Using Computer Parts to Grow Algae for Biodiesel

John Davis

Usually, we talk about using high-tech computer programs to help producers get more biodiesel out of their operations. But this time, it’s the low-tech components that are the platforms for growing a feedstock for the green fuel.

Treehugger.com has this post about how students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have put together an algae bioreactor called the Bio-Grow to cultivate large amounts of algae for biodiesel using old computer parts:

“If someone had one of these in their homes, they would cultivate algae and extract it,” says Megan Kenney, one of the members of the five-person undergraduate team. “Then they could take it into a gas company that was set up with an oil filtration facility and get credit off their gas.”

The Bio-Grow’s various components would include side panels from an Apple G4 CPU tower for the incubating tank, with PVC pipes for structural reinforcement and high density foam for insulation and stability. An old Apple iMac CRT provides the light needed for photosynthesis, while a modified Dell Latitude CPX laptop controls and adjusts the temperature and required light spectrums generated by the iMac CRT. The device also features a water pump to aerate the algae and a faucet that allows user to harvest the algae at any time.

“Algae’s best growth factors are within the red and blue spectrums of light at a ratio of four to one,” Kenney explains. “We also knew that it needed to be 62 to 82 degrees.”

The hope is that people will be able to grow algae as part of a larger system and take that algae to a central collection point. The lipids in the algae would be extracted and sent to a refinery to make biodiesel, while the by-products would go into livestock feed, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals. The Bio-Grow team believes just under 7 percent of American homes would need to have a device to grow enough algae to replace petroleum with algae biodiesel.

algae, Biodiesel

Biodiesel Producers Plead for Renewal of Tax Credit

Cindy Zimmerman

Four biodiesel producers from around the nation took their story to the media today, increasing their call for Congress to immediately and retroactively reinstate the federal biodiesel tax incentive which was allowed to expire five months ago. The producers included a small family operation in Arkansas, an energy group in Washington state, a plant that is laying off people in Georgia, and the largest biodiesel producer in the country with plants in five states.

Bernie Crowley of Delta American Fuel in Helena, Ark. says the tax credit was the reason they got into the biodiesel business in 2005. “I’ve basically spent my last five years investing our hard-won capital over 50 years of business in this industry,” Crowley said. Now that his plant is up to production level and he could add another 35-40 jobs in one of the most impoverished counties in the country, “we’ve been on pause since January 1” and could end up having to lay off people instead.

Gen-X Energy Group in Pasco, Washington is a privately-held group with investors and president Scott Johnson says they have expanded into global markets this year to stay profitable without the tax credit and they closed a plant last year because of uncertainty about the tax credit. “The Gen-X vision is to be one of the leading biofuel producers in the United States, with or without the federal biodiesel tax credit, however the time line to achieve this vision can be significantly decreased through federal support,” said Johnson.

Bobby Heiser with Nittany Biodiesel, headquartered in Pennsylvania, says they invested $30 million on a versatile biodiesel plant just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. “Since January, we held on with the expectation that Congress would deliver,” he said. “With mounting losses, we’ve continued to operate, but we can’t sell at even a break-even production level at this point.” Three weeks ago, they ran out of money and had to layoff 20 out of 35 employees, all but shutting down the plant.

REG (Renewable Energy Group) owns 180 million gallons of biodiesel production and markets another 180 million owned by others. The company has plants in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas. However, CEO Jeff Stroburg says not having the tax credit has reduced that capacity by more than 75 percent. “So all of that capacity is practically idled right now, there’s very little demand for biodiesel in the market place as a result of the uncertainty.”

National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe says they are pleading with lawmakers to get the biodiesel tax credit reinstated before the Memorial Day recess to avoid the loss of more green jobs.

Biodiesel, NBB

San Antonio Airport Shuttles Run On Biodiesel

John Davis

""Three rental car companies at the San Antonio, Texas airport have decided to combine their efforts and run their shuttles on biodiesel.

The San Antonio Business Journal says Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental are sharing shuttles, cutting the combined fleets from 16 to seven vehicles:

All of the shuttle buses are also being fueled by 20 percent biodiesel, a cleaner-burning alternative fuel.

Enterprise Holdings owns and operates Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental. The company decided to combine the shuttle service for the three operators after the airport opened its new two-tiered roadway in March, which the airport developed to relieve traffic congestion at the airport.

