Hydrogen Road Tour Finishes in Vancouver

John Davis

chevyequinoxhydrogenA dozen cars have just finished a West Coast road trip that saw the caravan of hydrogen-powered vehicles make the nine-day, 28-stop trip from Southern California to Vancouver in Canada.

The Examiner.com reports that the Hydrogen Road Tour featured a variety of vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox FCV, the Honda FCX Clarity and two different Volkswagens… among others:

So there was a configuration for everyone, from SUV’s to vans to the Daimler F-Cell that resembles the Smart fortwo, a compact urban vehicle. Fuel hydrogen is measured differently than gasoline so miles-per-gallon comparisons are a bit dodgy, but the Road Tour team estimates the cars on the tour are getting 60 to 70 mpg equivalent on the road…

Sandy Thomas, president of H2Gen Innovations believes that a hydrogen infrastructure could be put into place with public/private investments of about $15 billion over 14 years, much less than the Iraq War or the federal ethanol subsidy.

The road trip finished at the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells 2009 convention… billed as Canada’s premier international hydrogen and fuel cell event.

Hydrogen

Small Wind Turbine Market in US Nearly Doubled in 2008

John Davis

Small wind turbines in the U.S. are growing at a very rapid rate.

EnvironmentalLeader.com reports that the market for small wind turbines… those that produce 100 kilowatts or less… awea2grew by a whopping 78 percent last year… following a trend discovered in an American Wind Energy Association study that showed there was about 17.3 megawatts of new small wind capacity installed in the U.S. and about 38.7 MW installed worldwide in 2008:

Denise Bode, CEO for AWEA, said in a press release that strong federal policies like the federal investment tax credit for small wind are critical to future growth. Wind energy leaders recently discussed how much the industry will rely on government incentives and standards to maintain its high growth at the Wind Power 2009 Conference in May. AWEA recently reported that more than 2,800 WM of wind energy was installed in the United States over the first quarter of 2009, which is enough to power 816,000 homes.

The 2009 Small Wind Global Market Study finds that U.S. manufacturers sold about half of all small wind turbines installed worldwide last year, with the U.S. market share accounting for $77 million of the $156 million global total. Growth in the small wind sector is attributed to increased private investment that has allowed manufacturing volumes to increase, particularly for the commercial segment of the market (systems 21-100 kW systems), according to the study.

The article goes on to say that a recent poll of small wind manufacturers finds they believe there will be a 30-fold growth in the U.S. small wind market within five years, in spite of the tough economic conditions.

Wind

New Jersey Biodiesel Producer to Open CT Port

John Davis

innovationfuelsIn a move that could set the company up to deliver biodiesel to all of New England, New Jersey-based biodiesel maker Innovation Fuels will open operations at a Connecticut terminal this month.

This story in the New Haven (CT) Register says Innovation will ship the green fuel from its plant in Newark, N.J. by barge, rail and truck to the New Haven Terminal:

“We can easily serve all of New England,” [Paul Niznik, vice president of strategic operations] said Tuesday. He estimated they will move about 1 million gallons a month and bring five jobs to the port.

Niznik said he couldn’t talk about terms of the lease with New Haven Terminal, but indicated the company has “permanent intentions.”

Niznik said the company mainly create biodiesel with vegetable oil, although it is experimenting with domestic non-food sources such as pennycress, camelina and algae.

He said the company also plans to work with small producers of biodiesel, such as Greenleaf Biofuels, run by Gus Kellogg, who has approval for a processing plant in the North Yard of the port off Wheeler Street.

As you might remember from my post on May 14th, Innovation recently started selling biodiesel out of the Port of Milwaukee.

Biodiesel

Book Review – Green, Inc.

Joanna Schroeder

tidal-wave-324x205With the tidal wave rushing in a new green economy, companies are attempting to ride the waves. But many are being pulled under by the tow, including many of the very groups who are supposed to be the top surfers. “Green Inc,” is an expose about how the world of conversation and those who swim in it, are crashing.

Green, Inc. was written by author Christine MacDonald, who left her job as a journalist to join the public relations team with one of the largest environmental groups in the world, Conservation International (CI). It was during this time she discovered that something was “deeply wrong” in the world of conservationism. MacDonald was disturbed so much so that when laid off, she wrote a book about the serious issues embedded in environmental groups.

phpthumb_generated_thumbnailjpgOne of the biggest conundrums she tackles is whether it is morally and ethically wrong for an environmental organization to take money from the groups that it is trying to police. Some environmental groups argue that taking money from companies like Exxon Mobil, Bunge, International Paper, and others, is a way to “influence corporate leaders to change their polluting ways”.

