Ceres Awarded $5 Million Grant to Develop Energy Grasses

Joanna Schroeder

Ceres_SeedstorageCeres has been awarded $5 million dollars by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue its advanced trait development project designed to increase the biomass yields of several energy grasses, such as switchgrass, sorghum and miscanthus, by as much as 40 percent. At the same time, the use of inputs such as nitrogen fertilizers would be decreased. The grant is part of the program managed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) and the award recipients were based on the potential for high impact as well as scientific and technical merit.

Richard Flavell, Cere’s Chief Scientific Officer, said in a press statement earlier today, “Low-input traits developed through modern genetics can provide wide-reaching benefits to the energy and agricultural sectors as well as the environment — just the type of transformational impact energy officials are looking for.”

Ceres’ initial projections indicate that their traits alone could displace 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 58 million tons of coal over a 10 year period. In addition, taking into account cropping practices, the company also estimates that 1.2 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer could be eliminated. This is equal the the amount of average nitrogen needed for 24 million acres of cotton.

“At the heart of our ambitions for a full-scale bioenergy industry will be how well we utilize our land resources,” said Richard Hamilton, Chief Executive of Ceres.  “With greater use of technology, increased productivity will go hand-in-hand with greater sustainability.”

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

New Venture to Finance Sorghum-to-Ethanol Projects

John Davis

epecA new venture could provide up to $376 million for projects that will turn sweet sorghum into ethanol.

DPG Investments, LLC (DPG) has announced its partnership with EPEC Biofuels Holdings, Inc. (EPEC) to put together a new platform finance company called EPEC Finance, LLC that will fund the manufacture and deployment of EPEC’s proprietary Ethanol Production Units (EPU’s) on select sweet sorghum farms throughout the country:

“Our energy and natural resources team at DPG strongly believes EPEC Biofuels is on its way to becoming a world leader in production and distribution of ethanol, based upon its proprietary processes and proven management team. We are very excited about the future of EPEC and this platform financing joint venture,” said Dan Galvanoni, Chairman of DPG Investments, LLC.

In addition, the new finance joint venture will also serve as a specialty finance and investment company that will seek to provide financing for various strategic acquisitions, partnerships and investments in the renewable energy and biofuels sectors on a global basis. EPEC Finance jointly with EPEC Biofuels will seek to identify such biofuels and alternative energy initiatives that can provide a steady and predictable return on capital investments.

According to EPEC’s Web site, sorghum is 28 times more efficient than corn in producing ethanol. The company also has modular production facilities range in capacity from 500,000 to 3,000,000 gallons per year and produce fuel grade ethanol and valuable by-products.

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

Wet Ethanol Process May Have Benefits

Cindy Zimmerman

Soaking corn kernels instead of drying them could increase ethanol yields and create more co-products.

POET Emmetsburg BiorefineryResearchers at the University of Illinois have found that a wet ethanol production process results in more gallons of ethanol and more usable co-products.

“The conventional ethanol production method has fewer steps, but other than distillers dried grains with soluble, it doesn’t have any other co-products,” said University of Illinois Agricultural Engineer Esha Khullar. “Whereas in both wet and dry fractionation processes, the result is ethanol, distillers dried grains with soluble, as well as germ and fiber. Corn fiber oil for example can be extracted from the fiber and used as heart-healthy additives in buttery spreads that can lower cholesterol.”

In comparing the wet and dry fractionation methods, Khullar’s research team found that when using the wet fractionation method, the result is even higher ethanol concentrations coming out of the fermenter and better quality co-products than the dry method. Researchers say the process requires no new equipment. “It’s just a modification of things that are already being done in the corn processing industry and can be done pretty easily,” Khullar said.

Read more here.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Research

Corn Crop Still Strong and Good for Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Even though USDA lowered its forecast for 2009 corn production in the latest report out today due to lower yields, farmers are still expected to see record yields and production is still expected to be the second highest on record.

