Domestic Fuel

A terminal to provide the ethanol needs of northwest Louisiana and the surrounding area has opened in Shreveport.

Eco-Energy, Inc. of Franklin, Tennessee recently started operations at the ethanol distribution terminal, which is a joint project with Red River Terminals and is expected to serve the bulk ethanol needs of the Shreveport area as ethanol blending increases over the next several months. The facility is located close to the area’s gasoline terminals to provide customers with a logistically advantaged outlet to receive ethanol via rail into the metropolitan area. The terminal is equipped with a railcar manifold system and dual truck loading rack that will allow for the simultaneous offloading of up to 10 rail cars per day. Eco-Energy will be responsible for the day-to-day logistics, throughput, and accounting activities for this terminal.

Eco-Energy is an alternative energy company focused on the marketing, trading, transportation, and distribution of biofuels. The Distribution Services division of Eco-Energy locates, develops and manages sites for transloading and distribution in strategic locations where it is difficult to bring biofuels to market.

Mansfield Oil Company will be joining forces with Permeate Refining, an advanced biofuel producer that processes waste by-products, to market their product. According to PRWEB.com this three year partnership is in conjunction with C&N Companies to market ethanol. Permeate Refining Inc. is located in Hopkinton, IA and it’s plant produces 3 million gallons of ethanol annually.

“This is our first relationship with an advanced biofuel plant that produces fuel ethanol from non-food feedstock, which also meets the new categories defined in the RFS2 guidelines. We believe a growing number of plants will be developed that can produce increasing quantities of biofuels from the widely distributed range of non-food feedstock. These facilities will be required to meet advanced biofuels and low carbon fuel standards. We are excited about Permeate’s current production capabilities, as well as their plans to expand their technology to plants nationwide that leverage local access to a wide range of feedstock,” said Douglas Haugh, EVP of Mansfield Oil.

Randy Less, General Manager for Permeate Refining is pleased to be working with C&N and is secure tthat the group can find the the best customers their products.

Jon Bjornstad, who founded C&N added, “I’m excited about the technology approach proven by Permeate’s current production and believe that their success is a testament to the progress being made today by the ethanol industry to produce greater volumes of the advanced biofuels required under RFS2.”

Mansfield Oil Company, a fuel supplier for over fifty years, has now established an ethanol marketing partnership with Heron Lake BioEnergy. This will add to their C&N Companies marketing division. Mansfield has entered into a three-year agreement with Heron who use 18 million bushels of corn to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol.

“This is our first new plant relationship since our acquisition of C&N and is a real demonstration of the confidence placed in Mansfield and C&N as a thriving, independent marketing partner,” said Douglas Haugh, EVP of Mansfield Oil. “Our strengths are logistics, marketing, and the supply chain automation technology that refiners are increasingly requiring of their ethanol suppliers. Working transparently with great producers like Heron Lake, we can improve netbacks for plants. Meanwhile, we reduce costs for customers by slimming transportation and administrative costs across the supply chain.”

The partnership will allow the Heron Lake facility to manage and forecast their costs and margins as well as giving them access to C&N’s nationwide market that consists of refiners and blenders.

Jon Bjornstad, founder of C&N, added, ‘I’m excited about working with Heron Lake to grow their business and ours. Their competitive production capabilities and rail logistics are an excellent fit for our network and will give us strong competitive supply to west coast markets.’

Nova Biosource Fuels is building up its biofuels. The energy company has announced that it has commissioned its second 20 million gallon per year train. It’s biodiesel refinery in Seneca, Illinois has also produced more than 3 million gallons of ASTM 6751 standard biodiesel fuel.

“Our progress at the Seneca refinery continues to solidify our proven process technology that enables the use of high free fatty acid (FFA) feedstocks, which tend to cost less than feedstocks with lower FFA levels,” said Kenneth T. Hern, Chairman and CEO of Nova. “Two of the three trains have operated at nameplate capacity and have exceeded our performance objectives for yield, throughput, and quality. The refinery has successfully demonstrated conversion of feedstocks with free fatty acid levels above 10 percent. To date, we’ve produced more than 3 million gallons, and we expect to begin starting up the refinery’s final 20 MGY train in June. Our B100 quality continues to be excellent.”

“We are commissioning the Seneca refinery one train at a time, spaced at 45 to 60 day intervals to smoothly integrate equipment shakedown, staff training, logistical support, markets and overall refinery operations while ramping up production at a methodical and structured pace,” said Mr. Hern. “We could not be more pleased with the progress on the first two trains and are looking forward with great anticipation to the startup of the final one.”

