Green Tips for Earth Month 2011

Joanna Schroeder

April 22, 2011 marks the 41st Earth Day and many are calling for Earth Day to be expanded to include issues surrounding energy independence. Those who lobby for energy independence also lobby for the increased use of renewable energy including wind, solar, geothermal and biofuels. Today, renewable energy company Green Mountain Energy Company, is offering some green tips for Earth Month 2011. Green Mountain Energy not only provides “green” energy for consumers such as wind and solar energy, but also offers carbon offset products.

Earth Month 10 Tips for 2011:

  1. 1. Switch to Cleaner Electricity for Your Home. The production of electricity is the leading cause of industrial air pollution.
  2. 2. Plant a Tree. A single tree can absorb up to 2,000 pounds of CO2 over its lifetime, while also providing shade and animal habitat.
  3. 3. Send e-cards. Go online and send an e-card instead of printed greeting cards to save paper and CO2 emissions associated with mailing and shipping.
  4. 4. Use all-natural decoration. Buy colorful fruits and vegetables as centerpieces throughout the home. Then when they ripen, find a new recipe to enjoy them with.
  5. 5. Use the real thing. Instead of using paper and plastic dinnerware, use real plates, bowls, and silverware. Not only does it decrease waste, but it looks nicer, too.
  6. 6. Seal your house up. Caulking and weather stripping around doors, windows, and other cracks can prevent air leaks and save on your heating and cooling bills.
  7. 7. BYOB. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. It takes one 15- to 20-year-old tree to make enough paper for 700 grocery bags.
  8. 8. Pay bills online. If every family in the United States viewed and paid bills online, the country would save almost 1 billion pounds of paper and avoid 3.9 billion pounds of GHGs.
  9. 9. Practice green gift wrapping. Use old maps or newspaper and reuse gift bags.
  10. 10. Live every day like it’s Earth Day. Take a pledge as a household to practice sustainability every day of the year.

Want to make these tips stick? Green Mountain Energy suggests that you engage in the eco-activities as an entire family.

biofuels, Environment, Solar, Wind

Volvo’s C30 Electric Generates Heat With Bio-Ethanol

Joanna Schroeder

Volvo is preparing to launch its C30 Electric vehicle but it has a unique twist. This car uses bio-ethanol to generate heat in the winter to keep passengers toasty warm. It is unusual in that the heater doesn’t draw power from the battery and thus doesn’t affect the driving range of the electric car (EV). The announcement came in conjunction with Volvo’s successful tests to drive the C30 Electric in extreme cold temperatures up to -20 degrees Celsius. In the past, some electric vehicles have struggled in winter conditions with the stress of cold temperatures significantly lowering the driving range of the EV.

Lennart Stegland, Director of Volvo Cars’ Special Vehicles said of the more than 200 tests they have performed on the EV, “We must ensure that the C30 Electric performs as intended when driving, parking and charging in a variety of conditions, from normal to very cold or hot. Northern Sweden is the perfect place to do sub-zero temperature testing.”

Speaking of climates, the C30 Electric has three climate systems. One system cools or warms the battery pack as necessary, and another climate system uses water to cool the electric motor and power electronics. The final climate system supplies passengers with heating or cooling and this system runs on bio-ethanol. The car’s ethanol tank holds up to 14.5 litres of bio-ethanol. It is also possible to operate the heater and air conditioning using electricity from the batteries. In electric mode an immersion heater warms up the coolant in the climate unit.

“The driver can program and control the climate unit to suit the trip. Ethanol is the default mode that is used when the battery capacity is needed for driving extend mobility to its maximum. However, on shorter distances electricity can be used to power the climate system,” concluded Stegland.

Electric Vehicles, Ethanol

Agilyx Secures $22M in Funding

Joanna Schroeder

Renewable energy company Agilyx Corporation has secured $22 million in Series B funding. Agilyx believes they are the first company to economically covert difficult recycle waste plastic into synthetic crude oil. The monies will be used to expand operations and accelerate the growth of their technology to market. The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and major investors included but were not limited to Waste Management, and Total Energy Ventures International, an affiliate of Total S.A., a major oil and gas company.

“This latest investment in Agilyx represents a significant milestone for our company,” said Chris Ulum, chief executive officer of Agilyx Corporation. “With these funds and strategic partners at our side, we are well positioned to help our customers and the communities in which they operate improve the diversion and recovery of waste plastics, and create new local sources of crude oil. By providing this alternative while the world’s insatiable appetite for oil continues, our solution can offset the use of fossil crude oil and create new cleantech jobs in the process.”

The company currently has a fully permitted and patented waste plastic conversion technology that recycles waste plastic into synthetic crude. The process is scalable, versatile and environmentally friendly according to the company. The company is working in conjunction with other companies to help them manage plastic waste streams. Today, Agilyx has an operational facility near Portland, Oregon that is the largest commercial waste plastic to synthetic crude oil facility in the U.S. To date, the company has sold more than 120,000 gallons of its crude oil produced from 1 million pounds of plastic that would otherwise have been incinerated or landfilled.

