Domestic Fuel

Waste-to-biofuels company Enerkem has launched a new research project with the Government of Canada. The project objective is to develop new catalytic processes for the conversion of waste into drop-in biofuels that can be used to replace conventional gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The Government of Canada is contributing $1.1 million to this project via Natural Resources Canada.

“Enerkem’s core business is the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol, and we now intend to take advantage of our flexible technology platform to gradually expand our line of biofuels and chemical products,” said Vincent Chornet, president and CEO of Enerkem. “This research project is part of our growth strategy and demonstrates our commitment towards innovation and a greener economy.”

Enerkem’s technology produces a chemical-grade synthesis gas that serves as a key intermediate for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. This R&D project will be conducted at Enerkem’s research and development pilot facility in Sherbrooke, Quebec, in collaboration with the University of Sherbrooke.

“Through the ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative, our Government is investing in innovative clean energy technologies that create jobs, generate new economic opportunities and protect the environment,” added the Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. “This program demonstrates our tangible support for energy projects that drive energy innovation.”

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack today renewed a historic agreement with U.S. dairy producers to accelerate the adoption of innovative waste-to-energy projects and energy efficiency improvements on U.S. dairy farms, both of which help producers diversify revenues and reduce utility expenses on their operations. The pact extends a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

USDA support for agricultural and waste-to-energy research has played a key role in the agreement’s success to date. Since signing the MOU, USDA has made nearly 180 awards that helped finance the development, construction, and biogas production of anaerobic digester systems with Rural Development programs, such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels, Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, Value Added Producer Grants, amongst others. These systems capture methane and produce renewable energy for on-farm use and sale onto the electric grid. Additionally, during this period, USDA awarded approximately 140 REAP loans and grants to help dairy farmers develop other types of renewable energy and energy efficiency systems at their operations.

Anaerobic digester technology is a proven method of capturing methane from waste products, such as manure, and converting into heat and electricity. The technology utilizes generators that are fueled by the captured methane. Dairy operations with anaerobic digesters routinely generate enough electricity to power hundreds of homes per year.

The Secretary was joined on a conference call to make the announcement by The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy CEO Tom Gallagher and Doug Young, a farmer from NY who has benefited from this MOU.

Listen to that call here: USDA/Dairy MOU press call

Aerosol Control Technologies (ACT) of Washington University in St. Louis, has won the $10,000 Missouri Clean Energy Student Challenge. The team will compete for more than $300,000 in prizes in the second annual Clean Energy Student Challenge on April 4, 2013 in Chicago. ACT is developing an advanced particulate matter capture system that will significantly improve diesel engine efficiency using electrostatic precipitators.

“ACT absolutely exceeded expectations and brought a first-class business plan with cutting-edge technology to the Challenge,” said Joshua Campbell, executive director of the Missouri Energy Initiative who held the Missouri competition. “This was their second year and their success clearly demonstrates what a tremendous learning experience it is. They took what they learned last year and created an application that I think could take them to the national competition.”

Applications to the Missouri Clean Energy Student Challenge were submitted in a range of technology areas from waste-to-energy solutions and biofuels to solar cells and new wind energy innovations. As the Missouri winner, ACT will compete in the 2013 Challenge and will receive mentoring and training to prepare business plan presentations to a judging panel comprised of venture capitalists, corporate investors and business leaders. The winner of the 2013 Student Challenge will compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Competition in Washington, D.C. this summer.

“The Student Challenge is truly bringing the best and the brightest students from some of our nation’s most prestigious universities to the forefront of the clean energy world,” added Amy Francetic, executive director of the Clean Energy Trust. “They have taken wonderfully innovative technologies and built viable business plans around them.”

