$1.8 Mil Grant to Fund New Tech at Cal Biodiesel Plant

John Davis

A California biodiesel maker receives a $1.8 million state grant to fund some new technologies at an existing refinery at a military base.

A press release from its parent corporation, Biodico, says Biodiesel Industries of Ventura, LLC got the grant to use at Biodico’s 10 million gallon per year facility at the National Environmental Technology Demonstration Site, at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California:

“We create subsidiaries for each of our facilities so that local investors can become involved in what we are doing in their communities,” explained JJ Rothgery, chairman of the Biodico’s board of directors, “and so that national investors with interests in environmentally sustainable energy can become involved in our new projects. Currently we are working on two projects in California, one at Naval Base Ventura, and the other at Red Rock Ranch in California’s Central Valley. Both projects will benefit from the technology developed under the new Energy Commission grant.” Each 10 million gallon per year facility costs approximately $12.5 million from inception to completion.

The research from this money will be focused on using new non-food crops for biodiesel and will be done in cooperation with Dr. Stephen Kaffka, Director of the California Biomass Collaborative at the University of California Davis, and John Diener, president of Red Rock Ranch. In addition, the Biodico production facility will be able to produce all its own heat and power, and Biodico will use it as a blueprint for making its other facilities self-sustaining.

Biodiesel, Government

Power of Propane Continues Demos Through Southeast

John Davis

Propane continues to show its versatility and ability to step up as a mainline automobile fuel during the Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program‘s latest stop during this year’s roadshow appearance at the Maryland International Speedway in Mechanicsville.

During the visit, attendees got to see a variety of autogas-powered fleet vehicles, as well as meet Susan Roush-McClenaghan, driver for the ROUSH Drag Team, who talked about her propane-powered Ford Mustang race car and her experience racing the high-performance vehicle.

For those who missed the stop in Maryland, your next opportunity comes next week when the roadshow series stops in Birmingham, Alabama on June 21, 2012. Check out the Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program roadshow series website for more information.

Propane

9,000 Acres to be Dedicated to Non-Food Energy Crops

John Davis

An additional 9,000 acres in New York and North Carolina, and the expansion of an area in Arkansas, is being set aside as part of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) project. USDA announced $9.6 million will be spent to fund this latest effort to use more non-food crops for the production of biofuels, such as biodiesel and ethanol:

“Increasing the production of renewable, home-grown fuels is vital to reducing our country’s reliance on foreign oil, while creating good-paying jobs and diversifying the agriculture economy,” said [Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack. “These projects are the foundation for an even stronger energy future in rural America. Because most energy crops are perennial and take time to mature before harvest, BCAP is designed so that sufficient quantities of feedstock will be available to meet future demand. Most importantly: these crops can grow where other crops cannot, providing farmers with new opportunities to diversify into more markets.”

In North Carolina, 4,000 acres is being put into Freedom® Giant Miscanthus and switch grass to support Chemtex International Inc.’s Project Alpha, a cellulosic biorefinery expected to produce 20 million gallons of ethanol and sustainable chemicals. Upstate New York will be seeing up to 3,500 acres in fast growing shrub willow to generate more than 100 megawatts of electricity for ReEnergy Holdings LLC. Finally, BCAP Project Area 2 in northeast Arkansas is expanding its enrollment up to nearly 8,000 acres of Giant Miscanthus, sponsored Missouri-based MFA Oil Biomass.

Under BCAP, producers get reimbursed up to 75 percent of what it costs to establish these perennial energy crops, plus five years of maintenance payments for herbaceous crops and up to 11 years for woody crops.

USDA officials point out that this program helps the Renewable Fuels Standard, which calls for 20 billion gallons more in just 10 years of non-corn based biofuels.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, USDA

LS9 Opens Biodiesel Demo Plant in Florida

John Davis

Renewable energy and chemical producer LS9 has opened it’s demonstration plant in Okeechobee, Florida and is expected to be producing 75,000 gallons of biodiesel and biochemicals from local feedstocks in the coming months. This company press release says the retrofit of the plant was completed last month:

“The opening of our demonstration plant in Florida moves LS9 from a development company towards becoming a fully integrated commercial organization,” said Ed Dineen, LS9 President and CEO. “Florida’s strong agricultural resources will allow us to source locally grown feedstocks for testing and processing into renewable biofuels and biochemicals. We are grateful to those who attended our event today, and recognize that this would not have been possible without the support from Enterprise Florida, the Florida Opportunity Fund’s Clean Energy Investment Program, and the community of Okeechobee that has gone above and beyond to welcome LS9 to the state.”

