Sunoco Green E15 Ready to Race

Joanna Schroeder

The 53rd running of the Daytona 500 is around the corner, February 20, to be exact, and when this event takes place, it will mark the beginning of a new era – the era of NASCAR running on Sunoco Green E15. This 2011 season, all three national NASCAR series will be running on this American made, American produced fuel and as this famous race nears, NASCAR took the opportunity to welcome the new fuel and National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) to the family.

“NASCAR is very proud to welcome as partners the hard-working family farmers all over the United States who grow the corn that will be used in our new Sunoco Green E15 fuel,” said Brian France, Chairman and CEO of NASCAR. “We are happy our sport can play a part in creating jobs and fostering energy independence by using a renewable fuel grown and produced in America.”

Last year NASCAR announced that it would be switching to Sunoco Green E15, a 15 percent ethanol blend made with corn grown in America. Shortly thereafter, the league announced its partnership with the American ethanol industry that includes Growth Energy and the NCGA.

During a press call this morning, I asked how much E15 would be used in all three series. Jim O’Connell, Chief Sales Officer for NASCAR said that since this was the first year to use the fuel, he was unsure of the total number of gallons that would be used. However, he stressed that he was “absolutely sure it would be American grown, American produced ethanol.”

Darrin Ihnen, NCGA’s Chairman and a corn farmer from Hurley, South Dakota, also said during the call that they are excited about this opportunity to educate motorists and NASCAR fans at race tracks around the country about the great work American corn growers are doing in feeding and fueling the world. He said that ethanol will be extremely visible as it races around the track and in addition they will support their on-track campaign with high-profile TV ads as well as a strong grassroots campaign that will include American farmers on the track answering consumer questions about the fuel. NCGA will work closely with Growth Energy on their educational and promotional activities.

“The goal is to bring ethanol’s positive messages from job creation to cleaner air to consumers. When people hear a message like ‘American Ethanol: Trusted By NASCAR,’ that carries a lot of weight and adds to ethanol’s credibility and reputation,” concluded Ihnen.

Listen to NCGA’s NASCAR Partnership Press Conference here: NCGA Partners With NASCAR

American Ethanol, Audio, corn, Education, Ethanol, NASCAR, NCGA

Biodiesel Board Chair Sees Advance in Biodiesel

John Davis

The National Biodiesel Conference & Expo is just a few days away, set to begin on Sunday and run through Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011, and the theme for the event in Phoenix, Arizona is “Advance” – reflecting the fact that biodiesel is classified as an advanced biofuel by EPA under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). So it’s only fitting that the National Biodiesel Board’s chairman provides us with a preview of what will be talked about during the conference.

Gary Haer, who also serves as vice president of sales and marketing for REG (Renewable Energy Group), the nation’s largest biodiesel producer, talked about the future of the green fuel at last week’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. During a panel session entitled “Advanced Biofuels Panel – A Turning Point for Renewable Energy,” Haer said that after a very challenging 2010, where the industry held its breath nearly all year while waiting for Congress to finally renew the federal $1-a-gallon tax incentive, biodiesel is ready to move forward as the nation’s first advanced biofuel.

“By EPA definition, an advanced biofuel must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent. That gives us those environmental benefits, but it’s also good to note that biodiesel and advanced biofuels promote energy security … and they also contribute economic benefits for agriculture and rural America.”

Haer points out that biodiesel does not compete with food supplies and is more efficient than ever in the amount of energy used to produce each unit of energy. “Biodiesel continues to improve its energy balance. Today, it generates four units of energy for every unit consumed in the manufacturing and processing for finished product.”

Haer says the industry has plenty of capacity to meet the RFS2 requirements, as well as having enough feedstocks to produce the biodiesel to meet the increasing requirements. And he says there’s no new technology that has to be developed to meet that requirement. “With biodiesel, that next generation [of renewable fuels] is here today. The capacity, the industry is there. We’re ready to go, and we’re ready to utilize additional feedstock sources as they become commercially developed and commercially available.”

Haer admits there are some challenges out there, but the potential is so great. And he says since the stakes in the economy are so high, they must succeed.

“We’re providing jobs, and we’re providing green collar jobs for Americans. And we work hard to keep U.S. dollars in the U.S. economy.”

You can listen to Haer’s full remarks here: Gary Haer, NBB Chairman , as well as following along with his powerpoint presentation at this link.

Audio, Biodiesel, Biodiesel Conference, NBB

Energy Secretary Chu Tours Sharp Solar Facility

Joanna Schroeder

Energy Secretary Steven Chu toured Sharp Electronics Corporation’s solar manufacturing facility in Memphis, Tennessee last week. According to an article on the Energy.gov blog following his visit, the plant has produced more than 2 million solar panels since 2002. Also, due to the positive response for more solar power from both the public and private American sectors, Sharp has increased its staff from 300 to 480 employees over the last year.