A new report shows that advanced energy became a $1.1 trillion market globally in 2011, outpacing even pharmaceutical manufacturing worldwide, and the U.S. sector is expected to have grown by 19 percent last year, with American revenues rising to $157 billion. The report from Advanced Energy Economy highlights how in 2011 alone, this advanced energy sector, including hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, waste and biomass, generated more than $20 billion in federal, state and local taxes:

“Advanced energy is what happens when energy meets 21st Century technologies,” said Graham Richard, CEO of Advanced Energy Economy, a national business organization. “This report defines precisely, for the first time, the size, breadth, and scope of the advanced energy industry. With a $1 trillion global market and a U.S. industry that is already bigger by revenue than trucking, advanced energy is a significant contributor to the economy today and has greater potential for tomorrow.”

AEE defines advanced energy as the best available commercial technologies for meeting energy needs today and tomorrow. With global energy consumption projected to rise nearly 40 percent by 2030, future prosperity depends on meeting this growing demand with energy that is secure, clean and affordable.

Officials compare the potential of the advanced energy sector to transform society and the economy to how the Internet has created so many new opportunities. AEE admits that its estimates might be a bit conservative, understating the size and extent of advanced energy economic activity in the U.S. and around the world.

According to a recent white paper from Renewable Waste Intelligence, there are two key issues facing the biofuels industry: consumers and vehicle manufacturers must be persuaded to adopt new, more environmentally friendly gasoline blends; and advanced biofuels manufacturers must demonstrate commercial capability and play catch-up to Environmental Protection Agency targets for production.

With feedstock prices high for several feedstocks, including corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel, many producers are looking for alternative feedstocks, or to move into “advanced” biofuel production. An interesting phenomena is that as waste feedstocks are more readily adopted for biodiesel production, such as yellow grease, animal fats, waste oil, etc. are used, the feedstock prices increase.

This is one reason, according to the white paper, that producers are looking to lower-cost feedstocks and a burgeoning market is waste. The white paper cites 2005 EPA estimates more than 246 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) was generated with 133 million tons sent to landfills, 79 million tons recylcled and 33.4 million tons used to generate energy. Of this, millions of tons that is ordinarily sent to landfills would make a suitable feedstock.

In many cases, local governments pay for waste to be shipped to a landfill, the average is $42 per ton. However, by citing a biofuels facility near municipal processing facilities, biofuel producers can benefit from undercutting these costs while achieving “negative” feedstock costs, according to the paper. Some analysts have noted that MSW prices could eventually increase, as happened with other waste feedstocks, technological barriers make it unlikely for this to happen any time over the next decade.

The quest for the best technologies and most affordable feedstocks will continue for many years. Many of these issues will be discussed during the 3rd Annual Municipal Solid Waste to Biofuels and Bioproducts Summit being held in Orlando, Florida February 20-21, 2013. Click here for more information and to register online.

Fulcrum BioEnergy has raised $175 million to fund construction of the Sierra BioFuels Plant, its first municipal solid waste (MSW) to low-carbon fuels plant. The monies will also be used to fund the development of other projects. The company had been moving toward an initial public offering (IPO), but with the capital raised, has postponed its IPO plans.

“With our recent success in securing attractive sources of capital, we are proceeding with our planned development program. The current IPO market environment remains challenging, especially for development stage companies like Fulcrum,” said Fulcrum President and Chief Executive Officer E. James Macias. “Because of this we have secured commitments from alternative capital resources to advance our MSW to renewable fuel program and we have withdrawn our registration statement. We intend to pursue an initial public offering in the future when market conditions are more favorable.”

Fulcrum’s engineering and technology teams have made several enhancements to the design of Sierra and to its proprietary MSW to ethanol process. The company expects these improvements will dramatically reduce its cost to produce renewable fuel to less than $0.75 per gallon, down from approximately $1.25 per gallon as previously disclosed. The cost of production at future Fulcrum plants is now expected to be less than $0.50 per gallon, down from $0.70 per gallon as previously estimated.

“These enhancements underscore our confidence in the attractive economics of our business model while further advancing Fulcrum as the industry’s low-cost producer of low-carbon transportation fuels,” added Macias.

A pilot facility has gone online in Ghana to convert human waste, or fecal sludge (FS), into biodiesel. The event was celebrated on World Toilet Day where researchers at Columbia University’s Engineering School in conjunction with Ghana with Waste Enterprises, Ltd., the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, are working together to take research developed in the lab to the community. The goal is to prove out a much needed new sanitation model for people in emerging countries.

