CARB Proposes LCFS Soil Sustainability Provisions

Joanna Schroeder

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is far from over on discrediting biofuels as part of their mandated policy known as the Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS). For the past year, the ethanol industry has been embroiled in a fight for proper reflections of biofuel’s indirect greenhouse gas emissions, aka indirect land use. Now, CARB has created a working group to study soil sustainability provisions of biofuels. The specific crops under review at this time include corn ethanol, sugarcane ethanol, wood based fuels, palm oil, and soy biodiesel.

Today, CARB held a meeting to discuss this topic. In the proposed agenda, CARB offered several “loose” categories to be considered including carbon content, erosion, crop rotation, nutrition/chemical use, productivity, and crop expansion. I’ll kick myself for saying this, but I’m surprised they didn’t include water.

While I’m not sure what exactly has driven this new LCFS dimension of discussion, I can speculate that several recent events have in part led to this recent course of action. One is the Dead Zone/hypoxia issue which resurfaced when several scientists began calling the Dead Zone a bigger environmental catastrophe than the BP Oil spill. Corn and corn ethanol are being charged for creating the Dead Zone through its use of pesticides and fertilizers used in production.

Second, Friends of the Earth has been vocally opposed to how corn is produced and to corn ethanol (actually, to all current and future biofuels) and is currently engaged in a national campaign to end production of corn ethanol and reassess corn production methods.

While I do believe that soil sustainability is an area to be reviewed in general, I do not agree that you can regulate biofuels policy on this issue. Not only that, but like indirect land use, a theory not based in sound science, petroleum is not being held to the same standards. No where on the agenda is a discussion of the soil, or land implications of global petroleum production.Read More

biofuels, Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Legislation, Opinion

Two Views on Impact of Ethanol Tax Credit Expiration

Cindy Zimmerman

One agricultural economist is disputing the findings of another when it comes to the impact on the domestic ethanol industry of removing the existing blenders tax credit and the associated tariff on imported ethanol.

John UrbanchukIn dueling commentaries posted Tuesday on “The Hill’s Congress Blog,” Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) director and professor of economist Dr. Bruce Babcock, and ENTRIX technical director and agricultural economist John Urbanchuk share differing opinions about the impact of allowing allowing the current 45-cent-per-gallon ethanol blender’s tax credit (Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, or VEETC) and 54-cent-per-gallon ethanol tariff to expire at the end of this year.

Babcock did a study, funded by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, that found there would be only a “modest” impact on the industry if the VEETC and tariff went away. Urbanchuk, who has done numerous economic studies for the U.S. ethanol industry, disagrees. “That’s true only if you take a “Field of Dreams” view of the ethanol industry: If we mandate that Americans use more ethanol, then someone, somewhere will produce that ethanol,” Urbanchuk writes. He says that “removing the tax credit would encourage the export of another U.S. industry.”

Meanwhile, Growth Energy notes in a blog post that the Babcock study assumes that the U.S. market will be able to utilize intermediate ethanol blends, such as E15, that will increase demand. According to the Babcock paper (top pg 12), “The key assumption here is not EPA approval, but rather, that EPA approves implementation of intermediate blends in a manner that increases the market demand for ethanol enough to sell 15 (billion gallons) at 75% of the price of gasoline.” Growth Energy says, “That is the essential contribution of the paper: if the ethanol industry gets access to a bigger share of the market, the government supports aren’t as important.” So, in other words, both views could be right, depending on whether or not the market is increased to 15 percent.

Brazil, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Butter Could be Biodiesel Feedstock

Cindy Zimmerman

USDA researchers are studying the use of butter as a feedstock for biodiesel.

According to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists with USDA's Ag Research Service looked into the concept of making butter that would otherwise go to waste into biodiesel.

Michael Haas and colleagues cite rising global demand for biodiesel, and the desire to expand the feedstock base, as motivating factors for their research. The United States alone has committed to producing 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, a major increase from the current annual production level of about 11 billion gallons. Most of that was ethanol. Biodiesel production, now approaching 1 billion gallons annually in the U.S., is also slated to increase. As researchers seek additional and affordable feedstocks for biodiesel production, these scientists turned to butter, one billion pounds of which are produced annually. Could surplus, spoiled, or nonfood-grade butter be used to make biodiesel at competitive prices?

In an effort to find out, the scientists recovered the fat from a quarter-ton of butter and converted it into the fatty acid esters that constitute biodiesel. They found that the resulting material met all but one of the official test standards for biodiesel. The study concluded that with further purification or by blending with biodiesel from other feedstocks butter biodiesel could add to the supply of biobased fuel for diesel engines.

