Georgia Researchers Increasing Ethanol Yields

John Davis

A group of researchers from the University of Georgia are working on technology to get more ethanol from non-food sources, such as biomass.

This story from ChemicalOnline.com says they’re finding a way to make ethanol out of bermuda grass, switch grass, napier grass and even lawn clippings cleaner than previous biomass ethanol efforts:

“Producing ethanol from renewable biomass sources such as grasses is desirable because they are potentially available in large quantities,” said Joy Peterson, professor of microbiology and chair of UGA’s Bioenergy Task Force. “Optimizing the breakdown of the plant fibers is critical to production of liquid transportation fuel via fermentation.” Peterson developed the new technology with former UGA microbiology student Sarah Kate Brandon, and Mark Eiteman, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.

The new technology features a fast, mild, acid-free pretreatment process that increases by at least 10 times the amount of simple sugars released from inexpensive biomass for conversion to ethanol. The technology effectively eliminates the use of expensive and environmentally unsafe chemicals currently used to pretreat biomass.

The article goes on to point out that making ethanol from non-food sources not only relieves any pressure from the food supply, but it also makes areas not-as-friendly to agriculture potential fields for the green fuel.

biomass, Ethanol, News

EPA To Announce Ethanol Waiver Decision

Cindy Zimmerman

EPAThe highly-anticipated decision by the Environmental Protection Agency on whether to grant a partial waiver of the Renewable Fuels Standard will be announced Thursday afternoon.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator Robert Meyers will hold a press conference at noon central time to officially answer the request from Texas Governor Rick Perry to cut the RFS ethanol blending requirements by 50 percent. EPA received so many public comments on the issue that they had to postpone announcing a decision past the required 90 days after the request was made. The decision was supposed to be made by July 24.

Ethanol, Government, News

E85 Station Opens in Concord, California

Pearson FuelsPearson Fuels has opened their third E85 station in the state of California. The Chevron station is located at 1001 Willow Pass Court in Concord.

This new travel facility features a brand new Convenience Store and is the first public E85 station in Northern California. It is located directly off of Route 4 at Willow Pass Court and open 24 hours a day.

The first alternative fuel station was opened in San Diego, California by Pearson Fuels in 2003. It carried E85, biodiesel, low sulphur diesel, compressed natural gas, propane, and it hosted electric charging for vehicles in need. Many called this station, “The Fuel Station of the Future”.

“There are a lot of chickens running around,” or cars that can run on ethanol, Mike Lewis, owner of Pearson fuels once said. “And now we just need to make the eggs. I think we have the right product at the right time with the right business model. The potential upside is massive.”

Besides locations in San Diego and now in Concord, Pearson Fuels has an E85 site in Bressi Ranch. Currently, there are a total of nine E85 stations in the state of California.

Biodiesel, E85, Ethanol, Facilities, News

New Cellulosic Ethanol Partnership

Cindy Zimmerman

VereniumBP and Verenium Corporation have announced the creation of a strategic partnership to accelerate the development and commercialization of cellulosic ethanol.

BPAccording to a Verenium press release, the partnership “combines a broad technology platform and operational capabilities in an effort to advance the development of a portfolio of low-cost, environmentally sound cellulosic ethanol production facilities in the United States, and potentially throughout the world.”

Under the initial phase of the alliance, Verenium will receive $90 million in funding from BP over the next 18 months for rights to technology within the partnership.

“BP is very pleased to be entering this important relationship with Verenium. We believe energy crops like sugar cane, miscanthus and energy cane are the best feedstocks to deliver economic, sustainable and scaleable biofuels to the world. This deal puts us at the front of the cellulosic biofuels game,” said Sue Ellerbusch, president of BP Biofuels North America.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

Ethanol Wins in Missouri Primary

John Davis

Missouri’s ethanol industry got a boost today as pro-ethanol Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof defeated Sarah Steelman, who had vowed to cancel the state’s new ethanol mandate. Hulshof will now face Democratic candidate Jay Nixon, who also purports to support ethanol.

