Domestic Fuel

The U.S. Postal Service may be in the red but they’ve been promoting going green this holiday season.

“The Postal Service is one of the greenest mailing and shipping companies in the world,” said Thomas G. Day, chief sustainability officer. The eco-friendly options offered by USPS include mailing and shipping supplies, free package pickup and holiday cards printed on recycled paper available in 2,000 Post Offices.

“We have a ‘fleet of feet’ delivering mail the greenest way possible, by walking,” Day added. “Nearly 9,000 of our carriers will be delivering holiday mail on foot this season. And we also have nearly 80,000 ‘park and loop’ routes, where carriers will drive vehicles from the Post Office to neighborhoods and then deliver those holiday packages and cards on foot.”

The Postal Service will have delivered a total of 16.5 billion cards, letters and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve using various alternative fuel vehicles in the largest civilian fleet in the world of 215,000 vehicles. Alternatives utilized by USPS include three-wheeled electric vehicles with zero gas emissions that operate at a cost of only 2 cents a mile, as well as vehicles that can operate on compressed natural gas, propane, ethanol, and fuel cell. There’s also 30 large all-electric trucks delivering holiday mail in Manhattan.

University researchers from California, Iowa and Chile have found that sugarcane ethanol production creates up to seven times more air pollutants than previously estimated, according to news from the University of Iowa.

The research team used agricultural survey data from Brazil to calculate emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases from the entire production, distribution, and lifecycle of sugarcane ethanol from 2000 to 2008.

The estimated pollutants were 1.5 to 7.3 times higher than those from satellite-based methods, according to lead author Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced.

Greg Carmichael, Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering in the UI College of Engineering and co-director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER), and UI assistant professor Scott Spak note that the findings reflect continued practices and trends that are a part of the production of sugarcane ethanol. These include the practice of burning sugarcane fields before harvest, as well as the fact that sugarcane production in Brazil continues to grow.

“We found that the vast majority of emissions come from burning the sugarcane fields prior to harvesting, a practice the Brazilian government has been moving to end,” says Spak. “However, the sugarcane industry has been expanding rapidly and moving into more remote areas, which makes it much more difficult to enforce new regulations over this growing source of air pollution and greenhouse gases.

“As people try to determine how to integrate biofuels into the global economy, Brazilian sugarcane ethanol has often been considered a more environmentally friendly fuel source than U.S. corn ethanol. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers sugarcane ethanol an ‘advanced biofuel’ with fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional biofuels like corn ethanol. These new findings help us refine those estimates and move closer to making more informed comparisons between different fuel sources, and ultimately make better decisions about how to grow and use biofuels,” Spak says.

The study, titled “Increased estimates of air-pollution emissions from Brazilian sugarcane ethanol,” is featured in the Nature Highlights section and published in the Dec. 11 Advance Online Publication of the journal Nature Climate Change.

The ethanol industry is challenging a new report from the National Academies of Science that questions the ability of the biofuels industry to meet current goals under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) and the ability of biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the report, production of conventional biofuels and biomass-based diesel fuel will be adequate to meet the requirements of the RFS2, but whether the mandate for cellulosic ethanol can be met is “uncertain.”

“The capacity to meet the renewable fuel mandate for cellulosic biofuels will not be available unless the production process is unexpectedly improved and technologies are scaled up and undergo several commercial-scale demonstrations in the next few years. Additionally, policy uncertainties and high costs of production may deter investors from aggressive deployment, even though the government guarantees a market for cellulosic biofuels up to the level of the consumption mandate, regardless of price.”

Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) agrees that technological innovation and policy uncertainty are major hurdles for meeting the RFS2 goals for advanced biofuels. “The RFS is an aggressive, technology-forcing standard that needs complementary policy to be achieved, in much the same way that oil companies rely on a bevy of tax breaks and subsidies to protect the investments necessary to bring new sources of petroleum fuels online as known oil reserves become increasingly scarce,” said Coleman. “If we enact policies reflective of the goals set forth in the RFS, the advanced biofuels industry will emerge and the RFS targets will be met.”

“You can read this report in a number of ways because the conclusions are based on variables that will undoubtedly change with technological advancements and innovation within the industry,” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis. “A continued commitment to the RFS will create the market certainty that is crucial for both first generation and second generation ethanol. But any effort to doubt or dismantle the RFS would block the growth of the industry and ultimately threaten American jobs, our environment and our energy security.”