“The FS to biodiesel pilot project could potentially address sustainable sanitation and introduce a new dimension into the sanitation value chain not only in Kumasi but globally, thus helping to ‘kill two birds with one stone,” said Anthony Mensah, Waste Management Director for the city of Kumasi. “The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly is therefore delighted to be part of this novel partnership.”

Entering its second year, the project is led by Kartik Chandran, an associate professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University’s school of engineering and applied science and Ashley Murray, Founder and CEO of Waste Enterprisers Ltd, a Ghanaian company that is working to reinvent the economics of sanitation in the developing world.

As part of this project, Chandran is developing an innovative technology to transform fecal sludge into biodiesel fuel and is working on converting a waste-processing facility into a biorefinery.

“This is a very exciting project for us,” said Chandran. “We are aiming to create a next-generation urban sanitation facility that will set new standards and serve as a model around the world. With the capacity to receive and treat 10,000 liters, or 2,500 gallons—a full sanitation truck carrying concentrated fecal matter from at least 5,000 people—of fecal sludge per day, this facility reaches way beyond the lab scale.”
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A stationary fuel cell power plant to support Microsoft’s data center research project in Cheyenne, Wyoming is in the works. The power plant will use renewable biogas generated by a wastewater treatment facility as the fuel source to generate clean, carbon-neutral electricity. The project will be used by Microsoft to evaluate the effectiveness of using FuelCell Energy power plants to convert biogas to power.

“With the demand for renewable energy resources outstripping available power supplies today, Microsoft is researching new methods to help our operations become more efficient and environmentally sustainable,” said Gregg McKnight, general manager, Data Center Advanced Development at Microsoft. “We’re excited by the potential for using stationary fuel cells to capture and recycle natural byproducts like biogas. This project will study methods to provide an economical and reliable power supply for data centers that is also scalable and economical for use by other industries.”

By Spring 2013, the sub-megawatt Direct FuelCell power plant will be installed at the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The fuel cell plant will provide 200 kilowatts of power for Microsoft’s Data Plant which will be housed in a modular IT pre-assembled component (ITPAC) that will house servers to recreate a data center environment. Excess power not used by the data center will be provided to the water reclamation facility to offset their electric costs. In the event of a grid outage, the Data Plant project and fuel cell plant will be configured to operate independently to provide continuous power.
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For those of you who are slacking off this afternoon and surfing the web looking for cool stories about renewable energy, well look no further. I have found the current greatest idea of the month: converting compost into fuel and then fueling cars made out of compost. Are you hooked?

Okay, so this is really not a real technology. The Onion is currently doing a spoof on Ted Talks and their lastest installment is on the greatest energy innovation of all time – compost. And it’s hilarious. The “innovator” says, “So how does it work? It’s quite simple. Instead of using gas, it uses compost.” He calls this concept, “compostization,” which he then describe the implementation plan. And leaves the fake audience with this thought to mull over, “Behind every great achievement is a visionary. I’ll be your visionary and you do the things I come up with.”

Yes, I must admit, I too would like to be your visionary and have everyone else do my work. That would be awesome!

I’m sure some of you are going to want to post a comment or send me an email or tweet that says it’s not funny to joke about something as serious as the need for new alternative energy sources. While I am an adamant believer that we do need to continue to develop innovatives technologies to produce energy, we also need to take a moment and be a less bit serious and have a little fun at our expense. And compost cars is just the ticket. I leave you with this famous quote, “Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves.”

Despite global struggles with the economy, investments in renewable energy technologies have continued to grow in 2011. New investments in renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydropower and solar hot water) reached $257 billion, and increase $37 billion from 2010. This according to research conducted by the WorldWatch Institute’s Climate and Energy program. In addition, during 2011, investments in renewable energy were $40 billion greater than in fossil fuel based technologies.

