Nebraska Ethanol Plans E85 Workshops

Cindy Zimmerman

NE EthanolThe Nebraska Ethanol Board, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition and the Clean Fuels Development Coalition are holding a series of E85 Direct Marketing Workshops next month.

NEVCThe aim of the workshops is to promote direct marketing relationships between ethanol producers and fuel retailers and reduce costs for all parties involved. Ethanol plants, petroleum equipment suppliers, petroleum marketers and auto dealers are encouraged to attend these free workshops. Presentations will address E85 handling and storage, regulations and safety procedures, applying for the ethanol blender tax credit, and direct marketing of E85 from ethanol plant to retailer.

The workshops will take place on May 6 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Norfolk at Northeast Community College, Utility Line Building; May 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Kearney at the UNK Student Center Cedar Room; and May 8 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Omaha at the Steamfitters and Plumbers Union No. 464.

Registration and other information is available on the “Events” page at www.ne-ethanol.org.

The project is funded in part by a grant from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development administered by the Nebraska Rural Development Commission.

E85, Ethanol, News

Ohio Energy Bill Uses Renewables to Cut Usage, Rates

John Davis

An energy bill that will use a mix of regulated and market-based electricity rates starting in 2009 to prevent spikes in power bills and encourage a 22 percent reduction in power usage by 2025 has made it through the Ohio State Senate.

This article from Reuters says the state’s governor has promised to sign the measure that uses renewable energy to help meet those goals:

Ohio has also taken a mixed approach to renewable energy targets. By 2025, at least 25 percent of electricity delivered in Ohio must be generated from “advanced energy” sources. Of that 25 percent goal, at least half has to come from renewable sources like wind and solar, and no more than half from “clean coal” and improved nuclear plants.

The measure also looks to rein in rates charged to consumers.

Government, Solar, Wind

Alabama Town Considers Biodiesel to Save Money

John Davis

ftpayne.jpgAs oil prices rise, so does the price of diesel fuel. Truckers, construction companies and municipalities are feeling the pinch of $4-plus-a-gallon diesel fuel, and one town in Alabama has figured out that a less expensive… and greener… solution is biodiesel.

This story from the Fort Payne (AL) Times-Journal says the city’s council is looking at the less expensive biodiesel as a way to also help the city’s wastewater treatment plant:

“Our initial problem came up in a council meeting that cooking oil and grease was getting into our sewer system,” [Councilman Richard] Pridmore said. “We are thinking people are pouring the cooking oil and grease down their sinks with hot water. Of course, there is no way for these people to recycle this. There is really no good place to be putting these things.”

The two problems of rising diesel costs and unwanted items in the sewer prompted Pridmore to speak with state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, who had initiated a campaign statewide to increase biodiesel production.

At a council work session Tuesday, Pridmore brought an initial plan to the table. The plan includes going to restaurants to ask them to allow the city to pump out their grease tanks, which is already required of businesses to do. The city would pump the grease for possibly half the cost of having it done privately in exchange for the restaurant’s cooking oil – the main ingredient in biodiesel.

“If we pump it regularly, the grease can’t get into our sewer system,” Pridmore said. “It gets to our wastewater treatment plant, and that’s where most of our problem lies.”

Once the cooking oil is collected, it would be turned into biodiesel at a reactor the city could buy for about $22,000, Pridmore said.

The biodiesel could then be used in city vehicles, which are currently using about 5,000 gallons of regular diesel each month.

Pridmore believes they can make the biodiesel for just $1 per gallon. That means the city could end up saving about $400 a month.

And you have to believe that more cities will be striking more deals to make their own biodiesel.

Biodiesel

VeraSun Honors VE85 Retailers

Cindy Zimmerman

VeraSun Energy has announced recipients of its 2007 VE85™ Awards, recognizing five independent fuel marketers for retail sales, promotion and education of VeraSun’s branded E85 for use in flexible fuel vehicles.

VeraSunGas City, Ltd. earned the VE85™ Retailer of the Year Award, VeraSun’s most prestigious award for 2007. The independent petroleum marketer is located in Frankfort, Ill., and owns and operates stations in northeast Illinois, northwest Indiana, Florida and Arizona. Currently, Gas City has 34 fueling locations in Illinois and Indiana offering VE85™. In addition to the Retailer of the Year Award, the company also received the Driving Change Award and the Fueling Growth Award for three of its Illinois VE85™ fueling locations in Schaumberg, Shorewood and Romeoville. Gas City’s Executive Vice President William Shireman was awarded the 2007 Ambassador of the Year Award.

The Fueling Growth Award was also given to Brookings BP in Brookings, S.D.; GROWMARK’s Fast Stop in Waterloo, Ill., and JD Streett’s Lowells Service Station in Collinsville, Ill. Three stores owned and operated by Sheetz, Inc., were recognized with the Driving Change Award. Two of those fueling locations are located in Pittsburgh, while the third location is in Monroeville, Pa.

E85, Ethanol, News

Ethanol Podcast on Efficiency and Food Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

RFA PodcastThe latest “Ethanol Report” podcast from the Renewable Fuels Association features comments from RFA President Bob Dinneen on the new report from Argonne National Laboratory about the increased efficiency of U.S. ethanol plants, as well as how higher oil prices are the real cause of food price inflation.

You can subscribe to “The Ethanol Report” by following this link.

Or you can listen to it on-line here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/ethanol-report-4-21-08.mp3]

Audio, Ethanol, RFA

Americans Worried About Energy Issues

Cindy Zimmerman

A new poll shows that when it comes to energy, Americans are most worried about dependence on foreign oil.

