DOE Awards New Biorefinery Grants

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded grants for three small-scale biorefinery projects this week in Maine, Tennessee and Kentucky.

In announcing the grants, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said, “These projects will help pioneer the next generation of non-food based biofuels that will power our cars and trucks and help meet President Bush’s goal to stop greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025.”

AlltechAmong the projects is a grant of up to $30 million to help pay for a $70 million cellulosic ethanol plant to be built in Springfield, Kentucky.

The plant will be built by Ecofin LLC, a subsidiary of Alltech, an international company headquartered in Lexington that is primarily focused on animal nutrition. The plant will utilize cellulose, such as switch grass, corn cobs and corn stover, at raw material levels of up to 30 percent to be converted to ethanol and other value-added products. The facility will also have the capability to produce algae for biodiesel production.

Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech, said in a statement, “With commodity prices reaching an all time high and with ethanol production forecast to account for 30 percent of the U.S. corn harvest by 2010 we must focus our attention on a sustainable path to alternative energies.”

MascomaMascoma Corporation of Massachusetts received a grant of up to $26 million for a proposed plant to be located in Monroe County, Tennessee. The facility is scheduled to come online in 2009 and will utilize Tennessee grown switchgrass as a primary feedstock.

The third funded project is up to $30 million for RSE Pulp & Chemical of Old Town, Maine to produce cellulosic ethanol from wood.

Biodiesel, biomass, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Government, News

Ethanol Helps Prevent Higher Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

RFAEthanol production is actually helping keep food and fuel prices lower than they would be, notes the Renewable Fuels Association, citing recent news reports.

OilWithout the expansion of biofuel production and use in the US, Brazil and elsewhere, world oil demand would increase and so would the price. Merrill Lynch analyst Francisco Blanch told the Wall Street Journal that world oil prices would be 15% higher. At today’s record prices, that would equate to $132 per barrel of oil.

That may be why Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted Saturday as saying crude oil prices at $115 a barrel are too low.

According to the Associated Press, the Web site of Iran’s state-run television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, “The oil price of $115 a barrel in today’s global markets is a deceiving figure. Oil is a strategic commodity that needs to discover its real value.”

Ethanol, News, RFA

POET Opens Second Indiana Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

The grand opening of POET’s 23rd ethanol production facility was a grand event in Alexandria, Indiana on Thursday.

Becky SkillmanPOET Biorefining – Alexandria is the company’s second plant in the state of Indiana and Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman told the crowd on hand for the official ribbon cutting that the new plant further strengthens Indiana as a national leader in the production of biofuels. “Governor Daniels and I congratulate POET on the grand opening of their second plant in our state,” said Skillman. “This plant will stimulate our agriculture industry, create new jobs to Madison County residents and provide a clean and home-grown fuel to Hoosiers.”

Poet Alexandria Ribbon CuttingIndiana Corn Marketing Council executive director Chris Novak says the new plant “represents the many positives that a robust biofuels industry can bring to our state, including a new market for area corn farmers, new jobs, a cleaner environment and less dependence on foreign oil.” The plant will utilize 22 million bushels of corn from the area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of distillers grains per year.

According to POET officials, the plant is equipped with technology that decreases its environmental footprint, including a process that eliminates the need for heat in the cooking process of producing ethanol, reducing energy usage by 8-15 percent in comparison with conventional plants. It will also be outfitted with a regenerative thermal oxidizer that eliminates up to 99.9 percent of air emissions.

POET Biorefining – Alexandria is the second of three ethanol production facilities POET will open in Indiana. A production facility near North Manchester, Ind. will begin production in the fourth quarter of this year.

More pictures and links to stories about the grand opening can be found on Rhapsody in Green.

Ethanol, Facilities, News

Canada’s Largest Biofuels Plant on Drawing Board

John Davis

canadiangreenfuels.jpgA $50 million project could help one of Canada’s biggest biofuels producers build the largest biofuels facility north of the border.