Read more here.

luchshie vechnie ssilki
лучшие вечные ссылки
лучшие вечные ссылки

Biodiesel, feedstocks

Domestic Fuel has iPhone App

Cindy Zimmerman

domestic fuelIf you have an iPhone and would like to get Domestic Fuel posts fast and easy on it, there’s now an app for that. ZimmComm New Media this week introduced the Agwired iPhone app that allows quick access to all of ZimmComm’s on-line publications, including DomesticFuel. The app is now available for iPhone users to download, free of charge, in the Apple iTunes store.

The app offers one-touch access to all the latest news and information in the agribusiness and agricultural marketing world posted on Agwired.com, including audio, photos and video, and connections to other ZimmComm news sites. The AgWired App features a news tab drop down menu to select ZimmComm News Network feeds as well as individual news on AgWired.com by category.

“Apps just make on-line access from an iPhone quicker and easier,” said ZimmComm president Chuck Zimmerman. “We wanted to be the first to develop an iPhone application to show that it can be done and that there is a demand for this new technology tool in the agricultural world.”

ZimmComm owns and operates four web-based news sites that are now accessible from the new iPhone app: Agwired, focused on news from the world of agribusiness; Domestic Fuel, which is all about renewable energy – from ethanol and biodiesel to wind and solar; World Dairy Diary for the dairy industry; and Precision Pays, which focuses on information about precision agriculture technology.

News

The Award Winning Ethanol Report

Cindy Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Association LogoThe Ethanol Report podcast received a Golden ARC award this week from the Ag Relations Council in the newly revived competition that includes new social media categories. Chuck Zimmerman, president of Domestic Fuel’s parent company ZimmComm New Media received the award Tuesday, presented by ARC President Deron Johnson, during the Ag Media Summit (AMS) in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Renewable Fuels Association LogoMatt Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association attended the summit of agricultural journalists this week and exhibited at their Info Expo for the first time. In this edition of the Ethanol Report, he talks about how RFA has been successfully using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to communicate, and also about a new blog they recently launched called the E-xchange. Matt also discusses the Export Exchange event they are hosting with U.S. Grains Council in October to promote exports of the ethanol co-product DDGs for livestock feed.

Ethanol Report Podcast
Listen to or download the Ethanol Report podcast here. AMS Ethanol Report

Subscribe to this twice monthly podcast in iTunes by following this link.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, RFA

More Transparency Needed Among Environmental Groups

Joanna Schroeder

I’m calling the environmental movement out for supporting nothing and opposing everything.

Not too long ago, I was proud to call myself an environmentalist. Today, I’m bordering on embarrassed to admit that I support sustainability programs. The cause of my distress is what is happening under the carpet among environmental groups. On the surface, they look squeaky clean, but when you pull back the carpet you find years of dust and dirt.

The result is crippling the system so that the status quo remains unchanged.

Are they doing this unknowingly? It’s hard to imagine a community founded on integrity and steeped in the honorable tradition of academia could blatantly miss the truth on the intellectually definable myths about renewable energy.

For example, for more than 30 years, environmental organizations have attacked the oil and gas industry in the name of environmental integrity. During this same time, these same groups have aided Big Oil in its attack of the biofuels industry in the name of subsidies. The irony is that ethanol subsidies such as the ethanol tax credit (VEETC) and the ethanol tariff are subsidies that actually go to the oil industry – not the ethanol producer.

Until recently, the oil industry was not attacked for the hundreds of billions of subsidies they receive nor were they held accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions until the University of Nebraska conducted an indirect land use emissions study from petroleum transportation and protection – mainly war.

How did everyone miss this?Read More

biofuels, Energy, Environment, Oil, Opinion

Algae Biofuel Maker Gets First Customer

John Davis

A California-based biofuel maker that extracts its feedstock oil from algae and uses that oil for several other products has its first customer.

OriginOil, Inc. has announced that it is shipping a Quantum Fracturing™ System, the first unit in a multi-phase commercialization program, to Australian company MBD Energy Limited:

“This is a major milestone for OriginOil and represents our first revenue event,” said Riggs Eckelberry, CEO. “We are excited to support MBD Energy, a leader in the global race to help coal-fired power plants absorb their massive CO2 emissions using algae.”

Recently, OriginOil notified MBD Energy that it is ready to ship a Quantum Fracturing System, designed to maximize algae CO2 absorption with minimal energy, to MBD Energy’s research and development facility at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. The company’s Single-Step Extraction™ System, designed to efficiently separate algae oil from its biomass, will be the next deliverable and will trigger another payment under the purchase order.

In May, the parties agreed on a multi-phase commercialization program under which OriginOil will supply MBD Energy with its algae-to-oil technology platform in progressively larger installations. Subject to the success of the initial test phase, MBD will purchase significantly larger systems to serve its power station projects in Australia, beginning with a one-hectare pilot plant at Tarong Power Station in South Eastern Queensland, and expanding to full production sites at all three of MBD’s power station projects in Australia.