In 2011:

• Total renewable energy investment in industrial countries accounted for 65 percent of global investment. This is an increase of 21 percent to $168 billion in total.
• The 35 percent of global new investment that went to developing countries increased 10 percent to $89 billion. Of this total, China, India and Brazil accounted for $71 billion.
• “Financial new investment” in renewable energy installations in industrial countries outpaced investments in developing world. In 2010 investments in this category in developing countries surpassed those in industrial countries.
• Driven by a 50 percent reduction in price from 2010 to 2011, $147.4 billion was invested in solar compared with $83.8 for wind projects and $10.6 billion for biomass and waste-to-energy.
• Biofuels attracted the fourth highest total investment with $6.8 billion, followed by $5.8 billion for small hydro and $2.9 billion for geothermal installations.
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The expansion of the H-Power Energy-from-Waste (EfW) facility in Honolulu is complete. The facility is owned by the city of Honolulu and was designed, built and is operated by Covanta Energy. A third boiler was added increasing the facility’s capacity by 900 tons of municipal solid waste per day, with daily capacity is now at 3,000 tons.

With the completion of the project, all of the island’s post-recycled municipal solid waste is processed. In addition, the EfW plant can produce nearly 90 megawatts of renewable energy each year, which is about eight percent of the island’s total energy needs.

“Covanta is proud of our successful partnership with the City and County of Honolulu. The completed third boiler marks three years of hard work by the Covanta team, and celebrates the innovative thinking of the City and County in making the decision to move forward with this expansion.  The completed project brings a multitude of benefits including increased diversion of waste from landfills, reduction of greenhouse gases, more renewable energy and new jobs that will make a significant impact on Oahu’s economy and energy independence,” said Seth Myones, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Covanta.

The facility is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost one million tons each year due to the avoidance of methane from landfills, the offset of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel electrical production and the recovery of metals for recycling.

“By reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and creating energy from trash, H-POWER benefits the City environmentally and financially,” added Mayor Peter Carlisle. “With the third boiler, we can now divert even more opala from the landfill and continue to emphasize more recycling.”

During the World Biofuels Markets Brazil 2012 conference in São Paulo, SEE ALGAE Technology and Grupo JB took home the Brazilian Bioenergy Innovation of the Year award for their algae biofuel project. The Brazilian Bioenergy Deal of the Year award was given to GraalBio, Beta Renewables, DSM and Novozymes for their collaborative cellulosic ethanol production project.

Nadim Chaudhry, CEO of Green Power Conferences, said that the two projects using next generation feedstocks of microalgae and agricultural waste, will make significant economic and environmental impacts across Brazil. He added that these colloborations are just one of many demonstrating that the Brazilian bioenergy industry is making great progress.

SEE ALGAE (SAT) is developing infrastructure for the commercial production of algae-based biofuels and bioproducts. The award-winning $10 million project, currently under construction, comprises an industrial-scale microalgae production plant at the site of an existing JB sugarcane ethanol facility.

Anticipated to be operational in September 2013, the facility, being constructed in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco, will utilize wast CO2 emitted at the sugarcane ethanol plant to produce bioethanol and algal biomass from both natural and genetically modified algae strains. This algae production facility will utilize SAT’s proprietary photobioreactors to grow algae using the sugarcane facility’s CO2 waste stream as its primary feedstock.

The group anticipates the plant will annually produce 1.2 million liters (317,000 gallons) of algae oil for conversion into biodiesel and 1,100 tons of protein-rich algae biomass for the local cattle industry or, if operated with genetically engineered algae strains, up to 2.2 million liters (580,000 gallons) of bioethanol.
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California has released its 2012 Bioenergy Action Plan with the goal of improving the timeline to market of energy development, job creation and protection of public health and safety. The state defines bioenergy as energy produced from organic waste such as forest, urban and agricultural that would otherwise go into a landfill or be burned. The state is looking at Bioenergy to help create new jobs, protect the public from issues such as wildfires, landfill pollution, dairies, wastewater treatment facilities and other waste.

“Swift action on bioenergy will create jobs, increase local clean energy supplies, and help businesses grow in California,” said California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird. “Increasing bioenergy opportunities will also help California meet its climate change goals and protect public health and safety.”

