Ethanol and the Indy Racing League will be in the spotlight at the National Agricultural Center & Hall of Fame 2007 Annual Meeting Thursday in Bonner Springs, KS.
Featured speaker for the “Farm-Fueled” event is Tom Slunecka, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion & Information Council. The event will also set the stage for the Kansas Lottery 300 scheduled for this Sunday at the Kansas Speedway, which will be run for the first time on 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont, is teaming up with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) in an effort to educate consumers on the benefits of ethanol-enriched fuel. The effort includes funding for ethanol promotion and education programs.
According to Pioneer officials, the investment from Pioneer includes a sponsorship of Team Ethanol in the IndyCar® Series for the 2007 season.
“Ethanol is a factor in the effort to reduce our nation’s reliance on petroleum,” says Dean Oestreich, Pioneer president and DuPont vice president and general manager. “EPIC has already helped to significantly raise awareness about the benefits of biofuels, and we are proud to be joining forces with them to continue their efforts to promote ethanol.
“EPIC’s efforts, combined with our commitment to develop traits and technologies that help increase harvestable yield and ethanol production per acre, are helping create a promising future for biofuels,” says Oestreich.
A New Zealand technology company has secured $3.5 million in private venture capital to develop ethanol from carbon monoxide.
LanzaTech is getting the funding from Khosla Ventures and two existing New Zealand-based investors.
According to a news release, this funding will support further technology development, establishing a pilot plant, engineering work to prepare for commercial-scale ethanol production and positions the company to raise significant capital in the near future.
This technology could produce 50 billion gallons of ethanol from the world’s steel mills alone, turning the liability of carbon emissions into valuable fuels worth over $50 billion per year at very low costs and adding substantial value to the steel industry.
International investment and advisory firm Babcock & Brown has finalized plans to acquire Iroquois Bio-Energy Company of Rensselaer, Indiana. This is the Australian firm’s fourth investment in the US ethanol industry.
In January 2006, Babcock & Brown Environmental Investments completed the acquisition of Diversified Energy Company, whose primary asset is a 25 mgpy facility in Morris, Minnesota. Babcock & Brown also has two plants under construction: a 100 mgpy facility in Hennepin, Illinois and a 50 mgpy facility in Necedah, Wisconsin.
If the Iowa Utilities Board approves it, an expansion by a major wind energy producer in Iowa will nearly double that state’s wind power generation capacity.
According to this story on RenewableEnergyAccess.com, MidAmerican Energy wants to add 540 megawatts of wind energy production.
“In addition to the environmental benefit of adding new wind energy production in Iowa, customers of MidAmerican Energy will continue to benefit from electric rate stability,” said Greg Abel, president of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company.
MidAmerican currently runs 323 wind turbines at three sites in northwest, north central and west central Iowa, generating 459.5 MW of electricity. That’s enough power for about 144,000 homes.
“Iowa has become a national leader in wind energy not through mandates, but by offering incentives and utilizing a cooperative approach involving utilities, lawmakers, regulators, equipment manufacturers and even schools,” said Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs. “This is one more major voluntary project that will help Iowa maintain its leadership position on renewable energy.”
Iowa Governor Chet Culver wants to see the amount of wind energy in his state double again to more than 2000 MW.
New Mexico is the latest state to adopt a biodiesel standard as Governor Bill Richardson signed into law a measure that requires all diesel sold in the state to have at least a five percent blend by 2012. State vehicles would have to use 5% biodiesel by 2010.
According to this story in Land Line Magazine, several other states have similar bills pending:
Among the states where lawmakers have taken up similar standards is Missouri. The state Senate approved a bill that would require all diesel fuel sold at retail in the state to be a biodiesel blend.
Sponsored by Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, the bill – SB204 – would require at least 5-percent biodiesel at the pumps by April 2009.
The Oregon House also is on the biodiesel bandwagon. The chamber approved a bill that includes a requirement that at least a 2-percent biodiesel blend be offered as soon as state production of biodiesel reaches 5 million gallons per year. A 5-percent biodiesel blend would be required when production reaches 15 million gallons per year.
