For months the ethanol industry has been working with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to update their calculations of ethanol’s emissions reductions. A victory has finally been achieved as California has updated its calculations of sugarcane ethanol’s emission reductions. The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) welcomed the announcement.
Joel Velasco, UNICA’s chief representative for North America, said, “UNICA applauds CARB’s decision to revisit the data. The new proposal recognizes the science and gives reasonable credits to the mechanization of the sugarcane harvest, as well as the generation of bioelectricity with the burning of sugarcane bagasse.”
In March of this year, CARB approved its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), the first in the world, which aims at reducing the “carbon intensity” of all fuels used in the state. Beginning in 2011, California’s LCFS will reduce the carbon intensity of fuels, reaching at least a 10% reduction by 2020.
The new analysis released by CARB allows Brazilian ethanol to receive a credit of more than 15 gCO2/MJ, due to the use of bioelectricity from sugarcane cogeneration (7 gCO2/MJ) and the mechanization of sugarcane harvest (8.2 gCO2/MJ). See table below.
The general public will have until August 19 to submit any comment they might have about the new credits given to sugarcane ethanol. On August 5, 2009 there will be a public hearing in California about this issue.
UNICA’s next goal is to continue to work to change the ethanol calucations related in indirect land use.
The first blimp prototype will be propelled in two nontraditional ways. The outside of the ship will be covered with Cadmium-Indium-Germanium (CIG) photovoltaic cells, picked for their their light weight. The cells should generate enough power to move the blimp at around 40 mph in average conditions, or at around 70 horsepower. Meanwhile, a diesel drivetrain will generate the rest of the power, and ideally the designers will look to an adapted hybrid electric model for that. And because blimps fly at low altitudes, they don’t have to deal with problems that plague diesel engines at elevations over 30,000 ft.
A new report says that the world’s biofuels market is prepared to grow by an average of 12.3 percent a year between 2007 and 2017.
The U.S. wind energy sector has added 4,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity in the first six months of this year, outpacing the first half of 2008’s 2,900 MW.
According to the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest, thousands of flexible fuel and biodiesel vehicle drivers have received educational mailings, viewed newspaper ads, and attended promotional discount events in July. Yet, the summer is not over! Supporters of ethanol and biodiesel are holding additional promotions in the weeks ahead.
August 1: 9 am – 1 pm
Why are so many people in denial that the price of gas will rise again, and continue to go up? Why are businesses and towns who are already drowning under the weight of higher energy prices not doing more to wean themselves off of oil? Could the high cost of oil take out behemoth companies like Wal-Mart? The answer is yes, according to Christopher Steiner in his new book, 
The two offshore wind leases, for sites in the Gulf of Mexico, are the sixth and seventh leases for offshore wind farms signed by the General Land Office since 2005, the land office said in a statement. The third site is on state land in the Texas panhandle.
A North Carolina city that had tried using biodiesel in the past is giving the green fuel another chance.