Ethanol interests are expressing their disappointment in this week’s ruling by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to adopt a low carbon fuel standard that uses controversial methods to determine indirect land use changes attributable to biofuels. “Adopting this standard sets a dangerous precedent about the application of unproven science to industries across the country,” said Bob Dinneen, President and …
California Adopts Standard Biased Against Ethanol
Despite stringent arguments by the ethanol industry, California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) yesterday approved a Low Carbon Fuel Standard that could jeopardize continued development of the advanced biofuels it is intended to promote. According to a press release from the board, “The new standard means we can begin to break our century-old dependence on petroleum and provide California with greater …
Turning CO2 Into Ethanol
A new process could be a way to reduce greenhouse gas… and turn that gas into fuel for your car. This story from Reuters says scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore are using non-toxic organocatalysts to make carbon dioxide into ethanol: In a statement, the institute said the team, led by Yugen Zhang, used N-heterocyclic carbenes …
Plantation Pipeline Expanding to Ethanol
A pipeline in the Southeastern United States that has already tested moving biodiesel (see my Feb. , 2009 post) is now looking at sending ethanol through that same conduit. This Reuters story says Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is looking at shipping ethanol on the Louisiana to Virginia Plantation duct: “We are evaluating the Plantation pipeline … as the next possible …
GHG Worse than Thought from Foreign Crude
A press release by Growth Energy highlights a new study that shows greenhouse gas emissions of gasoline from foreign oil are at least twice what was previously thought when the indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to military operations in the Middle East are taken into account. The study is published in “Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining”. The study comes as …
Ethanol Watching CARB Arguments
All eyes in the ethanol industry are on California today as the state’s Air Resources Board (ARB) is hearing arguments and preparing to vote on a controversial staff proposal for the state’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS). Hundreds of scientists, biofuel producers, including both current and next generation companies, and petroleum interests have all cautioned that ARB’s approach is far …
Ethanol Blending in Nebraska
Motorists in Grand Island, Nebraska now have a range of choices at the pump when it comes to ethanol blended gasoline. Six ethanol blender pumps were unveiled last week providing flexible-fuel vehicle owners with the option of using E85, E30, E20 or the traditional E10 blend of gasoline. “If you drive a flex-fuel vehicle, you don’t have to fill up …
Eco-Sustainable City Plants Eco-Sustainable Feedstock
America’s first eco-sustainable city is taking its first steps toward sustainable energy. Destiny, Florida, as you might remember from my February 27, 2009 Domestic Fuel podcast, is a 41,000-acre community founded in 2005 in South Central Florida. Among the city’s eco-friendly features is The Sustainable Energy Farm that produces power from biodiesel, ethanol, solar and wind sources for companies that …
Alabama Police Dept. Uses Wood Derived Ethanol
Gulf Coast Energy, Inc. was founded with the intention and mission to “change the world,” through the manufacturing of alternative, environmentally friendly, renewable biofuels. The company states that they developed a unique approach to the manufacture of alternative fuels that takes advantage of the latest state-of-the-art modular process technology for converting biomass to ethanol and other carbon-based fuels such as …