A Green Christmas in Hershey

John Davis

hersheylodge1.jpgThe twinkling Christmas lights glistening off the new fallen white snow this season at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, Pennsylvania will be powered by a green fuel: biodiesel.

This press release from Hershey’s says the lodge is using a local company to turn its old kitchen grease into biodiesel:

Hershey Lodge will use biodiesel made by recycling its used cooking oil from its four restaurants and convention center to power some of its outdoor lighting this holiday season. The outdoor holiday lights at Hershey Lodge are run on a generator; this year that generator will run on its own biodiesel blended with diesel fuel.

Hershey Lodge is working with local attorney Gary Lysaght, who started a small local biodiesel co-op several years ago to produce off-road biodiesel. Lysaght collects the used cooking oil from Hershey Lodge and converts it to biodiesel through a chemical process. The Lysaght Co-op then returns the biodiesel to the Lodge to be blended with diesel fuel and used in generators and other off-road uses.

Company officials point out that not only is the burning of the fuel better for the environment, it will also keep 3,000 gallons of used cooking oil out of the local landfills.

Biodiesel

Google Makes Renewable Energy Commitment

John Davis

googlelogo.gifTo many of us Google is synonymous with Internet searching. Well, Google the company also wants to be known for its green ways.

According to a Google press release, the company has launched a new initiative to develop cheap electricity from renewable sources:

The newly created initiative will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies. [The initiative] is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas. In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. “We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal.”

It looks like Google will use solar and wind energy as a large part of that plan:

Google.org will make strategic investments and grants that demonstrate a path toward producing energy at an unsubsidized cost below that of coal-fired power plants. Google will work with a variety of organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. For example, Google.org is working with two companies that have promising scalable energy technologies:

* eSolar Inc., a Pasadena, CA-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy. eSolar’s technology has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal.

* Makani Power Inc., an Alameda, CA-based company developing high-altitude wind energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources. High-altitude wind energy has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of current global electricity needs.

Miscellaneous, Solar, Wind

Biodiesel Summit to Feature Imperium Chief

John Davis

martintobias.jpgThe Biodiesel Finance & Investment Summit, January 14th-16th, 2008 in New York, NY, will feature Martin Tobias, the president of biodiesel giant Imperium Renewables, as one of three keynote speakers. Joining Tobias will be James W. Eiler, Managing Director, First National Investment Banking and Gene Gebolys, President and CEO of World Energy Alternatives.

The summit’s web site invites those interested to meet “the leading biodiesel developers, investors, lenders and other industry players who are looking to do deals:”

biodieselsummit.jpg * What the financing market will look like in 2008
* What it will take to get deals successfully made in the market
* What opportunities exist for developers, investors, and lenders to become involved in upcoming deals
* How new developments—such as feedstocks, renewable diesel, and carbon credits—will impact future opportunities

The Biodiesel Finance & Investment Summit has established itself as the major gathering place where biodiesel developers, investors, lenders, EPC contractors and others in the biodiesel finance & investment community come to meet, gauge the current pulse of the deal-making market and share their perspectives on what it will take to get biodiesel deals successfully financed in the current market environment.

Get more information on the agenda and registration by clicking here.

Biodiesel

Chocolate Biodiesel Truck Heads to Timbuktu

John Davis

chocolatetruck.jpgA truck that runs on biodiesel made from waste chocolate and that I featured during a post on November 15th has left England for Timbuktu in Africa.

This update from the Environment News Service says the trip is designed to raise public awareness about biofuels and their potential to ease the impact of climate change:

Andy Pag of London and John Grimshaw of Poole have nicknamed their big Ford Iveco Cargo truck the BioTruck. It will carry their chocolate biodisel fuel and two smaller vehicles for crossing the Sahara Desert.

africamap.gifPropelled by the unique biodisel, they expect to take about three weeks to drive the 4,500 miles to Timbuktu from London, planning to make it to Timbuktu on December 16.

They aim to encourage UK motorists to fill up on biofuels. “If we use biodiesel to get to Timbuktu with a standard engine, there’s no reason why people in the UK can’t use it for their commute or school run,” said Pag.

The BioTruck team is attempting the first ever carbon negative driving expedition across the Sahara Desert. To reach this goal, they will use a mix of carbon cutting techniques, including biofuels and carbon offsetting.

As an offset, they intend to deliver a small biodeisel processing unit to a Mali renewable energy charity that specializes in developing enterprise through environmental projects.

The group receiving the biofuels processor is Mali-Folkecenter, MFC, which represents the Danish Folkecenter for Renewable Energy.

The team picked Timbuktu, Mali because of the effects climate change has had on the city as it used to be a port on a river. But now, the river has shifted about 10 miles away, leaving Timbuktu even more isolated in the desert. Members are taking a biodiesel processor to Mali, so the Africans have a chance to be energy independent.

Follow the progress of the expedition by clicking here.

Biodiesel

Illinois Corn Growers Honor Ethanol Promoters

Cindy Zimmerman

Tom Slunecka, former executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) is the recipient of the Illinois Corn Growers Association’s 2007 Ethanol Innovation Award.

Tom Slunecka“It is no secret ethanol production is growing at a record pace, but equally important is the significant increase in public use and acceptance of e10 and e85. Part of what is driving this is a new awareness of ethanol from coast to coast that didn’t exist even two years ago. EPIC, under Tom’s able leadership, has played a major role in this ethanol awakening,” said Steve Ruh, president of ICGA of Sugar Grove.

