Florida Researcher Wins Award for Work Including Biodiesel

John Davis

A University of Florida professor has been recognized with the highest honor the Florida State Horticultural Society bestows for his work that includes research to get more oil from plants to produce biodiesel.

This article from the school’s newspaper, InsideUF, says Wagner Vendrame, an associate professor of environmental horticulture at the University of Florida’s Tropical Research and Education Center, Homestead, picked up the society’s Presidential Gold Medal Award:

Presented to Vendrame at the society’s annual meeting this summer, the award is the most prestigious honor from the FSHS, given to the individual whose work published in the previous five years of the Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society has contributed the most to the Sunshine State’s horticulture sciences.

Vendrame joined UF in 2001 and has more than 16 years of experience in plant micropropagation and biotechnology. His research program involves production and conservation of plants using tissue culture, molecular biology and cryopreservation techniques.

Vendrame is well known for his work propagating selected hybrids of the jatropha nut, which has some great potential in the biodiesel business.

Biodiesel

Clark Headlining Wind Energy Forum

John Davis

General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander of military forces in Europe and former presidential candidate, will be leading the opening day’s session at the HUSUM WindEnergy trade show and congress in Husum, Germany Sept. 9-13, 2008.

Clark will be speaking at the “Wind Power Forum: The New Energy Economy,” at the conference.

HUSUM is the world’s largest, longest-running and best-attended wind energy industry trade show, congress and job fair taking place in Husum, a small North Frisian coastal town.

More details about HUSUM are available at the event’s web site.

Wind

Galva Holstein Opens Iowa’s First Blender Pump

Galva Holstein Ag., LLC opened the first ethanol blender pump within the state of Iowa on August 14. The fuel dispensing unit will sell the products of E10, E30, E85 and unleaded fuel at 1583 Market Avenue in Galva, Iowa. The site has been selling the alternative fuels of E85 and biodiesel since the spring of 2005, but just recently added the new blender pump. Over 175,000 gallons of E85 have been sold to date at this site which was noted remarkable because Galva’s population is only 350.

“With the assistance of IDED (Iowa Department of Economic Development) grants,” said Anne M. Johnson of Galva Holstein Ag., “which we are truly grateful for, we were able to add blender pumps this summer to this location and are now dispensing E10, E30, and clean-burning E85. All of us at Galva Holstein Ag are delighted to be a part of the energy ‘solution’ and feel that we are helping corn/grain farmers from the Mid’West’ instead of big oil guys in the Mid’East’. Renewable fuels are popular here and we continue our efforts to keep them in the good press.”

A re-grand opening is scheduled for September 17th to kick-start the blender pump and continue educating FFV drivers about the many benefits of using E85 and E30. The ENCORE blender dispenser includes eight nozzles dispensing fuel, has security lighting and overhead canopy for driver’s convenience. It is a 24-hour cardtrol facility that accepts all major credit cards.

Any level of ethanol above 10 percent is only approved for use in flexible fuel vehicles.

Biodiesel, E85, Ethanol, Facilities, News

Ethanol Branding at the Pump

Cindy Zimmerman

Flex stationA new fuel station in Colwich, Kansas could be the poster child for ethanol branding.

TJ Convenience store, which is supported by local ethanol plant designer ICM, offers four different ethanol blends – E10, E20, E30 and E85. The higher blends can only be used in flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs).

Flex stationSenator Sam Brownback (R-KS) helped ICM president Dave Vander Griend cut the ribbon during a pump promotion held Monday to celebrate the opening of the new station and to kick off a new initiative in Kansas that will help fuel station retailers obtain funding and the equipment needed to sell higher blends of ethanol.

The station is literally branded from top to bottom with the “e” logo, developed as a brand for ethanol by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. One of the primary goals of the new Kansas initiative is to increase the state’s blender pump infrastructure by installing a minimum of 100 blender pumps over the next year. Currently there are three.

