hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuels, the first aircraft to receive such a certification.

“This certification marks the Air Force’s first platform to be fully certified using an HRJ blend,” said Dr. Kevin Geiss, the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy. “This marks a significant achievement for the Air Force, our alternative fuel certification office and our partners in both industry and across the Department of Defense.”

According to Jeff Braun, the Air Force’s alternative fuel certification office chief, the blended fuel evaluation that combined additional analyses from Boeing, Parker ESD and Pratt & Whitney resulted in no significant differences in engine stability, thrust response or engine steady-state performance.

This means that C-17s will be able to fly on a 50 percent mix of the biofuel when using JP-8, the military’s long-time standard fuel for aircraft and a 25 percent blend of HRJ when mixed with synthetic paraffinic kerosene fuel (25 percent) and JP-8 (50 percent). Officials say there will be no need for any aircraft modifications or special handling with the blends.

The Mexican government is getting into the renewable fuels game – they are funding a pilot scale algae project spearheaded by OriginOil to develop renewable jet fuel. The government is using the project to demonstrate industrial algae production and then hopes to launch the project into a substantial investment in large-scale jet fuels production.

“We are excited to support Mexico’s ‘Manhattan Project’ to produce 1% of the nation’s jet fuel from algae in less than five years,” said Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil CEO. “By the end of this decade, the project must produce nearly twenty times that amount, propelling Mexico to the front rank of bio-fuel producing nations. We pledge the full dedication of our resources to help make this happen.”

Genesis Ventures of Ensenada, Baja California will be the project operator and the company has received a first Economy Ministry grant through The National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) for its first site. Genesis will develop the site as a model for numerous additional projects to be co-located with large CO2 sources. Once complete, the site will be operated by Ensenada’s Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE) who have also invited University of Baja California (UABC) algae researchers to collaborate on the project.

“We intend to rely heavily on OriginOil’s expertise in feeding and sanitizing algae cultures, and its core harvesting and extraction technology,” said Eduardo Durazo Watanabe, President of Genesis Ventures. “Through our partner Jose Sanchez, we have a uniquely close association with OriginOil which will enable us to scale up production quickly.”