Nova says it is committed to building and operating a number of Nova-owned biodiesel refineries. The company is aiming to position its production to reach between 180 to 220 million gallons of biodiesel fuel on an annual basis.

Back in March John posted info that the shipping giant UPS was ramping up its efforts to do business the GREEN way when it added 167 compressed natural gas (CNG) powered delivery trucks to its fleet.

Now, old brown is outdoing itself. UPS has placed an order with DTNA’s Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation for the largest order of alternative-fuel and drive-train commercial vehicles to date. This time, UPS will be adding 300 CNG vehicles to its fleet, plus, 200 hybrid electric vehicles.

These environmental friendly vehicles are part of Daimler’s world-wide “Shaping Future Transportation” initiative and will be used by UPS for daily delivery operations across the United States and will function in concert with their current fleet of conventional diesel powertrain vehicles.

The hybrid-electric power train, combined with a diesel engine and electric motor, drive the FCCC chassis to achieve an over 40% improvement in fuel economy and an over 90% reduction in emissions compared to baseline non-hybrid vehicles.

UPS expects its fleet of hybrid trucks to save 176,000 gallons of fuel and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,786 tons each year.

Adino Energy Corporation has a new online identity. Consumers can log onto www.ifl-usa.com to find information about Intercontinental Fuels. The Houston-based wholesale fuel distributor and fuel terminal operator offers storage, delivery, and blending of both diesel fuel and biodiesel fuel.

“We are pleased to announce the successful launch of Intercontinental Fuels’ new website, redesigned to help visitors better understand our terminalling operations and enhance their on-line experience,” commented Timothy G. Byrd, Sr., Adino Energy Corporation’s chief executive officer.

“We also have a new website under construction for Adino Energy, and I look forward to soon unveiling it to our shareholders and the general public.

As technology unleashes more and more energy possibilities from more and more crops, it can get a little confusing as to which plants can do what. Ceres, Inc. plans to clarify bio-friendly seeds with its new bioenergy seed brand.

Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. plans to market its agricultural seeds and traits under the trade name Blade Energy Crops in the United States. Company president and CEO Richard Hamilton unveiled the new brand at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Chicago earlier today.

The company says the Blade name was inspired by its first crops, switchgrass, sorghum and canes, which are from a category of closely related grass species, known as C4 grasses. C4 grasses are the natural world’s most efficient engines of photosynthesis, the process by which plants store solar energy in the form of carbohydrates. New technologies have made it possible to convert the most abundant form of these energy-rich molecules, called cellulose, into renewable fuels.

A new podcast from RenewableEnergyStocks.com takes a look at how consumer demand for “green” options in the automobile industry is changing. The “Driving Green” interview features Jonathan Oritz of Foreign Affairs Auto. He says, “The integration of electric vehicles will be driven by consumer demand.”

As owner of Foreign Affairs Auto, Florida’s 1st Smart Dealership, Mr. Ortiz provides first-hand perspective of the changing demographics he sees at his dealership of the typical green car enthusiast, and advises new dealers contemplating carrying green autos what it takes to make it a success.

Mr. Ortiz also noted a change in demographics of the green car enthusiast as consumers come to terms with $4.00 gas, opening it up to a larger more mainstream audience. He is also convinced that the market for EVs will be driven by consumer interest and demand to have a cleaner and more fuel efficient vehicle, not the diminishing fuel reserves. ZAP has one of the largest and growing distribution systems in the USA for 100% electric vehicles.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.9MB)

NorthStar Moving says its trucks might be red on the outside, but they’re now green on the inside. The moving and storage company is operating its truck fleet on biodiesel fuel.

NorthStar Moving Corporation has announced that they have converted all of their trucks to biodiesel fuel. NorthStar Moving continues to find new ways to lighten its carbon footprint, now powering its vehicles with cleaner burning fuel made from natural renewable sources such as vegetable oils.

NorthStar Moving not only took the radical step of eradicating all diesel fuel from its fleet, but also installed battery-powered lift gates on all of its trucks so that the vehicles could be turned off while the lift gates are still in use. This alleviates any need to leave vehicles idling.

LPP Combustion has successfully created a way to operate gas turbines using ethanol. The company says their operation offers another alternative for clean, renewable energy.

LPP Combustion, LLC, using its patented LPP Combustion System, has recently demonstrated natural gas-level emissions from bio-derived ethanol (ASTM D-4806) during gas turbine combustor testing. Emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter (soot) were the same as natural gas-level emissions achieved using current dry low emission (DLE) gas turbine combustion technology. In addition, the combustion of this bio-derived ethanol produced virtually no net carbon dioxide emissions.

