Domestic Fuel

The use of anaerobic digesters for livestock operations in the Southwest is the focus of the Renewable Energy Education Field Day webinar planned for later this month.

The webinar will be presented on Wednesday October 26 and will examine technical, environmental and financial factors to consider when installing an anaerobic digester on a livestock operation and specifically the use of digesters with dry manure and the unique environmental issues and climatic conditions of the Southwest.

The virtual Field Day is free of charge and targeted to dairy and beef producers in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Representatives of environmental and agricultural organizations working with livestock producers, as well as staff from state and federal agencies, are also encouraged to participate.

The webinar’s origination site will be the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces, N.M., where anyone interested in the area is invited to attend live. Five viewing sites have been set up across the Southwest at Lamar Community College, Lamar, Colo.; Otero County Extension Office, Rocky Ford, Colo.; Arizona State University, Polytechnic Campus, Mesa, Ariz.; the U.S. EPA Region 9 Office, San Francisco, Calif.; and the Texas A&M’s AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Amarillo, Texas. Additional sites may be added.

Farm Foundation, NFP is organizing this webinar in collaboration with USDA Rural Development, USDA’s Office of Energy Policy and New Uses, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. There is no charge to participate in this webinar, but registration is required by going to the FarmFoundation.org website. This is the second Renewable Energy Education Field Day presented by Farm Foundation, NFP and USDA agencies. Biomass was the subject of the first Field Day in November 2010.

The first big crop report of the season is due out on Thursday and the ethanol industry is ready to interpret what it means for them.

Following the release of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s prospective plantings forecast in the morning, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will host a webinar to detail what the report means and how America’s supply of corn and the demand from ethanol production play into food pricing.

The webinar, “Understanding the 2011 Planting Outlook, Ethanol, and Food Pricing,” will be presented by RFA Vice President of Research and Analysis Geoff Cooper at 10:00 AM Eastern on Thursday. It is free to join in, all you have to do is RSVP by emailing Taryn Morgan at tmorgan@ethanolrfa.org.

The new Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) will require at least 800 million gallons of biodiesel are used this year … and how petroleum refiners and importers and distillate distributors get to that number will be the subject of a series of free webinars offered by the National Biodiesel Board.

NBB officials say the 90-minute webinars, entitled “RFS2 Ready: Biodiesel Producers Ready to Meet 2011 RFS2 Requirements,” will offer information on how to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 volume requirements and will be tailored for each region of the country:

Exclusive biodiesel market analysis will also include:
• Month-by-month, gallon-by-gallon outlook for 2011 biodiesel supply and demand
• Risk management and pricing strategies utilized for RINs compliance
• Federal, state and PADD-specific legislative policies driving biodiesel demand
• New end-user markets pushing biodiesel sales

PAD District 5: West Coast
Date: March 10, 2011
Time: 10:00 a.m. PT
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/120837872

The success of New York City’s 2 percent biodiesel requirement in heating oil … a mix known as bioheat … was recently touted during a webinar hosted by the National Biodiesel Board (NBB).

City Councilman James F. Gennaro, who spearheaded the Big Apple’s bioheat mandate, explained that New York started with using biodiesel in its heavy duty truck fleets. That success led to including biodiesel in the city’s one billion gallon a year heating oil plans.

“I saw this as a great way to move in a very good direction and help us clean the air in New York City.”

After a couple of years of work on the city legislation, the council was able to agree on a 2 percent mandate that puts 20 million gallons a year of the cleaner-burning, renewable fuel into the heating systems. Gennaro tips his hat to several local New York City businesses that have worked to grow the local biodiesel industry, including Metro, Tri-State Biodiesel and Sprague Energy, among others. New York City Councilman James F. Gennaro

NBB’s Director of Sustainability Don Scott applauded the city’s efforts to clean the air, create jobs and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil.

“[The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] found that biodiesel made from animal fat, recycled greases and waste products reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent (compared to conventional petroleum).” And biodiesel made for soybean oil reduced those greenhouse gas emissions by 86 percent … even 57 percent if you use the controversial indirect land use change formula, well above the EPA’s advanced biofuel standard. Plus, Scott points out that the biodiesel industry employs 23,000 Americans with the potential of those jobs climbing to 78,000 workers. Finally, he says it stems the country’s billion-dollar-a-day foreign oil habit.