Slunecka served as executive director of EPIC, a non-profit alliance of ethanol industry leaders, from its formation until he recently accepted a position in the ethanol industry with KL Process and Design Group.

GascityILGA also presented its Ethanol Innovation Award to David M. Christopher, Executive Vice President Finance and Marketing for Gas City, Ltd.

Christopher has been with GasCity since July of 2005 and the company began selling E85 with in a month after he started. Working closely with VeraSun Energy Corp. as an ethanol supplier they began with 10 locations carrying E85. Based on their positive experience this expanded rapidly to 30 stations in suburban Chicago and Northern Indiana.

corn, E85, EPIC, Ethanol, News

Ethanol in the Midwest

John Davis

Washington Group InternationalThe Midwest is getting three new ethanol production plants. Washington Group International has received $150 million worth of cost-reimbursable contracts from E85 Inc. for the construction of E85’s first three ethanol plants in the Midwest region.

E85 Inc.Washington Group will provide procurement, construction, commissioning, and start-up services for the facilities in Wahoo, Neb., and Red Oak and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Each of the facilities will be capable of producing 110 million gallons of ethanol per year. The corn-based ethanol will be blended with unleaded gasoline to create motor fuel, and the plant will produce commercially viable products in corn gluten feed and meal, corn germ, and wet and dry distiller grains with solubles.

Work on the Wahoo plant started in late September; work on the other two plants is planned to begin during the fourth quarter of 2007. A peak construction force of more than 300 is expected at each site. E85 will invest over $750 million in the three facilities.

E85, Ethanol, Facilities, Production

Oregon Biorefinery Looking at $500 M Financing Deal

John Davis

Officials with Inland Pacific Energy Center of Stanfield, Oregon are looking at a $504 million financing deal from an undisclosed European source.

This story from the East Oregonian news web site says the deal will go to finish a 96-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant, 120-million-gallon ethanol plant, and feed mill project:

Bob Doughty, project manager for the Inland Pacific Energy Center, said this week funding for the project is making good progress, but he’s being cautious about this proposal and has obtained some high-powered help to investigate it.

“The proposal is for $504 million in debt financing,” Doughty said. “It is proposed as a typical ‘draw down’ construction loan, which will roll into permanent financing.”

Doughty said he couldn’t disclose the name of the firm because negotiations still are under way on some details.

“I have investigated the proposal as best I can on my own and so far, it looks to be legitimate,” he said.

In addition, Doughty solicited help from Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to have the appropriate federal agencies investigate the firm and its proposal thoroughly.

“This proposal is just what the project needs if it is legitimate and complies with all federal and state regulations,” Doughty wrote Smith Nov. 16. “If it is not legitimate, it will be a disaster.”

When done as projected in 2010, the nearly 500 acre facility will employ up to 600 people.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News

Ethanol Statistics Interviews RFA President

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol StatisticsEthanol Statistics, a Netherlands-based market research and business information publisher, recently went to the expert on ethanol to do a feature about the future of the industry.

Bob DinneenBob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, is much more positive about ethanol in the United States because he knows why consumption has been lagging behind, because he knows what are and what aren’t showstoppers for the industry, and more importantly, because he probably knows more about upcoming legislation than anyone else. In an interview with Ethanol Statistics he ‘announced’: “It will be a busy 12 months with respect to legislation in Washington, I suspect.”

Ethanol Statistics also reports that Dinneen is pretty optimistic that the Senate will get an energy bill done by the end of the year, even though he thinks that “Washington is a dysfunctional place right now, in which it is far more easy to stop legislation than to pass legislation.”

Ethanol, News, RFA

Wind Turbine Factory Opening in Former Maytag Town

John Davis

Newton, Iowa, hit hard by the impending closing of the Maytag Appliance factory, is getting a second life as a company that builds wind turbines moves in.

This article from the Des Moines Register says TPI Composites of Warren, Rhode Island is putting in a 500-employee factory in Newton:

tpi.jpgTPI will begin construction next week on a 316,000-square-foot wind turbine blade factory.

The plant will make blades for General Electric Energy’s 1.5-megawatt wind turbines.

GE Energy says it has 6,500 of the turbines installed, making it one of the most popular units used today.

TPI chief executive Steven Lockard says the company’s facility on 33 acres near a new biodiesel plant in Newton will make turbine blades up to 150 feet long and weighing up to 20,000 pounds.

State and local officials revealed last summer that Newton was in the running for the plant, saying at that time that employment would be about 720 workers. The worker figure has since been scaled back.

The new jobs would help replace the nearly 1,800 positions lost over the past 18 months as operations wind down at the former Maytag headquarters and washer/dryer factory, now owned by Whirlpool Corp. Both facilities are scheduled to close by the end of the year.

In addition, the wind turbines blades will be made right where they are needed most as Iowa and other surrounding states become leaders in the wind energy business.

Wind

CO2 from Coal Burning to Help Grow Biodiesel

John Davis

Two Australian companies are joining forces to use the carbon dioxide from burning coal to grow algae… and then turn that algae into biodiesel.

This article on C|Net.com has more details about this truly green idea:

lincbioclean.jpgLinc Energy and Bio Clean Coal announced the creation of the company last week and said they would spend $1 million over the next year to build a prototype bioreactor.

The bioreactor will be designed to grow algae, using the carbon dioxide produced from processing coal for electricity as “food.” That process should dramatically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, the company said.

The dried algae could be burned for power generation, turned into biodiesel or fertilizer.

A similar project in Arizona had to suspend operations earlier this year when it produced more algae than it could make into biodiesel.

Biodiesel