According to Kansas Corn Commission chairman Bob Timmons, the program “will help strengthen our economy by encouraging blender pump infrastructure development, and take us one step closer to weakening our dependence on foreign oil.”

corn, E85, EPIC, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

Wisconsin Promotes E85 with New Vehicle

According to the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board, the state’s new “Alice in Dairyland” will be driving a fully loaded 2008 GM Tahoe. The vehicle is being offered to the state’s agricultural ambassador, Ashley Huibregtse, by the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board and General Motors.

“It’s very appropriate that our state agricultural ambassador starts her year-long, statewide drive at an ethanol plant and that she does so driving our ethanol-fueled car,” says Ken Rosenow, Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board President and corn grower from Oconomowoc. “Having Alice in Dairyland drive the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board’s E85 Chevy Tahoe while she promotes agriculture across the state is the perfect symbol of how corn-based ethanol drives our state’s economy in an economical, fuel-efficient and renewable manner.”

As a public relations specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Alice in Dairyland annually travels the equivalent of a trip around the world during her 12-month tour, driving an ethanol capable E85 Chevrolet Tahoe donated by the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board.

This vehicle is one of the many that GM will be offering as a cost-free lease to states that belong to the Governor’s Ethanol Coalition. This is the third year of General Motor’s promotion.

Currently, Wisconsin boasts 114 E85 fueling stations throughout their state.

corn, E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

Ethanol Hearing in Nebraska

Cindy Zimmerman

Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) brought the Senate Agriculture Committee to the heartland Monday to get to the heart of the food vs. fuel debate. The hearing was the culmination of a statewide energy tour Nelson kicked off last week that also included stops at an E85 fuel station in Omaha and an ethanol plant in Hastings.

Ben Nelson at Hastings ethanol plantDuring the hearing held at University of Nebraska-Omaha, Nelson commented that ethanol has been “been blamed for practically every problem under the sun. What’s next? Summer colds? Computer viruses? Bad hair days?”

Witnesses at the hearing came from both sides of the ethanol debate, including poultry and livestock producers who argued that ethanol production was driving up their feed costs.

Tim Recker, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, testified on behalf of his organization as well as the National Corn Growers Association, the Nebraska Corn Growers Association and the Nebraska Corn Board. “The world is hungry for both protein and petroleum, and the American corn grower can help satisfy both in the form of energy from ethanol and protein from corn-fed red meat and poultry,” Recker said.

Jim Jenkins, chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, also testified at the hearing. “Ethanol, in addition to the rapidly growing wind industry, offers our nation a significant opportunity to begin the important diversification our energy portfolio away from fossil fuels,” Jenkins said.

Other witnesses included Dean Oestreich, Chairman of Pioneer Hi-Bred and Vice-President DuPont Agriculture and Nutrition; Dr. Thomas Foust, Biofuels Technology Manager with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and Jeff Lautt, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations with POET.

Energy, Ethanol, Government, News

Kansas Launches Ethanol Blender Pump Program

Cindy Zimmerman

EPICKansas Corn CommissionKansas is now the second state to lead the nation in raising public awareness for higher blends of ethanol as the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC), ICM and the Kansas Corn Commission Monday launched a blender pump incentive program for the Sunflower State.

EPIC Deputy Director Robert White says the blender pumps will allow gas stations to sell more blends of ethanol-enriched fuel to consumers driving flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs). “This program will provide support and incentives to fuel station retailers who want the opportunity to offer blender pumps, and raise awareness among consumers,” White said during a kickoff event to announce the program Monday in Colwich, KS.

The initiative will help fuel station retailers obtain funding and the equipment needed to sell higher blends of ethanol, which range from E20 to E50 and can only be used in FFVs. One of the main goals is to increase the state’s blender pump infrastructure by installing a minimum of 100 blender pumps over the next year. Currently, three blender pumps are open in the state thanks to a pilot program adopted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture that made Kansas one of the first states in the nation to allow ethanol blender pumps.

Earlier this year, South Dakota launched a similar program.

corn, E85, EPIC, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

MO Biodiesel Plant Set for Opening

John Davis

A combination soybean-crushing and biodiesel plant is set for a grand opening ceremony in Southwest Missouri.

