Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns mentioned this mighty machine in his remarks to the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference on Wednesday. It’s called the BioMax and it is a prototype combined heat and power system developed through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and USDA Forest Products Laboratory. The machine is “transportable, fully automated, and environmentally friendly” suitable for small businesses, rural homes …
Corn Grower President at Renewables Conference
The president of the National Corn Growers Association says the interest in renewable energy across the nation is really a renewed interest in agriculture. Ken McCauley, a corn grower from White Cloud, Kansas, says “it elevates agriculture to a whole new level” and he notes that ethanol and biodiesel are giving young people a new future in agriculture and helping …
Focus on Fuels
Despite the government’s best efforts to be all-inclusive with the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference, it’s all too obvious that liquid fuels are the main attraction. That was evidenced by the attendance at the afternoon break-out sessions – one on heat and electricity and one on liquid fuels. The liquid fuels session was SRO, probably around 600-700 people, if not more. …
Secretaries’ Day in St. Louis
The US Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy are the hosts of the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis this week. Both addressed the crowd, estimated at upwards of 1500 people, showing the huge interest in renewable energy nationwide. Both Secretaries talked about the great need for cellulosic ethanol – in fact, just about every speaker today has at least …
Renewable Energy Conference Crowd
There’s a huge crowd at the America’s Center in St. Louis for the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference. First main speaker up was Pat Woertz, CEO for ADM, who gave an impressive address on how we can and must meet the energy and food needs of the world. Coming up shortly will be the US Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture. More …
It’s Confirmed
President Bush is now confirmed to be the grand finale for the Renewable Energy Conference this week in St. Louis. He will make the final address on Thursday to attendees at the event, who will be hearing from other top administration officials on Wednesday, including Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns. Just about everybody who …
Home of the Biodiesel Rams
The newest breed of Dodge Ram comes factory-fueled with biodiesel. Under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis Tuesday, representatives from the National Biodiesel Board and Daimler-Chrysler announced that every 2007 Dodge Ram diesel coming off the assembly line at the company’s Fenton, Missouri north plant will be fueled with B5, a blend containing 5 percent biodiesel made from soybeans grown …
Ethanol Talks
The New York Times reports that two ethanol giants are talking about joining forces. Undisputed ethanol production king ADM met with with ethanol’s financial guru Vinod Khosla to “discuss opportunities they might pursue together” regarding cellulosic ethanol according to ADM CEO Patricia Woertz. ADM has a solid investment in ethanol from corn while Khosla, the founding chief executive of Sun …
Ethanol Convert
Here’s an article on ADM CEO Pat Woertz, who will be one of the many speakers at this week’s Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis. The story talks about Woertz’s former life as a Chevron executive and her opposition to ethanol at the time, which she said was “tied to federal clean-air standards for vehicle emissions and the debate over …
Pacific Ethanol Plant Complete
Construction of Pacific Ethanol’s first plant in Madera, California is now finished and the ribbon will be cut on October 16. The 35 million gallon plant will then begin construction and should reach capacity by next month. This is the plant with Microsoft money behind it (see previous post) – Bill Gates personally invested about $84 million dollars in Pacific …