E85 for 85 Cents Off in Vestavia Hills, Alabama

The Dogwood Shell station at 1488 Montgomery Highway, in Vestavia Hills, AL will be selling E85 for 85 cents off for 85 minutes: from 2:15 until 3:40 tomorrow, April 8th. This promotion is to celebrate the involvement of the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) as the official ethanol provider for the Indy Racing League cars debuting in the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama race at the Barber Motor Sports Park this weekend.

In addition to the ethanol promotion, E85 customers can win one of five $100 fuel cards. The first 20 will receive two tickets to the race.
UNICA renewed its fuel supply agreement with the Indy Racing League for the 2010 season in November of last year. Under the new agreement, the IZOD IndyCar Series will continue to utilize sugarcane ethanol to fuel its race cars, including at its signature event, the Indianapolis 500.

The agreement calls for UNICA to cover the cost of approximately 53,000 gallons of the 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol to be used by in 2010 by the IZOD IndyCar Series as well as the renewable diesel for the fleet of trucks that delivers cars, related gear and fuel for all races. The deal also calls for UNICA’s Sugarcane Ethanol brand to be featured at all Indy events.

E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

‘Heavy Oil’ Working Group to Launch

Joanna Schroeder

Big Oil baffles me. They are running full-scale ad campaigns touting their work in developing alternative energy sources, (you couldn’t miss them if you watched the Winter Olympics) and then they turn around and file a suit against the EPA for the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard. They claim it is “unlawful and unfair.”

Well, today, according to an article in E&E, Canada is leading the charge to create a consortium of oil groups, to be called the Heavy Oil Working Group, as a way to discuss how to reduce the carbon emission of fossil fuels, especially oil from tar sands. The group is meant for both heavy producers of oil and heavy consumers of oil and it is hoped that environmental groups will also join the discussion.

The talks will commence when the nations gather in Washington for the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, an institute suggested by President Obama last April.  It will be at this event that Canada is asking to add the Heavy Oil Working Group to the roster for discussion. They are hoping that the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Columbia and Venezuela all join as they all have “unconventional” reserves to tap.  For example, North Dakota is mining oil from tar sands and we will be seeing a dramatic increase in offshore drilling since President Obama approved the action last week.

“The world will continue to depend on fossil based fuels for the next few decades, so our biggest challenge in many ways is to make fossil fuels cleaner,” said Marc LePage the Canadian Embassy’s minister for energy and climate change.

Yes, LePage is right, we do need to make fossil fuels cleaner. Big Oil also needs to quit double talking and choose sides – either you are or you aren’t for energy diversity (I vote for you aren’t) and cleaner fuels. In the current energy, environmental and economic situation our country finds itself in, the only way out is to work together, but it appears that what we’re doing now is working apart.

biofuels, Oil, Opinion

Pine Beetles Provide Feedstock for Biobutanol

Cindy Zimmerman

A nasty little beetle is destroying millions of acres of lodgepole pine trees across the western United States and so far, no one has been able to stop it.

But, in the tradition of making lemonade from lemons, the biofuels industry has been working on ways to use the dead trees for energy – and one company is now claiming success.

Cobalt Technologies of California is claiming to be the first to produce biobutanol from beetle-killed lodgepole pine feedstock. To evaluate the fuel’s viability for commercial vehicles, the company has signed a fuel testing partnership with Colorado State University.

“With this breakthrough, we’ve been able to turn a problem into an opportunity,” said Rick Wilson, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Cobalt Technologies. “Harvesting beetle-killed trees could produce low-carbon fuels and chemicals, establish a foundation for a sustainable biorefinery industry and create jobs, particularly in rural areas. If we use only half of the 2.3 million acres currently affected in Colorado alone, we could produce over two billion gallons of biobutanol — enough to blend into all the gasoline used in Colorado for six years.”

“Clearly, this is a significant achievement and a major step forward toward the production of cellulosic biofuels. Converting beetle-killed pine for biofuels is an extremely difficult process,” said Ken Reardon, professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Colorado State University. “If Cobalt can convert beetle-killed wood, it’s likely that the company can make biofuel from almost any cellulosic feedstock.”

Cobalt Technologies has partnered with Colorado State University to perform engine testing with a gasoline-butanol blend made with the biobutanol from beetle-killed wood. The fuel testing will be performed at Colorado State University’s renowned Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory under the auspices of the University’s Sustainable Bioenergy Development Center.

biobutanol

Book Review – Enough

Joanna Schroeder

As I write this review, I’m sitting on my deck looking out at dozens of acres of avocado, orange and lemon trees. Yesterday, I helped to plant a vegetable garden – the produce being grown for a local restaurant. The irony is that as I am surrounded by abundance here in America, I’m reading about those in other countries who have less than nothing. “Enough Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty,” written by journalists Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, details the struggle of countries, especially Africa, to feed their people.

Agriculture is the lifeblood of the world. As a matter of fact, is it the largest industry in the world. Yet many countries cannot compete with world prices in part due to subsidies in other countries such as America and the European Union as explained by the authors. These subsidies keep commodity prices artificially low, so low that most subsistence farmers in third world countries can’t compete. Traditionally, the answer to this problem has been food aid. Give the enormous surplus grown in places like America, to third world countries.

