Domestic Fuel

A Hawaiian biofuels firm recently announced an agreement to build a commercial scale biorefinery facility in Tennessee for the production of renewable jet or diesel fuel out of wood.

Under the agreement between ClearFuels Technology of Aiea, Hawaii and Hughes Hardwood International of Collinwood, Tennessee, 1000 tons of wood product per day will be converted into approximately 16 million gallons of synthetic jet or diesel fuel and 4 million gallons of naphtha per year, as well as approximately 8 megawatts of excess renewable power. The project is currently expected to be operational by early 2014.

ClearFuels has begun project development of multiple commercial scale biomass-energy facilities in the southeastern United States, Hawaii and internationally to be located at sugar mills, wood mills and other biomass processing facilities.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is set to release a new report today warning about the economic ramifications of allowing the tax incentive for ethanol blending to expire at the end of the year.

In a preview obtained by Domestic Fuel, allowing the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) to expire would cost the country more than 100,000 jobs and cut U.S. domestic production by more than a third. According to RFA president Bob Dinneen, the report shows that failure to extend the tax incentives would result in “relegating future generations to a reliance on both foreign oil and foreign renewable fuels.”

The report is scheduled to be released by RFA later this morning.

Over 100 fleet managers, city, state and county government representatives, fuel producers and distributors and fuel retailers gathered together Wednesday in Dothan, Alabama to become informed leaders for the state’s emerging biofuels marketplace.

“We are gathered here today to bring you more awareness of the five alternative fuels of propane, compressed natural gas, E85, biodiesel and electric vehicles,” said Mark Bentley of Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition.

Speakers during the event included Dothan Mayor Mike Schmitz; Kathy Hornsby of Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs; Larry Fillmer, Executive Director of Auburn’s Natural Resources Management & Development Institute; Michelle Kautz, Market Development Manager from Growth Energy speaking on E85 and ethanol blender pumps, and Rob Dascal of Renewable Energy Group (REG) speaking on biodiesel. REG currently produces over 25% of America’s biodiesel.

Retailing biofuels in Alabama was discussed by Hayden Powers, Municipal Sales Manager for the McPherson Oil Company and the municipal use of alternative fuels was explored by David Lindon, Director of Hoover Fleet Management. The City of Hoover has been nationally & internationally recognized for its use of alternative fuels. Over 85% of Hoover’s vehicles are powered by alternative fuels. Clean Energy (the Boone Pickens Company) was represented by Mason Ecker. Clean Energy is the largest provider of Natural Gas in North America with a broad customer base in the refuse, transit, port, shuttle, taxi, regional trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets.

Other topics included propane, electric vehicles and funding opportunities for alternative fuels.

A one-day conference is scheduled to provide information to Pennsylvania biodiesel producers on what should be expected when the state’s B2 mandate goes into effect.

Biodiesel Magazine reports the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the National Biodiesel Board are holding the April 20 event, called the Pennsylvania Biofuel Development Conference:

The mandate is based on trigger points, so when instate production—not installed capacity but actual production volumes—reaches 100 MMgy, the Pennsylvania biodiesel standard will move from B2 to B5. Keystone Biofuels’ Ben Wootten, also president of the Pennsylvania Biodiesel Producers Group, said installed biodiesel production capacity in Pennsylvania is currently 114 MMgy.

The B2 mandate is for on-road diesel fuel only, but Wootten, who just accepted the position of regulatory chair for the National Biodiesel Board, said Bioheat legislation was just recently proposed, Senate Bill 1282, which would seek a B5 mandate for all heating oil sold in Pennsylvania beginning May 2011.

The event will feature sessions focusing on statewide biodiesel distribution systems, best practices to ensure fuel quality, testing methods and more. To register and for more information, contact Michael Radar at (717) 787-9089.

San Francisco-based Solazyme, Inc., a producer of algae-based fuels, has been recognized as the best in the Sustainable Biofuels Technology category at the 2nd Annual Sustainable Biofuels Awards.

This Solazyme press release says the award was handed out in Amsterdam at the World Biofuels Markets conference:

“Solazyme is honored to be nominated among some of the top biofuel technology companies in the world for this award,” said Jonathan Wolfson, CEO, Solazyme. “We are grateful to accept this top spot as our team has worked tirelessly to establish Solazyme’s technology platform as a viable alternative to traditional oil production methods.”

The World Biofuels Market selected a panel of independent judges to evaluate and analyze the nominations for these awards. Taken into consideration were sustainability benefits as measured by GHG savings, environmental impact and further societal benefits from each nomination’s operational or technological advances. Solazyme’s technology shows exponential benefits over petroleum in all of these categories.

In the seven years since its inception, Solayzme produced the world’s first algal-based renewable diesel, the world’s first 100 percent algal-based jet fuel, and road-tested the first algae-derived biodiesel. In addition, the company is supplying the U.S. Department of Defense with 21,500 gallons of fuel for Navy compatibility testing, making Solazyme the largest commercial algae fuel contractor to date.

OK, maybe it’s not the drink of choice, but biodiesel is truly a fitting symbol for the 152nd birthday of Rudolf Diesel. Tomorrow, Thursday, March 18th, is the inventor’s birthday, and since he designed that first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil, the National Biodiesel Board is taking the day to recognize the role the clean-burning fuel has played in the past and will play in the future by designating the day as National Biodiesel Day:

“Biodiesel is currently the only advanced biofuel that is commercially available in the US; it’s the next generation of fuel, here now,” said National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe. “Rudolf Diesel originally designed diesel engines to use sustainable fuels. Today’s biodiesel is a modern application of his innovation.”