Yet these environmental offenders believe that donating money to groups like CI, World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, and others, will give them “reputation insurance” or a “get out of jail free card” on their environmental rap sheet. Oftentimes, MacDonald cites, these groups actually give these environmental offenders awards for their “sustainability” programs.  Now that’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.Read More

book reviews

Communicating Renewables Kicks Off Webinar Series

communicating_renewablesThe Communicating Renewables Webinar Program kicked off the first of its six part series designed to help arm communications professionals with the tools they will need to approach, head on, the challenging task of getting the positive message about renewable energy, technologies and research out to consumers, stakeholders, policy leaders, and the media. Jay Byrne, president of Fluence Interactive Public Relations, Inc. (v-Fluence) presented yesterday on Social Networking and how one can refute the misconceptions and negativity in the renewable energy arena.

byrne“The internet is the starting point where people collect information,” noted Byrne. “It is more influential than all other media.”

Byrne also said that over 90 percent of individuals use a search engine to inquire about issues and this is where organizations can target their message. He stressed the value of influencing search results against terms people use with your content and that of others who agree with you; extending availability and visibility of supportive content into multi-media channels; making your content available (and part of) relevant new and social media conversations; and finally having your content validated (amplified) by appropriate third-parties online (via repetition and links).

As the host of the Communicating Webinar Series, Joanna Schroeder, APR, Principal of 4R Communications said, “In an over crowded marketplace, content and relationships rule. It’s important that communicators remember that some of the most simple and effective tools will help us gain consumer support. Some of these tactics include coalition building, developing relationships with energy experts and energy reporters, and bringing all of these people together through dynamic web content.”

The next Communicating Webinar Series will be on June 9 and presented by Sean O’Hanlon, Founder and Executive Director of American Biofuels Coalition and Tom Collina, Executive Director of 2020 Vision. The topic of the webinar will be Unification of Messages through Coalition Building — Best Practices. For more information, click here.

communications

Biodiesel Spreadsheets to Help Analyze Profitability

John Davis

agmrc1Biodiesel producers won’t have to fly blind when trying to decide if an operation will be profitable or not.

Biodiesel Magazine reports the Ag Marketing Resource Center, an online center hosted by Iowa State University Extension Service, is offering biodiesel profitability spreadsheets:

“We put together what we think is a ballpark or typical biodiesel plant in Iowa to give an overview where the industry is going,” explained Don Hofstrand, co-director of the AgMRC, .

The biodiesel profitability spreadsheet plugs in the figures for a hypothetical 30 MMgy biodiesel plant based in Iowa including fixed and variable costs and product prices. With the launching of the spreadsheet, the Iowa-based prices for biodiesel, soybean oil, methanol and natural gas will be updated monthly. “We don’t do monthly updates for glycerin because we couldn’t find a good data series for glycerin in Iowa,” Hofstrand said. He was a bit surprised to see how small of a factor glycerin was in the overall biodiesel profitability analysis, he added.

You can download the Biodiesel Profitability Chart at www.agmrc.org and see for yourself how the Excel spreadsheet can plug in a plant’s actual fixed and variable costs and efficiencies and see how those play out.

Biodiesel

Pennsylvania Looks to Stimulus Money to Help Biofuels

John Davis

rendellPennsylvania’s governor is looking to the federal government to help along his state’s biodiesel and alternative fuel vehicle industries.

Governor Ed Rendell is asking the U.S. Department of Energy for $15 million in federal stimulus bucks for Alternative Fuel and Advanced Technology Vehicles Pilot Grants:

“As part of Pennsylvania’s Energy Independence Strategy, the PennSecurity Fuels Initiative mandates the production and use of renewable fuels to grow the state’s economy and reduce our dependence on foreign fuels,” said Governor Rendell. “The federal recovery money can assist us in our efforts to reach the required goal of one billion gallons of home-grown biofuels be produced and consumed in Pennsylvania by 2017 – an amount equal to what the state will import from the Persian Gulf by that time.”

The Department of Environmental Protection will partner with the Pittsburgh Regional and the Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities programs, the National Biodiesel Board and eight other industry partners to install fueling infrastructure, retail sites, procure vehicles, promote the use of alternative fuels and educate the public. The eight industry partners included in the project are: Buckeye Partners LP, Centre Area Transportation Authority, Gulf Oil LP, Guttman Oil Co., Lower Merion School District, Lycoming County Resource Management Services, Pennsylvania Energy Co., and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP.