San Francisco becomes the largest city in the nation to switch to a 20% biodiesel blend for all of its city vehicles. This comes as the area’s first public biodiesel pumps open (see my post from April 19th). Check out this release from the National Biodiesel Board:
“Every city bears responsibility for taking local action to address our global climate crisis, and vehicle emissions are a major source of greenhouse gases,” said Mayor Newsom. “When it comes to the use of alternative fuels, renewable energy sources and greening our city fleet, San Francisco is demonstrating leadership and commitment on every front.”
“The city of San Francisco departments have announced various strategies using biodiesel to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases, and to use local resources to produce biofuels,” said Randall von Wedel, a biochemist representing the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) in state regulatory affairs, based in the San Francisco area. “We are grateful to Mayor Newsom for his initiative,” said von Wedel, “and we hope that San Francisco will serve as a model for other large cities on how to make a difference in reducing air pollution, greenhouse gases and dependence on petroleum fuel.”
City officials also announced their “Biofuel Recycling Program,” today. Under the program, waste grease and cooking oil will be collected from area restaurants. Biodiesel plants in the area will turn the separated cooking oils into biodiesel, and the grease will be made into methane gas to power electric generators for San Francisco.
The vice chairman of General Motors says converting automobiles to ethanol is “entirely realistic.”
Forbes reports that GM’s Bob Lutz spoke at an automotive conference in Louisville on Monday and said that instead of being satisfied with incremental change, the country should make it a priority to replace fossil fuel with renewable energy in “huge chunks.”
Lutz said that ethanol could become a major energy component within a few years if energy policy becomes the top national priority – similar to the “Manhattan Project” in which scientists designed and assembled the first atomic weapons.
“I think a timeframe like five years looks entirely realistic,” Lutz said.
Scientists have used an SDSC supercomputer to help improve cellulose conversion to ethanol.
Their “virtual molecules” show how the enzyme complex may change shape to straddle a broken cellulose chain, gaining a crucial foothold to digest cellulose into sugar molecules, which can then be fermented into ethanol.
A team of scientists has conducted molecular simulations at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), based at UC San Diego. By using “virtual molecules,” they have discovered key steps in the intricate dance in which the enzyme acts as a molecular machine — attaching to bundles of cellulose, pulling up a single strand of sugar, and putting it onto a molecular conveyor belt where it is chopped into smaller sugar pieces.
Image courtesy of Ross Walker and Amit Chourasia, SDSC and Michael Crowley and Mark Nimlos, NREL.
Top international experts meeting in Rome last week agreed that bioenergy could be a positive force for rural development
According to a news release from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) it was the first time that experts in bioenergy, food security and the environment came together to discuss the environmental and food security impact of the rapidly-expanding bioenergy industry.
Alexander Müller, head of FAO’s Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, said, ‘While there is legitimate concern among some groups that bioenergy could compromise food security and cause environmental damage, it can also be an important tool for improving the well-being of rural people if governments take into account environmental and food security concerns.”
During the meeting, Luiz Augusto Horta Nogueira is Professor at the ‘Universidade Federal de Itajubá’, Brazil said some crops are more productive than others when it comes to making ethanol and biodiesel.
“The conflict between food and fuel should be evaluated under this point of view,” he said. “If you are considering the good options you have in wet, tropical countries this conflict is not so serious.” He says that sugarcane for ethanol and palm oil for biodiesel are more efficient than corn and soybeans.
Listen to interview here: 
FAO Energy 1 (2 min MP3)
Seth Shames, Policy Program Manager of the Washington-based Ecoagriculture Partners says bioenergy could have great benefits for small farmers in countries such as Africa and Central America.
“We’re excited about potentials for growing biofuel crops, trees or even perennial grasses in the future, which could be used by small farmers for their own energy needs to integrate in the food landscape also so they don’t have to make this trade-off and also increases livelihood options for them,” he said.
Listen to interview here: FAO Energy (2 min MP3)