From the early diesel engine, there have been many improvements made to help improve fuel economy, power and performance but one of the most effective improvements comes in the form of biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel is a cleaner burning, advanced biofuel made from readily available renewable resources. National Biodiesel Day is celebrated annually on March 18th, Rudolf Diesel’s birthday.
Biodiesel users range from school districts to television studios and can be found in every corner of the country. Enterprise Holdings, which operates Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and National Car Rental, announced earlier this year that it will be converting its airport shuttle buses to run on biodiesel as part of its overall sustainability initiatives. The company is moving its entire fleet of more than 600 airport shuttle buses across 50 North American markets to at least 5 percent biodiesel (B5). The conversion to 20 percent biodiesel (B20) is happening immediately in nine markets, including Boston; Chicago; Denver; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami; Raleigh/Durham; San Antonio and San Diego.

More information about Rudolf Diesel, biodiesel, and National Biodiesel Day is available at biodiesel.org.

Solar Power Inc. (SPI) has been selected by Temescal Canyon RV to build the largest elevated solar recreational vehicle (RV) parking structure in the world. The RV park, located in Riverside County adjacent to the City of Corona, will incorporate a 1.75 megawatt DC solar system utilizing SPI’s solar modules. The system will provide both power generation as well as covered parking. The project is scheduled to begin later this month and will be completed by July.

“This is going to be a great project for our client and for us,” said Bradley Ferrell, President of Business Development for Solar Power, Inc. “It is especially rewarding because it is the result of our success with the first project we executed for them. It’s also a milestone as the largest photovoltaic solar structure of its kind anywhere. We look forward to working with them again in the future as they continue to include solar energy in their projects.”

The Temescal Canyon RV storage facility will be comprised of 400 stalls of which 280 will offer covered parking by the elevated solar system SPI is developing. While this is their largest project of its kind, SPI has worked with the property group overseeing the project. In 2008, they developed a 160 kw system for the Temescal Canyon Storage Center which is adjacent to the soon to be completed solar elevated RV parking structure.

“Solar Power, Inc. executed a cost-competitive, high-quality system installation at our self-storage facility. They were very easy to work with and we couldn’t be happier with the finished result. Their products and their design and installation teams are world-class,” concluded Sean McCoy, General Manager, Temescal Canyon RV, LLC. “We look forward to working with their team once again on this project.”

According to a recent article in Ethanol Producer Magazine, Canada’s largest ethanol company, GreenField Ethanol located in Varennes, Quebec, will be receiving up to $79.75 million from the Canadian government. The funds are being distributed as part of the ecoENERGY for Biofuels program. The funds will be used to help the plant engage in future research and invest in additional investment projects.

The ecoENERGY program was a result of monitoring similar programs in the United States that support the development of biofuels. “By investing in this project,” said Steven Blaney, a Canadian member of parliament, “we are helping to create and sustain local jobs and economic opportunities while encouraging a healthier environment for all Canadians.”

Greenfield Ethanol has three additional corn-to-ethanol plants located in Chatham, Johnstown and Tiverton, Ontario with a fifth plant under construction. Once the plants are complete the company will have nearly 660 million gallons per year of production.

Last April, the Greenfield Ethanol plant received funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the Johnston plant was awarded $117.5 million last June.

“Biodiesel is a great fuel. It’s a great success story,” said Rob Joslin, the President of the American Soybean Association when I asked him during an interview (see below for audio) why biodiesel is so important to our country. While the biodiesel has had great success, it is currently facing a challenge – the $1 per gallon tax credit expired at the end of 2009 and has yet to be extended, although it is close.

Joslin explained to me that biodiesel is not just important for farmers and the industry itself, but also for consumers. A recent Department of Energy study showed that the biodiesel tax incentive saves consumers 35 cents per gallon at the pump. The biodiesel industry contributes $4 billion dollars to the country’s gross domestic product and generated over $866 million in direct tax revenue back into the tax coffers. In addition the industry provides 29,000 direct jobs and the number exceeds 50,000 when you factor in the indirect jobs associated with the production of biodiesel.

However, with the tax credit off the table, more than 23,000 workers have been idled. “The majority of the industry is idled because you can’t run a business on the hope that Congress will pass a bill in a future point in time,” said Joslin. “So the economies didn’t work the plant managers had to put those people in unemployment.”

Anther conundrum the industry is facing is the lack of synergies between current pieces of legislation. The RFS mandates biodiesel use and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard recognizes its low-carbon benefit; yet, our government hasn’t put into place the mechanisms for the industry to produce competitively priced fuel while it matures.
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The first annual leadership conference for Growth Energy, the ethanol industry organization that was formed just 16 months ago, was held this week in Phoenix to focus on the future.

The conference included roundtable discussions on a number of topics, including navigating policy in Congress during an election year. A bipartisan panel moderated by Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis featured former Republican Congressman Jim Nussle; Melissa Shannon who served as a legislative advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Josh Gottheimer, former advisor to President Bill Clinton; and Karen Hughes, a former advisor to President George W. Bush.

“We had the opportunity to bring our membership together, sit down and have a very open and honest conversation about where we are in the policy making arena today, what our goals are moving forward, and how we envision the pathway to get there,” said Growth Energy board member Steve McNinch, CEO of Western Plains Energy in Kansas, during an interview after the conference concluded on Tuesday.

McNinch says there are two primary policy issues that the organization will be focused on this year – the joint lawsuit that filed in California with the Renewable Fuels Association and expiration of the VEETC and the Brazilian tariff issue coming up at the end of the year. “These are not easy issues to get through,” said McNinch, and when it comes to Congress this year, “until health care debate gets out of the way, you’re not really going to see much movement on anything.”

Listen to or download my interview with Steve McNinch here:

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