Enter The ‘Truth’ About Ethanol Video Contest

Joanna Schroeder

Colorado Corn Growers Association (CCGA) is tired of the myth that corn ethanol is not energy efficient. So much so that they have launched a state-wide video contest. Budding producers are asked to create a 30 or 60 second video that promotes the truth about ethanol. The winner could win a $600 grand prize and his or her mini-film could be used in CCGA’s state marketing efforts.

According to CCGA’s spokesperson Linda Lewis, the video will be used as part of a statewide K-12 education program that will educate students about the benefits of corn ethanol.

“The second mission of this contest is to create a renewed interest in corn ethanol in homes across the state and potentially drive a large number of people to our Web site, where they will find a list of resources containing the most current and up-to-date information and scientific data on corn ethanol and its energy efficiency,” said Lewis in the Fort Morgan Times.

Lewis continued by explaining that the contest is just the beginning of a long-term campaign that will tell the “truth” about corn ethanol and the campaign won’t end until all Americans understand the value of the alternative fuel.

“We will not give up until the truth prevails,” she said.

Videos are due by October 31, 2010 and contestants can learn more information about the Ag in Action Video contest at www.coloradocorn.com.

corn, Education, Ethanol

Andersons Marathon Ethanol to Turn CO2 Into Dry Ice

Joanna Schroeder

Andersons Marathon Ethanol, a partnership between The Andersons, Inc. and Marathon Petroleum Company, LP that produces ethanol, has entered into an agreement to supply CO2 created during the ethanol production process at their TAME plant in Greenville, Ohio, to Continental Carbonic Products, Inc. to create dry ice. Continental Carbonic Products is building a new 50,000-square-foot-dry ice manufacturing facility next to the TAME plant. Once the plant is online, it will employ 70 full-time employees.

“Continental Carbonic Products is a significant force in the U.S. dry ice market,” said Neill McKinstray, Vice President & General Manager of Ethanol for The Andersons. “We are pleased to have them join us at our Greenville ethanol plant, and look forward to advancing our common business interests, as well as contributing to the growth and prosperity of the Greenville area.”

The Andersons, Inc., which serves as operator and manager of the ethanol plant in Greenville, has a similar agreement with Continental Carbonic at The Andersons Albion Ethanol plant in Albion, Michigan.

“The Andersons Marathon Ethanol are exactly the type of high quality, high integrity strategic partner we look for when we expand our business,” said Robert Wiesemann II, CEO and Vice-Chairman of Continental Carbonic. “We have partnered with The Andersons for over four years in Albion, Michigan and our relationship has proven to be very beneficial to both parties. We also want to thank the Greenville community and State of Ohio Department of Development who have worked very hard to provide the economic framework to make this project successful and have welcomed us so warmly.”

Ethanol

Brown Researchers Green WVO-to-Biodiesel Conversion

John Davis

Researchers at Brown University have found a more streamlined and greener way to turn waste vegetable oil into biodiesel.

This school press release says Brown University chemist Jason Sello and postdoctoral researcher Aaron Socha have eliminated the corrosive chemicals usuallu used in the reactions… a process that is six times faster than previous methods, using less energy:

“We wanted to develop an environmentally benign and technically simple way to convert waste vegetable oil into biodiesel,” said Sello, assistant professor of chemistry. “The production of energy at the expense of the environment is untenable and should be avoided at all costs.”

Waste vegetable oil is made up of triacylglycerols, free fatty acids, and water. The conventional way to convert waste vegetable oil into biodiesel requires two separate reactions. The first reaction turns the free fatty acids into biodiesel, but that conversion requires sulfuric acid. The second reaction converts the triacylglycerols into biodiesel, but that conversion requires sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide/potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid are not compatible with each other, so the reactions must be carried out in separate vessels. That makes the process less efficient.

To find a better way, Sello and Socha went looking for catalysts that would be cheap, chemically stable and of limited toxicity. They settled on the metals bismuth triflate and scandium triflate, commonly used as catalysts in preparative organic chemistry. In addition, they performed the reactions using a microwave reactor instead of a conventional thermal heater. What they found was the new catalysts converted waste vegetable oil into biodiesel in about 20 minutes in the microwave reactor, whereas current reactions without catalysts using a conventional heater take two hours. While their microwave method needs a higher temperature to pull off the biodiesel conversion — 150 degrees Celsius versus 60 degrees Celsius under current methods — it uses less energy overall because the reaction time is much shorter.

