Impact of Ethanol Seminars

John Davis

gfai1.bmpThe Grain & Feed Association of Illinois (GFAI) is hosting two seminars to outline the impact ethanol is having on grain elevators.

According to the GFAI web site, the seminars will happen on August 13th at the Thelma Keller Convention Center in Effingham and August 14th at the Mendota Civic Center in Mendota:

University of Illinois professors Darrel Good and Bob Hauser will team up to provide the background information, analysis and possible implications of various corn production trends for a robust time of discussion.

Topics to be covered include:

• Examination of corn prices and food prices
• Impact on transportation and storage
• Long-run price projections and new price equilibrium
• Cropping patterns locally and internationally
• Implications of disruption in production
• Analysis of international trade

Registration begins at 1 p.m. on both days, and the seminar will last through the afternoon until about 5 p.m.

Check the GFAI web site for more information.

Ethanol, News

The Hydrogen-powered Ford

John Davis

itmpower.jpgUnited Kingdom-based ITM Power Ltd. has converted a Ford Focus that can run on gasoline or pure hydrogen.

This story from Britain’s Channel 4 News says the car’s engine was modified to run on both fuels since hydrogen is not that readily available yet:

However, ITM is developing, in parallel, a home refuelling system for owners to refuel their car: a low-cost electrolyser, which can convert water using electricity (preferably from renewable sources such as wind, wave or solar power) to generate hydrogen. Both car and electrolyser can be used anywhere with water and electricity supplies, potentially doing away with the need for a fuel supply infrastructure.

So far, the prototype can travel only 25 miles on a tank of hydrogen. But officials are planning to build these water-to-hydrogen converters known as electrolysers starting in the first half of next year, and the converted car will be demonstrated later this year.

Jim HeathcoteITM Power’s CEO Jim Heathcote said: ‘Both these developments represent a seismic advance in our efforts to cut ourselves free from the dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. The bi-fuel car and refuelling system clearly demonstrate a simple, convenient and low-cost transportation solution that can significantly reduce greenhouse gases and help mitigate climate change. We believe combining electrolysers with an internal combustion-engined vehicle brings affordable hydrogen transportation forward by many years.’

Hydrogen

Oregon Gets Ethanol, Biodiesel Mandates

John Davis

kulongoski.jpgOregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has signed into law two mandates for biofuel blending in his state.

This story in the Oregonian says the package also includes tax incentives for producers and consumers:

Gasoline sold in Oregon must be 10 percent ethanol after the state’s production of ethanol reaches 40 million gallons a year. Diesel fuel sold in Oregon must be blended with two percent biodiesel when the Pacific Northwest’s production of biodiesel reaches 5 million gallons per year; the blending requirement then increases to 5 percent when annual biodiesel production reaches 15 million gallons a year.

At 50 cents per gallon of biofuel purchased, Oregonians can receive up to $200 a year in tax credits for using a gasoline blend that is at least 85 percent ethanol or biodiesel blended with a 99 percent concentration. Tax incentives also will go to producers or collectors of biofuels feedstock, including forest or agriculture-based biomass, oil seed crops, grain crops other than corn, and grass or wheat straw.

Oregon joins a growing number of states that require a blend of biofuel be sold.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, Legislation, News

Texas A&M, Blue Diamond Team Up for Biodiesel

John Davis

Texas A&M University and Blue Diamond Ventures, an agriculture, biofuels (including ethanol and biodiesel) and commercial development company with operations in Central America and the U.S. have joined together in a plan to make biodiesel in the Central American country of Belize.

This company press release says the focus will be turning non-food sources into biofuels:

txamlogo.JPG“We are delighted that private industry, and Blue Diamond in particular, is very active in searching for alternative sources of energy,” said Dr. Gerald Riskowski, professor and department head of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. “Texas A&M University wants to develop collaborative efforts to help utilize bioenergy for the benefit of society.”

The research initiatives will also focus on various technology advancements, identifying, assessing, cultivating and optimizing production of second generation energy feedstocks for cellulose and bio-oils, characterizing and optimizing the design of dedicated bioenergy crops and developing integrated logistics systems associated with the harvest, transport, storage and conversion of bionergy crops.

bluediamond.jpg“We will be producing a product in accordance with international fuel standards, and this requires having the best minds and most efficient technology to achieve our goals,” said Blue Diamond Chief Executive Officer John Quincey Moaning. “We are delighted to have one of the country’s leading biofuels institutions as a partner.”

Biodiesel, International

Making Biofuels Cheaper & Faster

John Davis

Being able to make biofuels cheaper, faster, and without the help of government subsidies seems to be the theme of some recent work by American researchers.

This story in the Des Moines Register highlights a couple of programs, in particular, one by an Iowa State professor who has teamed up with the private sector to find a way to make biodiesel more efficiently:

Vic LinNew ideas have found support through venture capital firms such as Mohr Davidow Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. MDV licensed the biodiesel technology of ISU professor Victor Lin and created Catalin, a company that will build its pilot plant at the university’s Biomass Energy Conversion Facility in Nevada.

Erik Straser of MDV said Catalin’s new method can use cheap waste grease from restaurants and animal-processing plants as well as, or instead of, more expensive virgin plant oils. And it reduces the amount of water each plant has to use, he said.

The secret is in the “giant tea bag,” which is a solid reusable catalyst – something that triggers a chemical reaction.

“If you want to wash one gallon of biodiesel, you would need about four gallons of water. That’s a lot,” Lin said. He said adapting the catalyst to existing biodiesel plants should be a reasonably affordable option.