Also “uncertain” according to the report is the “extent to which using biofuels rather than petroleum will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” “The idea that the RFS may not be an effective strategy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is regrettable given the published science on the subject,” said Coleman. “Even with land use change considerations, advanced biofuels are the lowest carbon fuels being developed in the marketplace; far and away less carbon intensive than electricity, natural gas and even hydrogen fuel cells.”

In our space, Novozymes is best known for their work in developing enzymes for the biofuels industry. However, the company is working in other areas of energy as well. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected their carbon capture project as one of 16 technologies chosen for funding. They are partnering with Doosan Power Systems, University of Kentucky, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on the three-year, $2 million dollar project of which 80 percent will be funded by the DOE.

The project is unique because it brings together experts in enzyme technology, power generation, gas separations, and ultrasonic technology development. Together, the group will develop and evaluate the performance of an integrated laboratory system that uses an experimental enzyme, provided by Novozymes, together with ultrasonics in a low temperature process to separate carbon dioxide from flue gas.

“Enzyme technology has enabled many industrial processes to operate with lower energy requirements and better sustainability than can be achieved by conventional approaches, which is also our goal for this project,” said Steen Skjold-Jorgensen, Novozymes vice president, research and development. “However, this project is not just about an enzyme. Innovation across disciplines and integration of processes is essential to bring new technologies forward in the CO2 capture field. We are very happy to participate together with our skilled collaborators on the project and appreciate DOE’s support in bringing such projects together.”

In other recent news, Novozymes has joined Nidus Partners to select and develop early stage technologies. Nidus was launched in September 2010 and uses its partners to help identify market opportunities and than seek out entrepreneurs to develop the technologies to meet the needs. Partners have a right of first offer for the innovations developed through Nidus.

“The investment and participation of Novozymes, a recognized world leader in bioinnovation, is another major milestone for Nidus,” stated Vicki Gonzalez, managing partner of Nidus. “This deal further confirms our unique approach in leveraging our partners’ strategic market insight to efficiently select and de-risk early-stage energy technologies.”

Here is unique use of solar. Carlisle Energy Services (CES) has completed its Sepctro PowerCap Exposed Geomembrane Solar Cover system in Madison County, New York. This technology will “cover” the landfill for up to 30 years. The eight-acre demonstration system feature’s the GeoTPO Geomembrane with a south-facing 40kWp DC integrated solar photovoltaic array powered by Uni-Solar. The system is expected to offset almost all of the power requirements of the Madison County ARC Recycling Facility located on site.

The Madison County landfill is the first in the country to apply this technology in a closure project and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided a grant in an effort to showcase the technology to other landfill owners.

“Carlisle Energy Services is proud to have helped Madison County develop a sustainable landfill closure system that generates clean solar energy,” said Carlisle’s Director of Landfill Solutions Arthur Mohr Jr. “This project demonstrates the merits of our GeoTPO Geomembrane as a viable long-term closure system for landfill owners.”

Other plans for the site include a landfill gas system that captures the heat generated by the turbine engines to dry lumber on site. This energy will be used to heat the building. In addition, the owners are considering adding other alternative energy elements such as a windmill, hydroponic greenhouses and/or additional solar systems.

“The photovoltaic landfill cover will play an integral role in Madison County’s growing renewable energy initiative, and we are proud to demonstrate the technical and commercial feasibility of Carlisle’s unique landfill closure system,” added James Zecca, Madison County Solid Waste Department Director.

In the third installation of RFA Vice President of Research, Geoff Cooper’s series on ethanol plant improvements, he highlights how improvements in farming practices and ethanol efficiency have allowed greater productivity and cost efficiencies. He explained that in 2008-2010, the ethanol industry was producing nearly 440 gallons of ethanol per acre, a 50 percent improvement over the average from just 15 years earlier. He continued by noting that future projections, which include the use of cellulosic ethanol such as producing fuel from corn stover and corn cobs, plus corn could approach 800 gallons of ethanol per acre.

So how else have these efficiencies improved the ethanol industry? They have directly contributed to ethanol ability’s to lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from gasoline on a well-to-wheels basis (or better known as lifecycle analysis), explained Cooper. He said that six recent reports show that corn ethanol reduced GHG’s by 28-53 percent using current technologies. He continues by highlighting that GHG reductions will continue to improve as technology improves.

Simultaneously, GHG emissions are getting worse for the oil industry. This is due to the fact that oil is getting harder to extract and oil shale and tar sand technologies create more emissions than predecessor technologies.