The chemists also were able to perform the conversion in one reaction vessel, since the catalysts can promote both the reaction that converts free fatty acids into biodiesel and the reaction in which triacylgycerols are converted to biodiesel.

The catalysts in the conversion can be reused up to five times. Now the challenge is to do the process on an industrial scale.

Biodiesel, Research, Waste-to-Energy

Solar to Power California Rice Cooperative

John Davis

A California rice cooperative is harnessing the power of the sun for its drying and storing operations.

China-based ET Solar Group Corp has provided a 1.15 megawatt photovoltaic project for the Red Top Rice Grower Association, a non-profit cooperative organization for drying and storing rice for the farmers in the state. Granite Bay Energy developed and installed the system.

At unit peak output of 275 watt, almost 4200 ET Solar modules, specially developed for commercial and utility projects, were installed. With a 25-year designed life, the project is expected to generate approximately 2.4 million KWh of electricity annually and provide 70% power that RTRG requires.

Solar

Brazil to Generate Electricity From Ethanol

Joanna Schroeder

According to the Associated Press, General Electric has announced that it has received a contract from Brazil state-owned energy company Petrobras to convert a second gas turbine to burn sugarcane-based ethanol. The turbine is at a power plant serving the city of Juiz de Fora, northwest of Rio de Janeiro.

Back in January, Petrobras’ plant became the first in the world to generate electricity from ethanol, but possibly more unique, it became a “flex-fuel” turbine in that it can run using either ethanol or natural gas. With a successful testing period, the second turbine at the facility is now being flex-fuel converted as well.

According to a Petrobras press release from this past January, the thermoelectric plant, which is one of 14 operational thermoelectric plants running on natural gas in the park, is comprised of two 6,000 GE LM aero-derived turbines. One turbine provides half of the electric plant’s 87 megawatt capacity. In addition to the thermoelectric plants, the park also has 15 small hydroelectric plants and 12 that run on oil for a total of 7,028 megawatt capacity for the entire park.

The conversion of the turbine involved the replacement of the combustion chamber, of one of the injector nozzles, and the installation of peripheral equipment (receipt system, tanks, pumps and filters) which allow the receipt, storage and flow of ethanol to the turbine, according to the release.

Petrobras is Brazil’s largest energy company.

Brazil, Electricity, Ethanol

OPXBIO Named GoingGreen Silicon Valley Top 100

Joanna Schroeder

GoingGreen Silicon Valley has named it’s Top 100 for 2010 and on the list includes renewable biofuel and biochemical company, OPX Biotechnologies (OPXBIO). The list honors the companies that are developing technologies that will ‘change the world’ and ‘disrupt existing markets and entrenched players’. The list is based on five major categories including innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

“It is an honor to be recognized among this impressive group of clean technology industry leaders,” said Charles R. (Chas) Eggert, President and CEO of OPXBIO. “This recognition strengthens our responsibility and commitment to realize the economic and sustainability benefits of our breakthrough first commercial product – renewable BioAcrylic – for consumer and industrial customers.”

According to OPXBIO, they have developed a proprietary technology known as EDGE (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) to manufacture renewable bio-based chemicals and fuels that are lower cost, higher return, and more sustainable than existing petro-based products. Of special note, the company has developed a diesel fuel bio-processed from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded OPXBIO $6 million to support this development.

Other notable winners in the GoingGreen Silicon Valley Top 100 include; Amyris, Chemrec, Cobalt Technologies, CoolPlanetBioFuels, Coskata, EdeniQ, Gevo, LS9, Mendel Biotechnologies, Sapphire Energy, Solazyme, Synthetic Genomics, and ZeaChem.

Weston McBride, Greentech Editor at AlwaysOn said of the winners, “The GoingGreen Silicon Valley Top 100 winners have thrived during trying economic conditions through innovation and creativity. It is by their example that the next generation of clean technologies will transform the global economy with more robust systems primed for sustained growth.”