The new process could reduce the cost of making a gallon of biodiesel by 10 to 20 cents… that would make the fuel more profitable and possibly able to live without the 50 cent to $1 a gallon government subsidies.

The article goes on to talk about the competition heating up to build cellulosic ethanol plants and mentions the world’s first closed-loop ethanol plant that runs on the manure from the cows fed the distillers grain made from producing the ethanol that just opened in Nebraska (see my post on June 28th).

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

McDonald’s Driving on Own Cooking Oil

John Davis

Fast-food giant McDonald’s will be fueling some of its delivery trucks in the United Kingdom on the leftover oil used to cook its french fries and chicken nuggets.

This story in London’s Financial Times says 155 trucks could be running on the fuel made from the grease by the end of the year:

The fast-food group, which to date has been running trucks on 95 per cent diesel and 5 per cent biodiesel, will initially use a blend of 85 per cent biodiesel and 15 per cent rapeseed oil.

Matthew Howe, manager of McDonald’s UK supply chain, said the cost of using biodiesel was expected to be the same as the restaurant group’s diesel costs in the long term. “In the short term, we think it will cost a little bit more,” he said, adding this extra cost could amount to “a couple of pennies a litre”.

The company expects to convert an annual 6m litres of oil, comparable to the 6.1m litres of diesel used in its trucks last year.

McDonald’s will collect oil from 900 of its 1,200 UK outlets every week and have it made into biodiesel. Company officials say it will produce a 78% reduction in the company’s carbon emissions. It’s also seen as a test as whether the idea would work in the United States.

Biodiesel

DuPont In Biobutanol, Ethanol Ventures

John Davis

DuPont BiofuelsDuPont is dropping $58 million into a joint venture with British Petroleum (BP) and British Sugar to produce the biofuels, biobutanol and ethanol. Biobutanol is a renewable energy source similar to ethanol in that its is obtained by fermenting some of the same feedstocks, but biobutanol is closer to unleaded gasoline in energy content. It is also more compatible with existing pertoleum-based fuels pipeline systems.

The company will build a biobutanol demonstration plant, the first of its kind in the world, with BP and a 420 million liter (about 100 million gallons) a year ethanol plant with British Sugar. Both facilities will be at Saltend, Hull, about 200 miles north of London.

This DuPont news release says DuPont and BP will start to send market development quantities of biobutanol to the U.K. by the end of the year tp test the manufacturing infrastructure and for vehicle testing:

“Our strategy is to selectively invest in production facilities globally to meet the demand for biofuels. Today marks the first two investments of this nature,” said DuPont Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Thomas M. Connelly. “We are on track to deliver on the milestones announced in 2006 for biobutanol, specifically market development of biobutanol by the end of this year and introduction of our second-generation technology by 2010.”

The biobutanol technology research and demonstration facility will make the biofuel from wheat, corn, barley and rye starting in early 2009. In the last year-and-a-half, DuPont has doubled the number of scientists working on biobutanol R&D and has filed more than 30 patents related to the biofuel.

Ethanol, News

MFA FFV Giveaway

Cindy Zimmerman

MFA To celebrate independence from foreign oil on Independence Day, MFA Oil Company – which currently sells E85 at more than 40 locations in Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri – will be giving away a Ford F-150 FFV for the second year in a row.

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition reports the F-150 will be given away as part of the Fourth of July Fire in the Sky celebration in Columbia, Mo.

MFA oil“Our goal is to help educate consumers so that E85 becomes their fuel of choice,” said Jerry Taylor, president of MFA Oil Company. “In doing so, we continue to demonstrate MFA Oil’s commitment to strengthening rural economies through support of the biofuel industry and by decreasing our dependence on foreign oil.”

E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

Ethanol Co-Products Use

Cindy Zimmerman

NASSRoughly half of the cattle and hog operations in a 12-state region either fed ethanol co-products or considered feeding them to their livestock last year, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) with the support and funding of the Nebraska Corn Board.

NE CornAccording to Dan Kerestes, chief of the USDA NASS Livestock Branch, USDA contacted some 94-hundred dairy cattle, cattle on feed, beef cattle and hog operations in 12 states. Kerestes says USDA didn’t have too many expectations going into the report – but he says the percentage of operations already feeding co-products was a surprise.

Among dairy operations, 38 percent indicated that they fed co-products during 2006 and another 22 percent considered doing so. Among cattle on feed operations, 36 percent fed co-products and 34 percent more considered it. Among beef cattle operations, 13 percent reported that they fed co-products and 30 percent considered it. For hog operations, 12 percent fed co-products and 35 percent considered it.

Read the USDA-NASS release on the report.

Read full report.

Listen to NASS broadcast report. [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/audio/ethanol-co-products.mp3]

Audio, Ethanol, Government, Miscellaneous, News

FEW Bloggers

Cindy Zimmerman

FEW BloggersGreat thing about going to meetings is getting to meet people you only know by email. I got to meet a couple of fellow bloggers at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis.

Pictured here with me is C. Scott Miller, editor of the BIOconversion Blog. We started our blogs at about the same time and started communicating way back then.

FEW NathanI also met Nathan Schock with POET, pictured here moderating a press conference at the FEW. He is the editor of POET’s Rhapsody in Green blog. Nathan is a great PR guy, always quick to send pictures and just does a wonderful job all around.

Great to meet both of them.

RFAThanks to the Renewable Fuels Association for sponsoring coverage on Domestic Fuel of the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop.

Ethanol, FEW, Miscellaneous, RFA