San Francisco Getting Grease-to-Biodiesel Plant

John Davis

A $1-million grant is helping San Francisco build its first grease-to-biodiesel production facility.

This story from the Bay Area’s NBC-11 says that Mayor Gavin Newsom made the announcement today that the city had received the grant from the California Energy Commission to build the facility near the city’s sewage plant:

Mayor’s office officials said the plan is considered unique because the facility would attempt to create three grades of biodiesel from “brown grease,” which are pan scrapings and washed oil residue trapped in grease traps under restaurant sinks.

Mayor’s office officials said there are more than 2.5 million gallons of brown grease in San Francisco, compared with 1.5 million gallons of “yellow grease,” such as fryer oil.

The yellow grease is easily converted into biodiesel, while brown grease is usually discarded at sewage treatment plants.

“Our program to turn waste cooking oil and yellow grease into biodiesel has been an enormous success, but San Francisco must continue to raise the bar when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and exploring alternative energies,” said Newsom. “With this grant, our unique brown-grease-to-biodiesel plant will break new ground for sustainable fuel production in California and serve as a model for the entire state.”

The facility would produce three grades of biodiesel: high-grade, certified biodiesel; lower-grade biodiesel for use in the plant’s machinery and generators; and rich energy for cogeneration… a process that captures methane gas at the sewage plant and converts that to heat or electricity.

Last November, San Francisco started SFGreasecycle… a program that collects yellow grease from restaurants in order to make biodiesel for city vehicles, buses and fire trucks.

Biodiesel, Government

Biodiesel Works Like Gas

John Davis

A newly developed “bio-gasoline” product from XcelPlus enables internal combustion gasoline engines to run on natural oils like soybean and vegetable oil. XcelPlus is offering a “Biolene” additive that enables producers and consumers of biodiesel to convert the biofuel so it’s suitable for use in any gasoline powered engines. The company says the new product means home blenders can expect final pump-grade fuel to cost about $2.70 a gallon.

According to Mr. Bill R. Smith, President of Xcelplus, “current testing of the fuel is being conducted with test vehicles run exclusively on Biolene. The test vehicles are being monitored for CO, CO2, hydrocarbon, O2 and NOx exhaust emissions, and we are very pleased with test results to date. We are looking towards an ASTM testing for the fuel before launching it into global markets.”

Check out the google video of Biolene here:

The additive is expected to be available for purchase later this year.

Biodiesel, Energy

New CFO for BioFuel Energy Corp.

John Davis

There’s new financial leadership at BioFuel Energy Corp. The company has named Kelly G. Maguire its new Vice President-Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Maquire is replacing David J.Kornder who is resigning “to pursue an opportunity to become the Chief Executive of an oil and gas company.”

Mr. Maguire is currently the Executive Vice President of Pendum, Inc., a privately held company with roughly 2,800 employees servicing 60,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) nationwide. Mr. Maguire served as Pendum’s Chief Financial Officer from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Maguire began his career with Deloitte & Touche, LLP, spending almost 10 years in the audit area. Mr. Maguire received his B.A. degree in Accounting from the University of North Dakota.

BioFuel Energy is currently constructing two ethanol plants that would produce 115 million gallons per year in the Midwestern corn belt.

Energy, Ethanol, News

AT&T Green Fleet

John Davis

More than 100 new alternative-fuel vehicles will be on the road for AT&T. The nationwide communications company is launching a new fleet of Compressed Natural Gas vans, 65 electric hybrid cars and 15 electric hybrid conversion work trucks in 30 cities across the U.S. Start looking for them in June.

The vehicles will be embedded into AT&T’s workforce as operational components of its fleet. AT&T will measure and track fuel efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, operating costs, performance and driver satisfaction of each vehicle.

The vehicles, which will be deployed in cities in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas, join four Ford Escape hybrids that were deployed in California in late 2007. A Green Technology insignia will make the vehicles easy to identify on the road.

AT&T estimates that its use of these alternative-fueled and more fuel-efficient vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 124 metric tons and conserve nearly 34,395 gallons of fuel annually.

Energy, Environment, transportation

UT Galveston Applauds Ocean Wave Energy Technology

John Davis

Renewable energy doesn’t stop with earth, sun and wind. Now water is becoming a viable source for alternative power. Texas A&M has put Renewable Energy Oceanwave Technology from Indpendent Natural Resources to the test for three months in the Gulf of Mexico. The university says the SEADOG Pump is a preliminary success.

Researchers praised the pump’s design features for good mechanical efficiency that absorbs most of the potential energy and a significant amount of the kinetic energy content in the wave. This report further validates findings from a 21-day sea trial conducted in January of 2007 which compares the amount of energy SEADOG Pump can extract per square mile of deployment compared to other ocean, wind and solar renewable technologies. Because the pumps can be deployed in close proximity to each other, INRI(TM) estimates that they will produce five to 20 times more power per square mile than other technologies.