Cooper concluded by saying that both American farmers and ethanol producers are investing in technology that will continue to lower their carbon footprint while at the same time producing more food, feed and fiber than ever before with less resources.

Remember the Green Scissors report from last year that suggest to save money cut ethanol subsidies? Well, the latest version is now available. Green Scissors 2011 says that ending a half trillion in environmentally harmful subsidies will go a long way to solving our budget woes. The report, sponsored by Friends of the Earth, The Heartland Institute, Public Citizen, and Taxpayers for Commonsense, provides a roadmap for savings up to $380 billion over five years. The group says this equals the amount the congressional Super Committee has been charged with cutting in half the time.

The authors write in the report, “While all four groups have different missions, histories, goals and ideas about the role of government, we all agree that we can begin to overcome our nation’s budgetary and environmental woes by tackling spending that is not only wasteful but environmentally harmful.”

So what do they want to cut? Fossil fuel, nuclear, alternative energy, and crop subsidies to name a few. They also want to cut land and water projects and kill road projects along with some Army Corps of Engineers water projects.

According to the report the federal government could end the following programs and save the United States:

• $72,000,000,000 for general revenue transfers to the Highway Trust Fund
• $30,000,000,000 for crop insurance
• $4,820,000,000 for Oil and Gas Royalty relief

Several lawmakers reacted to the report and Rep. Earl Blumeanauer (D-OR) said, “The 2011 Green Scissors Report is a reminder that it’s time for Congress to have a serious, rational discussion about cutting the budget. With painful budget cuts already under discussion that will require American families to make sacrifices, it is only fair, for example, that we also stop the handouts to our richest oil companies.”

Hey, I’m all for cutting budgets and its good to see that the report recommends cutting energy subsidies across the board, but I must ask what would happen to our energy bills if poof, over night they’re all gone? Will we we lose our innovation in alternative energy technologies and be stuck with the status quo? Now how environmentally friendly is that?

Can we clean up the environment and make money at the same time? The answer is yes according to L. Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen, the authors of “Climate Capitalism.” They write, “Two words define the current era: ‘climate’ and ‘capitalism.’ ” The authors begin by talking about America’s economic collapse and then reframe the argument around the environment from one of a moral or environmental issue to one of a “crisis of capitalism.”

The authors write, “What is little recognized is that the twin threats, to the climate and to the economy, are linked in both cause and cure. Unless nations move aggressively to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy, key elements of the transition away from fossil fuels and necessary to save the climate, it is difficult to see how our economy can lift itself from recession or avoid further crises. Solving the climate crisis IS THE WAY OUT of the economic crisis,” (authors’ emphasis).

Now that the stage is set, Lovins and Cohen begin providing case studies of sorts of different companies that have improved their bottom line by investing in energy efficiency and sustainable technologies. For example, Toyota became the largest auto maker in the world through the production of hybrid vehicles and fuel efficient cars while U.S. automakers continued to churn out oversized SUVs when a consumer green shift was taking place.

Conventional thinking around the issue of reducing green house gas emissions has held that averting climate catastrophe will cost the world trillions of dollars during a time countries can’t afford to invest due to the financial crisis. However, the authors argue that climate capitalists will seek out economic opportunities in the context of averting runaway climate chaos that will both mitigate climate change as well as offer profits.

Climate capitalists will be successful, the authors write, because they follow the principles of natural capitalism. The first principle is buying time by using all resources as efficiently as possible. The second principle is redesigning how we make and deliver all products and services using approaches such as cradle-to-cradle concepts, Biomimicry, the circular economy, Design for the Environment, and others.

While the information was interesting, and arguably relevant to supporting the authors’ argument, I found it to be a bit difficult to digest – the cause appeared to be information overload. But I still managed to grasp hold of the big takeaway – if you believe that the world is in fact threatened by climate crisis, then can you afford to not do anything? Lovins and Cohen say no. Those who choose not to plan and invest in a future based on sustainable practices will fail miserably.

This week I watched the documentary, “Deep Green,” written and produced by Matt Briggs. The documentary takes the position that global warming is real and global warming is serious but, “We can fix this.” Using a combination of animation shorts such as “The Krill is Gone” along with interviews of leading global warming influencers, the documentary says that if we don’t cut out carbon emissions between 80-90 percent in the next few years, it will be too late to reverse its course and well, we’re doomed.

