The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the awarding of grants to fund six cellulosic ethanol projects nationwide.
Among them is Broin Companies’ $200 million expansion of a conventional corn dry mill facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa into a bio-refinery that will include production of cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs, according to a Broin release.
Energy Secretary Samual Bodman made the announcement this morning, stating that “Broin will play a critical role in helping to bring cellulosic ethanol to market, and teaching us how we can produce it in a more cost effective manner.”
Jeff Broin, CEO of Broin Companies was with Bodman in Washington when the announcement was made. “Our goal is to bring cellulosic ethanol to commercial viability by the end of the decade in order to reduce global warming, revitalize the rural economy and lessen our country’s dependency on foreign oil,” said Broin. “This partnership with the Department of Energy, along with the collaboration of companies like DuPont and Novozymes and the farmers around Emmetsburg, Iowa, will allow us to achieve significant progress toward these goals.”
Known as Project LIBERTY, the expansion will utilize an existing infrastructure with projected costs for the increased capabilities at just over $200 million dollars. The expansion will take approximately 30 months and is slated to begin as soon as the terms of the agreement with the DOE are finalized.
Project LIBERTY, which stands for Launch of an Integrated Bio-refinery with Eco-sustainable and Renewable Technologies in Y2009, will provide deliverables that include 11 percent more ethanol from a bushel of corn and 27 percent more ethanol from an acre of corn, while consuming 24 percent less water and using 83 percent fewer fossil fuels than what is needed to operate a corn to ethanol plant.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Petrus said after the vote. “It shows Arkansas is serious about doing this.”
Fulton, Missouri… home of Westminster College, which is home of Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech… could soon be home to Missouri’s newest biodiesel plant. The city’s council has approved a plan to have a 10-million-gallon-a-year refinery on a parcel of land owned by the city.
Cherry says it is a precision-timed catalytic glow plug, which he calls a “Smart Plug,” with several international patents pending that makes the unusual mix of fuel and water possible. In fact, he says the engines have more torque and horsepower, they run cooler, have lower emissions, and of course, ethanol and biodiesel are easier to produce and easier on the environment. 
Cherry recently hit the road with his water and ethanol and diesel powered vehicles and stopped in South Dakota to show off his new technology. He says most people were excited about his invention. “Comments like ‘Wow!’ or ‘This does better than my truck!’ ” Cherry says people were also impressed with the acceleration and the actually pleasant aroma from the exhaust. And he adds, despite some bitterly cold temperatures when he was in South Dakota, there was no danger of the water-ethanol mixture freezing since it has a slush point of 100 degrees below zero.
Top state officials will keynote the 
Brueggeman said biodiesel fuels can be made from oils derived from Montana’s farm crops. By using these homegrown, renewable energy resources, he said, Montana could help curb the country’s dependency on foreign oil. 
In what might seem like a bit of an ironic twist, oil giant Chevron is getting into the biodiesel business. The California-based company has a 22% share of a 20-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel refinery set to open next month in oil-central Galveston. The 
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s latest 
A day after getting a close-up look at a 100 percent ethanol-powered IndyCar, President Bush checked out the battery-powered options on the White House South Lawn, calling on Congress to fully fund his budget request for alternative sources of energy.