Biodiesel Boat Breaks Prop; Limps Toward Record

John Davis

A 100% biodiesel boat trying to break the world record for circumnavigation of the globe has run into a bit of trouble in the East Indies. The Earthrace hit some debris near Palau and is limping toward Singapore for more permanent repairs:

Here’s an update from the captain of the 78-foot racing boat:

Day 34 – 1st June

Having made a swift 3 hours 15 minutes turnaround in Palau, Earthrace encountered some sea debris, which has damaged the port prop. The boat returned to port where the prop was removed and the drive shaft tested. The shaft has been put out of line and will require repair in Singapore. Earthrace left Palau at 0400 local time and will journey to Singapore on one engine. Her reduced speed of 16 kn will still maintain her lead on the current record, and help mitigate any further damage from possible sea debris, which is a known problem in this stretch of water. Ground Crew will arrive in Singapore on Monday 2nd June as planned, and will prepare for the repairs. The weather forecast is good and the revised ETA for Earthrace in Singapore is Friday 6th June. An update will be posted later today.

The Earthrace was 15 days ahead of schedule to break the old record, but this latest setback is putting some doubt as to whether it will get the job done… never mind that the boat and crew is approaching pirate-infested waters.

Follow the Earthrace’s progress at www.earthrace.net.

Biodiesel

More Than Slime is Green at Nickelodeon

John Davis

Nickelodeon, the kids’ network known for dumping copious amounts of green slime on participants of its silly contests, is taking its show on the road. And while it won’t be green slime fueling the “Slime Across America” tour, there will be green fuel in the tank.

This press release from the network says that biodiesel will be helping its 18-wheeler make the 10-city tour across the country:

Nickelodeon’s revamped 18-wheel Slime Mobile has adopted more environmentally friendly practices like using biodiesel fuel and solar panels to power the Slime Mobile Virtual Slime Station. At each stop, recycling will be offered and Nickelodeon and attendees will plant a tree.

Check out Nick.com for a stop near you!

Biodiesel

Green Host Urges Passage of Green Jobs Bill

John Davis

A host of the Discovery Channel’s new “Planet Green” channel, which dedicates itself to earth-friendly causes, has written a pretty good opinion piece, urging the passage of a measure before Congress that will help create jobs in the renewable energy sector.

In the piece on ItsGettingHotinHere.org titled, “Green-Collar Jobs or Rust-Belt Future,” model and environmental scientist (I know, I almost couldn’t believe the title when I wrote it!) Summer Rayne asks people to call their senators and tell them to vote for the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act (iCAP). She answers the question: how will the bill help create jobs?:

Simple, it would create the jobs of the future, new local jobs, jobs that cannot be outsourced—in other words, Green Jobs. And these jobs span the gamut, yet with one important thing in common. From installing solar panels and constructing transit lines to retrofitting buildings for energy-efficiency, reclaiming mine sites, and refining vegetable waste oil into biodiesel, all these jobs benefit the economy and improve our environment.

As a child, I learned first-hand what struggling families go through, growing up in a single-parent household in Northeastern Pennsylvania. For the latter part of my childhood, I was raised by my mom, who armed with no more than a high school degree had to take two jobs and maintain a 14-16 hour workday. We lived paycheck to paycheck and without a refrigerator, phone, or television for quite some time—not by choice, but by necessity. Finally, before I even turned 15, to find a better job that could sustain us and my dream of a college education, she had to make a choice—leave Pennsylvania for greener pastures.

It shouldn’t have to be that way. Pennsylvania and other struggling areas should be a land of opportunity. Much of the U.S. workforce is ideally suited to green-collar work—many are middle-skill jobs that are well within reach for low income workers if they have access to effective training programs and support. Whether it’s learning the new skills needed to become a renewable energy technician or retraining workers for a clean energy economy, i.e., fixing an electric engine, our universities, technical schools, businesses and governments need to lead the way.