Corn production is forecast at 12.9 billion bushels, down 1 percent from last month but 7 percent higher than 2008. Based on conditions as of November 1, yields are expected to average 162.9 bushels per acre, down 1.3 bushels from October but 9.0 bushels above last year. Despite the drop in yield from October, this yield will be the highest on record if realized. Total production will be second highest on record, only behind 2007.

corn harvestThe harvest continues to be slow throughout the Corn Belt. According to USDA, just 37 percent of the corn had been combined as of Sunday, compared to 82 percent average and even well behind last year’s slow harvest which was 69 percent complete at this time in 2008. Meanwhile, despite moisture issues, corn quality remains strong, up one percent this week to rate 68 percent good to excellent.

While high moisture and low test weights are getting to be major concerns with the crop, ethanol plants are able to utilize the lower quality corn. Arlan Suderman with Farm Futures spoke with Dave Vander Griend, President and CEO of ethanol developer ICM, Inc. of Kansas about the situation last week.

“We can utilize the crop,” says Vander Griend. “A lot of people don’t want it, which means that it will be discounted. Many people in the industry haven’t been through this before, but I’ve been around long enough to have lived through it before and know that it can work. Ethanol plants can usually beat the price of the other discounts being offered and make use of it.”

Suderman notes that Vander Griend emphasized the importance of farmers talking to their local ethanol processor now about how to best care for and deliver lower quality corn.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Farming, USDA

Stimulus Bucks Fund New Hampshire/Maine Wind Project

John Davis

A consortium of New England schools will get $700,000 in federal stimulus money to develop three deepwater wind energy test sites in the Gulf of Maine.
GulfofMaine
This press release from the University of New Hampshire says UNH’s Center for Ocean Renewable Energy… better known as CORE… has teamed with the University of Maine-led consortium, known as DeepCwind, and will test the first prototype floating structure with a wind turbine:

Unlike other offshore wind projects, which consist of wind turbines mounted on shafts sunk into the ocean floor in relatively shallow water, deepwater wind utilizes floating turbines moored to the ocean floor. The DeepCwind project will launch only the second deepwater wind energy facility in the world (the first is in Norway) and the first offshore, deepwater wind project in the U.S.

“This is a really exciting project, because we’re pushing the envelope,” says CORE director Ken Baldwin, professor of ocean and mechanical engineering.

Within the next year, CORE will install a wind turbine with a 25-foot diameter on a 60-foot tower floating in 170 feet of water just south of the Isles of Shoals, where a mooring grid is already in place – and permitted – from UNH’s Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center. The site is six miles offshore and one mile south of White Island. CORE researchers will equip the 10-kilowatt turbine with extensive instrumentation to measure wind, wave, and temperature effects on the turbine itself, the platform on which it floats, and the mooring lines that anchor it to the ocean floor.

This offshore wind energy project has been a big deal for Maine for several years and picked up UNH’s ocean engineering expertise to help bring this dream of 10- and 100-kilowatt wind turbines home.

Wind

Street Edition of VW Biodiesel Racer Available Soon

John Davis

VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC.A version of the same Volkswagen that raced on biodiesel the past couple of years will soon be available for the general public.

Racer.com reports Volkswagen of America, Inc. has announced the Jetta TDI Cup “Street Edition” will be hitting the showrooms this coming January:

“Since our inaugural TDI Cup series in 2008 we have received numerous inquiries as to whether or not we would offer a TDI Cup replica vehicle,” said Mark Barnes, Chief Operating Officer, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “We’re thrilled to announce that a special edition Jetta TDI Cup Street Edition will be available in dealer showrooms early next year. What makes this special edition so unique is that it features the optional, race inspired, TDI Cup body kit package combined with our clean diesel engine. The Jetta TDI Cup Street Edition is one exceptional special model that is as much fun to drive as it is to look at,” added Barnes.

As you might remember from our posts earlier this year, the TDI Cup ran all of its VW TDIs on 5 percent biodiesel… and your street edition will burn the same (maybe even more). In addition, buyers will get an Advanced Lean Burn Technology Motor Vehicle Federal Income Tax Credit of $1,300.