This story in the Fort Scott Tribune says the Prairie Pride, Inc. soybean oil extraction-biodiesel refining facility located about six miles east of Fort Scott, Kansas near Eve, Mo. will have the ceremony and other activities starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23.:

The company’s $80 million 210-acre production facility, which began operations last fall, crushes soybeans to extract the soy oil, a product which is then refined into biodiesel fuel…

Prairie Pride is a new generation producer cooperative that requires the producer to be a member in order to sell to the plant, which will eventually convert 21 million bushels of soybeans each year into 30 million gallons of biodiesel fuel, and 486,000 tons of soybean meal that can be fed to livestock. Co-op producers from five or six nearby states share in the ownership and profit of the operation.

Producers and farmers in Bourbon County, Vernon County, Mo., and other surrounding counties within a 100-mile radius will benefit from the plant. Prairie Pride, Inc., receives a percentage of the profits for every gallon of biodiesel sold. More than 1,000 producers have invested money in the plant. The average investment per producer is about $36,000, company officials said.

Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton, along with representatives for Kansas Senator Sam Brownback and Missouri Senator Kit Bond, will join local officials for the ceremony.

The plant could generate more than $250 million in gross income annually and employs between 35 and 40 people.

Biodiesel

Central Florida Town Becoming Biodiesel Mecca

John Davis

A town in Central Florida is on track to become a vital center of biodiesel production, second only to an area around Houston Texas.

This story from the Orlando (FL) Business Journal says Groveland, about 30 miles west of downtown Orlando, is on track to have three biodiesel refineries up and running by the beginning of next year:

Together, the three Groveland plants — CleanFuel LLC, Southern Energy Holdings Inc. and Summit Biodiesel — represent a significant investment in the area: Southern Energy estimates its operation alone cost $5 million — and the three firms could create up to 100 jobs, paying a minimum of $15 an hour.

Dottie Keedy, director of the Lake County Department of Economic Growth & Redevelopment, said the jobs being created through the biodiesel companies are significant for the area.

The companies also have ambitious 2009 sales targets for their operations: Summit Biodiesel, $3.8 million; Southern Energy Holdings, $9 million; and CleanFuel, $120 million.

CleanFuel currently produces about a million gallons of biodiesel a year and expects to ramp that up soon to five to six million gallons a year. Southern Energy Holdings will open its 350,000-gallon-a-month plant next month with plans of increasing that output to 1 million gallons a month. Summit will open a 1-million-gallon-a-year refinery in the Groveland area next year.

Biodiesel

Solar Panel Cleaner Needed in Wake of Wildfires

John Davis

The recent California wildfires, that have charred thousands of acres and done millions of dollars in damage, have also had an impact on the state’s important solar power industry. The soot from those fires obscures the photovoltaic cells, making them less efficient.

SolarFrameWorks, a maker of solar technology, has introduced a new solar panel cleaning agent, PowerBoost… a touchless, biodegradable solution that cleans solar panels to boost their power production. This company press release has more:

“Solar panel cleaning is extremely important to achieve maximum output of a solar electric system,” said Dr. Patrina Eiffert, CEO, SolarFrameWorks. “The financial impact of a clean solar panel is immediate. More electricity produced by the solar panels means less dollars billed by the utility company and a direct savings to the owner. During this time of year, when solar systems generate the most power due to air conditioning usage, cleaning maintenance is especially important.”

Available for both residential and commercial applications, PowerBoost can be applied within minutes using a standard garden hose. The intense foaming solution contains high-quality surfactants that remove grime thereby increasing the level of solar insulation that is able to reach the solar cells. PowerBoost works on all types of glass, such as the tempered glass layered on the top of most crystalline solar panels. PowerBoost not only enhances the cleaning process but leaves behind a specially-formulated coating to reduce the number of cleanings required.

More information, including how to order the solution and cleaning system, is available at SolarFrame Works web site’s PowerBoost page: www.solarframeworks.com/powerboost.html.

Solar