In addition, with the aid of federal incentives, the company has grown its production capacity at its Memphis plant from 60 megawatts a year to 140 megawatts of solar paneling, enough to power more than 140,000 average sized U.S. homes.

“We are honored to welcome Secretary Chu to Sharp’s solar panel manufacturing plant in Tennessee,” said Kozo Takahashi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sharp Electronics Corporation prior to his arrival. “Sharp has seen strong growth in demand for solar electricity and in turn we have steadily increased output and job creation, making our factory a perfect venue to amplify President Obama’s top renewable energy priorities for the country.”

While at Sharp’s facility, Secretary Chu toured Sharp’s solar panel manufacturing operation and discussed President Obama’s energy initiatives as laid out in his State of the Union Address on January 25. During his address, the President called for 80 percent of America’s electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2035.

Electricity, Solar

NEC Student Scholarship Winners Announced

Joanna Schroeder

The scholarship students who will attend the 16th Annual National Ethanol Conference: Building Bridges to a More Sustainable Future, have been selected by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFS) and the Renewable Fuels Foundation (RFF). The six students will receive free conference registration, allowing them the opportunity to meet and connect with renewable fuels industry professional leaders, policymakers and experts. The conference takes place in Phoenix, Arizona February 20-22, 2011.

The NEC scholarship recipients are: Ethan Kenney, a junior undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Derek Latil a recent graduate who is working part time for IllinoisVentures; Anuradha Mukherjee, who is pursuing her PhD in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University; Kai Nortey, a graduate student of Integrated Marketing Communications and PR at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, Julia O’Rourke, a 2nd year MS/PhD student in mechanical engineering and MPaff student in public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin; and Andy Pringnitz, a junior undergraduate student at Iowa State University, where he is studying Agricultural Business, Economics, and International Agriculture.

“Attending the NEC is a stepping stone for these students in their path of pursuing a career in biofuels and renewable energy,” said Mike Jerke, RFF Chairman and General Manager of Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company. “This is the perfect occasion to network with U.S. ethanol experts and explore the opportunities this industry has to offer.”

According to RFA, this year’s conference will focus on the future of an industry that can and will be the bridge from a national petroleum-fueled economy to one that is anchored in renewable fuels, sustainably produced from all biomass including grains and cellulose.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

No-Till Farming Shows Up Strong In ZimmPoll

Chuck Zimmerman

In our latest ZimmPoll we asked our farming readers about tillage practices with the question, “Which tillage practice do you employ on most of your farming operation.” It looks like No-Till is the winner with 24%, followed by Conventional at 21%, Other at 9% and Strip-Till at 6%.

ZimmPoll 8

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Will commodity prices be higher or lower a year from now??” Let us know and thank you for participating.

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

ZimmPoll

Hawaiian Utility Seeks Biodiesel for Power Station

John Davis

A utility from the Aloha State is looking for a company to provide biodiesel for one of its new power plants.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser says Hawaiian Electric Co. needs the green fuel for its 110-megawatt generating station in Campbell Industrial Park:

The request for proposals state’s HECO’s preference for locally-produced biodiesel, but if it isn’t available in sufficient quantities the utility said it would accept biodiesel produced on the Mainland or a mix of the two.

The contract is for three to seven million gallons of biodiesel a year over a three-year period. The contract will replace a two-year deal with an Iowa-based supplier of biodiesel made from waste animal fat. That contract that expires in July 2012.

HECO says the Campbell plant is the largest commercial power plant in the world powered exclusively by biodiesel. This announcement comes on the heels of last month’s announcement that ‘Āina Koa Pono, Hawaiian for “for the good of the land,” landed a contract to provide sustainable biofuels for HECO.

Biodiesel

Biomass Bales Being Delivered to Project Liberty

Joanna Schroeder

Last fall farmers in and near Emmetsburg, Iowa were harvesting biomass. Currently, they are in the process of delivering these biomass bales to POET’s 22-acre storage site situated next to Project LIBERTY, the future 25 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant.

Area farmers have harvested nearly 56,000 tons of corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk but had to wait to deliver the material while the USDA worked out the details of their Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). The program provides matching funds of up to $45 per ton to each grower for a maximum of two years. The goal of the program is to help farmers offset the start-up costs for developing the cellulosic feedstock market for biofuels and renewable energy.

“While we shared the farmers’ frustration with delays to BCAP, we are happy to see that the program is being implemented and farmers are now delivering biomass to POET,” Project LIBERTY Director Jim Sturdevant said. “I know they are eager to deliver their bales, just as we are eager to validate our receiving and handling procedures at the new biomass stackyard.

Sturdevant continued, “BCAP is important to helping these first farmers get the new biomass market off the ground. BCAP’s inclusion in the next Farm Bill is an important part of continuing to develop this market.”

