Algal Biodiesel Proves Worth in Cold Weather

John Davis

solazyme-logo.gifBiodiesel made from algae is proving it can stand up to the cold weather… a key to wider acceptance of the REALLY green fuel.

This story from Emerging Energy News says that Soladiesel, made by Solazyme, was tested at the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), requested by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD):

“The DoD’s requested testing of the Soladiesel fuel showed superior performance especially in terms of its cold temperature properties,” said Solazyme Inc.’s CEO Jonathan Wolfson.

“Greater performance in cold temperatures means our biodiesel and other algae-based fuels could help the military in remote northern locations like Alaska and North Dakota, as well as in hot climates, while reducing dependence on petroleum,” he said.

Algal diesel was used to power an unmodified Ford F450 driven by a former U.S. military officer at the 2008 DESC Worldwide Energy Conference in Arlington.

R. James Woolsey, former director of central Intelligence and under -secretary of the navy, claimed the test drive showed algae can be tapped to enable the U.S. to grow its own military fuels in the country.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel’s Part in Earth Day

John Davis

earthday.jpgAs we approach Earth Day, 2008… Tuesday, April 22nd… the National Biodiesel Board is reminding everyone how biodiesel is part of green efforts for the world.

In a press release, the NBB points out that biodiesel reduces emissions, adds green jobs to the economy, reduces dependence on foreign oil and increases feed and food supplies, while lowering their costs:

“Some have inaccurately portrayed the environmental impact of biodiesel,” said Emily Bockian Landsburg of Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel and Chair of the National Biodiesel Board’s Sustainability Task Force. “The facts are clear. An overwhelming body of data demonstrates that biodiesel has substantial carbon benefits and the best ratio of energy input to energy output of any liquid fuel. Biodiesel is already one of the most environmentally friendly fuels available, and as an industry we’re going even further, continually increasing those environmental benefits.”

Biodiesel also has a 78 percent life cycle carbon dioxide reduction, according to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy. This takes into account everything from planting the soybeans – for soy-based biodiesel – to delivering biodiesel to the pump. The use of biodiesel also substantially reduces unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter. In 2007 alone, biodiesel’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was the equivalent of removing 700,000 passenger vehicles from America’s roadways.

Landsburg also notes that biodiesel producers are also finding more non-food sources for feedstocks for the green fuel, helping put to rest the food vs. fuel debate.

So if you want to save the world, start with what you put into your gas tank.

Biodiesel

Maine, the Saudi Arabia of Wind

John Davis

king.jpgA former governor of Maine is calling on his state to invest in a major wind power plant off the coast of the northeastern state.

In a story in the Boston Herald, former Maine Governor Angus King told a group at Bowdoin College that Maine should start a $15-billion network of offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine over the next 10 years:

A “wind ranch” of 1,000 turbines placed 26 miles offshore could provide all of Maine’s electricity as well as heat for its homes, he said.

“The Gulf of Maine is the Saudi Arabia of wind,” King said. “There is nothing I’ve come across that has the large potential this has. We need to be thinking big about this.”

King, who is now working on two conventional wind farm proposals in western Maine, didn’t say how such a project would be paid for, except that it would take both private and government funding.

The cost won’t look so daunting in 10 or 12 years, he said, as oil and gas prices triple. Oil prices could realistically rise to $300 a barrel in 2020, he said, up from the current price of just over $110 a barrel.

“Filling up your (car’s gas) tank will be $200. To fill up the (heating oil) tank in your basement with oil _ $2,000.” Maine, with its cold winters, will be uninhabitable, he said.

Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, says the idea has a lot of merit… although he says land-based wind farms are probably closer to reality. But he says he have to think big in these days of $115-a-barrel oil.

Wind

Brazilian President Jumps into Food vs. Fuel Debate

John Davis

lula.jpgAfter a week of criticism of biofuels that included the U.N. special rapporteur for the right to food, Jean Ziegler calling biofuels a “crime against humanity” and protests in Brazil and Europe, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is defending his country’s right to produce biofuels.

This Reuters story has more information:

“Don’t tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn’t prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat,” Lula told reporters.

“We want to discuss this not with passion but rationality and not from the European point of view.”

Critics say the increased production of crops for ethanol and biodiesel, which is derived from oil seeds, competes with for land with food crops.

Brazil has repeatedly argued that it has plenty of unused land to plant crops for biofuels and that current production was still too small to affect food prices.

Lula also took exception with Ziegler’s characterization of biofuels as a “crime against humanity”:

“The real crime against humanity is to discredit biofuels a priori and condemn food-starved and energy-starved countries to dependence and insecurity,” Lula said at a conference of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Brasilia.

Some of Brazil’s neighbors, led by oil-rich Venezuela, warned this week that biofuels could increase malnutrition in Latin America.

Lula said he was “shocked” that biofuel critics failed to mention the impact that high oil prices had on food production costs, such fertilizers. “It’s always easier to hide economic and political interests behind supposed social and environmental interests,” he said.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

NBB Applauds Bush’s Greenhouse Gas Plan

John Davis

nbb-logo.jpgThe National Biodiesel Board is applauding President Bush’s plan to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gases by 2025.

In this release from the NBB, the group says biodiesel will be a key part of the plan:

joe-jobethumbnail.jpg“Biodiesel not only reduces our dependence on foreign oil, it is a valuable tool in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe. “Biodiesel significantly reduces carbon emissions when compared to conventional diesel fuel, and the biodiesel industry looks forward to constructively working with policymakers from both sides of the aisle to meet our shared goal of addressing climate change.”