Generally speaking, wave energy is captured by engineered devices or components attached to stationary or floating structures that are set in motion by waves or swells on the surface of the ocean. Most wave energy technologies grow in cost because the specified equipment is sensitive to corrosive seawater and has intermittency issues similar to wind and solar energy. SEADOG Pump on the other hand, separates itself from other technologies on the market by using a simple pump design with few moving parts and no electronics. Multiple pumps are deployed in fields depending on how much power or water is desired. In addition, the SEADOG Pump moves large volumes of water to shore where it can be stored until needed for energy production or desalination. This ability to store energy removes the intermittency issues associated with other renewable energy technologies.Read More

Energy

Texas May Get Next Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

VereniumA cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in Louisiana is just the first planned for Verenium.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the 1.4 million gallon per year demonstration plant which opened today “could help usher in a new era for ethanol.” The plant is making ethanol from sugar bagasse and is also partnering with local farmers to grow “energy cane.”

“The issue isn’t, ‘is there going to be ethanol,'” said Verenium Chief Executive Carlos Riva. “But how can we do it right?”

Verenium plans to begin building a 30 million gallon per year cellulosic plant next year in Houston or Beaumont, Texas and is also considering other sites in Louisiana and Florida.

Verenium’s Matthew Musial describes the process of creating ethanol from the bagasse in this video from the Houston Chronicle:

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

DTE Challenges Michagan Students to Bring Clean Tech from Lab to Consumer

John Davis

DTE Energy and the University of Michigan are sponsoring an annual entrepreneurship competition. The DTE Clean Energy Prize is meant to encourage teams form Michigan colleges and universities to develop the best way for offering new clean-energy technologies commercially.

“Our goal is to drive promising clean energy ideas and technologies from the research lab to commercialization,” Earley said. “To do that, we are making a 5-year, $450,000 commitment to fund the DTE Clean Energy Prize, a new competition open to the best and brightest students and faculty at Michigan’s colleges and universities.”

The prize pool for the 2009 competition will be $100,000, which will be divided among the winning teams. For subsequent years, it is expected that the prize pool will be $200,000.

The prize competition will be hosted by the University of Michigan, but will be open to students and faculty from all Michigan colleges and universities. For the first year, each team must have at least one University of Michigan student or faculty member.

Competing teams will be required to develop business ideas that support renewable energy, energy efficiency and demand response, greenhouse gas and environmental control technologies and energy storage. The first competition will be held this fall. Prizes will be awarded next spring.

Energy, Production

Good Fuels Offers Good News About Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

GoodFuelsA new website has been launched to focus on the positive impacts of biofuels on the economy, the environment and America in general.

GoodFuels.org is “for” clean energy, domestic energy production, fair reporting and balanced research. What they are against is unbalanced reporting, misleading research, relying on imported fuel and vilifying the American farmer.

GoodFuels.org seeks to provide a thoughtful and comprehensive discussion of all the issues surrounding biofuels and their important role in our energy future, as well as be a resource for information, news and research pertaining to developments in biofuels.

The website was launched by the Renewable Fuels Association as a way to publicize good news about biofuels and try and combat some of the negative and misleading information circulating in the general media and on-line.

Ethanol, News, RFA

Cramer Mad About Wind Stocks

John Davis

Jim Cramer, that wild man who vociferously picks or pans stocks on CNBC’s “Mad Money with Jim Cramer,” says wind energy is a winner in his book of stocks.

This posting on TheStreet.com says the Mad Man calls wind power “the cheapest form of renewable energy out there”:

To help illustrate the many great companies involved in the wind power business, Cramer built a windmill from scratch, piece by piece, to show which companies make each component.

First, Cramer featured the wind tower business that makes the support structures for windmills. Here, he reiterated past recommendations of both Trinity Industries and Otter as the best stocks to own.

Next, Cramer featured the windmill blades, and said that Owens Corning has the best composite materials business for this high-stress application.

Cramer then focused on the nacelle, the structure that houses a windmill’s turbine. Here, he identified Woodward Governor, Thomas & Betts and Kaydon as the companies to own for turbines, bearings and the other components found in the nacelle.

Finally, Cramer said both MasTec and Thomas & Betts are the best companies for the wind power infrastructure needed to bring power from the mill to the grid.

Cramer put all of these stocks into the “Mad Money Wind-ex,” his index of wind power stocks. He also expects the upcoming American Wind Energy Association’s annual conference in Houston next week to have a lot of buzz about these same companies.

Wind

Canadian House Passes Biofuels Standard

John Davis

Members of the Canadian House of Commons have passed a nationwide biofuels standard that is expected to create demand for an estimated 500 million gallons of ethanol and 150 million gallons of biodiesel. The standard is noteworthy considering that Canada has oil reserves only second to Saudi Arabia and is the largest supplier of U.S. foreign energy sources (including oil, natural gas, uranium and electricity).

This story from Reuters has more details about the measure:

The bill, which also calls for diesel to contain 2 percent renewable fuels by 2012, won the support of the main opposition Liberal Party but was opposed by two smaller parties that had voiced concern about food-crop production being diverted to fuel.

However, the governing Conservatives and the Liberals have both backed the idea, arguing that only a small portion of food crops such as corn will be used to make the biofuel.

The bill must now be approved by the Senate, where passage is likely since it is dominated by the Liberal Party.

The article goes on to point on that the U.S. has mandated 9 billion gallons of biofuels be sold this year, increasing to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News