Biodiesel Fueling Fast Ride Around SF Bay

John Davis

Rocketboat… the “Blast on the Bay” as it is dubbed by its owners… promises to give riders an exciting 30-minute around San Francisco Bay, and they’ll enjoy that trip on clean-burning biodiesel.

This press release from Blue & Gold Fleet, Rocketboat’s parent company, posted on MarketWatch.com says the biodiesel-powered vessel will “zoom past the sea lions to the Bay Bridge, zip by AT&T Park, round Treasure Island and then pass Alcatraz, returning back to PIER 39 within 30 minutes”:

The open-air RocketBoat will carry 135 passengers on a windswept ride, departing eight times daily. To give riders a chance to catch their breath and take photos, the craft will make three sightseeing stops along the route, including AT&T Park, Treasure Island and Alcatraz. While rocketing around the Bay, passengers will be treated to an appropriately rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack, combined with live narration from an experienced Blue & Gold Fleet captain.

RocketBoat was built by Sunsplash Marina LLC in New Jersey, where it was loaded up with a twin 16VM70 engines rated at 1410 horsepower each (2820 total hp). The all-aluminum vessel uses water jets to achieve its top speed of 36 knots (41 mph). RocketBoat is powered with a mixture of biodiesel fuel, complementing Blue & Gold Fleet’s status as the largest fleet of biodiesel ferries and tour boats on the San Francisco Bay.

Now there’s a San Francisco treat!

Biodiesel

Nebraska to Celebrate Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Governor HeinemanTo celebrate ethanol and all renewable fuels, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman will declare September Renewable Fuels Month at Husker Harvest Days on Wednesday, September 10.

Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, says the economic impact of ethanol on rural communities in Nebraska and many other areas of the nation has been significant.

“Ethanol has brought thousands of jobs to mostly rural Nebraska, which creates wealth that flows into rural communities,” Sneller said. “Nebraska ethanol production is more than a $4 billion industry – and it’s getting bigger each year.”

Sneller estimated that by the end of next year, four expansion projects at existing plants and five new projects under construction will add 816 million gallons of capacity, bringing the state’s total ethanol capacity to some 2.4 billion gallons.

A 2008 study by LECG LLC reported that an average 100 million gallon ethanol plant directly employs 50 people and supports hundreds of additional jobs locally and across the country. The plant also buys more than $100 million in goods and services, mostly from the local area, and increases household income some $77 million.

At the Husker Harvest Days event on Wednesday, Governor Heineman will make a few remarks, as will members of Nebraska commodity organizations, including the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Soybean Board.

Ethanol, News

Alliance Targets Lawmakers for Education Efforts

Cindy Zimmerman

Alliance For Abundant Food and EnergyThe Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy is out to inform the nation’s policy makers that American agriculture is fully capable of producing both food and fuel with no trade off.

The alliance was formed in July and includes Archer Daniels Midland, DuPont, John Deere, Monsanto, and the Renewable Fuels Association. ADM Vice President for Government Relations Greg Webb says because government formulates food and energy policy, it is important that they be well informed. “We think that the alliance will help educate and draw attention to agriculture’s capability to produce and meet increasing demands,” Webb said. “A lot of folks are seeing the increased demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel and they kind of freeze the production capability in time and think that we’ll never produce another pound more than what we do now.”

Alliance representatives attended both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and ads from the alliance were featured in publications at both conventions.

The alliance is trying to make it known through advertising and lobbying efforts that by growing more crops and developing more efficient ways of processing them, we can produce enough to meet the world’s needs for both food and energy. All of the agribusinesses involved are working in that direction by improving seed varieties, crop protection methods, harvesting and processing equipment and techniques.

Agribusiness, Ethanol, politics

Farm Bill Renewable Energy Provisions Open for Comment

Cindy Zimmerman

Consumers, farmers and agribusiness people are all offering up suggestions on ways to create renewable energy as part of the 2008 Farm Bill.

Tom DorrUSDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr, who held a public meeting last week to work on implementing renewable energy programs authorized under the farm bill, says the rapid commercialization of renewable energy is a high priority.

“These things are now clearly within our reach, we are far beyond the basic research stage in this effort,” Dorr said. “Renewable energy is clearly of age. More has been accomplished on renewable energy in the last eight years than in the previous 40.”

The 12 sections regarding renewable energy under Title 9 of the farm bill are open for public comment. The sections include such broad topics as assistance in biorefineries, bioenergy, rural energy and biomass. USDA plans to implement the farm bill’s energy provisions in consultation with the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies.