The documentary travels to nine different countries including Germany, Sweden, China and the U.S. to take a look at actions taken to solve global warming. The film features green building projects, renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar and highlights energy efficiency strategies. Briggs interviewed several environmental “who’s who’s” including Lester Brown, the founder of the Earth Policy Institute; David Suzuki, Co-Founder of The David Suzuki Foundation; James Woolsey, former CIA Director and founding member of Set America Free Coalition; Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma; and Amory Lovins, Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

The documentary was well done and beautifully produced and did an excellent job on intertwining commentary, with interviews, with animated shorts, and solutions. And Brigg’s solutions are not presented as once and done, a strategy often undertook. He continues to lay out solutions over, and over so that you walk away with some solid personal actions you can take to mitigate your own personal carbon footprint.
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POET Biorefining – Caro has received the 2011 Green Agri-Business Designation from the Michigan Agri-Business Association. The ethanol plant received the award for its efforts to integrate environmental practices into its operations. The award focuses on efforts by companies to protect Michigan’s natural resources, conserve energy and reduce impact on water land and air.

“The Michigan Agri-Business Association wants to shine a light on the many agricultural businesses that are doing the right thing, and keeping Michigan’s natural resources strong and healthy,” MABA President Jim Byrum said. “Conservation, sustainability and energy efficiency are a way of life for these Michigan businesses, saving both money and resources. These businesses are good for both our industry and Michigan’s future, and we want to highlight their efforts.”

To reduce water use while improving water quality, POET Biorefining – Caro uses a total water recovery system to eliminate wastewater discharge and a waste heat recovery system that recycles both heat and water. It uses the Load Toad DDGS loader to get more product onto each rail car and conducts a recycling program.

David Gloer, GM of POET Biorefining – Caro added, “We produce renewable fuel, so reducing waste and energy use is a natural focus for POET Biorefining – Caro,” General Manager David Gloer said. “It’s a great honor to be recognized by the MABA for those efforts.”

It seems like I just don’t have enough time to watch TV, unless of course I’m holed up in a hotel room as I am tonight. I just happen to be flipping channels when I stopped on a rerun of the Simpson’s, “The Squirt and the Whale.” This episode was created in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day (2010) and I’ve been so out of touch apparently, I never saw it until tonight. I have to say that while the episode was not entirely supportive of renewable energy, the Simpson’s go off the grid with their own personal wind turbine and it was pretty funny.

The move to renewable energy is spurred by a high electric bill and sends the family to the Alternative Energy Expo. As the family piles into the car, to avert thieves in their absence, they leave on all the lights, including their Christmas lights. Once they get to the expo, several things catch their eye including solar panels and biofuels where boothmates “switchgrass” and “corn ethanol” get in a fight over who is better.

But what really catches Homer’s eye is the promise of the wind turbine, which he installs in his backyard.

Lisa: Dad, you are leading the way in clean energy.

Homer: Yep. I Al Gore’d it pretty good.

Lisa: The Simpsons are off the grid and so far it’s going great.

Until…

Homer: Who turned off the wind?

Lisa: Dad, if we’re really off the grid than we won’t get power when the wind is still.

Homer: Well, I’m not crawling back to Big Electricity. From now on the Simpson’s are living intermittently.

Ok, so while the message wasn’t perfect you know when a technology has captured the minds of the general public when it shows up in pop culture. Now let’s hope that renewable energy does a better job of capturing the minds of our politicians so it can continue to “show up” in our backyards.

To learn more about the effects of energy facilities on wildlife, the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) has created a wildlife and renewable energy program. The study aims to understand the movements of birds and bats and how they interact with various forms of energy such as wind turbines. BRI is currently involved in several areas of wind power research and marine spatial planning in the Eastern United States.

“Careful siting of renewable energy development may play a key role in minimizing impacts to wildlife,” said David Evers, Ph.D., BRI’s executive director and chief scientist. “However, this requires detailed knowledge of where animals breed, winter, and migrate.”

For the past two and a half years, the BRI team has studied migration and movement patterns of birds and bats over the Gulf of Maine and along the Atlantic coast. They discovered that migratory owls will fly hundreds of miles out over the Atlantic on their way south to South America and the Caribbean. BRI believes this could be important in understanding how these owls, and other birds, could be affected by offshore wind turbines.

“Wind developers and wildlife managers in both the U.S. and Europe have called for the collection of preconstruction monitoring data to minimize the potential impacts of facilities on wildlife,” says Kate Williams, director of BRI’s wildlife and renewable energy program. “This can be a hot-button issue, but BRI’s main goal is to provide sound scientific data to decision makers and the public to inform debate on siting and other issues. We don’t have a pro- or anti-wind agenda.”