“The primary objective of this grant is to displace petroleum-based diesel fuel with domestically produced biodiesel and natural gas to fulfill the state’s and federal government’s goals to establish long-term alternative fuel use,” said Governor Rendell. “Adding these alternative fuel facilities and vehicles will enable greater access to biodiesel and CNG within the petroleum supply chain and improve fuel quality.”

The hope is to have 23 biofuel terminals and four retail stations throughout the state, plus two natural gas refueling facilities and compressed natural gas equipment on 36 existing vehicles and 57 new natural gas vehicles for public transit agencies.

Rendell says the only thing hampering biodiesel growth is the lack of availability.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, News

Clinton at Ethanol Summit 2009: Save the Trees

Joanna Schroeder

ethanolsummit09The Ethanol Summit 2009 is in full swing in Sao Paulo, Brazil with President Bill Clinton kicking off the festivities yesterday. His main message was that while biofuels are an important element in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, it cannot happen at the continued destruction of rainforests.

In an article published by Reuters yesterday, Clinton was quoted as saying, “What people are worried about Brazil is not (whether) you have the most efficient biofuel in the world… everybody knows that is true.”

billclintonethanolsummit2009“(But) the world would say if we let Brazil help us solve our problem at the price of more rainforest destruction, have we really gained anything? That’s what you have to answer.”

This statement was given to a group of international businessmen, the majority of which are in the biofuels industry, who may have noted a discrepancy in Clinton’s observation. According to UNICA (The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association) “…biofuels are typically not grown on rainforest land or land used to grow fuel.”

It could be argued that the bigger issue of linking rainforest destruction to biofuels production is the ongoing heated debate on indirect land use which calculates the impact of the “land” used when calculating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. I have no doubt that the issue of indirect land use change will take center state at some point during this year’s Ethanol Summit and we’ll cover that dicussion here on DomesticFuel.

biofuels, conferences, Environment, Ethanol, Indirect Land Use, Miscellaneous

Boeing: Biofuels Just Fine For Aircraft

John Davis

boeing1One of the world’s biggest makers of aircraft says that in initial tests, biofuels don’t affect performance and present no technical or safety problems, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent.

This story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that word comes from the top people at Boeing:

“It meets all jet fuel requirements and then some,” said Billy Glover, who heads Boeing’s environmental strategy group.

Glover said a full report on the test flights would be released next month and aviation biofuel could be approved for use as early as next year. Despite its promise, however, Glover said the real problem is how quickly growers can start producing and refiners processing enough biofuel to make it an alternative to the Jet A fuel used today.

Aircraft account for about 3 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, the principal greenhouse gas, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Though Boeing doesn’t expect much growth in aircraft carbon dioxide emissions, some have estimated they could triple by 2050.

Boeing, Virgin Atlantic, New Zealand Air, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines, along with GE Aircraft Engines, have conducted four tests using a mixture of biofuel and regular jet fuel over the past 15 months. The planes involved included wide-body 747s and single-aisle 737s. The biofuels included blends of babassu, oil from sustainably grown coconuts, jatropha, algae and camelina.

Boeing officials say that camelina, with its ability to grow on poor soils and to produce high amounts of oil, holds the most promise for sustainability.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, News

WI Businessman Plans to Open Biofuels Stations

John Davis

A Milwaukee businessman has big plans to bring biofuels to southern Wisconsin.

This story in the the Business Journal of Milwaukee says Peter Grimes is opening a biodiesel and ethanol station in the southeast Wisconsin town of Cudahy next month… and there’s plans to open up at least six more over the next two years:

Grimes, a managing partner of AUR Energy Partners LLC, Milwaukee, is overseeing the conversion of a former Shell station, 5080 S. Pennsylvania Ave., into a biofuel station called Good To Go that will begin selling biodiesel fuel in June. In the future, Grimes’ Good To Go station will offer E-85, a gasoline and ethanol mix that’s 85 percent ethanol, and plug-in bays where electric cars can recharge their batteries.

Grimes and a handful of partners have a second Good To Go alternative fuel station in Little Chute in the Fox Valley that sells E-85 and will sell biodiesel soon.

Grimes says there’s a growing business climate for alternative fuels.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News