Oregon Looks to Build Biofuels Research and Processing Plant

John Davis

The folks in Salem, Oregon are hoping to get some of federal money to build a new biofuels research and processing plant… the first of its kind in the state.

This story from the Salem Statesman Journal says a group of biofuel advocates, a local college and businessmen are hoping to get $10 million from Washington, DC to build the acility next to the state’s only commercial biodiesel production facility and biofuels analytical laboratory:

The project’s partners — Chemeketa Community College, Wildwood Inc. and Pacific Biodiesel Technologies Inc. — submitted the proposal to Oregon’s Congressional delegation, the first step in acquiring a federal “earmark” for 2010.

John Miller of Wildwood, owner and developer of Mill Creek Junction, wants to see Salem lead the alternative fuel sector: “This bread basket (the Willamette Valley) can also be a fuel basket.”

The proposed facility — between 20,000- and 30,000-square-feet — could produce as much as 432,000 gallons of liquid biofuels per year. The biofuels could be made from algae, woody waste and agricultural waste.

Chemeketa Community College hopes to train about 60 students a year at the facility.

“What we do well and want to do more of is train workers for employable jobs with skills that employers in our district need,” said Greg Harris, Chemeketa’s public information officer. “Chemeketa is not a research institution … we are more about practical skills. I think we wouldn’t be training future scientists as much as we would be training future technicians.”

Once the college finished training the students, they would go to study at private industries in the area.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

Ag Secretary Endorses Ethanol Blend Increase

Cindy Zimmerman

In remarks to farmers meeting in Arlington, Virginia on Monday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack endorsed a request to the Environmental Protection Agency for an increase in the ethanol blend rate up to 15 percent.

Vilsack“We can move fairly quickly to move that rate up from 10 percent to maybe 12 or 13 percent in the interim and then take an even further jump to 15 percent or even 20 percent over the course of the next couple of years,” Vilsack said to the National Farmers Union (NFU) convention. The ethanol industry formally petitioned the EPA to increase the blend level to 15 percent on Friday. Growth Energy, one of the groups requesting the increase, recently hired NFU president Tom Buis as CEO, effective next week.

Meanwhile, the agriculture directors of 10 Midwestern states sent a letter to President Obama Monday also endorsing the acceptance of 15 or 20 percent ethanol blends.

The letter reads, in part, “American ethanol production has nearly reached 10 percent saturation. We must move to a base blend of 15 or 20 percent in 2009 in order to continue growing this vital industry. By working together to promote domestic production and improve market access, we can continue to deliver a clean, renewable fuel that has a positive impact on our domestic economy.”

Letter signers include the heads of state agriculture departments in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Montana and Ohio.

blends, Ethanol, Government, USDA

Solar Power Fueling Atlantic City

John Davis

You wouldn’t think of the bright lights of the casinos of Atlantic City, New Jersey as the place for energy conservation, but the East Coast’s gambling center is the home of a pioneering solar energy project.

This story from CNN says government officials were on hand to show off solar panels on top of the city’s convention center, the largest single-roof solar-panel array in the U.S.:

The 13,321 photovoltaic panels will produce an average of 26 percent of the convention center’s energy, according to consultants. The panels cover most of the roof’s usable space, leaving room for walkways and other equipment.

“We estimate that we are going to save $4.4 million over the 20 years of the contract [with the solar provider],” said Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority.

In greener terms, authorities estimate the solar panels will avoid the release of 2,349 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — equivalent to removing 390 passenger vehicles from the road or reducing oil consumption by 4,956 barrels per year.

The solar panels are already paying off. Even in the short, darker days of January, they put out 15 percent of the convention center’s power.