As you might remember from my earlier posts (especially on July 23), ethanol had become a key issue in the Republican side of the governor’s race when Steelman sided with Big Oil in opposition to Missouri’s 10 percent ethanol in nearly every gallon of gas sold in the state. The airwaves were filled with commercials with Hulshof and Steelman criticizing each other for their stances on the green fuel.

Despite her unenlightened attacks against ethanol (including the false charge that it is the main reason for food price increases, which we have shown time and time again that skyrocketing oil costs are the real culprits), Missourians were smart enough to see through Steelman’s petroleum-fueled smokescreen and voted for Hulshof, a corn farmer who has a first-hand interest in ethanol.

The vote was close, with Hulshof winning by just a few percentage points, and it shows just how much in the balance any ethanol mandate would be. And that shows how much we’ve got to keep up the fight to make sure everyone knows the truth about ethanol: it saves money, it conserves non-renewable oil, and it just makes sense for our energy independence.

Ethanol, News

FFV Club of America Debuts

FFV Club of AmericaThe Flexible Fuel Vehicle Club of America, the nation’s first consumer driven group supporting the production and utilization of more alternative fuels and vehicles, was unveiled recently at the 11th Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo in Washinton D.C.

“One of the fundamental objectives of the club is to locate the drivers who have FFVs and encourage them to use higher blends of ethanol. This is the only way to increase the availability of new fuel choices and encourage their local gasoline retailers to provide E85,” said club Founder and President Burl Haigwood. The FFV Club of America will rally drivers to use more alternative fuels such as ethanol.

U.S. Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE), a member of the Ethanol Across America Advisory Board, a group that assisted in launching the group, said, “At a time when our economy is feeling the weight of our dangerous dependence on imported oil, the Flexible Fuel Vehicle Club is a way to galvanize the millions and millions of ordinary Americans who are already fighting back. The use of domestic, renewable fuels like ethanol in high concentrations like E85 is a major weapon in this battle to stem the flow of foreign oil.”

FFV Club members will have access to information resources and opportunities to network through the club’s Web site, www.flexiblefuelvehicleclub.org.

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition will also be supporting the FFV club through a partnership.

E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

GM Official: Natural Gas “Enticing” Alternative

John Davis

A top General Motors executive believes that natural gas could be a replacement for gasoline on U.S. roads in the near future.

This story from CNNMoney.com quotes GM’s top researcher who said that his company sees natural gas an “enticing” alternative to petroleum… and that means new interest in natural gas by the major American automaker:

“It is abundant, affordable and relatively clean,” Larry Burns, GM vice president of research and development, said in a posting on GM’s Fastlane blog.

The world’s auto makers are scrambling to find new, commercially viable alternatives to gasoline as the reality of $4-per-gallon gasoline wreaks havoc on the U.S. auto industry.

But while companies launch high-profile plans to shift toward battery power, hydrogen and ethanol, little has been said about natural gas. Natural gas is cleaner burning and about half as expensive as gasoline, but is also much harder to find and less efficient in terms of energy density.

“In the near term, we can use compressed natural gas in internal combustion engines,” Burns wrote. “In the long term, natural gas could be an excellent source for making hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, either at the filling station or in people’s homes.”

This is not the first time GM has offered up ideas and practices to help wean us away from petroleum. The company has a large effort to attract drivers to their ethanol-powered vehicles, as well as development of the Chevrolet Volt, a battery-powered car, and vehicles that run on hydrogen.

Car Makers, Miscellaneous, Propane

New York Biodiesel Goes to Europe

John Davis

It wasn’t a huge amount, but it could be seen as an important first step for the biodiesel industry in New York.

This story from Reuters says an American biodiesel producer is sending the green fuel to a port in Europe… the first time biodiesel has gone from New York to our friends across the pond:

The 15,000 barrel cargo of biodiesel produced by Innovation Fuels in New York is bound for Rotterdam.