Agribusiness, Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Hydrogen

Iogen Fueled Final ALMS Race

Joanna Schroeder

Iogen Energy fueled the final race of the American Le Mans Series this weekend. All of the teams that had signed up to use ethanol blends, competed with cellulosic ethanol in their tanks. Iogen provided 6500 gallons of cellulosic ethanol produced from wheat straw for the season finale, and also provided 7800 gallons of fuel for Drayson Racing’s “Lola-Judd,” which competed using the cellulosic ethanol blend during the entire 2010 season.

The last race was held in Braselton, Georgia September 29-October 2, and 12 of the top 13 GT2 finishers, including the class winner and all the competing factory cars, were fueled with the cellulosic ethanol blend.

“We are pleased that lead motorsport teams are looking to cellulosic ethanol to demonstrate their commitment to developing advanced biofuels for their vehicles,” says Duncan Macleod, CEO of Iogen Energy. “The only place these drivers can source their fuel is here at Iogen, and we are thrilled to be able to oblige them. It is further proof that Iogen can deliver these quantities of cellulosic ethanol on demand.”

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Racing

Corn Crop Lower But Ethanol Stays Steady

Cindy Zimmerman

usdaCorn production for this year was cut by four percent in the latest forecast out this morning from USDA, a bigger drop than expected by the industry. Corn production is now forecast at 12.7 billion bushels, down 3 percent from last year’s record production of 13.1 billion bushels. Yields are now expected to average 155.8 bushels per acre, down 6.7 bushels from the previous month and 8.9 bushels below last year’s record of 164.7 bushels.

The latest supply-demand numbers reflecting the new forecast show a decrease in stocks, increase in feed use, decrease in exports, but use of corn for ethanol remains the same at 4.7 billion bushels.

In response to the report, the president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) said U.S. corn farmers will still be able to meet all demands for food, feed, fuel and exports.

“We have had many reports of lower yields and, at the same time, are hearing stories of higher-than expected yields in some areas,” said NCGA President Bart Schott of North Dakota. “This may not be a record year, but we’re bringing in the corn and meeting all needs, even for our export markets.”

tom dorrThe report came out today as the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) were wrapping up a seminar in Chicago promoting exports of the ethanol by-product distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). USGC President and CEO Tom Dorr was not very concerned about the new numbers. “I’ve been a farmer most of my life and the thing that I know is that farmers, more often than not, swim in surpluses, they love dealing with shortfalls and they’ll produce our way out of this very quickly,” Dorr said.

Listen to or download an interview with Dorr reacting to the report today: Tom Dorr Interview

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NCGA, USDA, USGC

Politics of U.S. Energy Policy

Chuck Zimmerman

The politics of U.S. Energy Policy was the luncheon topic at the Export Exchange 2010 DDGS conference. Our presenter was Sara Wyant, President, Agri-Pulse Communications. Her company is a diversified communications firm with offices in Washington, D.C., Little Rock, Arkansas, and Camdenton, Missouri. As a veteran farm policy reporter, she is well recognized on Capitol Hill as well as with farm and commodity associations across the country.

I thought you might be interested to hear what she has to say in light of the fact that we’re getting close to some very important mid term elections that could have a major impact on future farm and energy policy. You can listen to Sara’s remarks here: Sara Wyant Remarks

Export Exchange 2010 Photo Album

Audio, Energy, politics, RFA, USGC

Ag Secretary to Make “Major” Biofuels Speech

Cindy Zimmerman

Later this month, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will give a “major speech on domestic biofuel production.”

According to USDA, Vilsack will discuss the progress USDA and other federal agencies are making toward achieving the 36 billion gallon biofuel production goal mandated by the Renewable Fuels Standard and new efforts by the Obama administration to bolster the industry and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Other topics of the address will include ensuring that infrastructure is in place to ease the production and use of domestically produced renewable transportation fuel, as well as the administration’s strategy to foster renewable energy nationwide.

The address will be made October 21, 9:30 am Eastern, at the National Press Club.

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government, USDA