“Combining our shuttle bus service supports the San Antonio International Airport in reaching its goals of reducing congestion, especially at a time when our market share is growing at the airport,” says William Gold, vice president and general manager for Alamo, Enterprise and National in San Antonio. “More importantly, customers have reacted positively to the combined shuttles, noting the significance of our environmental efforts and the use of biodiesel in our buses.”

Officials say the move will ease congestion and help clear the air.

What the iPhone, Xbox and Las Vegas Can Teach You About Corporate Computing; Opinion: Must-have consumer electronics gadgets hold lessons for enterprise IT execs.

eWeek July 6, 2007 | Lundquist, Eric Sometimes it seems like a stretch to connect the business-to-business world of corporate computing to the high-buzz-factor world of consumer electronics. At other times, like right now, it is amazing how much a corporate IT exec can learn from watching the high-tech hijinks in other spheres. go to website how to fix the red ring of death

Take the iPhone, please. There are not too many immutable laws of corporate computing, but “never buy version 1 of anything” is one law many scarred corporate tech execs have etched into stone. Buying version 1 transforms you from being a customer to an extension of a vendor’s marketing and research and development departments. This is happening now with Apple’s iPhone.

Click here to read eWEEK Labs’ review of the iPhone.

People who have no collective memory of the Lisa, Newton and Pippin are lined up and signed up for the iPhone. I like the iPhone. I think it is groundbreaking. I think that in the next version you will be able to replace the battery instead of sending the whole unit back to Apple. I think in the next version Apple and AT&T will be able to turn on a 3G network instead of the painfully slow (I’d bet on a modem over the current EDGE speeds) network you now get. I think the next version of the iPhone will let you switch carriers (choice-a new concept!) rather than be chained to one provider for two years. I think in the next version you will actually be able to use your Wi-Fi connection for Wi-Fi calls, which you can’t now.

Speaking of lines, far be it from me to remind all of you that in November 2005 I wrote that I was giving up my place in the Xbox line because I thought there were some reliability questions – particularly in terms of how the box would use a new liquid cooling technique-that remained unanswered. Well, on July 5, Microsoft provided a $1 billion answer to the Xbox reliability issue. From the MTV story about Microsoft’s big blunder: “Following months of consumer complaints about failing Xbox 360 units, Microsoft announced Thursday that the company will extend the warranty on every Xbox 360 sold since the system launched and offer full repairs for the most widely reported console malfunction, the so-called ‘red ring of death.’ The company indicated that the new policy will cost Microsoft $1.05-1.15 billion.” My only regret is that I didn’t coin the “red ring of death” description.

If you wander through the blogs you can find all sorts of attempts to keep the Xbox cool including wrapping a cool towel around the box. How about an old-fashioned ice bag, which provides at least some hangover relief? In any case, $1 billion is no big deal for Microsoft. website how to fix the red ring of death

The corporate lesson here is to beware of technologies that worked well in the lab but are going to meet some big glitches in full market deployment. You don’t want to be the first on your block to find out that the nifty technology that promised to give you, say, twice the power at half the cost just doesn’t work no matter how many dollars you spend or how many people you devote to try to get the thing working. Vendors are very, very reluctant to admit they screwed up. In software, they admit they screwed up by trying to sell you another round of software that fixes their past mistakes. Before you go deploy a new technology, it is worth building your own prototype deployment to give the new systems and new technologies a thorough working over.

Las Vegas. What does that have to do with corporate computing? I suppose you could say that all computing projects are a toss of the dice, but I was thinking more of the recent 115 degree temperatures that have broiled the Strip. Maybe global warming is not real, as many of you like to tell me each time I write about the topic. But at 115 degrees, you are going to be spending an enormous amount of money trying to keep cool. Let that 115-degree mark remind you to go figure out how to reconstruct that server room before a server meltdown melts down your company.

Check out eWEEK.com’s Infrastructure Center for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.

Lundquist, Eric

Biodiesel

Corn Conference Will Focus on Indirect Land Use

Cindy Zimmerman

cutcThe indirect land use change (ILUC) debate will take center stage at the upcoming 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC), scheduled for June 7-9 in Atlanta.

National Corn Growers Association Director of Biofuels & Business Development Jamey Cline is chairman of the plenary session “Land Use Conundrum…Corn, an Advanced Biofuel?” which will focus on the role land use criteria played in the decision that corn does not currently meet the qualifications of an advanced biofuel. The session will include both presentations and a panel discussion and will also explore how the United States will meet its greenhouse gas reduction mandates given that corn is currently the only significant source of ethanol in today’s marketplace.

Chuck Zimmerman talked with Jamey about CUTC in general and this session in particular. Listen to or download that interview in the player below:

Audio, corn, CUTC, Indirect Land Use, NCGA

REG Newton Biodiesel Plant is First “RFS2 Ready”

John Davis

The Environmental Protection Agency has designated Renewable Energy Group’s biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa as the nation’s first “RFS2 Ready” RINs generating facility.

The facility has completed the first two steps in the three-part compliance preparedness timeline and is now listed as having “Completed & Accepted Registration” status:

REG Newton’s engineering process review has been submitted to the EPA. This engineering review, along with all other re-registration materials, is awaiting final review to meet “Approved Registration” status.

“Being the nation’s first biodiesel plant re-registered and ready to supply EPA-compliant RINs along with high quality biodiesel to meet volumetric requirements of RFS2 is an important signal to the petroleum industry,” explained Gary Haer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Renewable Energy Group. “Renewable Energy Group, specifically—and the biodiesel industry, in general—are committed to helping our petroleum partners meet their compliance requirements on time. We look forward to quickly reaching ‘Approved Registration’ status to be fully compliant within EPA’s guidelines for RFS2.”

The plant is capable of producing 30 million gallons of biodiesel a year. REG hopes to have all of its biodiesel plants re-registered and eligible to generate RINs by the July 1, 2010 compliance date.

Biodiesel

Protec Fuel Sponsors EcoCAR Challenge

According to a Protec Fuel press release, the Florida-based corporation will be supplying E85 for the EcoCAR Challenge. The EcoCAR challenges 16 universities across the U.S. and Canada to redesign and reengineer a General Motors donated vehicle to further minimize energy consumption and reduce emissions.

“Protec continues to show great leadership in the area of biofuel commercialization. We are pleased that Protec is sponsoring the EcoCAR Challenge helping to support education and technology,” said Mary Beth Stanek, Director of Environment and Energy Policy and Commercialization for General Motors. Todd Garner, CEO of Protec Fuel stated that “developing the next generation of engineers focused on E85 and flex fuel vehicles is critical. E85 must play an integral role in our transportation fuel mix since the Renewable Fuels Standard 2 cannot be mathematically achieved without a significant expansion of E85 use.”

The EcoCAR Challenge is in year two out of its three year run. Over the last academic year, EcoCAR teams have spent countless hours developing prototype advanced technology vehicles that will be judged in more than a dozen technical events at this year’s competition finals, which will be held May 17-27, 2010. Events will take place at the GM Desert Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona and at locations throughout San Diego, California.

The EcoCAR Challenge is also sponsored by the Department of Energy.

Car Makers, E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

Biorefinery Could Produce Food, Fertilizer and Fuel

Cindy Zimmerman

Presenting his new “cornucopia biorefinery” model to produce food, fertilizer and fuel from corn, SynGest, Inc. CEO Jack Oswald led attendees in chants of “Till Baby Till” as he delivered the keynote address at the 2010 International Biomass Conference in Minneapolis last week.

“Our integrated biorefinery model will put an end to the ‘food versus fuel’ debate,” Oswald said. “Now you can have your fuel and eat it too.”

According to Oswald, the Cornucopia process can yield an impressive slate of end products, including anhydrous ammonia, food grade corn oil, high protein food for human consumption, stillage for animal feed, butanol for liquid transportation fuel, and biochar for conditioning and maintaining soil.

“We intend to use each and every component in an ear of corn,” said Oswald. “The cob and bran are gasified into hydrogen for ammonia synthesis, while leaving biochar as residue. The germ is separated into food grade oil and protein, and the endosperm/starch is converted into butanol and animal feed.” Oswald notes that his integrated biorefinery concept “represents a true intersection between agriculture and energy interests, a formula that sets SynGest apart from others who are just making fuel, power or singular bioproducts.”

The concept has already produced one new product – “Till, Baby, Till” t-shirts – available for $19.99 in short sleeve or $24.99 in long sleeve models.

biobutanol, corn, Farming

Ethanol Industry Pleased with Corn Outlook

Cindy Zimmerman

There is plenty of corn in the latest reports out from USDA this week, which is good news for the ethanol industry.

In the first official estimate of the 2010/11 crop, USDA is projecting corn production to beat last year by 260 million bushels and total 13.4 billion. “Based on the rapid pace of 2010 planting as reported in Crop Progress, the 2010/11 yield is projected at 163.5 bushels per acre, 2.7 bushels above the 1990-09 trend. Corn supplies are projected at a record 15.1 billion bushels, 325 million higher than in 2009/10.”

That’s a lot of corn – but it could be even more than that. Corn planting was more than 80 percent complete as of Sunday and almost 40 percent has already emerged, which is almost twice the normal pace. As the Renewable Fuels Association points out, “Should farmers see a near-normal growing season – something that has eluded them in recent years – USDA’s first yield estimate likely will prove to be on the low side. Consider that last year, despite an extremely late planting season and the worst harvest conditions in recent memory, farmers tallied a record average corn yield of 164.7 bushels/acre.”

Total U.S. corn use for the coming year is expected to be two percent higher than the current year, with exports projected to be up three percent and corn use for ethanol expected to toal 4.6 billion bushels, up 200 million from last year. That means that the 260 million bushel increase in corn production forecast for this year will more than offset the 200 million bushel increase in use for ethanol expected.

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says the estimates prove U.S. farmers can produce enough corn for food, feed and fuel. “As demand for clean, renewable ethanol continues to grow, these crop estimates prove that our farmers will be able to meet all the demand for food, fuel and feed in this country, as well as meet all our export obligations,” said Buis. “Food vs. fuel was a myth, propagated by deep-pocketed industries more interested in making profits than making our country more energy independent.”

Photo credit: Kelly Robertson Farms

corn, Ethanol, Growth Energy, RFA

TVA Now Transmitting Wind Power

John Davis

The Tennessee Valley Authority is now transmitting clean, wind energy to some of its customers.

This TVA press release says 300 megawatts of power from Iberdrola Renewables Inc.’s Streator Cayuga Ridge wind park in Illinois is the first delivery under seven contracts that will total 1,380 megawatts from Midwest wind farms:

“Activation of this new wind-power source is an important milestone in our plans to expand TVA’s clean and renewable energy options,” said John Trawick, TVA senior vice president of Commercial Operations and Pricing. “We anticipate a long and productive working relationship with Iberdrola Renewables as we continue to grow our alternative energy portfolio.”

The Iberdrola Renewables purchase agreement is the largest of TVA’s wind- power contracts, which altogether may provide enough electricity for about 325,000 average-size homes in the TVA service region.

“Iberdrola Renewables will begin delivering power to TVA under our largest single power purchase agreement to date,” said Ralph Currey, CEO of Iberdrola Renewables. “TVA is an important new customer for us and we look forward to supplying clean, renewable energy for years to come.”

The next purchased wind addition to the TVA power grid will be 115 megawatts scheduled to arrive this fall from Horizon Wind Energy LLC’s Pioneer Prairie wind farm in Howard and Mitchell counties in Iowa.

TVA officials say they have to get the wind power from out of the Southeastern U.S. region because winds in that area are less reliable.

Wind

Connecticut Passes Biodiesel Heating Oil Bill

John Davis

A measure that would require all diesel heating oil in Connecticut to contain a biodiesel blend by next summer has cleared that state’s legislature and is headed to the governor’s desk.

Biodiesel Magazine reports the measure will step up the amount of biodiesel, starting at 2 percent on July 1, 2011:

In 2012, the mandate increases to B5; in 2015, B10; in 2017, B15; and finally, in 2020, Connecticut will require 20 percent biodiesel in all heating oil.

The bill also requires the sulfur content to be reduced to 15 parts per million by 2014.

There are some caveats to this legislation. First, Governor M. Jodi Rell needs to sign the bill before it becomes law.

In addition, the article says that the state must be able to produce at least 50 percent of the annual mandated volume of biodiesel, and similar measures must pass in New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Biodiesel