Domestic Fuel

Attendees of the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo in Denver, Colorado heard something they most likely already knew: the past year was a rough one for the ethanol industry.

While some folks such as Mike Bryan, CEO of BBI International point out that much of the green fuel’s woes were a concerted effort by those outside of the industry to spread misinformation, Bryan and Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association insisted it’s time for ethanol to take back the message and spread the good news… like the fact that the industry has created 500,000 jobs and pumps $66 billion into the American economy.

Others focused on how new, alternative feedstocks, in particular, cellulosic, and advances in corn technology will make it possible to have the food, feed and fuel this country needs in the years to come.

It was a fascinating discussion, and we bring you a bit of the conversations from FEW in this latest edition of the Domestic Fuel cast. Listen to folks like Bryan; Dinneen; Dave Vander Griend, CEO of ICM Incorporated; Jeff Broin, CEO of ethanol producer POET; David Hiller, Executive Director of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory; and Larry Johnson from the North American Business Development division of biomass ethanol producer Inbicon here:

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Minnesota is the place this summer for biofuel promotions! The state that boats the most E85 fueling locations will offer E85 at a discounted rate at a handful of sites within the next couple of months.

The Meeker County Corn Growers, Minnesota Corn Growers Association & MN Clean Air Choice Team will be sponsoring a promotion at the Valley Quick Stop in Eden Valley, MN on Thursday, June 25 from 2 pm - 5 pm. The station will offer E85 for 85 cents off per gallon. Also, the Renville County Corn & Soybean Growers, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association & MN Clean Air Choice Team will offer the same discount at the Bird Island Handi Stop in Bird Island, MN from 10 am - 1 pm on June 26. This fueling site will also offer B5 at a discount of 10 cents per gallon.

In July, promotions will take place at:

July 8, 2009
Fairfax Mobil Mart in Fairfax, MN
10 am - 1 pm
E85 85¢ off per gallon, B5 10¢ off per gallon

July 9, 2009
Consumer’s Coop Cenex in Litchfield, MN
2 pm - 5 pm
E85 85¢ off per gallon

July 24, 2009
Cenex C-Store in Glenwood, MN
2 pm - 6 pm
E85 85¢ off per gallon

July 31, 2009
Jack’s BP in Watkins, MN
2 pm - 5 pm

For more detailed biofuel promotions, go to www.CleanAirChoice.org.

Don’t know where to buy your biodiesel? Un-enlightened about ethanol’s whereabouts? Perplexed about propane? Well, a new tool from the National Renewable Energy Labs and Google could help you be a more active alternative fuel buyer.

Ecogeek.org reports that the two have launched TransAtlas, an interactive map that shows all existing and planned alternative fuel stations across the country:

The mapping tool allows you to view each type of fuel station as a layer, so you can view one at at time or all fuel types simultaneously. The seven alternative fuels mapped are hydrogen, propane, electric, liquified natural gas, compressed natural gas, E85 and biodiesel.

The tool also allows you to view vehicle density layers for hybrid-electric, flex-fuel and diesel cars. Electric and hydrogen stations are far behind fuels like E85 and biodiesel, but their locations correspond pretty neatly with the areas where those cars are being driven. I’d like to think that if more of those types of stations are built in more areas, the corresponding vehicles will follow.

This should help solve the problem that too many well-intentioned, potential alternative fuel-using people are having: not being able to find their favorite green fuel.

In recent weeks, the city of Sacramento has added 25 E85 fueling locations. The city is now boasting as being the nation’s ethanol epicenter, at least west of the Mississippi.

California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols, recently unveiled the E85 fueling facility at a Valero on Madison Avenue. She said, “This is a test market for the state. We’re in the early stages of the revolution. Consumers will see a lot of new fuels coming onto the market.”

The clean burning alternative is selling for $.66 less per gallon than regular unleaded at the Valero. Sasha Faught of Natomas, who owns a flex-fuel Chevy Tahoe, has been using E85. “I want to be green,” she said. “Let’s face it, we’re using up our resources. It’s smart to get on with it.”

The new E85 dispensers were funded mainly by a grant administered by the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. The grant from the California Resources Board totaled $3.5 million.

There are currently 23,000 flexible fuel vehicles registered in Sacramento that can use E85.

