I reported several months ago about VIASPACE’s plans to expand the production of Giant King Grass to be used to produce advanced biofuels. VIASPACE is currently growing Giant King Grass in southern China and pursuing opportunities in other regions and countries. Today, the company announced that their Chief Executive, Dr. Carl Kukkonen, will be making several presentations at the China Agricultural University and the Biofuels and Jatropha Markets Asia conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 29-July 1, 2009. His presentation is entitled, “Giant King Grass: An Energy Crop for Cellulosic Biofuels and Electric Power Plants.”
VIASPACE is developing the technology to create “grassoline” through the production of a fast-growing feedstock called Giant King Grass. This feedstock is able to produce low-carbon cellulosic biofuels as well as can be used as a replacement for coal at the heat source for electricity generating power plants.
According to Kukkonen, “In addition to biofuels, another near-term use of biomass such as Giant King Grass is to simply burn it, instead of coal or oil, in an electricity generating power plant. An existing coal fired power plant can replace up to 30% of its coal with biomass. Co-firing grass with coal can be accomplished by a straightforward modification of existing power plants, which does not require the large capital expense of building a new power plant. This is probably the simplest and cheapest way to reduce net carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. However, new 100% biomass-dedicated power plants are also being built, as there are long-term operating and environmental benefits for biomass power plants, compared to coal-burning plants.”
A detailed article about the process was included in the latest edition of Scientific American magazine. The article’s authors believe that cellulosic biofuels are the most environmentally attractive and technologically feasible near-term alternative to oil and possess advantages, in contrast to first-generation biofuels from corn and other edible feedstock.
Part of the agreement includes allowing USDA to have oversight for agricultural carbon offset programs instead of EPA. “The climate change bill will include a strong agriculture offset program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that will allow farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners to participate fully in a market-based carbon offset program,” said Peterson. “This agreement also addresses concerns about international indirect land use provisions that unfairly restricted U.S. biofuels producers and exempts agriculture and forestry from the definition of a capped sector.”
According to the Governors Biofuels Coalition, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in Des Moines the nation’s car manufacturers ought to make all new automobiles able to run on E85 ethanol-blended fuel. But Chu said the government could face resistance should it insist on the new standard, despite two of the nation’s three main automakers’ having recently filed for bankruptcy protection.
This edition of the Ethanol Report features comments from 
The world’s biggest car maker is promising to launch a new fuel-cell car by the year 2015.
A wind farm capable of generating power for 40,000 homes has been completed near the Western Oklahoma town of Elk City.
Using 82 Acciona Windpower 1.5 MW wind turbines, Red Hills Wind Farm will generate enough clean energy to power over 40,000 U.S. homes and offset approximately 294,000 tons of carbon emissions annually. The Red Hills facility is spread across 5,000 rural acres. With the exception of the small footprint made by the 82 turbines, at about 1 acre each, land use is dominated by cattle grazing which coexist with the wind energy production.
A year after opening on the Houston Ship Channel, the nation’s biggest biodiesel plant has a “for sale” sign out on its lawn.
Kristy Moore received the Award of Appreciation from 
With RFA, Moore works on a number of technical and safety issues important to the ethanol industry and oversees the Technical Committee, the longest standing committee within the RFA. Moore and the committee have been responsible for increasing market share for ethanol, including opening new markets for ethanol including the southeastern states.
If you’re interested in learning something about pitching stories to bloggers you might want to participate in a today’s webinar that’s part of the