Biomass Magazine reports that Canadian Green Fuels Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Shenher recently announced the investment that includes building a new plant and upgrading the current Canadian Green Fuels plant in Regina, Saskatchewan:

“We expect these plants to have the capacity to produce 240 million liters (63 MMgy) of biofuel products a year and be considered a “green” plant, as all aspects of the plant and waste products are used to create revenue,” Shenher said, adding total revenue from the two plants could bring potential revenues of approximately $300 million per year.

The new plant, which is expected to produce approximately 52 MMgy (200 million liters), will run on energy it creates and is expected to produce biodiesel, biofuels, bio-oil, and bio-additives. The plant will crush 1,200 metric tons daily, and operate equipment that can crush any oil seed.

Shenher adds that putting together Canada’s largest oil seed crushing facilities with the biggest biofuel processing and production system will make it a world-class facility.

Biodiesel

Algal Biodiesel Proves Worth in Cold Weather

John Davis

solazyme-logo.gifBiodiesel made from algae is proving it can stand up to the cold weather… a key to wider acceptance of the REALLY green fuel.

This story from Emerging Energy News says that Soladiesel, made by Solazyme, was tested at the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), requested by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD):

“The DoD’s requested testing of the Soladiesel fuel showed superior performance especially in terms of its cold temperature properties,” said Solazyme Inc.’s CEO Jonathan Wolfson.

“Greater performance in cold temperatures means our biodiesel and other algae-based fuels could help the military in remote northern locations like Alaska and North Dakota, as well as in hot climates, while reducing dependence on petroleum,” he said.

Algal diesel was used to power an unmodified Ford F450 driven by a former U.S. military officer at the 2008 DESC Worldwide Energy Conference in Arlington.

R. James Woolsey, former director of central Intelligence and under -secretary of the navy, claimed the test drive showed algae can be tapped to enable the U.S. to grow its own military fuels in the country.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel’s Part in Earth Day

John Davis

earthday.jpgAs we approach Earth Day, 2008… Tuesday, April 22nd… the National Biodiesel Board is reminding everyone how biodiesel is part of green efforts for the world.

In a press release, the NBB points out that biodiesel reduces emissions, adds green jobs to the economy, reduces dependence on foreign oil and increases feed and food supplies, while lowering their costs:

“Some have inaccurately portrayed the environmental impact of biodiesel,” said Emily Bockian Landsburg of Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel and Chair of the National Biodiesel Board’s Sustainability Task Force. “The facts are clear. An overwhelming body of data demonstrates that biodiesel has substantial carbon benefits and the best ratio of energy input to energy output of any liquid fuel. Biodiesel is already one of the most environmentally friendly fuels available, and as an industry we’re going even further, continually increasing those environmental benefits.”

Biodiesel also has a 78 percent life cycle carbon dioxide reduction, according to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy. This takes into account everything from planting the soybeans – for soy-based biodiesel – to delivering biodiesel to the pump. The use of biodiesel also substantially reduces unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter. In 2007 alone, biodiesel’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was the equivalent of removing 700,000 passenger vehicles from America’s roadways.

Landsburg also notes that biodiesel producers are also finding more non-food sources for feedstocks for the green fuel, helping put to rest the food vs. fuel debate.

So if you want to save the world, start with what you put into your gas tank.

Biodiesel

Maine, the Saudi Arabia of Wind

John Davis

king.jpgA former governor of Maine is calling on his state to invest in a major wind power plant off the coast of the northeastern state.

In a story in the Boston Herald, former Maine Governor Angus King told a group at Bowdoin College that Maine should start a $15-billion network of offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine over the next 10 years:

A “wind ranch” of 1,000 turbines placed 26 miles offshore could provide all of Maine’s electricity as well as heat for its homes, he said.

“The Gulf of Maine is the Saudi Arabia of wind,” King said. “There is nothing I’ve come across that has the large potential this has. We need to be thinking big about this.”

King, who is now working on two conventional wind farm proposals in western Maine, didn’t say how such a project would be paid for, except that it would take both private and government funding.

The cost won’t look so daunting in 10 or 12 years, he said, as oil and gas prices triple. Oil prices could realistically rise to $300 a barrel in 2020, he said, up from the current price of just over $110 a barrel.