While food aid is a matter of life or death for millions of people each year, it does not lift the people out of poverty. It does not solve the problem of widespread starvation. The farmers of Africa must have a way to make a living – one that allows them to buy food. According to the authors, more “food” aid needs to be given in the form educating farmers on how to grow more crops with less. Helping them to build irrigation systems, giving them access to affordable hybrid seeds and fertilizers and allowing the commodity markets to work in a way that farmers from around the world can sell competitively sell their food.

The reason that more educational aid is not given, say the authors, is that food aid is a way for American or European farmers to sell their surplus crops. If other countries have enough food, and begin to compete in world markets, then farmers from first world countries will lose money.Read More

book reviews, corn, Ethanol, food and fuel

Loss of Ethanol Incentives Could Cost Jobs in Half the Nation

Cindy Zimmerman

New research indicates that allowing the ethanol tax incentives to expire at the end of this year would mean job losses in 25 states, not just the Midwest.

urbanchuk renewable fuels associationAccording to additional research conducted by economist John Urbanchuk, non-traditional ethanol producing states like California, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, and Tennessee would be hit by job losses due to the expiration of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC). Urbanchuk’s research finds that while Midwestern states would be hit the hardest, thousands of jobs would be at stake in the West, the South, the Great Plains and the Northeast. The number of jobs lost ranges from as few as 16 in Louisiana, to nearly 30,000 in Illinois.

The state by state breakdown of potential job loss resulting from a failure to extend the VEETC and the offsetting secondary tariff on imported ethanol adds a new layer of analysis to a report Urbanchuk completed in March. In that study, he calculated a loss of 112,000 jobs nationwide and a 38% reduction in U.S ethanol production capacity if these tax incentives were allowed to expire. The report was prepared by Urbanchuk for the Renewable Fuels Association.

Read the report and state breakdown of potential job losses here.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Research, RFA

Colorado’s First Blender Pump Opening

Cindy Zimmerman

The opening of Colorado’s first ethanol blender pump will be celebrated with a grand opening event from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, April 8. E20, E40, and E85 will be offered at the Stratton Equity Coop station at 515 Lincoln Street in Burlington, Colorado.

The blended ethanol fuels at the station will sell 99-cents a gallon to drivers of flexible fuel vehicles. “It says a lot that the first blender pump is opening in Burlington and in the heart of corn country,” said Rick Palkowitsh, who farms near the community. “As a farmer, I am excited we will be the first city in Colorado offering new technology to encourage the use of renewable fuels by motorists. This blender pump will give consumers more choices as to the type of fuel they choose.” Palkowitsh also chairs Colorado Corn’s Market Development Action Team.

This event is being sponsored by Stratton Equity Coop, Little John’s Equipment Company, Growth Energy and Colorado Corn. Currently, there are more than 100 E85 pumps in Colorado.

blends, Ethanol, Growth Energy

Wind Energy Experts Gather in Iowa

John Davis

Iowa is getting to be known as a center for wind energy, including production of the green power and production of the tools needed to generate that power. So, it’s no wonder that the state is the host of a pair of wind energy conferences this week.

KCCI-TV in Des Moines says the gatherings hosted by the Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation and Novel Development and the Iowa Wind Energy Association have been taking place in Ames:

Many of the experts said they consider Iowa to be a leader in wind energy. They said it’s more than just the growth of wind farms in the state; it’s also the state’s investment in incentives to draw green companies here.

“You lead manufacturing in the U.S. in wind. You lead more wind manufacturing jobs than any other state,” said [Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association].

Experts said that being a leader brings with it the challenge of maintaining that position and continuing to grow. One of the biggest challenges is how to move the power from wind farms to places beyond Iowa’s borders.

“I mean we’re lucky here in Iowa that we do have some transmission availability and we do have wind availability, but there’s a lot of states that may have wind but not transmission,” said Bob Loyd, the chief operating manager and plant manager at Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids.

Some of the challenges that wind energy faces is transmitting the power across state boundaries, which would take a national wind energy policy, and getting more universities to develop renewable energy programs.

Wind

Researchers Turn Fungus into Biodiesel

John Davis

New research has shown that biomass can be directly transformed into biodiesel that suits many quality standards, including ASTM D6751 and EN14213 and 14214.

This post from GreenCarCongress.com says Spanish researchers Gemma Vicente and colleagues made the discovery that could open up many more feedstocks for biodiesel … but admit the process needs some work:

Oils from oleaginous microorganisms, such as yeasts, fungi, bacteria, and microalgae, are under investigation as alternatives to plant—and especially food crop—oils as feedstocks for renewable fuels and chemicals. Algae are especially of interest because of their ability to capture CO2 in lipids, but cost-effective, large scale production is still problematic, note Vicente et al. in their paper. Furthermore, not all oleaginous microorganisms have ideal lipid profiles for biodiesel production.