Non-hydro sources of electricity continues to gain market share according to the latest statistics published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its “Electric Power Monthly” report released on June 15, 2009. The even better news is while renewable energy is growing, coal and natural gas use in steadily decreasing (five and four percent respectively) while nuclear power has remained virtually stagnant.

When comparing the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2008, renewable energy sources used for electrical production increased by 7.2 percent and accounted for 10 percent of the nation’s electrical generation. Conventional hydroelectric power increased by 4.6 percent while all other renewables combined (biomass, wind, geothermal, and solar) increased by 12.4 percent. When comparing 2009 to 2008 renewable resources have been and continue to be on a steady uphill trajactory.

“Apologists for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries persist in trying to mislead the public by repeatedly spreading the myth that renewables account for only a tiny fraction of U.S. electricity production,” comments Ken Bossong, executive director of the SUN DAY Campaign.  “However, the hard numbers document the continuing dramatic growth in renewable energy’s already-significant contribution to the nation’s electricity supply – a contribution that will eventually leave coal and nuclear behind in the dust.”

As 2009 continues, the momenteum continues to gain traction as renewables accounted for nearly 10.9 percent of net U.S. electrical generation in March 2009. Conventional hydroelectric power provided more than 6.9 percent of total U.S. electrical generation while other renewables generated almost four percent of electric power. Most notably, net generation from wind sources was 38.5 percent higher in March 2009 than it had been in March 2008.

According to the Clean Fuels Development Coalition, two timely publications addressing the environment were recently released at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop by the Ethanol Across America (EAA) education campaign.

The first publication is part of the highly successful Issue Brief series which to date has covered subjects such as Net Energy Balance; Economic Impacts of Ethanol; Food, Feed and Fuel; and other areas. The latest in the series released is the Environmental Impacts of Ethanol Production.

Ethanol Across America Director Douglas A. Durante said the focus on the environment and the urgency to go green makes this is a timely publication. “As ethanol production increases in response to the Renewable Fuel Standard, it is important that people understand the environmental impacts of ethanol, and this Issue Brief should serve that purpose very well. With reduced emissions, low energy use, minimal water consumption, increasingly efficient farming practices, and a resulting low impact on land use, we have a good story to tell.”

The direct and indirect land use issue has been particularly visible of late due to proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations and Durante said the new White Paper also released here this week is a complimentary piece to the brief. The White Paper series is an editorial-like forum for ideas, proposals, concepts, and “think pieces” according to Durante and has featured numerous guest authors.

“Rethinking the Value of Corn Ethanol Co-Products in Lifecycle Assessments: Producing More Food and Fuel with Less Carbon” is written by Dave Vander Griend, President and CEO of ICM, Inc., one of the nation’s leading ethanol process design and engineering firms. Mr. Vander Griend makes a compelling case in the White Paper for totally rethinking the land use issue in consideration of several critical factors that EPA models and others are not considering.

“It is important we look at the net impact of corn usage for ethanol, and that net is considerably lower than what the numbers might indicate on the surface. We return 1/3 of the volume of corn back to the animal feed supply, but we are returning nearly 1/2 of the nutritional, or feeding value. The end result is that for every two bushels of feed corn we use for ethanol we are returning one back into the supply.”

Vander Griend goes on to explain in the White Paper that along with the feed value, the increased yields of corn grown per acre means that meeting the first 15 billion gallons of ethanol demand of the RFS from corn will have no land use impact in that essentially no new land is being used — and over time there will be a reduction in land use. “All of this leads to less carbon emissions, which is a fundamental objective of our energy strategy,” he said.

At the 2009 Fuel Ethanol Workshop, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) announced that it intends to unite with Growth Energy and become Growth Energy Market Development. In that role, they will continue in their 13-year mission to increase the availability of higher ethanol blends and flex fuel vehicles (FFVs). The additional resources will bolster Growth Energy’s aggressive goals to proliferate blender pumps across the country.

“For more than a decade, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition has been carrying on the important mission of increasing the availability and use of ethanol,” said Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Co-Chairman of Growth Energy. “We are excited that they decided to join forces with us and continue that work as a part of Growth Energy.”

In existence since 1996, the NEVC has assembled a broad coalition of like-minded industry and government leaders, environmentalists and consumers, and many other organizations and individuals interested in reducing oil imports, stimulating the economy, and improving the environment. The non-profit group had 1,600 members and their employees now become part of the Growth Energy team.