Solar

Company Turning Biodiesel By-Product into Two Fuels

John Davis

Gotta give props right up front to the readers of Domestic Fuel who passed along this story to us. What was a big waste product for the biodiesel industry could soon be fueling turbines and industrial boilers and offsetting coal use at power plants.

xcelplusThey found this story in Biodiesel Magazine about how Virginia-based Xcelplus Global Holdings Inc. is beginning commercial production of two fuels made from glycerin: GlyClene, for standard turbine engines and industrial boilers… and GlyCoal, to replace coal at power plants. Both are liquid fuels:

Crude glycerin directly out of the biodiesel process is the primary component of both GlyClene and GlyCoal. “We take 100 percent waste glycerin from a biodiesel plant, and we crack it, so the components are really all glycerin,” said Bill Smith, Xcelplus Global Holding’s chairman. The glycerin is treated with a chemical and thermal heat process to create the fuels. The chemical facilitating compound accounts for less than one percent of the formula, Smith continued. Patents are pending on the proprietary technology.

Xcelplus Global Holdings recently tested GlyClene as a boiler fuel source in Sony International’s Dothan, Ala.-based plant, Smith said. That test showed the fuel produced 119,000 British thermal units per gallon. Additional testing is pending at a variety of other facilities, including a chicken plant, a carpet company and an asphalt company. In addition, GlyCoal was recently tested at an 80 megawatt power plant in West Virginia. The fuel was injected directly into the boiler system, said Smith, and resulted in a 10 percent offset of the plant’s coal consumption.

And this story from EnergyCurrent.com says there is definitely a market for the fuel. Construction contractor Oldcastle Materials has entered into a contract to buy Glycoal and GlyClene, while poultry giant Perdue Farms will be buying GlyClene.

Biodiesel

Farm Foundation Announces Competition to Solve Food, Fiber & Fuel Challenges

John Davis

farmfoundationlogo2009The world faces some serious challenges… as pointed out in a Farm Foundation report released last December (see my post from December on AgWired.com). That report identifies six major areas of challenges with a role in agriculture’s ability to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world: global financial markets and recession; global food security; global energy security; climate change; competition for natural resources; and global economic development.

To help find solutions to these problems, Farm Foundation has announced a competition to award $20,000 in prizes for the most innovative and public policy options coming from the public:

“Agriculture globally faces the challenge of how to provide food to a world that is expected to have 9 billion people by 2040,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “This challenge exists at the same time that we are already seeing pressures on global resources, as well as increased demand for agriculture to provide not only food, but feed, fiber and fuel.

“It is not clear that today’s public policies-designed to deal with issues of the last century-provide appropriate tools and incentives to address the challenges of the next 30 years,” Conklin continues. “Farm Foundation is offering this competition as a catalyst for innovative ideas and approaches.”

If you have an idea, get it into the Farm Foundation through this Web site (more information is also available there) by June 1, 2009.

The project is directed and led by Farm Foundation with financial assistance from the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Pork Producers Council, and the United Egg Producers.

Farm Foundation

California May Drop its Attempt to Obtain Emissions Exception

carbAccording to the Detroit News, California’s top air regulator said her state could agree to the nationwide carbon-emissions standards that the auto industry seeks. But the details of such a plan, which could supersede the attempt by California and 13 other states to impose their own rules, are likely to bring their own contentious debate, even as years of fighting over California’s rules begins to ebb.

“I think we may be very close to being on the same page,” said Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the powerful California Air Resources Board. She and dozens of industry experts, environmental activists and private citizens testified during an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on California’s request to set its own rules for tailpipe emissions.

The Bush administration denied the request a year ago, but within days of taking office, President Barack Obama ordered a review of that decision. The administration has sent strong signals in recent days that it plans to set nationwide greenhouse gas limits.

Energy, Environment, Government

Ethanol Group at the Press Club

Cindy Zimmerman

General Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, addressed the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series today in Washington, DC.

Wesley ClarkClark talked about the ethanol industry’s petition to the Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline. “When you are talking about energy, you’re talking about the fundamentals of national security,” said the retired general and former presidential candidate.

“The EPA regulation (of 10 percent ethanol in gasoline) is a 30 year old regulation and frankly is just outdated,” Clark said. “The ethanol industry has essentially capped out, so this is a necessity for us to move forward.”

“We hope that we will be able to work with the USDA and EPA to get us at least to E12 or E13 for immediate relief, until the waiver can work it’s way through the administrative process,” Clark said.

He referenced a Growth Energy report out earlier this week that found increasing the blend rate to 15 percent would support 136,000 jobs.