Renewable Fuels NowThe survey, commissioned by Renewable Fuels Now and conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates Inc., polled 1200 voters earlier this year about a number of issues facing Americans.

The top three concerns were the war in Iraq, health insurance and energy. Almost half rated imports one of their two biggest energy concerns. A distant second is the lack of viable alternatives to fossil fuels.

When asked what is the best way to solve America’s energy problems, 51 percent said the answer is to invest in renewable energy sources; 28 percent call for energy efficiency and conservation policies; and only 17 percent favor more drilling and mining for domestic fossil fuels. Eighty percent of the voters in the survey say government should give more incentives to encourage the development of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Seventy-six percent want government to require more renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to be blended into fuel for cars and trucks.

“These numbers show Americans are worried about how they’re going to fill their gas tanks and heat their homes in the future — and they should be,” said Toni Nuernberg, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, a member of the Renewable Fuels Now Coalition. “Using more ethanol and other renewable fuels means we’re going to be less dependent on oil from unstable parts of the world.”

Biodiesel, Energy, EPIC, Ethanol, News

Oklahoma to Grow Switchgrass for Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

The state of Oklahoma is getting into the switchgrass business for cellulosic ethanol production.

SwitchgrassThe Oklahoma Bioenergy Center has secured land for more than 1,000 acres – the “world’s largest stand of switchgrass” – of production-scale demonstration fields. Planting will take place within the next 45 days.

The land is located near Guymon in the state’s panhandle. This switchgrass field will be the first of its size anywhere in the world focused on biomass production. Additional acreage of sorghum and switchgrass will be planted near Chickasha and Maysville in central Oklahoma.

AbengoaA cellulosic biorefinery currently being constructed by Abengoa Bioenergy in Hugoton, Kan., will be less than 35 miles from Guymon, and the switchgrass fields in the panhandle will provide material to this biorefinery. The Abengoa Bioenergy facility is expected to be operational in 2010.

“The value of the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center to the cellulosic ethanol industry cannot be overstated,” said Gerson Santos-Leon, executive vice president, Abengoa Bioenergy New Technologies. “The early and aggressive establishment of 1,000 acres of switchgrass will provide researchers, scientists, agricultural producers and industry — not only in Oklahoma but across the nation — with important information that will help establish the emerging cellulosic ethanol industry.”

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

Flex Fuel Energy Victory

Cindy Zimmerman

Robert ZubrinAerospace engineer and author Robert Zubrin has been getting some media attention lately for his book, “Energy Victory,” in which he outlines a simple plan for “winning the war on terror by breaking free of oil.” Most recently, he was featured on a segment of the Business News Network, a popular nationwide TV show in Canada.

Zubrin believes the American public is getting tired of being beholden to foreign oil interests and he advocates Congress passed a law requiring that all new cars sold in the USA be flex-fueled.

E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

US-Brazilian Companies Team Up for Sugar Cane Biodiesel

John Davis

amyris-crystalsev.gifWith the Brazilian massive sugar cane crops being turned into ethanol and Americans leading the way in biodiesel production, it was just a matter of time before these two biofuels giants put their heads together to combine the best of both worlds.

This Reuters story says U.S. company Amyris Biotechnologies and Brazil’s Crystalsev, a sugar and (naturally) ethanol producer to make and sell the world’s first commercially-available biodiesel made from sugar cane instead of oilseeds:

Amyris developed the so-called second-generation biofuels technology, using microorganisms to take juice extracted from crushing sugar cane and transform it into a biodiesel closely resembling the fossil fuel.

Brazil has been the world’s largest producer of ethanol from sugar cane for nearly three decades and the country has more than 30,000 filling stations that market the biofuel.

“We are making the first diesel from sugar cane in the world,” Amyris President John Melo told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference in Sao Paulo.

In sugar cane, Melo said, “Brazil has the most sustainable and economic raw material,” adding the new diesel will be competitive as long as crude oil remains above $60 a barrel.

The companies did not specify the investment at the initial plant but said costs to build a diesel plant next to a regular sugar and ethanol mill would be of around $20-$30 million.

The article goes on to say that the first sugar cane biodiesel plant is expected to be on line by 2010, cranking out 10 million gallons a year in its first year. In five years with the addition of more plants, the companies hope to be cranking out a combined total of one billion gallons of the green fuel.

Biodiesel, International

Ethanol Pipeline Across Florida Nears Opening

John Davis

central_florida.gifA pipeline that has carried gasoline the 104 miles from the Port of Tampa to the Orlando since the mid-1960s could soon be carrying ethanol across the Sunshine State.

This story posted on the St. Petersburg (FL) Times web site says the 16-inch pipeline owned by Kinder Morgan is going through some upgrades in preparation of becoming the nation’s first ethanol pipeline by the third quarter of this year:

The booming U.S. ethanol industry is watching the project closely. If successful, it could lead to a boom in ethanol pipeline projects nationwide, since shipping by pipeline is significantly cheaper than shipping by train, barge or truck.

“It’s a test for us, and everybody else, to see if we can make it work,” said Joe Hollier, spokesman for Kinder Morgan. “It will be a big advantage if we are able to move ethanol by pipeline, obviously.”

As you might remember from my February 20th, 2008 post, there’s also another ethanol pipeline in the works… a 1,700-mile venture from the Midwest to the East Coast. That project is still under study with the feasibility of such a pipeline to be determined, hopefully, by the middle of this year.

Ethanol, News