LS9 officials highlighted the company’s single-step fermentation technology that allows the plant to move easily from one type of product to another. The retrofit of the facility was helped with $4.5 million of Florida Opportunity Fund (FOF) Clean Energy Investment Program money.

Biodiesel

New Energy Farms Announces Development of CEEDS

New Energy Farms (NEF) has developed a revolutionary new method of propagating energy grasses that will reduce farmer establishment costs by 50 percent or more.

Cost effective scaling of perennial energy grasses such as Miscanthus, Arundo donax and energy cane has previously inhibited expansion. NEF has developed a new planting product for vegetative energy crops called CEEDS. These are small capsules that are established using automatic min till or no-till planters, like seed. The process applies to a number of energy grasses and is currently being evaluated by companies in the U.S. and Canada. The existing range of NEF energy crops will be available in the CEEDS format commencing from 2013 to 2014 depending on the cultivar and region.

“The focus was to make establishing vegetative energy crops as easy as other arable crops, to do this we started to look how to reverse engineer a seed, and the result was CEEDS,” says Dean Tiessen, president of New Energy Farms.

“CEEDS represents a step forward in energy crop establishment; that has been many years in the development, but solves all the issues that have previously made scaling energy crops difficult,” adds Dr. Paul Carver, CEO New Energy Farms.

The CEEDS planting system works alongside the NEF energy crop plantation management system, Biomass Direct to provide a farm to end user service for our customers.

The main advantages of CEEDS are
• New cultivars can be bulked up to market volumes 3 times faster.
• Establishment cost for crops like Miscanthus can be reduced by over 50 percent.
• Min / No till, fully automatic precision planting (no planting staff required).
• Substantially lower cost of planting, less ground cultivation.
• Reduction by up to 80% in transport logistics for planting material.
• Greater vigor after planting, more shoots produced.
• This system delivers the maximum yield from a cultivar.
• Makes planting energy grasses as simple as drilling conventional arable crops.

advanced biofuels, bioenergy, biomass

Has Your Business Considered Using Pinterest

Chuck Zimmerman

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Do you prefer corn sugar to high fructose corn syrup?” In what is a first for our poll, the response was split evenly! See the chart below.

Recently the FDA denied a request from the Corn Refiners Association to allow food labels to use the term corn sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Nutritionally, there is no difference in regular table sugar and HFCS so I don’t see why FDA ruled like they did. Their reasoning had to do with their definition of sugar as a crystalline solid. This is basically a public relations war over words since the “problem” with either cane or corn sugar is how much someone consumes. Nothing wrong with cane sugar or corn sugar, regardless what you call it, in my opinion. I like them both. Apparently consumers like HFCS better according to this story. What do you think? We like all uses of corn and sweetener is one of them as well as ethanol!

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Does your business have an interest in Pinterest?” This online pinboard is now being used by political campaigns to target key demographics. Even President Obama’s wife is using it! Seems like there might be some good reason for agribusinesses, farm and food groups to start pinning away. How about it biofuels groups? Are you using it to help educate the public?

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

ZimmPoll

Making the Deserts Bloom with Biofuels

John Davis

After spending the past year in the desert myself, I can tell you personally that the prospect of seeing ANYTHING growing, whether it is a plant or animal, is quite a highly anticipated event. And being in that desert far from home really helped bring home how much this country needs domestically produced fuels. That’s why this story from the U.S. Geological Survey’s blog caught my eye. Researchers, such as the USGS’s Sasha Reed (pictured below), are looking at how to get the most out of biofuel production in the arid regions of the American Southwest, while preserving the fragile environment…

“Even renewable energy has consequences, and we want decision makers to have the data available to make informed decisions about incorporating a variety of energy sources into our national energy portfolio,” Reed says…

…Reed and her colleagues are using a two-pronged approach to unravel the biofuel potential of the American Southwest. First, they are using remote sensing and modeling to help determine the amount of energy that could be added to our national energy portfolio by biofuel production. Second, they are using biogeochemistry to assess how different approaches to biofuel development will affect greenhouse gas emissions, water availability and quality, air quality, and soil fertility and stability.