One of BRI’s goals is to make the information available to policy makers as well as the general public. They will be hosting a two-day workshop about the ecological effects of offshore wind power on November 8-9, 2011 at the University of Southern Main in Portland.

Woe is a country who can’t break its dependence on foreign oil. But how do you make such a bold move when our entire society is built upon its wares? And even more so, how do you break the chains when there are no other alternatives? This are some of the topics discussed in this week’s book, “Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift To A New Energy Future,” by Steve Hallett with John Wright. Hallett is a professor in the department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue and Wright is an energy and environmental journalist.

The premise of the book is that the world is running out of oil while at the same time depleting itself of its natural resources. These two issues can combine to cause destruction and complete collapse of a society. The book begins by highlighting some of the societies that have disappeared due to lack of resources whether it be water or trees or others. One of the most famous case studies he uses is that of Easter Island, now owned by Chile, and the irony that although the people knew their future was in jeopardy due to diminished resources, they used them all anyway. Will this be society today?

Hallett is not a fan of biofuels as a solution to our problems. He also believes renewable energy, such as wind or solar, will only become mainstream when it is the only option. He also doesn’t think we will be laughing 30, 40, 50 years from now about how peak oil and climate change were myths.

In terms of the future energy sources, Hallett believes it will be one in which nuclear and hydrogen play major roles.
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Our ethanol FOE, Friends of the Earth, is back in action with a new TV campaign, “No Sense,” designed to encourage policymakers in DC to dump ethanol subsidies. The campaign was launched just in time for the first Republican presidential debate set to take place in New Hampshire next Monday at St. Anselm College. The campaign is a joint effort between Friends of the Earth and Taxpayers for Common Sense, another organization that has been vocal for months regarding the end of subsidies.

“Corn ethanol is not living up to its promise,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. “Ethanol production requires tons of petrochemicals and diverts land that could be better used for growing traditional food. This country’s ethanol tax credits have increased food prices around the world and made climate pollution even worse.”

Friends of the Earth note that presidential hopefuls Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum have already come out of the gates with plans to phase out subsidies. In fact, Pawlenty was bold enough to announce this during his first official campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa. On the flip side, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich favor keeping them in place while Ron Paul and Herman Cain want them ended immediately. The ethanol industry has also agreed that the subsides, such as VEETC should be phased out, but to eliminate them immediately would cause undo harm to the ethanol industry.

Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense added, “Ethanol subsidies are a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars and do little more than line the pockets of big oil companies. Republican candidates have to decide whether they put America’s taxpayers before their personal political gain.”

If early actions are any indication, then ethanol subsidies should be a hot topic in upcoming election (you can agree or disagree in this week’s poll).

So for all of you DF readers who don’t favor ethanol, here is your chance to voice your opinion – Friends of the Earth has a site for you to send letters to your local newspapers expressing your opinions.

The biofuels industry got married when a first generation ethanol plant walked down the isle with a second generation algae plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. BioProcess Algae and Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE) tied the knot and celebrated their anniversary last month with the announcement that their first babies, a set of Grower Harvester bioreactors, went online. This marked the last phase into adulthood – the algae plant is months away from commercial scale production.

Tim Burns, CEO of BioProcess Algae said this project is about both co-location opportunities as well as adding value to carbon. The algae plant will utilize the waste streams of the ethanol plant including waste nutrients and waste water. In addition, the algae plant uses the carbon dioxide from the corn ethanol plant to grow and thrive. Suddenly a product produced from a first generation ethanol plant with what amounts to negative value now has a tremendous positive value to a second generation plant. When people figure out that carbon from things such as a first generation ethanol plant has value, others will be on board, said Burns.

Years ago, Todd Becker, CEO of Green Plains Renewable Energy, said his company began looking for emerging technologies that could add value to his plant. These included adding things such as inedible corn oil extraction technology, but also the partnership with a second generation biorefinery that could utilize their plant’s waste streams. His company recognized the incredible partnership before any others and this fall his company along with BioProcess Algae will be building their algae farm, the last phase before they begin to produce commercial scale algae biofuels.

In the future, Becker and Burns both believe that every first generation biofuel plant will marry a second generation technology and with these marriages, the biofuels industry will rise to the challenge of producing billions upon billions of gallons of domestic renewable energy for America.

Learn more about the first biofuel marriage here: Domestic Fuel Cast

You can also subscribe to the DomesticFuel Cast here.