Phil Lampert, who was executive director of NEVC since 1997 and is now Vice President of Market Development for Growth Energy, said, “In 1995, the year before NEVC was founded, there were 10 E85 pumps and 500 FFVs in the United States. Today, we have more than 2,000 E85 and blender pumps and more than 8 million FFVs. As part of Growth Energy, I look forward to working with a wide variety of supportive groups and individuals to double or triple those numbers in the next few years.”

NEVC is the second ethanol association to become part of Growth Energy. The first was the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council which combined with Growth Energy late last year.

I’d like to take a poll to see how many people thought that gas prices would never get higher than last summer where some areas around the country nearly topped out at $5.00 a gallon and for several weeks consumers in the South couldn’t even get gas.

Can you say deja vu? According to the Nebraska Ethanol Board, nationally gas prices have risen almost every day for the last 42 days. Several analysts expect that a return to $100 oil and $4.00 gas isn’t too far behind. Extremists predict that we could see $200 barrel of oil before the end of the year.

By now, you’d think that people would realize that ethanol helps consumers save money at the pump. Last summer, an Iowa State University study demonstrated that ethanol helped consumers save on average $500 per year.

Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, notes that Nebraska drivers have already saved over $4.5 million in 2009 by buying E10. “If all the fuel sold in Nebraska in the past five years was E85, Nebraskans would have saved $2.6 billion.”

Since energy is tied so closely to our economy many economists are speculating that this steady rise in oil prices could prolong America’s recession. At the beginning of the month, OPEC’s Abdullah al-Badri told attendees at the Global Energy Summit that the price of crude oil needed to be much higher. OPEC intends to do this through modifying production quotas and shutting down oil refineries “until the surplus is depleted”. Demand for oil and gas has dropped 2.6 million barrels per day worldwide.

As people begin to trim their budgets to offset the higher fuel prices, you’d think they would send Big Oil a message that, “we’re not going to take it”.

Nebraska Ethanol Board chair Mike Thede sums it up, “We can invest in alternative, renewable, inexpensive fuels like ethanol, or we can continue the billion-dollar giveaway to Big Oil.”

Members of the biofuels industries, including those growing the feedstocks to make the green fuels of ethanol and biodiesel, made their way to Washington, D.C. this week to try to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from implementing rules that the biofuels folks will hurt their industry.

The biggest point of contention is the EPA’s Indirect Land Use proposal that could end up making American biodiesel ineligible to be part of the Renewable Fuels Standard… endangering the biodiesel industry and the very standard designed to lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. And while ethanol is getting a pass for now, those from that industry are worried how the Indirect Land Use provisions, which estimates the deforestation of rain forests in places such as South America based on how much in row crops U.S farmers grow, could eventually affect them.

Those testifying at the EPA hearing included Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen; Steve Ruh, chair of the National Corn Growers Association’s Ethanol Committee; the National Biodiesel Board’s Manning Feraci; the American Soybean Association’s Vice President Ray Gaesser, a soybean producer from Corning, Iowa; POET Vice President for science and technology Dr. Mark Stowers; and Brent Erickson, executive vice president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Industrial and Environmental Section. About 60 people testified at this hearing.

You can hear more about it here:

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Shell has become the first retailer to begin selling cellulosic ethanol in Ottawa, Ontario made from wheat straw. The E10 blend will be available for one month, beginning today, at all Shell stations across the city. The advanced biofuel is produced locally from non-food raw materials at Iogen Energy Corporation’s demonstration plant, using advanced conversion processes. Iogen and Shell are partners in the plant, which now produces 40,000 liters of fuel per month.

While all ethanol reduces carbon dioxide, cellulosic ethanol can reduce CO2 tailpipe emissions by up to 90 percent as compared to gasoline. Shell has been working for several years, in conjunction with Iogen, to develop and bring to market advanced biofuels.

“I am excited we are leading the pack in cellulosic ethanol production technology and, with this event, showing what is possible in the future,” said Dr. Graeme Sweeney, Shell Executive Vice President Future Fuels and CO2. “While it will be some time before general customers can buy this product at local service stations, we are working with governments to make large-scale production economic.”

Iogen’s CEO, Brian Foody noted that, “With the volumes we’re producing today, we’re confident about the future.”