Rayne goes on to point out that if the bill passes, there could be $125 million annually for green jobs training, providing 30,000-35,000 jobs that won’t be outsourced to some foreign shore.

Miscellaneous, Opinion

Rural Development Secretary Speaks at CUTC

Chuck Zimmerman

USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas DorrI really enjoyed getting to talk with our USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr, this evening. He was our keynote speaker at the CUTC.

He told corn growers and all the attendees that they’re doing a great job. He also said that there are challenges ahead like the recent Grocery Manufacturers Association attack on ethanol. He says that’s making it difficult to get the facts out to the media.

He points out that we’ve been through substantive increases in demand before like back in the early ’70’s with the Russian grain robbery that led to fears about escalating food prices. He said that no good deed goes unpunished and that we’ve had the good side of the cycle and now we’re going to have to suffer through the other side. He says it’s difficult to fight a well financed opponent that’s less inclined to deal with facts as opposed to dealing with emotion.

Here’s my interview with Sec. Dorr: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ncga/cutc-08-dorr.mp3]

Here’s Sec. Dorr’s Keynote Address: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ncga/cutc-08-dorr-keynote.mp3]

You can find photos from the CUTC here:
CUTC Photo Album

Audio, corn, CUTC, Government

Getting Set Up at the CUTC

Chuck Zimmerman

EPIC Mobile UnitThe fun and games are about to begin here at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. The event is being held at the Marriott in downtown Kansas City and I just got in and connected in the media room. There will be sessions tomorrow dealing with ethanol production so I should have some good stories to post.

In less than an hour we’ll kick things off with a Keynote Speech by USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Tom Dorr. He’ll be introduced by NCGA First Vice President Bob Dickey. Afterward we’ll all head across the street for the opening reception.

On my way to the registration area I saw the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council’s mobile unit parked outside. I’m sure it’s getting ready to go on display since we do have booths and a poster session in a ballroom where the opening reception will be held.

corn, CUTC, News

North Amerian Wind Turbine Giant Increases Power

John Davis

Annual energy production from Brad Foote Gear Works is more than doubling with the purchase of additional advanced gear manufacturing systems. Brad Foote’s purchase from Germany-based Hofler Company amounts to more than $30 million. The company now owns 29 Hofler machines.

With the new equipment, Brad Foote’s annual production will grow from the current equivalent of 2,000 MW of installed wind turbine capacity to more than 5,000 MW.

Brad Foote is the largest producer of wind turbine gears in North America. The new grinding/gashing machines, which are used in manufacturing wind turbine gear systems, will be installed in its two manufacturing facilities in Cicero, Ill. According to Hofler, Brad Foote now has the largest worldwide concentration of Hofler wind turbine gear manufacturing equipment at any one site.

Brad Foote also has purchased the largest Hofler 4-meter internal/external hobber/gasher that Hofler has ever produced.

Brad Foote is a subsidiary of Broadwind Energy.

Energy, Production, Wind

Ethanol Goes for the Big Leagues On and Off the Track

John Davis

The 92nd Indianapolis 500 is one for the record books for Team Ethanol. Driver Ryan Hunter-Reay pilots the IndyCar sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) and just a couple weeks ago he piloted the car to a 6th place finish, the best ever Indy 500 for the team. At one point in the race, Ryan was cruising in 5th with just four of the League’s biggest names in car racing in front of him. Ryan says that’s when he thought, ‘We’re in it now.’ It being the big leagues.

e-podcastThat’s exactly where the ethanol industry’s leading executives consider themselves to be when it comes to fueling the nation. Oil and fossil fuels are big time competitors for ethanol, but a growing criticism of the renewable simply demonstrates the alternative fuel’s mounting success.

The best part? Both Ryan and the ethanol executives think they can take a win.

The podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link) or you can listen to it by clicking here (5:00 MP3 File):
[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/epic-podcast-6-2-08.mp3]

The Fill Up, Feel Good theme music is “Tribute to Joe Satriani” by Alan Renkl, thanks to the Podsafe Music Network.