OriginOil’s Quantum Fracturing System will make nutrients, such as CO2, able to stay suspended in water longer, and that allows algae to feed more efficiently.

algae, biofuels

Blender Pumps Get UL Certified

Cindy Zimmerman

New ethanol blender pumps from Dresser Wayne and Gilbarco Veeder-Root have received final safety certification from Underwriters Laboratory, which will help fuel retailers meet increasing demand for renewable fuel by dispensing mid to high ethanol blends along with conventional gasoline, according to ethanol industry group Growth Energy.

Scott Negley“We want to simplify alternative fuel adoption so retailers can feel more confident about embracing this developing energy segment,” said Scott Negley, Dresser Wayne director of Alternative Energy Products. “With this approval, our entire eco fuel product portfolio is now UL certified. This helps our customers achieve and maintain regulatory compliance as they add eco fuels to their product offerings.”

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis notes that final certification for this fuel dispensing equipment is an important step toward providing higher level blends of ethanol directly to consumers to help decrease our dependence on oil. “Every blender pump we install will help make our country more energy independent and more secure, all while giving consumers a choice at the pump that includes domestic, renewable ethanol,” said Buis.

The Dresser Wayne dual hose ethanol blender blends gasoline and ethanol in both dispenser hoses enabling it to offer low blends on one hose for conventional vehicles and mid- to high-level blends on the other hose for flexible fuel vehicles. UL has also extended certification to include Gilbarco Encore blenders with the flexible fuel option.

blends, Ethanol, Growth Energy

Biodiesel to be Part of NY’s Cleaner Heating Oil Plan

John Davis

New York City is trying to clean up the emissions from the city’s burning of heating oil, and biodiesel is part of the plan for the Big Apple to go greener.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn that they have agreed on legislation to cut allowable sulfur levels for No. 4 heating oil in half. This press release from the Environmental Defense Fund says this bill will also work with current state law that tries to cut the pollution levels from the 9,500 buildings in New York City, which burn the dirtiest of diesel fuel grades and put out more pollution than all cars and trucks on the city’s streets combined:

“This landmark legislation shows that the mayor, the speaker and city council members care deeply about New Yorkers breathing cleaner air and living a healthier life,” said Andy Darrell, New York regional director and deputy director of Environmental Defense Fund’s national energy program, and a member of New York Mayor Bloomberg’s Sustainability Advisory Board…

The recently enacted state law—requiring regular No. 2 heating oil to go down to 15 ppm sulfur levels—will reduce emissions from all No. 2 heating oil burning buildings dramatically…

This new law also require that all heating oil contains 2% biodiesel, resulting in about 20 million gallons of biodiesel replacing petroleum heating oil. EDF hopes that this law will help stimulate the local waste vegetable oil market and that more restaurants will have their cooking grease turned into biodiesel. From an environmental perspective, it’s best to use the local restaurant grease right here in New York City, rather than shipping it to landfills or even worse, pouring it down the drain illegally, which does tremendous damage to sewage treatment plants.

Biodiesel

New Chemical May Pave Way for Ethanol Pipelines

Joanna Schroeder

A new technology may aid in the development of pipeline infrastructure to move ethanol. MidContinental Chemical Company, Inc. has announced a new fuel ethanol additive designed to combat stress corrosion cracking (SCC) a problem that is inherent in shipping ethanol through pipelines. Today more than 100,000 miles of pipelines snake across the U.S. and deliver petroleum products including gasoline, diesel fuel, and home oil but not ethanol.

The ethanol industry has been pushing for an ethanol pipeline – the driving factor being the ability to transport fuel via pipeline offers lower transportation costs. Yet, fuel ethanol transportation and storage do have their challenges one of which is SCC, the slow growth of cracks along a pipeline that are caused by mechanical stress and exposure to corrosive material. Ultimately, SCC can lead to pipe rupture.

According to company materials, MCC’s new product family consists of film formers combined with other functional additives. These products are clear, non-hazardous, mobile liquids, that provide protection from corrosion and do not harm the fuel product. Phil Korosec, Technical Director at MidContinental Chemical Company, Inc., explained, “Our bench testing using ASTM G129 and other extensive tests on fuel ethanol under pipeline-like conditions indicate that fissuring and cracking can actually be halted, keeping harmful components of fuel ethanol from compromising the integrity of pipelines, without harming the ethanol.”

As more and more ethanol enters the fuel supply, in part due to the demand created by the Renewable Fuels Standard, the ethanol industry is searching for ways to transport the fuel at lower costs. Everett Osgood, Product Manager for Fuel and Renewable Fuel Additives with MCC concluded, “It’s estimated that transporting fuel ethanol in existing pipelines instead of by truck or rail can reduce transportation costs by up to 90% in some areas. That’s an enormous savings.”

Ethanol, Ethanol News