NEC 2027

Company Announces Breakthrough in CO2-to-Fuel Technology

Cindy Zimmerman

A California-based company has filed a patent for technology that could turn carbon dioxide into fuel.

According to a press release, Carbon Sciences, developer of a breakthrough technology to recycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into gasoline and other portable fuels, today announced the filing of a patent application for a highly efficient nano-scale CO2 to fuel reactor, which is the most critical part of the company’s CO2-to-Fuel technology.

The company previously announced several important breakthroughs for the commercial viability of its proprietary CO2-to-Fuel technology including: (1) a low energy enzyme based biocatalytic process, and (2) a proprietary enzyme encapsulation technology that increases the life of key enzymes to reduce the cost of fuel production. Carbon Sciences has now successfully incorporated all of these discrete innovations into a self-contained nano-scale CO2-to-Fuel reactor optimized for the efficient transformation of CO2 and H20 molecules into hydrocarbon molecules that are identical to today’s transportation fuels.

Carbon Sciences is calling these nano-scale reactors “Smart Particles™” which are designed to “absorb CO2 molecules and excrete fuel molecules.”

biogas, Energy

Coal Mines Could Become Next Source for Biodiesel

John Davis

Coal mines could be the next place to grow a feedstock for biodiesel.

summersResearchers in Missouri are looking at feeding the carbon dioxide that is plentiful in coal mines to algae, which can be turned into biodiesel. Biodiesel Magazine reports that the work of David Summers, professor of Mining Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, could prove that underground mines are the perfect incubators for algae:

“You can isolate the algae from the sun in a mine,” Summers said. “We can use artificial light in short intervals and fool the plants into thinking that days and nights are very short [which means they grow faster]. We have a stable temperature underground, ambient conditions and modulated light—this means better control.”

A reactor could be 30 feet deep in a mine and, combined with other aspects suited to cultivation, could increase yields 500 times over algae grown on pond surfaces, Summers told Biodiesel Magazine. Algae could also help coal-producing companies find cheaper alternatives to becoming emissions-free, and may provide a carbon sink for coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, Washington University’s Photosynthetic Research Center in St. Louis and the Advanced Biofuels Systems at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center just got $35 million dollars from the Energy Department to look at the oil-producing characteristics of algae. Maybe the two places ought to talk to each other about a little collaboration, huh?

algae, Biodiesel

Florida to Hold FFV Rally

ffv-clubA flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) rally is being held tomorrow, October 8 beginning at 10:30 a.m. The driver education campaign will begin with a press conference at the Midway U-Gas location at 210 NW 79th Avenue in Miami, Florida. After the press conference, E85 will sell for 85 cents per gallon from 11 a.m. until noon.

The educational rally was announced in July at the Florida Farm-to-Fuel Summit by Charles Bronson, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and Florida Governor Charlie Crist. The Clean Fuels Foundation and the FlexFuel Vehicle Club of America are the organizers of the campaign.

unicaThe campaign will help locate, educate, and motivate FFV owners to use higher blends of ethanol so the U.S. can meet the goals of the national renewable fuel standard (RFS) and pave the way for 2nd generation biofuels in Florida. Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) is sponsoring the upcoming series of IndyCar Race related events which is the next phase of the driver education campaign.

Two free IndyCar Race Tickets and special parking/FFV Corral passes will be given to the first 50 FFV owners to purchase E85 at the Rally tomorrow. IndyCar Race Driver Mario Moraes will be available for autographs from 11 a.m. to 11:40 a.m.

E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

Cellulosic Ethanol Could be Made from Wastewater

Cindy Zimmerman

A cellulose product made from wastewater holds the potential of being used to make ethanol.

Qteros and Applied CleanTech have announced a joint development project for making Recyllose™, a recycled solids-based material produced from municipal wastewater, into fuel for cars.

Qteros has entered into a joint development project with Applied CleanTech (ACT), a commodities recycling company based in Israel, to use ACT’s Recyllose™-based feedstock, produced from municipal wastewater solids, for even more efficient and low-cost ethanol production. ACT’s Sewage Recycling System (SRS), a revolutionary solution for recycling wastewater solids, produces high-quality alternative energy sources for the production of electricity or ethanol, while reducing sludge formation and lowering wastewater treatment plant costs and increasing plant capacity.