“Fill up, Feel Good” is sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

Audio, Cellulosic, corn, E85, Energy, EPIC, Ethanol, Fill Up Feel Good, Flex Fuel Vehicles, Indy Racing, News, Racing

Ethanol Push in Paradise

Cindy Zimmerman

Producers and politicians in Hawaii are promoting increased production of ethanol in the Aloha State.

KITV in Honolulu reports that state lawmakers are trying to encourage the production of sugarcane for ethanol on land that is currently not in production. Hawaii is one of only a handful of states that currently requires ethanol to be blended in all gasoline sold, but they have to import that ethanol from the mainland.

Gay Rob Sugar“In Hawaii, so much of our (agriculture) land is lying fallow, and it is not growing anything but weeds, and many people are eying it for other developments — mainly housing projects, and why would we want to encourage that over energy independence or food independence?” House Majority Leader Rep. Kirk Caldwell, D-Hawaii, said.

One company working towards producing ethanol from sugarcane on the islands is Gay and Robinson, which announced a partnership with Pacific West Energy last year to develop Hawaii’s first ethanol plant. Company officials say they still need more financing for the project but they hope to announce a deal soon.

Ethanol, News

Energy Abundance

John Davis

This weekend I visited the RIT/NASA AstroZone exhibit in St. Louis. The free exhibit was offered in conjunction with the 212th meeting of the American Astronomical Society and it offered all kinds of fascinating scientific demonstrations: from seeing yourself in infrared to star-gazing in a portable planetarium to being enveloped in Cosmic Collisions while watching a video a portable dome. I’m not going to lie, the free exhibit was geared towards children but, that’s why I had my little brother and sister in tow.

So what’s all this have to do with domestic fuel? One of the videos that I watched in one of the cool, miniature, omnimax-type domes said that one solar flare releases the same amount of energy as millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs. That’s just too big of a number for me to even grasp. But, it did get me thinking. The U.S. is awaiting an apparent “energy crisis” as oil becomes more scarce and gas prices go up. Yet, just one little burst from the sun emits enough energy to… well, again… I can’t even fathom how much energy millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs means. So it looks like there’s plenty of energy coming from the sun and it doesn’t look like that energy source will “dry up” anytime soon.

My point is, developing alternative ways to harness energy from an abundance of energy out there, yes abundance, is exactly what we should be doing. Whether it be from the sun, from wind, water, or corn and crops. It just makes more sense to start relying on what nature already offers us in plenty instead of continuing to chase after this “oil scarcity.”

corn, Energy, Hydrogen, Solar, Wind

USDA Chief to Defend Biofuels at UN Summit

John Davis

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Shafer is defending biofuels ahead of next week’s United Nations conference that will address the growing world food crisis.

This story in the New York Times says Shafer is taking a stand that biodiesel and ethanol are making a minimum contribution to any price hikes in food worldwide while making a major contribution to extending world energy resources:

Mr. Schafer took the offensive at a press conference on Thursday that discussed the food summit, planned for Rome. He said an analysis by the Agriculture Department had determined that biofuel production was responsible for only 2 to 3 percent of the increase in global food prices, while biofuels had reduced consumption of crude oil by a million barrels a day.

“We think that policy-wise in the United States of America — and certainly in the rest of the world — as we see the price of oil and petroleum escalate dramatically beyond anyone’s imagination, that one of the ways to deal with that is to produce biofuels which are renewables, better for the environment and help lower that cost,” he said.

Mr. Schafer’s remarks came as ethanol and biofuels are coming under increasing criticism from foreign leaders and members of Congress, as grocery prices climb in the developed world and malnutrition and hunger threaten to spread in the poorest nations.

Even a report critical of biodiesel and ethanol… released just hours before Shafer offered his counterpoint… admits that drought has played a major factor in food price hikes, and prices are expected to go down as weather returns to normal.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, International, News