LPP Combustion has developed a Lean, Premixed, Prevaporized (LPP) combustion technology that converts liquid biofuels, such as biodiesel and ethanol, into a synthetic natural gas. This LPP Gas can then be burned with low emissions in virtually any combustion device in place of natural gas, providing users with substantial fuel flexibility. A DLE gas turbine utilizing LPP Technology to burn biofuels creates a low emissions power plant with no net greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in the cleanest use of renewable fuels.

A major biodiesel production facility is coming to Florida. Oilsource Holdings and Greenline Industries are teaming up to build the largest biodiesel plant in the Southeastern United States.

A 60 million gallon per year plant is expected to be commissioned by the first quarter of 2009. The plant will be located in Miami, Florida, with rail spur access for distribution within a ninety-mile radius of three of Florida’s most important ports. The project is planned to be completed in three phases with a vertically integrated business strategy and reaching its target capacity in the third phase. The estimated $96 million investment will represent over $1 billion flowing through the economy of Florida.

Working with Greenline Industries, the production process becomes modular so we can scale up quickly as demand increases. The execution of a biodiesel project of this size and caliber from planning to large-scale production will require the combined efforts of the community, the local governments, and the industry in general.

Oilsource and Greenline say that greenhouse gases can be reduced by almost 80 percent when using biodiesel. They say the fuel also emits a lower level of several air pollutants as compared to traditional diesel.

Duke Energy is picking a 100 more wind turbines from General Electric. The turbines are estimated to produce up to 150 Megawatts of wind power.

The turbines are anticipated to be in service in the 2009-2010 timeframe on sites currently under review in the western and southwestern United States.

The company’s wind generation assets are managed by Duke Energy Generation Services, a Duke Energy subsidiary that focuses on renewable energy, commercial power and onsite energy across the United States.

Duke Energy is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. and supplies power to about 4 million customers throughout the U.S.

Invenergy Wind LLC is looking ahead to 2009. The energy company plans to secure 800 MW of wind turbines for 2009 projects in both North America and Europe.

Invenergy Wind LLC announced that it has contracted with General Electric Company to purchase an additional 800 MW of wind turbines for use in projects slated for construction in 2009 in North America and Europe. Along with Invenergy’s previous purchases of 600 MW for 2007 and 700 MW for 2008 from GE, this provides 2,100 MW of wind turbines for Invenergy’s 2007, 2008 and 2009 build programs. These turbines are slated for Invenergy’s projects in the US, Canada and Europe.

Currently, Invenergy projects include more than 1,200 megawatts of wind energy either in operation or under construction at 13 different facilities. Invenergy estimates that these projects will generate more than 3.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricty each year. The company says that´s enough “clean and renewable” energy to power nearly 400,000 homes.

Investments in bioenergy are smart investments for Allegro Biodiesel. Allegro is moving to diversify the bio-energy sector and acquire a biomass energy company in Colorado.

Allegro Biodiesel Corporation has announced that it has extended a $500,000 bridge loan to Littleton, Colorado-based Community Power Corporation as a first step in potentially acquiring the company.

CPC develops automated, modular energy systems under the BioMax(R) trade name. These systems are designed for on-site conversion of biomass residues to clean energy for farms, schools, small manufacturing enterprises, communities, military encampments and other on-grid and off-grid applications.

CPC says the potential market for its modular biopower systems is more than $3 billion per year. Comer says Allegro will aim to drive CPC technology to the next level of commercialzation.

E85 “just makes sense” for the Manager of Special Projects at MFA Oil. David Perkins was one of two MFA Oil representatives at today’s educational forum on E85 fuel. The forum was sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. David says MFA Oil is the company responsible for introducing ethanol to the mid-Missouri region when the company invested in a small ethanol plant in Marshal, MO in 1973 and first began selling an E10 blend of ethanol in 1980. MFA offered E85 fuel blends at one of its Missouri filling stations for the first time in November of 2003. The oil company now has 44 retail locations that offer ethanol fuel blends at the pump. E85 sales for MFA amount to more than 3 million gallons per year. For David, just offering a blend of ethanol fuel at the pumps will ultimately help drive E85 sales. David also stressed the importance of ethanol producers, retailers and car dealers working together to promote E85.

David and I discussed the importance of generating a dialogue about ethanol and E85. You can listen to my interview with David here:

Perkins_David.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.4MB)