The overwhelming body of data demonstrates the environmental benefits of biodiesel. For every unit of energy it takes to make domestic biodiesel, 3.5 units are gained. The fuel also reduces lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions by 78%. In 2007 alone, biodiesel’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was the equivalent of removing 700,000 passenger vehicles from America’s roadways. Lastly, the biodiesel industry fully expects to meet the 50% greenhouse gas reduction requirement for biomass-based diesel under the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

The group points out that hundreds of government and private diesel fleets are already employing the green fuel, while consumers are finding more and more places to buy biodiesel every day… up to more than 1,300 retail outlets today.

Biodiesel, Government

Bush: Stop Greenhouse Gas Growth by 2025, Biofuels Part of Plan

John Davis

bushclimate.jpgPresident George W. Bush announced today his initiative to curb greenhouse growth in the United States. And according to this White House press release, ethanol and biodiesel are part of the plan:

[T]he United States has launched — and the G8 has embraced — a new process that brings together the countries responsible for most of the world’s emissions. We’re working toward a climate agreement that includes the meaningful participation of every major economy — and gives none a free ride.

In support of this process, and based on technology advances and strong new policy, it is now time for the U.S. to look beyond 2012 and to take the next step. We’ve shown that we can slow emissions growth. Today, I’m announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

To reach this goal, we will pursue an economy-wide strategy that builds on the solid foundation that we have in place. As part of this strategy, we worked with Congress to pass energy legislation that specifies a new fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, and requires fuel producers to supply at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022. This should provide an incentive for shifting to a new generation of fuels like cellulosic ethanol that will reduce concerns about food prices and the environment.

Bush added that in partnership with the private sector, the United States has invested billions of dollars in research and development for commercially viable renewable fuels, hydrogen fuel cells, advanced batteries, and other technologies for the next generation of renewable energy-powered vehicles. He says new incentives will be needed to sustain that growth in renewable energy technologies in order to meet that goal of stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, News

Economists Discuss Food and Fuel Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

Domestic Fuel CastRising food prices continue to make headlines and all too often the blame is placed on the use of corn for ethanol.

In this DomesticFuel Cast, we hear from two economists who have spent their entire careers studying farm and food prices – Jim Duffield with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and John Urbanchuk with the global economic analysis firm of LECG LLC. They talk about the multiple causes of rising food prices, the dramatic impact of energy costs, and what they expect prices for raw commodities to do in the near term.

Here is the Domestic Fuel Cast #2:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/df-podcast-2.mp3]

You can also subscribe to the Domestic Fuel Cast using the following url/feed link: http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/domestic-fuel-cast.xml.

Audio, corn, Domestic Fuel Cast, Energy, Ethanol, News

Imperim CEO Says “Don’t Blame Biofuels”

John Davis

johnplaza.jpgThe food vs. fuel debate is still going strong with the chief executive officer of a major biofuel producer telling a technology summit not to blame his industry for the rise in food prices.

This story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that at the Technology Summit in Bellevue, WA today, Imperium Renewables Chief Executive John Plaza told attendees that there’s a mood right now “that the world is falling apart” and that biofuels are responsible:

Plaza, whose company operates one of the largest biofuel refineries in the country in Grays Harbor County, thinks it is unfair to blame rising commodity prices on increased biofuel production.

And he said that people should not generalize when it comes to biofuels, noting there are differences between various feed stocks.

Algae is the one that most excites Plaza, saying it is “where the industry needs to go.” He sees a way for the country to reach energy independence utilizing algae as a biofuel source, doing so for less than $4 per gallon and by converting just 2.5 percent of the land mass in the country. (Much of it on land not needed for traditional crops.)

One of the audience members did ask Plaza that if he thought algae was such a good idea, why didn’t his company invest in algae-biodiesel operations. Plaza said the markets for large-scale biodiesel projects are dead… at least for the time being. His own company has had its share of problems as rising feedstock prices forced Imperium to cancel an initial public offering earlier this year.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

Brewing Green Beer in Paradise

John Davis

mauibrewing.jpgNo, I’m not talking about something for St. Patrick’s Day. A brewer in Hawaii is making beer using green methods… including using biodiesel in the process.

This story from HawaiiMagazine.com says Maui Brewing Co. has been making up some internationally-recognized beers for several years:

But since opening in 2005, Marrero has also worked to make his company one of Maui’s most Earth-friendly. He’s one seriously resourceful brewer.

All of his delivery trucks—including his and wife Melanie’s cars—run on biodiesel he makes with his Kaanapali brewpub’s used vegetable oil. The brewpub’s lighting is entirely energy-saving compact fluorescent. Marrero is installing photovoltaic solar cells that will soon generate all of the brewery’s electricity.

The article goes on to say that the company even donates leftovers from the brewing process to local pig and cattle farmers for feed.

Biodiesel

GenGreen

John Davis

gengreen.gifOnline social networking is looking green… at GenGreen.org. Now, net-savvy Americans who are committed to living a more sustainable lifestyle can connect with other eco-conscious enthusiasts online. Members can share information and ideas and get updates on the latest news and developments in greener living. Biofuels and alternative energy are a big part of the “sustainable living made local” network. One of the website’s current top headlines boasts harnessing wind power at home: “Techonology Smooths Way for Home Wind Power Turbines.”

Wind turbines, once used primarily for farms and rural houses far from electrical service, are becoming more common in heavily populated residential areas as homeowners are attracted to ease of use, financial incentives and low environmental effects.

No one tracks the number of small-scale residential wind turbines – windmills that run turbines to produce electricity – in the United States. Experts on renewable energy say a convergence of factors, political, technical and ecological, has caused a surge in the use of residential wind turbines, especially in the Northeast and California…

Click here to find the full article.

Energy, Wind