The 2012 Bioenergy Action Plan was developed by a combination of state agencies and outside experts as directed by California Governor Brown. The plan contains more than 50 recommended actions to increase the use of organic waste, expand research and development, reduce permitting and regulatory challenges and address economic barriers to bioenergy development.

“Bioenergy is an exciting new frontier for agriculture,” said Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, one of the agencies that collaborated on the report. “It creates jobs, reduces energy costs and reduces pollution. Early adopters are already realizing these benefits and are blazing the path towards self-sufficiency for agriculture.”

Expanding bioenergy development benefits California agriculture by providing an onsite or local source of clean energy, either electricity or liquid fuels for farm and other vehicles. The state currently produces about 600 megawatts of electricity and 50 to 100 million gallon equivalents from organic waste each year. The state hopes to double these numbers through the execution of the plan recommendations.

There are many biorefining innovations taking place in the ethanol industry. During the 25th Annual Ethanol Conference, three company representatives discussed the research and technologies they were implementing or studying to increase the value of the ethanol production process.

Steve McNinch with Western Plains Energy said his company is looking at how to move into the advanced biofuels category of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). The biorenfinery, which produces ethanol from sorghum (milo), is currently installing technology to produce methane. His plant is also researching anaerobic digestion technologies that convert waste to energy. In addition, the plant is adding methane technology that will allow the plant to stop using natural gas as its electricity source and improve the ethanol’s carbon intensity score.

You can view Steve McNinch’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: click here: Ethanol and AD Integration to
Produce Advanced Biofuel

There are several ways you can make your biorefinery more efficient whether you operate a corn ethanol plant or a milo ethanol plant.  Dough Rivers with ICM presented one way you can get from first generation corn to second generation cellulose while using the same biorefinery infrastructure. The first way to get from a dry grind plant is to start doing some things to recover more of your starch to convert more of your targeted end product. ICM has developed a Selective Milling Technology that bolts onto the current plant and increases both ethanol yield and corn oil yield. The company is also developing a fiber separation technology. From here you can start thinking about converting fiber to ethanol and collecting cellulosic RINs (Renewable Identification Number). Today ICM is testing its technologies in its pilot plant and expects to be offering the ethanol industry bolt-on cellulosic technologies soon.

You can view Doug River’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: click here: ICM Pathway from Gen 1 Ethanol to Gen 2 Ethanol

Highwater Ethanol is one of the last ethanol facilities built in the U.S and the biorefinery is looking at moving into advanced biofuels via isobutanol (biobutanol). CEO Brian Kletscher discussed the current challenges and opportunities with isobutanol. Today ethanol plants have financial pressures, marketing challenges and a cap on first generation ethanol in the RFS2. The industry needs a solution and Highwater Ethanol believes isobutanol is one solution. That is why they signed on as an early adopter with Butamax. Isobutanol has several advantages over ethanol: attractive gasoline blending opportunities; it enables the refineries to increase the use of gasoline out of a barrel of oil up to three percent; it also has some advantages in its molecule. Now that Highwater Ethanol is on board with the technology, its next step is to pursue permitting and begin retrofitting in 2013.

You can view Brian Kletscher’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: click here: Highwater Ethanol Review of Isobutanol

AFS BioOil has conducted initial tests on its algae production system, and the company states that they will be in the $2 per gallon range of production at commercial scale. For advanced biofuels, commercial scale is at least 1 million gallons per year of production.

“The next project for us is one to three million gallon/yr system,” said CEO Vadim Krifuks. “We are putting all our efforts in preparing to execute it.”

Krifuks said his company is looking for partners around the world to join them in their development. Most recently, the company partnered with a renewable electricity company that has the technology to convert waste heat into electricity at a cost of  6 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).  Krifuks believes they can reduce the cost by another 2 cents per kWh.

The next step in this project is for the two companies to combine electricity production with biodiesel production into one facility. The two companies are laying the plans for a 5 MWe renewable electricity and 1 to 3 million gallons per year of biodiesel project. The design stage is underway and the project scope will be released later this year.