The companies said they are the first to demonstrate commercial success in creating ethanol from the cellulose in municipal and agricultural liquid waste, and to offer a process that all municipalities can use to help reduce expenses.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Company Retrofitting Ethanol Plants for Biobutanol

Cindy Zimmerman

A Colorado-based company is working to develop a fleet of biorefineries based on retrofitting existing ethanol plants to produce biobutanol.

gevoLast week, Gevo, Inc. announced the start up of the first biobutanol demonstration plant designed from retrofitting an existing demonstration scale ethanol plant in St. Joseph, Missouri. The company is using the plant to demonstrate the viability of its technology for retrofitting existing ethanol plants to make biobutanol, which can be blended directly into gasoline and be used to make renewable hydrocarbons (“green gasoline”), diesel and jet fuel, chemical intermediates and biobased plastics.

This is the first time that an existing ethanol operation has been successfully retrofitted to produce biobutanol instead of ethanol. ICM’s pilot plant at St. Joseph has been designed and constructed as a reduced scale replica of a dry-milled ethanol production process. Additionally, Gevo’s biobutanol has higher energy content than ethanol and a lower Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) – which means lower volatility and evaporative emissions. Importantly, standard automobile and small engines can run on biobutanol blended into gasoline at any ratio.

The retrofit of the pilot plant was completed in less than three months and the company says it also represents the first step along the route to produce cellulosic biobutanol which will be possible once biomass conversion technology becomes commercially available.

biobutanol, biofuels, Cellulosic, Ethanol

Registration Open for National Ethanol Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels AssociationRegistration is officially opened for the Renewable Fuels Association’s 15th Annual National Ethanol Conference “Climate of Opportunity” which will be held February 15-17, 2010 in Orlando, Florida.

Speakers and sessions will focus on the historic opportunities facing our industry. As a renewable fuel, as an industry continuing to reduce energy inputs, and an industry diversifying into new feedstocks, ethanol is poised to make a significant contribution to our planet’s environment. Climate change is a seminal focus of the Obama Administration and an increasingly important issue to the public at large, and the momentum is in our favor. With steadfast resolve to increase ethanol’s marketshare in blends and E85, and a commitment to the best science, technical knowledge and quality, we have an opportunity to improve the industry as well. It’s clearly a Climate of Opportunity for the ethanol industry.


Conference and hotel registration information is available on-line.

conferences, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

IRFA and Iowa OSHA Work Together for Safety

irfa_oshaA two-year safety alliance has been formed with the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Iowa OSHA) and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA). According to the IRFA, the alliance sets in place regular meetings between Iowa OSHA and IRFA’s Environmental, Health and Safety Coalition. The focus is to explore best management practices and improve the recognition and control of workplace hazards.

“The new safety alliance between IRFA and Iowa OSHA sets up an important mechanism to share cutting edge safety information – both between the organizations, but also between individual biorefineries,” stated IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “The biofuels industry is very proud of its safety record, but we know there is room for improvement. This alliance is open to every Iowa biodiesel and ethanol facility that agrees with our motto: safety isn’t ‘proprietary.’ Through this venue, competitors in the marketplace come together to share new ideas and lessons learned with the goal of helping every biorefinery in Iowa be as safe as possible.”

“Iowa OSHA congratulates the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association for stepping forward and giving leadership to employee safety in the Iowa biofuels industry,” said David Neil, Iowa’s Labor Commissioner. “The industry has had a good record in employee safety but there is always room for improvement and we are proud to be a part of the ongoing effort by companies involved to improve and maintain safe working conditions for all involved. One accident is too many and therefore continued vigilance in this area is in the best interest of all.”