Energy, Government

E85 Grand Openings in Colorado

Two grand opening events will celebrate the introduction of E85 at two retail fueling facilities in the state of Colorado. The events will take place at the Eagle Travel Stop in Sterling and Western Convenience in Montrose this month.

On September 16, the Colorado Corn Growers Association, the Governor’s Biofuels Coalition, and Colorado Retail Venture Services will celebrate the Eagle Travel Stop’s introduction of E85 with a live remote, hot dogs, refreshments and a fuel promotion. The event will take place from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at 20974 US Highway 6 in Sterling.

On September 23, the Colorado Corn Growers Association, the Governor’s Biofuels Coalition, Southern Colorado Clean Cities and Western Convenience will hold their promotion from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. This event at 938 South Townsend Avenue in Montrose will feature a live remote, hot dogs, refreshments and a fuel promotion of E85 for 85 cents per gallon.

The addition of these two E85 facilities will bring the total of E85 stations in the state to 70.

corn, E85, Ethanol, Facilities

VeraSun Opens 14th Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

VeraSunVeraSun Energy has announced the start up of its 110 million gallon per year ethanol biorefinery located near Dyersville, Iowa. The Dyersville production facility marks the 14th VeraSun biorefinery in operation and the fifth in Iowa, increasing the company’s annual production capacity to more than 1.4 billion gallons.

“We are pleased to bring another large-scale, environmentally friendly ethanol production facility on-line in the state of Iowa,” VeraSun CEO Don Endres said. “The state continues to be a leader in renewable fuels production, helping our nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We commend the Dyersville community, its leadership, and the local corn producers for making this day a reality.”

According to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, VeraSun Dyersville is the 32nd operating biorefinery in Iowa, increasing overall annual production capacity in the state to almost 2.5 billion gallons.

Ethanol, Facilities, News

Ethanol Tailgate Party

Cindy Zimmerman

Edgar the E-Man will be partying with Albert and Sebastian this weekend in Gainesville, Florida when the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council kicks off its sponsorship with the Fox Tailgate Tour at the Florida vs. Miami football game.

Visitors at the tailgate tour will have the chance to compete in the Ultimate Ethanol Challenge, where competitors face off to test their ethanol knowledge. The winner of each contest gets a free fuel card. Edgar E-Man will be passing out scratch off cards giving people a code to enter online for a chance to win free fuel for a year. Tailgaters can also register by texting a code or dropping their name in a registration box.

EPIC, Ethanol, News, Promotion

Process Could Improve Ethanol Efficiency

Cindy Zimmerman

A process used in breweries and wastewater treatment facilities could make corn ethanol more energy efficient.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are exploring the use of oxygen-less vats of microorganisms that naturally feed on organic waste produced from the ethanol fermentation process.

According to a university release, a WUSTL team has tested anaerobic digestion on waste from ethanol plants and found that the process could cut down an ethanol facility’s use of natural gas by 50 percent. They published the results in the recent issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

A complete story on the research is available at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review.

Ethanol, News, Research

Ethanol and Politics

Cindy Zimmerman

RFA PodcastWith ethanol continuing to be such a political issue, it was especially important this election year for the ethanol industry to have a clear presence at both recent political conventions. In this Ethanol Report podcast, Matt Hartwig with the Renewable Fuels Association and Randy Doyle with Al-Corn Clean Fuels in Claremont, MN discuss how and why the ethanol industry was involved in the Democratic and Republican conventions and the AgNite event at the RNC.

You can subscribe to the “The Ethanol Report” podcast by following this link.

Or you can listen to it on-line here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/ethanol-report-18.mp3]

Audio, Ethanol, politics, RFA

Washington State Adds Another E85 Station

Wilcox & Flegel Oil Company, one of the largest fuel distributors in the Northwest, is committed to E85 and is offering the product in the city of Olympia, Washington. This is the sixth location the distributor is supplying.

The recently opened E85 pump located at the Shell station at 3505 Pacific Ave., is selling the product at more than 80 cents below regular unleaded gasoline. In the past week, the facility sold more than 270 gallons of the clean burning, alternative fuel.

Aaron Wilcox, special projects manager for Wilcox & Flegel said that the group is a longtime distributor of diesel and gasoline that started selling E85 fuel about a year ago. They began selling E85 because the Detroit automakers chose to build flexible fuel vehicles.

Wilcox & Flegel Oil Company plans on adding up to ten E85 sites across the state of Washington.

Car Makers, E85, Ethanol, Facilities, News