United 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: …
Oregon Gets Ethanol, Biodiesel Mandates
Oregon 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 …
Texas A&M, Blue Diamond Team Up for Biodiesel
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: “We are delighted that …
Making Biofuels Cheaper & Faster
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 …
McDonald’s Driving on Own Cooking Oil
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 …
DuPont In Biobutanol, Ethanol Ventures
DuPont 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 …
MFA FFV Giveaway
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 …
Ethanol Co-Products Use
Roughly 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. According to Dan Kerestes, chief of the USDA NASS …
FEW Bloggers
Great 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 …
Hopping Into Ethanol
Many of the exhibitors at the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop were offering new technology and equipment to make ethanol production better, faster, easier, more efficient – you name it. One example here is BetaTec hop products, which can be used to control bacterial infections in distilleries. “Controlling lactic acid bacteria increases ethanol yields,” says one of the company’s handouts. Hops, …