Clark says they believe E15 is perfectly acceptable for all vehicles. “We want the EPA to approve up to E15, we’re not saying all gasoline has to be E15,” he said.

Listen to Clark press conference here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/growth-energy/growth-energy-pressclub.mp3]

Audio, Ethanol, Growth Energy

Ethanol Industry Formally Petitions for 15 Percent

Cindy Zimmerman

ACEA broad alliance of ethanol industry groups have joined together to formally petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline for motor vehicles, according to the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE).

RFAIn addition to ACE, the alliance includes Growth Energy, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), and the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC), as well as several major ethanol companies.

NEVC“The American Coalition for Ethanol is pleased to be part of this unified effort to submit scientific data to EPA so they may approve the use of mid-level blends of ethanol, such as E15, in motor vehicles nationwide,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE. To encourage greater support in Congress for the mid-level blend waiver, ACE and 30 of its grassroots members traveled to Capitol Hill on March 2-3 as part of its “Biofuels Beltway March.” A varied group of ethanol advocates – including ethanol producers, farmers, investors, lenders, engineering and technology firms, agriculture groups, and rural electric cooperatives – met with more than 70 Members of Congress and with Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, to discuss E15 and other issues.

Growth Energy
Meanwhile, Growth Energy co-chairman General Wesley Clark will be delivering a speech about higher blends and the future of the ethanol industry as part of the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series today at noon eastern time. They will also be holding a technical briefing after the press conference at 1:30 eastern.

ACE, blends, Ethanol, Government, Growth Energy, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, RFA

NEVC Attends Commodity Classic

commodclassic_nevcboothThe National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) attended the 2009 Commodity Classic last week in Grapevine, Texas. The group has attended the event for more than ten years promoting E85 and flexible fuel vehicles. This was my tenth Commodity Classic attendance on behalf of the NEVC.

Phil Lampert, my Executive Director, NEVC Membership Director Haley Wansing and I met with many of the state corn grower groups to inform them of our successes and what our outlined plans are for the future. NEVC Vice-Chairman and Ohio Corn Growers Executive Director Dwayne Siekman said, “The Commodity Classic is an important time for policy development for the Ohio Corn Growers Association and we often confer with partnering organizations for background information. Without groups like the NEVC and their knowledge on higher ethanol blends and updates on certification of dispensing equipment, the policy development process may not be complete.”

commodclassic_nevcbooth2As part of the NEVC staff, I was pleased to see such an intense interest from every state on ethanol policy. Our group appreciates the support of the National Corn Growers Association and each of our fourteen corn grower state organizations.

The NEVC also sponsored a booth in the Commodity Classic’s exhibition hall. Displayed were two flexible fuel vehicles: a 2009 FFV King Ranch F-150 and a 2008 FFV GM Silverado (provided by CleanFUEL USA). I believe the attendees enjoyed seeing the FFV options that Ford and GM have available for use on their farms.

Car Makers, E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, News

U.S. Governors Push for 13 Percent Ethanol

gbcAccording to Reuters, members of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition said they want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue a waiver to allow the sale of 13 percent ethanol blends. U.S. governors who want to see more ethanol production said they are optimistic regulators will soon boost the allowed blend rate for ethanol in gasoline to 13 percent from 10 percent.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, vice chair of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition said, “The EPA is going to take a very serious look at that 10 percent waiver, and we’re encouraged. We’re optimistic, and we think we have people in place, like (Agriculture Secretary Tom) Vilsack in particular, that can help us make the case on a daily basis out here.”

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, the coalition’s chair, told Reuters he hoped the EPA would act on the waiver request “within weeks or months.” He said the increase to 13 percent was just the first step. “We want to continue that effort to increase the percentage blend into fuels into the fuel supply,” Hoeven said.

Ethanol makers have been pushing to boost the blend rate as high as 20 percent to encourage the development of the industry. Any increases to ethanol blend rates would also need the support of the auto industry, which is concerned about the effects of higher blends on fuel lines and catalytic converters, Hoeven said.

blends, Car Makers, Ethanol, Government, News