Gennaro says he’d like to see New York’s model repeated elsewhere across the country.

“This is the direction that we should be moving in.”

New York City has been a successful example of how to use Bioheat … a mix of biodiesel and heating oil … to keep residents warm while cutting the city’s global warming emissions. In hopes of spreading that success, the National Biodiesel Board will be hosting a webinar for the media entitled, “How to Green and Clean Buildings with Bioheat—A New York Case Study,” this Thursday, September 30, 2010 from 2:00 – 2:45 pm EST:

Biodiesel, an advanced biofuel for diesel engines and boilers, reduces America’s dependency on foreign oil, improves air quality and protects the environment. Bioheat is a mixture of biodiesel and heating oil.

New York City is already the nation’s largest municipal user of biodiesel. This free webinar will examine why New York has now approved an air quality bill that ensures cleaner burning Bioheat® is used for heating homes and buildings in this City that uses 1 billion gallons of heating oil annually.

The webinar will feature New York City Council 24th District located in Queens James F. Gennaro, who sponsored the New York City Bioheat legislation and chairs the Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection. In addition, you’ll also be able to hear from Peter M. Iwanowicz , New York State Deputy Secretary for the Environment.

For more information and to register for the webinar, please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/445903385. More information on Bioheat is available at www.bioheatonline.com.

If you’re reading this before 10 am EST today, there’s still time to get in on the free Diesel Technology Forum that will feature plenty of talk about biodiesel:

Biodiesel usage has grown significantly in recent years and many states are considering legislation or programs to promote renewable fuels as a means of reducing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. As the first state to implement a biodiesel mandate, Minnesota had its share of problems. Many of these have been overcome, yet additional challenges remain, as evidenced by Massachusetts’ recent decision to postpone its mandate in favor of a voluntary program.

Renewable fuels, including biodiesel, will play an important role in the pursuit of greener transportation solutions. Biodiesel usage can and will continue to grow, however efforts to promote its use can be complicated. Join us for 90 minutes to hear more about state efforts to encourage biodiesel use, the lessons they’ve learned and ideas for consideration from a European perspective.

Biodiesel Magazine says there will be five speakers closely associated with the industry: Shelby Neal of the National Biodiesel Board who will present an overview of state biodiesel policies across the country and on the impact of the RFS2; Dwayne Breger, director of renewable energy for Massachusetts’s department of energy resources, talking about his state’s recent suspension of its biodiesel mandate; Ralph Groschen from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture addressing Minnesota’s biodiesel experience and the state’s recent move to a B5 mandate; Randy Jennings, from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, talking about programs to promote fuel quality and the importance of policy enforcement; and Dr. Juergen Fischer who will give an overview of the biodiesel quality management system in Germany and its relevance for the U.S.

More information and registration is available here.

Miss the Fuel Ethanol Workshop this year? Well don’t fret. You can still tap into all the information that was discussed during the conference. Novozymes is hosting a FREE webinar called, “The quest for maximizing ethanol plant yield” featuring Mitchell Marine, Associate Scientist with Novozymes.

The webinar will discuss:

• - What is yield?
• - Carbon balance model
• - Practical model – with real figures
• - Final thoughts

This 1-hour webinar will be held on Wednesday, July 8th at 1 pm Eastern Time. You can view the invitation and register by clicking here.

The purchase of seven VeraSun plants by Valero Energy has caused quite a buzz in financial circles and within the biofuels industry. This sale marked the most significant entrance into the ethanol market by an oil company. So what does this mean and who will this benefit? These questions and others will be answered during the interactive webinar:  Who Will Benefit from the Biofuel Industry’s Current Distress? The webinar, hosted by INFOCAST, is scheduled for April 2 from 1:00 -2:30 ET.

The webinar will cover several topics including the state of the industry; what the VeraSun Energy bankruptcy auction means for the future consolidation of the industry; possible roles the oil industry will play in the biofuels industry moving forward; predictions on what the biofuel industry look like in the next 1-5 years; and general information about the economic health and future lending opportunities.

To learn more and to register for the webinar, click here.