So last week, the farmers began completing the application process and shortly thereafter, began to deliver the biomass. Biomass bales this year will be used primarily to test procedures for delivery, receiving, quality assurance, storage, and handling at the stackyard. When operational, Project LIBERTY will use about 300,000 tons of biomass annually to produce ethanol.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, POET

Algae Harvesting No Problem for Kent Bioenergy

Joanna Schroeder

One potential hurdle to the commercialization of algal fuels are how to harvest the algae. But one company believes that they already have this challenge figured out. Kent Bioenergy has been harvesting algae for years, as part of their aquaculture business that dates back the the 1970s. The original company needed to learn how to clean the water used for fish farms and the ticket to success was algae.

Fast forward to today and Kent Bioenergy, the latest iteration of the company, has developed a proprietary algae harvesting method over the past 15 years. “After watching algae being grown for the purposes of cleaning water for several years we began making observations on how algae grow, die and live,” explained Barry Toyonaga, Ph.D. who is the Chief Business Officer for the company.

“We began to notice certain trends, the ability of conditions to be manipulated on a large scale, and not employing very much energy or chemical additives, we learned how to manipulate the environment of the water so that the algae would settle. And algae don’t naturally like to settle because they need the sunlight near the surface of the water to survive. So we taught them literally, like a farmer in any kind of agriculture business teaches its crops what to do to make them more marketable, our fish farmers taught the algae what to do when we wanted it to be harvest time.”

The result was that the Kent researchers learned how to manipulate the algae to settle in the ponds and they discovered that if they placed a motorized conveyor belt at the bottom of where these algae were settling, the conveyor belt pulled these algae straight out of the water.

Toyonaga believes that his company has one of the lowest costs, if not the lowest cost method of harvesting at a scale compatible with commodity products. This is a key element if algal biofuels will be commercially viable.

To learn more about how to harvest algae, listen to my interview with Barry here. Barry Toyonaga interview

You can also view photos from my San Diego Algae Tour here.

algae, Audio, biofuels

Final Survey Winner Announced

Cindy Zimmerman

The final ZimmComm publication survey winner has been drawn and the lucky one is Rita Ruud, a nutritionist with North Dakota State University and World Dairy Diary reader. She will be receiving a check in the mail for $250 for taking just about two minutes of her time to fill out our survey and help us do a better job of serving the folks who read this on-line publication.

January was the third and final month for the ZimmComm publication survey since we have now received enough responses to make it statistically significant. We would sincerely thank everyone who took the time to help us out.

Here’s a few interesting things we learned from the survey about Domestic Fuel readers:

The largest percentage of our readers (13%) are existing biofuels producers. The next largest categories were Advertising/Marketing/Sales (9%), Consulting (8%), Engineering (7%), Consumer/General Public (7%), and Association/Organization (6%).

We had responses from 38 states the District of Columbia and Canada. Most responses came from California, South Dakota, Missouri, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Thanks again to everyone who filled out the survey!

Company Announcement

Students Show Talent in Renewable Fuels Video Contest

Cindy Zimmerman

Iowa high school students showed off their talent for video production in the first ever Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) “Fuel the Future” video contest.

Students were challenged to create the best video highlighting the importance and benefits of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, to local communities, Iowa and the nation and the four winning videos were featured at the recent 5th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. The winners were selected by a panel of five judges who combined extensive film, television, marketing, and renewable fuels expertise.

IRFA video contest winnersTreynor High School students Spencer Hawk, Alex Severn, Garrett Gibson and Conrad Sain won the $2,000 grand prize for their video entitled “Fuel of the Future” – a hilarious and clever parody of an action movie trailer. The are pictured here receiving their award.


Photos from the IOWA RENEWABLE FUELS SUMMIT

“The judges were blown away by the creativity and effort the students put into their renewable fuels videos,” said IRFA Biofuels Manager Grant Menke. “IRFA congratulates not just the winning students, but all those who participated. This was a great opportunity for students to learn about the benefits of renewable fuels and to share that knowledge with their peers and all Iowans.”
The contest was made possible by the Iowa Office of Energy Independence through funding from its Iowa Power Fund Community Grant program and the sponsorship of Faegre & Benson.

The other top winners were:
Linn-Mar High School student Sam Fathallah from Marion won the $1000 second place prize for his video called “What is Biodiesel?”
Roland-Story High School students Andrew Smith and Kendall Gustafson, both from Story City, won the $600 third place prize for their video entitled “Bio Fuel.”
South Hamilton High School student Marcus Hemphill of Jewell earned the $400 fourth place prize for his video called “The Biofuel Network.”

Most of the winning videos and qualifying entries can be viewed on IRFA’s YouTube® channel at www.youtube.com/IowaRenewableFuels.

Watch the winning video here:

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Video