Europe has been a large market for biodiesel because of its large number of diesel-fueled cars EU mandates for alternative fuels. Traditionally U.S. supplies of biodiesel have been sent from the West Coast.

Innovation CEO John Fox said the company’s biodiesel is made from multiple feedstocks, including vegetable oils, oils from rendering and food processing facilities, and used restaurant grease.

U.S. biodiesel capacity has risen as the government offered incentives to help wean the country off foreign oil. But the industry has suffered as producers lost money on surging prices for soy oil, one of the industry’s main feedstocks.

Fox said Innovation’s margins are strong because its mix of feedstocks. “Our ability to process lower priced feedstocks helps us to make margins significantly above 20 cents per gallon,” he said.

The real significance of this shipment might be the fact that it could help establish the Northeast United States as another hub for biodiesel to go to Europe. That, along with increasing number of mandates in that region, would help cement the green fuel in that part of the U.S.

Biodiesel

North Carolina Ethanol Roundtable Workshop a Success

Ethanol RoundtableThe Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition (CCFC), Centralina Economic Development Commission, NC State Energy Office and NC Biotechnology Center sponsored a workshop titled Ethanol Roundtable: Building a Sustainable Ethanol Industry in NC on Thursday, July 31 in Mooresville. Attendance totaled about 65 participants.

According to the CCFC, the Renewable Fuel Standard in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will require 9.0 billion gallons of renewable fuel across the U.S. starting in 2008, with the amount increasing to 36 billion gallons in 2022. Ultimately 21 billion gallons per year will be cellulosic ethanol. Over the 2005 to 2006 fiscal year, North Carolina saw a drop in public retail consumption from 4.4 million gallons of E100 to 1.9, while public entities increased their use by about 200% during the same time. The Ethanol Roundtable sought to identify what drivers are behind trends like this and so many others that are intricately woven with far reaching geo-political fluctuations.

Speakers included Mooresville Mayor Bill Thunberg and representatives from the following organizations: Clean Vehicle Education Foundation; Novozymes North America Inc.; United Energy; Clean Vehicle Education Foundation; Southern Pump & Tank; Greater Charlotte Office North Carolina Biotechnology Center; and the North Carolina Biofuels Center.

To view speaker presentations, click here.

Photo above is that of Steve Childers, Industrial Division Manager for Southern Pump & Tank Co.

E85, Ethanol, News

New Report Confirms Purdue Ethanol Study

John Davis

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about how Purdue University had come out with a study that showed that increasing costs for oil were responsible for 75 percent in the rise in the price in corn, while demand for ethanol accounted for just one-fourth of corn’s skyrocketing price.

Now, a report coming out of Nebraska also says the real blame for the spike in food prices are higher fuel costs and greater world grain demand:

The report, “The Impact of Ethanol Production on Food, Feed and Fuel,” was produced by Ethanol Across America and co-sponsored by the Nebraska Ethanol Board. The findings confirm a recent study by Purdue University, which found that record high oil prices have caused 75% of the inflation in corn prices.

Ethanol is reducing gas prices. In Nebraska, about 77% of all gasoline sold contains ethanol. E10 is typically 10 cents cheaper than regular and economists have found that ethanol production lowers oil prices by 15% nationwide. Ethanol will save Nebraska motorists more than $70 million at the pump during 2008 according to the Nebraska Ethanol Board.

Ethanol Board Chairman Jim Jenkins said that ethanol generates a resounding economic benefit to Nebraska by lowering gas prices and providing livestock producers with lower-cost feeding alternatives.

“As a cattle producer and restaurant owner, I am directly impacted by skyrocketing energy prices. High energy costs hit everyone hard, but Nebraska ethanol is lowering gas prices. Ethanol also provides relief for the livestock producer with high quality, low cost feed in the form of distillers grains,” Jenkins said. “The Nebraska economy is significantly better off as a result of our $4 billion ethanol industry, which has made our state a net exporter of motor fuels.”

You can read the entire report at the Nebraska Ethanol Board’s web page in the “Resources” section.

Ethanol, News