“Filling up your (car’s gas) tank will be $200. To fill up the (heating oil) tank in your basement with oil _ $2,000.” Maine, with its cold winters, will be uninhabitable, he said.

Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, says the idea has a lot of merit… although he says land-based wind farms are probably closer to reality. But he says he have to think big in these days of $115-a-barrel oil.

Wind

Brazilian President Jumps into Food vs. Fuel Debate

John Davis

lula.jpgAfter a week of criticism of biofuels that included the U.N. special rapporteur for the right to food, Jean Ziegler calling biofuels a “crime against humanity” and protests in Brazil and Europe, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is defending his country’s right to produce biofuels.

This Reuters story has more information:

“Don’t tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn’t prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat,” Lula told reporters.

“We want to discuss this not with passion but rationality and not from the European point of view.”

Critics say the increased production of crops for ethanol and biodiesel, which is derived from oil seeds, competes with for land with food crops.

Brazil has repeatedly argued that it has plenty of unused land to plant crops for biofuels and that current production was still too small to affect food prices.

Lula also took exception with Ziegler’s characterization of biofuels as a “crime against humanity”:

“The real crime against humanity is to discredit biofuels a priori and condemn food-starved and energy-starved countries to dependence and insecurity,” Lula said at a conference of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Brasilia.

Some of Brazil’s neighbors, led by oil-rich Venezuela, warned this week that biofuels could increase malnutrition in Latin America.

Lula said he was “shocked” that biofuel critics failed to mention the impact that high oil prices had on food production costs, such fertilizers. “It’s always easier to hide economic and political interests behind supposed social and environmental interests,” he said.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

NBB Applauds Bush’s Greenhouse Gas Plan

John Davis

nbb-logo.jpgThe National Biodiesel Board is applauding President Bush’s plan to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gases by 2025.

In this release from the NBB, the group says biodiesel will be a key part of the plan:

joe-jobethumbnail.jpg“Biodiesel not only reduces our dependence on foreign oil, it is a valuable tool in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe. “Biodiesel significantly reduces carbon emissions when compared to conventional diesel fuel, and the biodiesel industry looks forward to constructively working with policymakers from both sides of the aisle to meet our shared goal of addressing climate change.”

The overwhelming body of data demonstrates the environmental benefits of biodiesel. For every unit of energy it takes to make domestic biodiesel, 3.5 units are gained. The fuel also reduces lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions by 78%. In 2007 alone, biodiesel’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was the equivalent of removing 700,000 passenger vehicles from America’s roadways. Lastly, the biodiesel industry fully expects to meet the 50% greenhouse gas reduction requirement for biomass-based diesel under the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

The group points out that hundreds of government and private diesel fleets are already employing the green fuel, while consumers are finding more and more places to buy biodiesel every day… up to more than 1,300 retail outlets today.

Biodiesel, Government

Bush: Stop Greenhouse Gas Growth by 2025, Biofuels Part of Plan

John Davis

bushclimate.jpgPresident George W. Bush announced today his initiative to curb greenhouse growth in the United States. And according to this White House press release, ethanol and biodiesel are part of the plan:

[T]he United States has launched — and the G8 has embraced — a new process that brings together the countries responsible for most of the world’s emissions. We’re working toward a climate agreement that includes the meaningful participation of every major economy — and gives none a free ride.

In support of this process, and based on technology advances and strong new policy, it is now time for the U.S. to look beyond 2012 and to take the next step. We’ve shown that we can slow emissions growth. Today, I’m announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

To reach this goal, we will pursue an economy-wide strategy that builds on the solid foundation that we have in place. As part of this strategy, we worked with Congress to pass energy legislation that specifies a new fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, and requires fuel producers to supply at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022. This should provide an incentive for shifting to a new generation of fuels like cellulosic ethanol that will reduce concerns about food prices and the environment.

Bush added that in partnership with the private sector, the United States has invested billions of dollars in research and development for commercially viable renewable fuels, hydrogen fuel cells, advanced batteries, and other technologies for the next generation of renewable energy-powered vehicles. He says new incentives will be needed to sustain that growth in renewable energy technologies in order to meet that goal of stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, News