Obviously, in the desert, water is a big concern. Trying to find ways to reduce the amount of water taken away from helping hold soil in place (which, without that water creates a whole new problem… DUST!) is a large part of the focus of Reed’s work. She says more dust has a compounding effect, such as making snow melt faster, which leads to water shortages in areas of the Southwest. The hope is this USGS work will give land managers and policy makers more information to make better decisions about when, where and how to produce biofuels in those desert areas.

algae, Biodiesel, biofuels

Biodiesel Board’s Weber on Biomass R&D Committee

John Davis

A man well-known to the biodiesel community will be taking his seat on a top-level, federal government committee looking at helping the rural economy, while making the country more energy secure.

Alan Weber, who has served as a consultant on new resources for biodiesel for the National Biodiesel Board and vice president of Missouri-based MARC-IV Consulting, has been tapped to serve on the USDA’s and U.S. Department of Energy’s Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee.

The prestigious committee helps USDA and DOE in meeting important goals of a healthier rural economy and improved national energy security. Weber will advise the agencies on overcoming technical challenges through research and development that will lead to a greatly expanded biobased industry.

Weber has been involved with biodiesel for more than 20 years, helping establish the NBB’s Washington, DC office. He’s a master’s graduate of the Agricultural Economics program at the University of Missouri, where he served as a program director for industrial uses from renewable resources.

Biodiesel, NBB

Biodiesel Becomes Key Part of Mechanic Training

Joanna Schroeder

It won’t be long before mechanics across the U.S. know all about biodiesel. The National Automotive Technician Education Foundation (NATEF) has awarded the Automotive Service Excellence accreditation to NBB Biodiesel for Diesel Technicians curriculum. The curriculum was created to provide technically sound information to mechanics about biodiesel and eliminate misperceptions.

“We are delighted to have the National Biodiesel Board as an accredited training organization; it is important to have good technical information to educate the next generation of diesel technicians in advanced biofuels,” said Dave Milne, President of the Automotive Training Managers Council, a division of ASE.

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) says greater acceptance and knowledge of biodiesel will help all Americans enjoy the benefits of the renewable fuel.

Rachel Burton, a diesel technician who leads the NBB program and has trained more than 300 instructors said, “NBB had the foresight to recognize that educating diesel technicians early is critical to its mission of increasing public acceptance of biodiesel, a relatively new fuel. Knowledge is power.”

The NBB program has had a partnership with Universal Technical Institute, a leading provider of entry-level technicians, since 2009. Technicians who take the course may receive Continuing Education Credits and for those taking classes in a college setting, the course may count for credits towards a degree.

advanced biofuels, Biodiesel, biofuels

Europe Set to Dominate in Solar Power

Joanna Schroeder

Europe is sitting pretty to dominate in the use of solar power. The solar industry is expected to grow up to 150GWp by 2020. According to a report by McKinsey, “Solar power: Darkest before dawn,” the solar industry is entering a period of maturation. Over the next few years, this will lead to more stable and expansive growth for companies that can manage costs while still being innovative.

Germany is the global leader in solar power accounting for more than a third of the world’s photovoltaic capacity. The country is also positioned well for growth as McKinsey cites five key areas of growth: off-grid, residential and commercial in sun-rich areas, isolated grids, peak capacity in growth markets and large-scale power plants. Strategies for success in these areas and others will be topics of discussion during the Intersolar Europe that kicked off on June 11, 2012.

“Those companies who survive the current consolidation wave will experience a bright future. Especially the rooftop segment and downstream business models are expected to drive the industry forward,” said Tobias Rothacher, photovoltaic industry expert at Germany Trade & Invest in Berlin.

Darkest before dawn reports that the industry is suffering from growing pains as demand is expected to increase between 400 to 600 GWp by 2020 even with the reduction or end of tax credits. This upward trend is especially creating opportunities for companies who offer comprehensive design, installation and service packages.

“Germany has supported own consumption of solar power for years. The coming grid parity era is ushering in an era of new business opportunities,” added Rothacher. We expect Germany to continue to be the top business location, as innovations and industry standards are developed here.”

Electricity, Energy, Solar