Iowa is the leader in renewable fuels production. Iowa has 40 ethanol refineries capable of producing nearly 3.3 billion gallons annually. In addition, Iowa has 15 biodiesel refineries with the capacity to produce over 322 million gallons annually.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

Duke (Energy) & North Carolina Team Up for Wind

John Davis

DukeUNCYou don’t expect Duke and the University of North Carolina to be together on too many things, especially when it comes to items on the basketball court. But in this case, it’s Duke Energy teaming up with the Tarheels on a wind energy project.

The Triangle Business Journal reports that the two are partnering to put up three wind turbines in Pamlico Sound that could become the first turbines placed in water in the country:

The project follows a nine-month UNC study completed in June for the general assembly that concluded the state has the potential to develop utility-scale wind energy production.

Duke will pay for the turbines and their installation. UNC will continue its wind energy research throughout the project.

“This project is a great example of how university research can expand our understanding of an issue – in this case, wind energy,” UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. “Then an industry partner like Duke Energy can use that research to do what they do best and develop this on a larger scale.”

The project would join Duke’s 634 megawatts of land-based wind power it currently has in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming and another 99 megawatts under construction and an additional 251 megawatts of wind projects that should start producing power next year.

Wind

Air Force, Navy On Track to Use Biofuels

John Davis

RefuelingF15U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots could soon be flying on renewable fuels, specifically, biodiesel made from camelina and algae.

Aviation Week reports that the Air Force is working on certification for its planes to use synthetic Fisher-Tropsch (F-T) fuel by 2011 and also is launching a similar certification for hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) biofuels:

“We have a certification schedule for a 50:50 blend of HRJ [and conventional petroleum-based JP-8],” says Bill Harrison, deputy director of the Air Force’s new Energy Office. “We’ve learned a lot through the F-T effort and are hoping for a rather rapid and smooth certification.”

The Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), which buys fuel for the services, has awarded contracts to supply almost 600,000 gallons of renewable jet fuel for testing and certification. “That’s an unprecedented amount,” says Kim Huntley, DESC commander.

Sustainable Oils, Solazyme and Honeywell company UOP will supply 400,000 gallons of fuel to the Air Force and 190,000 to the Navy. Sustainable Oils will use camelina as the feedstock, Solazyme will use algae and UOP will use animal fat, or tallow, supplied by food producer Cargill. All three will use UOP’s processing technology.

The military is working on guidance for what the best feedstock for biofuels should be and is leaning toward cellulosic feedstocks for the long term.

biofuels, Government

Farm Foundation Announces 30-Year Challenge Winners

John Davis

30-YearChallengeThe ag policy think tank known as Farm Foundation has announced the winners of its competition to look for long-term solutions to the major questions of how to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world, and biofuels are the subjects of at least two of the winners.

Last December, Farm Foundation announced its 30-Year Challenge report that identifies six major areas of challenges agriculture will face as it works to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world. The six areas are: global financial markets and recession; global food security; global energy security; climate change; competition for natural resources; and global economic development. This past spring, Farm Foundation announced a competition for essays to come up with some solutions for those challenges (see my post from April 30, 2009). Two different sets of researchers, Chad Hellwinckel and Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, both of the University of Tennessee, and Loni Kemp of Kemp Consulting, were named winners.

The entry from Hellwinckel and De La Torre Ugarte focused on the role of biofuels in agriculture policy:

Viewing agriculture simply as a potential source for meeting the greater economy’s fuel demand will not guarantee the necessary transition, and could even exacerbate soil destruction, increase agriculture’s input consumption and lead to food shortages. If appropriate, biofuels could be a vital part of long-term agricultural policy, but agriculture should not simply become a part of energy policy.

Biofuels demand could be a catalyst creating the right conditions for a transition to a truly regenerative agriculture, particularly if that demand moderately increases all commodity net returns. If crafted within a larger agricultural policy matrix, biofuels policy can be part of the solution.

Kemp’s entry looked at overhauling the current biofuels tax credit system:

What is missing from current tax policy is a requirement for actual performance in delivering expected environment and climate benefits. To remedy this, the mix of existing federal biofuel tax credits—including the ethanol blender’s tax credit—must be reformed into a unified performance-based tax credit. The actual level of payment per gallon would vary, according to the sustainability performance of the biorefinery.
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biofuels, Farm Foundation