“Waste Management wants to maximize the value of the materials it manages,” said Tim Cesarek, managing director of Organic Growth at Waste Management. “Agilyx’s technology complements Waste Management’s advancement of thermal chemical conversion technology platforms and provides us with a viable option for processing contaminated and difficult to recycle waste plastics while creating a high value commodity.”

Manoelle Lepoutre, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Development for Total S.A. added, “As a major plastics manufacturer and as an oil refining company, Total is pleased to support the further development of Agilyx, whose technology offers a scalable economic option to recovering waste plastics.”

Energy, Environment, Oil

New Blender Pump in York, NE

Cindy Zimmerman

nebraska blender pumpA new ethanol blender pump opened last week in York, Nebraska thanks to the efforts of the Nebraska Ethanol Board and the Nebraska Corn Board.

“E85 is cleaner than gas, it’s produced here in Nebraska, and more and more cars can use it every year,” said Todd Sneller, Nebraska Ethanol Board Administrator. ”The addition of this new flex fuel dispenser will ensure that consumers will have more choices at the pump to fuel up their flex fuel vehicle,” added Kim Clark, Ag Program Manager with the Nebraska Corn Board. “Consumers will be able to fill up based on price, performance and availability.”

The York E85 / blender pump is the 61st in Nebraska to offer the renewable fuel. The location will have regular gasoline, ethanol fuels, and diesel available 24 hours a day. Over 96,000 Nebraska motorists currently own Flexible Fuel Vehicles, which can run on any blend of ethanol and gasoline, including E85.

blends, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Flex Fuel Vehicles

Enzymatic Process Touted for Biodiesel Production

John Davis

A Texas-based company claims its enzymatic process for turning waste grease into clean-burning biodiesel will save money and can be used on existing biodiesel plants.

Biodiesel Experts International LLC of Pearland, near Houston, calls its process “revolutionary” and is offering to provide engineering, onsite supervision, startup, training, enzyme material, and complete plants:

The enzymatic process consist of two (2) different types of enzyme, one for tranesterification and one for esterification. Feed stocks with 0-100 FFA can be processed at an operating temperature of ONLY 85 F and minimal methanol required. There is no caustics required and no soap formation. The byproducts produced are high quality glycerin and water. This enzymatic process can also be used only for FFA reduction with proved results to reduce FFA levels to less than 1 from any level of FFA with an operating temperature of ONLY 85 F. The methanol requirement is less than 15% by weight for FFA reduction.

We checked with the National Biodiesel Board about this outfit and its claims, and while the NBB “does not investigate, evaluate, or recommend biodiesel production techniques or equipment,” it does say the technology could prove to be a promising innovation to make biodiesel production more economical:

“The use of enzymes for biodiesel production is one such innovation that holds promise. In fact, there were two presentations on enzymatic biodiesel production at the National Biodiesel Conference and Expo this year. As with any biodiesel process technology, be it new or old, it is absolutely critical the reaction go completely to the mono-alkyl ester (i.e. biodiesel) and that the resulting product meets or exceeds all the parameters in ASTM D6751.”

Biodiesel, NBB

Oregon Becomes 2nd State with 5% Biodiesel Mandate

John Davis

Oregon has become the 2nd state in the nation to have a 5 percent biodiesel requirement.

The state joins Minnesota in requiring the B5 mix and gained the praise of the National Biodiesel Board:

“Policymakers in Oregon should be congratulated for displaying national leadership on clean energy issues,” said Shelby Neal, NBB regulatory affairs director. “As a result of the biodiesel policy, Oregon’s citizens will enjoy cleaner air, green jobs, and a higher level of energy independence.”

The state has already had a 2 percent biodiesel (B2) requirement in effect. Oregon’s B5 requirement was scheduled to be triggered when the in-state production capacity reached 15 million gallons annually, which the biodiesel plants recently accomplished. The requirement will generate about 25 million gallons of biodiesel demand annually.

“Increasing the use of domestically produced, low carbon fuels like biodiesel is a win-win for Oregon,” said Rick Wallace, a senior policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Energy, and the Clean Cities Coordinator of the Columbia-Willamette Clean Cities Coalition. “We’re supporting the local economy while reducing pollution, rather than relying entirely on fossil fuels to power our state.”

The state already had a B2 requirement, along with Washington and Pennsylvania. Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New Mexico also have biodiesel mandates that haven’t kicked in yet.

Biodiesel, NBB

Vilsack Named Biofool of the Year

Cindy Zimmerman

Friends of the Earth (FOE) has named U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack the 2011 Biofool of the Year, the organization’s award that recognizes “leaders that promote dirty biofuels.”

According to FOE, Vilsack received 2,424 votes of the more than 6,000 cast and they say he definitely deserves the honor. “With Secretary Vilsack at the helm, the USDA has doubled down on its support for corn ethanol and biofuels.” FOE is asking supporters to sign on to a letter they will deliver to Secretary Vilsack later this month, “congratulating him on earning this honor and thanking him for his efforts to promote dirty biofuels at the expense of a comprehensive agriculture policy that would actually help American farmers who grow food!”

The letter reads, in part:
You justify your support for ethanol subsidies because you think ethanol subsidies support farmers. Yet, ethanol subsidies go to refiners, not farmers, and less than 20 percent of America’s ethanol is produced in farmer-owned refineries. The other 80 percent is produced by conglomerates like Archer Daniels Midland and Big Oil companies.

Actually, the ethanol subsidy – the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) or blenders credit – goes to fuel blenders, not farmers or refiners. According to the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), as of last year, it is true that totally farmer-owned ethanol plants produced about 2.5 billion gallons of ethanol annually, almost 20 percent of the industry’s total capacity. “However, many other U.S. ethanol plants can be considered “locally owned” because local community members are shareholders in the companies,” according to ACE. That would include the world’s largest ethanol producer, POET, which is a privately held company. The 27 POET Biorefineries are owned by various investors, including farmers, most of whom purchased shares in a private offering. POET’s current production capacity stands at about 1.7 billion gallons annually – or about 12-13 percent of current U.S. production. ADM and oil company-backed plants such as Valero produce a significant amount of the nation’s current capacity, but there are many other company-owned or publicly traded ethanol companies, like Pacific Ethanol, that could hardly be classified as “conglomerates.”

Regardless of the facts, Secretary Vilsack is definitely deserving of this honor recognizing his support of ethanol and Domestic Fuel congratulates him.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Farming, USDA

UNICA Expects Decline in Brazil Ethanol Exports

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol exports from Brazil could drop by as much as 18% this season compared to last year, according to the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA).

UNICAUNICA is expecting a slight increase in ethanol production this year, however. “Ethanol production should reach 25.51 billion liters in the 2011/2012 season, a 0.52% increase compared to the last harvest, when the total reached 25.37 billion liters,” the organization reports. According to UNICA’s Technical Director, Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, increased ethanol production combined with a drop in exports will result in an increase of almost 500 million liters of the biofuel in the domestic supply. “However, this increase in ethanol supply for domestic use is lower than the expected growth in demand, given accelerated sales of flex vehicles,” he said.

Of the 25.51 billion liters of ethanol expected in the new season, 17.21 billion will be hydrous ethanol and 8.30 billion will be anhydrous ethanol. This volume of anhydrous ethanol is sufficient to meet the 25% blend with gasoline, even if a smaller share of the flex fuel fleet uses hydrous ethanol as expected, as consumers that own flex-fuel choose gasoline because of pricing.

The forecast for the 2011/2012 Brazilian sugarcane harvest calls for 568.50 million tons, up 2.11% compared to last year. The country is expecting an overall recovery in agricultural productivity after a lengthy dry spell, but UNICA is projecting that average productivity of the total sugarcane area for the 2011/2012 harvest will decline compared to the previous harvest, due to factors including the aging of cane fields and a reduction in the amount of cane that was not processed in the prior harvest and therefore has been growing for nearly two years.

Brazil, Ethanol, Ethanol News, UNICA

Farm, Biodiesel Maker Seek Canola Growers

John Davis

DRM Farms and SunPower Biodiesel have teamed up to find farmers in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and the Dakotas to grow canola for SunPower’s Cumberland, WI refining operation to make its Premium Cold Flow Biodiesel:

Canola is quite adaptable with regard to soil type, and has shown profitability on marginal crop lands where other crops are not as feasible. It has revealed drought tolerance and preference to cooler temperatures, making canola ideal as a featured or alternative crop in the mid-western region of the United States.

The selling price for the seed will ultimately depend on the quality and current canola commodity values. Other oil seeds, such as sunflower, camelina and flax, will also be considered for purchase.

SunPower Biodiesel is getting some money for the project from the Wisconsin Clean Transportation Program, administered through the Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence and Wisconsin Clean Cities.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel Board Backs Obama’s Backing of Biofuels

John Davis

The National Biodiesel Board has joined the chorus of biofuel groups applauding President Obama’s call for boosting the production of domestic fuels:

“The biodiesel industry is already poised for a record year in which we will displace nearly a billion gallons of petroleum with a renewable fuel produced right here in the United States,” said Manning Feraci, NBB’s Vice President of Federal Affairs. “We are ready and able to meet the nation’s Advanced Biofuel goals and in the process create new jobs, improve the environment and enhance the nation’s energy security.”

As Cindy and Joanna reported earlier, other groups, including the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and the Advanced Ethanol Council, have given their support to Obama’s Blueprint for A Secure Energy Future that outlines a comprehensive national energy policy.

“Over the next two years, we’ll help entrepreneurs break ground on four next-generation biorefineries – each with a capacity of more than 20 million gallons per year. And going forward, we should look for ways to reform biofuels incentives to make sure they meet today’s challenges and save taxpayers money,” Obama said.

NBB points out that biodiesel is America’s first advanced biofuel.

Biodiesel, Government, NBB