Biodiesel

Kansas Project Turning Algae into Biodiesel

John Davis

JayHawkResearchers in the land of sunflowers are looking for a way to convert sunshine into algae… and then into biodiesel.

The Lawrence (KS) Journal-World & News reports University of Kansas scientists are working on one of just a few in the world functioning, pilot-scale bioreactors connected to a municipal wastewater treatment plant, where they’re turning sewer waste into the green fuel:

“From the point of view of the EPA, this should be like heaven,” said Val Smith, a KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “We’re harnessing a waste, making it do work for America, and purifying it all at the same time.

“It’s like a win-win-win-win-win.”

The KU effort is being financed by the university’s Transportation Research Institute, using money from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Bob Honea, the institute’s director, is confident that the work of KU researchers — collaborating on a “Feedstock to Tailpipe” program that includes a wide variety of biofuel efforts — is on the right track. Gasoline prices eventually will return to $4 a gallon or more, he said, and the world will continue to seek ways to lessen a reliance on petroleum.

Using algae to make biodiesel simply makes sense, Honea said, given the aquatic organisms’ built-in advantages compared with traditional crops: higher yields on less land.

KU officials believe they are the verge of a major breakthrough.

algae, Biodiesel, Research

Utica Energy Pays Penalties for Water Pollution Claims

utica-energyUtica Energy, an ethanol plant operating in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has agreed to pay $480,000 to settle state alleged water pollution violation claims. The state of Wisconsin originally granted the 48-million gallon per year ethanol plant a permit to discharge their wastewater to a tributary of Sawyer Creek or in the Land Butte des Mortes Watershed. However, as reported in Opis Biofuels the complaint was that Utica Energy violated terms of the permit by failing to conduct wastewater samples, exceeding effluent limits and failing to report their noncompliance in a timely matter.

“As soon as the issue was discovered, we addressed the issue,” Utica Energy spokesman Jay Stoflet explained to OPIS. “This is just part of the settlement,” he continued.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Utica Energy has agreed to pay $280,000 in penalties, plus at least $200,000 to connect to the City of Oshkosh wastewater treatment system. In addition to its penalties and fines, the company will pay stipulated forfeitures of $25-$1,000 for each day that its wastewater discharge exceeds permit limits, until it completes the connection with the city sewer system. If Utica Energy does not connect to the city sewer system by September 2010, it shall promptly take all steps necessary to come into complete compliance with its current permit conditions.

This is not the first time Utica Energy has been in trouble with the state. In June 2008 Utica Energy violated air pollutant control requirements and paid $75,000 in fines and penalties.

corn, Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

Biomass Baler From AGCO

Chuck Zimmerman

AGCO Biomass One PassAGCO is one of the companies working on a prototype biomass harvest/transport system. At POET’s Project LIBERTY Field Day they demonstrated a pulled behind baler system to harvest corn cobs and stover.

Dean Morrell, Product Marketing Manager for Hay and Forage Harvesting, was on site and talked with me about their system. He says it’s a one pass system which utilizes combine technology and durable large square baler technology. He says the material doesn’t touch the ground and makes for a very clean bale product. They had to do some major customization on the equipment and they have two units out working in the field as part of the development process.

You can listen to my interview with Dean below.

POET Project LIBERTY Field Day Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, biomass, Cellulosic, corn, Equipment, Ethanol, POET

#FuelChat Session Tuesday

Cindy Zimmerman

fuel chatThe Renewable Fuels Association will be hosting an online Twitter chat session on Tuesday, November 10 at 3:00 pm Eastern time.

FuelChat will feature RFA president Bob Dinneen talking about ethanol from a global perspective and what he learned during his trip to F.O. Licht’s World Ethanol 2009 12th annual conference in Paris last week.

Follow along and participate by using any Twitter on-line service such as TweetChat.com, and enter the search term, #fuelchat to see a live list of Twitter posts using that hashtag term. Another useful mechanism is Twitterfall.

Follow RFA’s official twitter (@ethanolRFA), or Bob Dinneen on twitter (@ethanolbob).

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA