Expert: Militaries Need to Look to Biodiesel, Ethanol & Hydrogen

John Davis

Militaries and defense industries the world over must look to using alternative fuels, such as biodiesel and ethanol… that according to an oil advisory group expert.

In this article in Jane’s Defence Weekly, the world’s leading military publication, quotes Julius Pretterebner, director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ (CERA’s) Global Oil advisory group:

Pretterebner added that industries need to look beyond current alternative hydrocarbon fuels – including ethanol and biodiesel and fuels that are produced from the Fischer-Tropsch process – in order to find a solution that works effectively.

“The military and the defence industries have three options: burn less fuel with higher-efficiency engines; burn different fuels that can be used as an alternative energy carrier; or improve military logistics, which will be done anyway,” said Pretterebner.

“But I have doubts whether militaries and the defence industries are doing enough to evaluate the potential fuels and different synthetics,” he said. “Not every fuel must be a hydrocarbon fuel. We should expect that fuels other than oil will provide the transport energy of the future.”

One example Pretterebner points to is hydrogen poly silicon… a promising fuel alternative that can be produced from sand, sun and water, and making it free of carbon dioxide.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Hydrogen, News

Bush: Biodiesel, Ethanol Important for Holiday Travel

John Davis

Renewable energy sources are important to the U.S., especially during the upcoming period of holiday travel.

President George W. Bush was at the U.S. Department of Transportation today, talking about how his administration will step up efforts to ease holiday travel woes this year. While at the DOT, Bush praised the good biodiesel and ethanol are doing for fuel supplies:

By dramatically boosting our output of clean-burning biodiesel and ethanol, providing tax credits for the purchase of low-emission hybrid vehicles, and investing in technologies like advanced batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, the department can be proud of the ways in which we have made America’s transportation system safer, cleaner, and more effective.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, News

Ethanol Industry Fights Back

Cindy Zimmerman

The ethanol industry wasted no time fighting back today against another attack by the food industry to blame higher prices on ethanol production.

Growth EnergyThe newly-formed Growth Energy called on the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) to “discontinue its deceptive attacks on the government’s investment in ethanol and other renewable fuels.” Growth Energy held a press conference shortly after the group “Food Before Fuel,” which is back by GMA, held a press conference calling for an end to all ethanol “subsidies.”

Growth Energy members in turn pointed out that the food companies themselves have been the beneficiary of subsidies, such as the $55 billion being spent this year on federal food assistance programs. “The federal government has an important role in supporting programs that promote the common good,” said Dave Vander Griend, President & CEO of ICM, Inc. and board member of Growth Energy. “Whether by funding anti-poverty programs like food stamps or championing renewable energy that will jumpstart our green economy and create jobs, we believe that it is good public policy to make smart investments for our nation’s future.”

RFAThe “Food Before Fuel” group called the press conference today as the “30th anniversary of ethanol subsidies” and referred to ethanol as “30-year-old under employed child” living in our basement. During the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit in Florida, Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen said, “It’s a cute analogy but the problem is there’s somebody else living in that house and it’s the 120-year-old oil industry that continues to be subsidized,” as well as other energy industries. “There is not a single energy market today that is not heavily subsidized by the government because energy is so darn important to every nation’s economy.”

The National Corn Growers Association was outraged by the attack, which was focused only on corn ethanol. “These same ethanol critics are the ones who virtually promised to reduce food prices immediately, and have failed to do so, even though corn prices and energy prices are down by more than half in the last few weeks,” National Corn Growers Association president Bob Dickey said.

Ethanol, Food prices, News

EPA Reminds of Rising RFS; Biodiesel Board Praises

John Davis

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reminded the petroleum industry that next year’s renewable fuel standard (RFS) is being stepped up, and the industry must be ready to comply.

This press release from the EPA says the 2009 RFS will be 10.21 percent to ensure that at least 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels will be blended into the transportation gasoline supply… just a fraction of what the RFS will be in the years to come:

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) established the annual overall renewable fuel volume targets, reaching a level of 36 billion gallons in 2022. To achieve these volumes, EPA calculates a percentage-based standard by November 30 for the following year. Based on the standard, each refiner, importer and non-oxygenate blender of gasoline determines the minimum volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is used in motor vehicle fuel. The 2008 standard was 7.76 percent, equating to roughly 9 billion gallons.

The National Biodiesel Board is praising the move that is expected to produce 500 million gallons of biomass-based diesel, which prominently includes biodiesel, to meet the 11 billion-gallon goal:

Joe Jobe, the CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) applauded the EPA for their diligence to ensure that obligated parties would be required to use 500 million gallons of biomass-based diesel to meet these requirements. “Biodiesel is a proven alternative that is ready now; with the highest energy balance of any renewable fuel, its growing economic impact of creating new ‘green’ jobs and an alternative that brings the U.S. closer to energy independence, biodiesel is the logical renewable fuel to look towards in the future,” Jobe stated. “Not to mention its environmental impact is significantly lower than any other fuel on the marketplace today.”

The EPA also is reminding those affected that they need to get the necessary Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) representing biodiesel and renewable diesel in 2009 in preparation for their 2010 compliance demonstration.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

Florida Wants to Lead Cellulosic Ethanol Production

Cindy Zimmerman

Cellulosic Summit 08 LunchFlorida Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson believes that Florida can be a leader in the production of cellulosic ethanol.

“Because of the amount of sunshine, water and year-round growth that we have for cellulose potential, I think Florida can lead the nation in this process,” Bronson said during the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit on Tuesday. Bronson was the keynote speaker at the event and he talked about a few of the crops Florida can grow for energy. “Energy cane is going to be one, sweet sorghum is going to be another,” Bronson said. “I really envision this as a second and third crop on pieces of ground that only one crop a year is being grown.”

Cellulosic Summit 08 Charles BronsonAs a cattle rancher by background, Bronson says he disagrees with some of his friends in the cattle industry. “They think that corn production is all being used up in the fuel, but it’s not,” Bronson said. “We’re producing more corn today than ever before in the United States so there is still plenty of corn left for humans and animals.”

Bronson stressed the need to keep moving toward renewable, alternative energy fuels and not become complacent now that gas prices have dropped. “We cannot allow for the development of new alternative energy to fall down, we have to keep it going,” he said.

You can listen to my interview with Commissioner Bronson here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/cell-summit-08-bronson.mp3]

Audio, Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

Obama’s Promised Fleet Could Include E85

President Elect Obama has vowed that half of all ‘cars purchased by the federal government will be plug-in hybrids or all-electric by 2012’. These vehicles may likely include E85 compatible models.

According to EV World, the base engine could be an E85/gasoline version of a small I-4, similar to the 100 bhp unit in the Chevrolet Volt. The optional more powerful engine might be a turbocharged version of the same engine, producing some 150 bhp on gasoline and 180 bhp on E85. Perhaps surprisingly, the more powerful engine should use less E85 than the base engine when cruising because it will have properly implemented flexible fuelling, unlike most other systems claimed to be optimal.

General Motors debuted the Volt in September and touts that it delivers up to 40 miles of gasoline- and emissions-free electric driving, with the extended-range capability of hundreds of additional miles. It will be available in 2010.

Ethanol, Government, News

Cellulosic Ethanol Summit in the Sunshine State

Cindy Zimmerman

Cellulosic Summit 08 Bob DinneenThe third annual Cellulosic Ethanol Summit is underway in Coral Gables, Florida this week. Summit chairman and Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen kicked off the event on Tuesday morning.

It is the first time the summit has been held outside of Washington DC and one of the reasons Florida was picked is because the state has become a leading supporter of the biofuels industry. The first speaker at the summit, Jeremy Susac, Executive Director of the Florida Energy & Climate Commission, discussed some of the initiatives Florida has put in place to promote the development of biofuels, including a Renewable Fuels Standard for the state.

Cellulosic Summit 08 Jeremy Susac“We have an E10 standard by 2010,” said Susac. “Another initiative that we are very proud of is the Department of Agriculture’s Farm to Fuel to stimulate the agriculture community to grow our fuels, fuel out cars, enhance our economy and strengthen our energy security.”

Susac says some of the most promising biofuels feedstocks for Florida include bagasse from sugar production, citrus peels, energy cane and sweet sorghum.

You can listen to my interview with Jeremy Susac here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/cell-summit-jeremy-edit.mp3]

Cellulosic Summit Photo Album

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News, RFA

California Ups Renewable Energy Ante

John Davis

The Governator wants his state to get more of its energy from renewable sources.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order that ups his state’s renewable energy goal from 20 percent by 2010 to a full one-third by 2020. His press release has details:

“I am proposing we set the most aggressive target in the nation for renewable energy-33 percent by the year 2020-that’s a third of our energy from sources like solar, wind and geothermal,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “But we won’t meet that goal doing business as usual, where environmental regulations are holding up environmental progress in some cases. This executive order will clear the red tape for renewable projects and streamline the permitting and siting of new plants and transmission lines. With this investment in renewable energy projects, California has a bright energy future ahead that will help us fight climate change while driving our state’s green economy.”

The Governor made today’s announcement at the site of OptiSolar’s new plant in Sacramento, which will begin manufacturing solar panels in early 2009. When fully built out, the one-million-square-foot plant will be the largest photovoltaic solar panel manufacturing plant in North America, providing 1,000 green jobs and producing approximately 2,000 solar panels per day.

Schwarzenegger says he’ll need to propose new legislation to make the new standard a reality while also putting in safeguards for low-income customers.

Government, Solar, Wind

Algae-Biodiesel Featured at Cal Summit

John Davis

Algae-biodiesel production company Solazyme, Inc. will be featuring its SoladieselRD(TM), the world’s first algal-based renewable diesel, at a summit this week in California.

This company press release posted on MarketWatch.com says SoladieselRD(TM) will be showcased at the Governor’s Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills, CA, Nov. 18th-19th:

“We are glad to be a part of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Global Climate Summit and applaud him for bringing together U.S. and international leaders to address this critical issue. Moving towards the Copenhagen meeting in December, these opportunities to discuss all solutions to the global climate crisis have become vitally important,” said Harrison Dillon, co-founder, president and CTO of Solazyme. “In this search for solutions, Solazyme has taken a 150 million year process of making oil and condensed it to a matter of days to renewably produce oil that can be converted into fuels that not only address these challenges, but have already been proven to be fully-scalable on a commercial level.”

Solazyme’s unique process grows algae in the dark in large industrial fermentation tanks, where the algae are fed a variety of non-food and waste biomass materials including glycerol and cellulosic biomass. This allows the company to produce oil with a very low carbon footprint efficiently in a controlled environment. Solazyme’s fuels have already been road tested in unmodified vehicles for thousands of miles. Solazyme also recently announced that it has produced the world’s first algal based jet fuel which met all eleven of the tested key criteria for (ASTM) D1655 (Jet A-1). Additionally, Solazyme’s process is the very first bridge from non–food carbohydrates and certain industrial waste streams to edible oils and oleochemicals.

The folks at Solazyme would love to talk to people, one-on-one during the summit. Contact Beth Starkin at 212-931-6108 or bstarkin@peppercom.com.

algae, Biodiesel

Oklahoma State University Receives Biofuels Grant

The Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) at Oklahoma State University (OSU) has received $20 million in funding for renewables research. The university received the money from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Four million dollars will be allowed over five years.

According to Biofuels Business, the research project will be led by Dr. Ray Huhnke, director of the Biobased Products and Energy Center at Oklahoma State University (OSU); Dr. Lance Lobban, director of the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering at the University of Oklahoma (OU); and Dr. Kirankumar Mysore, associate professor at the Samuel Roberts Noble Research Foundation. The funds will support research for molecular tools for biomass development, and the underlying microbial conversion of biomass to liquid fuels, as well as new catalytic/thermochemical conversion processes for cellulosic biomass.

“There is already a great amount of momentum in the state right now about the production of non-food based biofuels,” said Dr. Jim Wicksted, associate director of the Oklahoma EPSCoR program. “This theme area and project will build on that momentum by developing an infrastructure that supports Oklahoma’s biofuels initiative. We’re so pleased that NSF and the State Regents are willing to provide the resources that enable this work.”

BIO, News