On the other hand, lipid profiles could be modified by genetic engineering in some oleaginous microorganisms, such as the fungus Mucor circinelloides, which has powerful genetic tools. We show here that the biomass from submerged cultures of the oleaginous fungus M. circinelloides can be used to produce biodiesel by acid-catalyzed direct transformation, without previous extraction of the lipids. Direct transformation, which should mean a cost savings for biodiesel production, increased lipid extraction and demonstrated that structural lipids, in addition to energy storage lipids, can be transformed into FAMEs.

—Vicente et al.

It’ll be interesting to see how long it will take before this technique is available on a commercial basis. Stay tuned.

Biodiesel

Ag Department, Navy Team Up for Biofuels

John Davis

Leaders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Navy have kicked off the first of several forums designed to increase biofuels production and meet the Navy’s renewable energy needs.

This USDA press release says the opening of the forum today in Honolulu came as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently signed by the USDA and the Navy regarding renewable energy:

“As we continue to expand efforts to build a clean energy economy, create new jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we can use the Navy’s fleet as a catalyst to increase demand for biofuels and spur economic opportunity in rural communities throughout the country,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan…

“The Department of the Navy is very energized about the partnership with the Department of Agriculture,” said Navy Assistant Secretary Jackalyne Pfannenstiel. “This collaborative effort will enable us to reduce our petroleum consumption and increase our alternative energy opportunities. The Navy and Marine Corps’ warfighting capability will benefit through a more secure energy future.”

The strategic goal is to reduce this country’s reliance on fossil fuels, especially on the battlefield where transportation costs can make a gallon of gas cost up to $400. The Navy has set several energy targets, featuring biofuels in most of them:

* When awarding contracts, appropriately consider energy efficiency and the energy footprint as additional factors in acquisition decisions.
* By 2012, demonstrate a Green Strike Group composed of nuclear vessels and ships powered by biofuel. By 2016 sail the Strike Group as a Great Green Fleet composed of nuclear ships, surface combatants equipped with hybrid electric alternative power systems running on biofuel, and aircraft running on biofuel.
* By 2015 cut petroleum use in its 50,000 non-tactical vehicle commercial fleet in half, by phasing in hybrid, flex fuel and electric vehicles.
* By 2020, produce at least half of shore based installations’ energy requirements from alternative sources. Also 50 percent of all shore installations will be net zero energy consumers.
* By 2020 half of DON’s total energy consumption for ships, aircraft, tanks, vehicles and shore installations will come from alternative sources.

biofuels, Government, USDA

Anti-Ethanol Machine Back in Action

Cindy Zimmerman

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and fellow ethanol foes have been fairly quiet since food prices began moderating last year, but the coalition has gotten back into action this past week with a new campaign opposing E15.

gasA scathing editorial in the Washington Times Monday followed directly on the heels of a full-page ad in “The Hill” last week sponsored by GMA, the American Meat Institute, the Snack Food Association, the International Dairy Foods Association, and other groups representing oil companies, environmentalists and boat manufacturers. The editorial attacks “Big Corn” for claiming “that forcing Americans to use this renewable fuel would reduce dependency on Mideast oil and lead to cleaner air. It’s just as likely, however, that they want to get their hands on the $16 billion a year from the 45-cent-per-gallon “blender’s tax credit” – which actually goes to oil companies who blend ethanol with gasoline, not farmers.

The editorial states that increasing the use of ethanol will increase food prices, damage engines and have little or no impact on cutting the pollution in the air. Growth Energy, which filed the petition with EPA last year to increase the blend level for ethanol in gasoline to 15 percent, issued a response to the editorial charging that those conclusions are based on “obsolete information, ethanol myths and scare tactics.”

“First, technological advancements in the agriculture industry have made ethanol production more efficient than ever before. The latest crop forecasts prove that our farmers can produce more than enough grain to satisfy all the demand for food, fuel and feed in this country without increasing prices at the grocery store,” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis. “Second, exhaustive data has proven that engine performance and durability do not suffer from higher ethanol blends. According to a newly-released Rochester Institute of Technology study, E20 – a blend of 20-percent ethanol with gasoline – has no measurable impact on vehicle drivability or durability, and lower tailpipe emissions compared to conventional gasoline.

“Lastly, the editorial overlooks the economic and environmental benefits associated with higher blends of ethanol. A national study by the Windmill Group, out of North Dakota, estimated that moving from blends of E10 to E15 would create 136,000 jobs in the United States and help reduce our green house gas emissions. Science proves that grain ethanol is a low-carbon fuel that produces 59 percent fewer green house gas emissions than gasoline.”

The coalition behind the ad in “The Hill” has introduced a website called FollowTheScience.org that claims ethanol is bad for engines, the environment, food prices and even rural communities. One of the sources they offer as proof that ethanol impacts food prices and rural communities is the Congressional Budget Office report released in April 2009 which concluded that ethanol had only a small impact on higher food costs, while high oil prices had the most impact. A recent report from the UK came up with the same conclusion and noted that the biggest driver for higher commodity prices at the time was fuel and fertilizer, which account for over half of the input costs for crop farmers.

Ethanol, food and fuel, Food prices, Growth Energy