USDA Helping With Rural Development

Chuck Zimmerman

Allan JohnsonUSDA’s Rural Development department has been involved in assisting rural communities in a number of project areas over the years. One of them is the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

At the recent Cattle Industry Convention, I met with and interviewed Allan Johnson, USDA Rural Development, Senior Advisor. The conversation turned to renewable energy right away since ethanol was a big topic of discussion among livestock producers attending the meeting. Allan talks about the ways USDA has assisted rural communities in this area, like funding feasibility studies.

He didn’t have the statistics at hand, but I obtained some from USDA that include the following:

More than $428.1 million in renewable energy and energy efficient ventures, including $304.9 million in Value-Added and Business Ventures involving wind power, anaerobic digesters, solar, ethanol plants, direct combustion and fuel pellet systems and other bioenergy and energy efficiency related systems. And $58.2 million in Biomass research and development grants and $119 million in renewable Electric Utility upgrades and expansions.

You can listen to my interview with Allen here: Listen to MP3 File Allan Johnson Interview (6 min MP3)

Audio, Government

Great Smoky Mountains Going Green

John Davis

Great Smoky Mountains Natl Park
National Park Service diesel vehicles on the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be filling up with 50% biodiesel. This story in the Haywood County (NC) News says the biodiesel will go into about two dozen vehicles that burn 12,000 gallons a year:

“This biodiesel refueling project will help us achieve our long-term goal of stabilizing or improving air quality in the park,” said Dale Ditmanson, Park Superintendent. “We also see it as a great opportunity to lead by example as we host local school groups and millions of visitors from all across the country and world.”

The change is made possible through a couple of grants… one from the Clean Fuel Advanced Technology Project, managed by the North Carolina Solar Center and North Carolina State University… and one from specialty license plates in the state.

Biodiesel, Government

A Greener Grocer

John Davis

Safeway logo Grocery-giant Safeway is test-marketing 20% biodiesel at one of its Seattle stores. Check out this story on MSNBC.com:

Cherie Myers, a regional Safeway spokeswoman, said the company saw the environmentally conscious Northwest as a good place to test biodiesel’s commercial viability.

“This was our first step. Now we’re going to see how the consumer will respond to this,” Myers said.

Imperium Renewables Seattle might be considered a natural fit for the test. You might remember our earlier posts talking about Seattle-based Imperium Renewables and how it secured a record $214 million in investments and how Imperium is the largest producer of biodiesel on the west coast and could soon be the biggest refiner in the country.

Safeway officials say customers have been buying the biodiesel without any kind of promotion or special. The California-based grocer has 270 stores nationwide, so the potential could be huge.

Biodiesel

President Bush Promotes Ethanol Enzyme Technology

Cindy Zimmerman

Bush and EthanolPresident Bush paid a visit Thursday to Novozymes North America Inc., a company which is researching enzymes to be used to produce cellulosic ethanol.

The president toured the company’s Franklinton, North Carolina laboratories and talked with researchers about the technology needed to make wood chips and other biomass into fuel on a commerically viable basis. At one point, Bush held up a beaker of ethanol, sniffed it and joked, “I quit drinking in 1986.”

Outside, the president posed with officials from Novozymes in front of the Team Ethanol IndyCar show car. AP reports that he “leaned down and fiddled with the wheel a couple times, but didn’t climb down into the tiny driver’s seat.”

Bush and IndyCarThe main event was a panel discussion on cellulosic ethanol with company representatives and North Carolina political officials including Senator Richard Burr, Congressman G.K. Butterfield and Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. Novozymes representatives included Steen Riisgaard, President and CEO of the Denmark-based company, and Thomas Nagy who is president of the North Carolina facility.

Nagy explained what they do at Novozymes. “We make enzymes. And enzymes is sort of like the key component you need to have when you convert starch or the corn to sugar that you can then make to alcohol or the ethanol,” he said. “But also, it’s got to be the key component when you want to make your switchgrass or your biomass to sugar and then to ethanol.”

Bush at Novozymes Bush noted the importance of this research to being able to produce ethanol from something other than corn.

“The problem is we got a lot of hog growers around the United States and a lot of them here in North Carolina who are beginning to feel the pinch as a result of high corn prices,” he said. “A lot of the cattle people around the United States — I have got a few of them in my home state of Texas — they’re worried about high corn prices affecting their making a livelihood. In other words, the demand for corn, because of agricultural use, and now energy use, is causing corn prices to go up.”

For the country to reach the goal of reducing gasoline use by 20 percent within ten years, Bush says we need to develop the new technologies necessary “to make ethanol from wood chips, or stalk grass, or agricultural waste.”

The entire text of the president’s round table discussion can be found on the White House website.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

Green Lawns Through Green Fuel

John Davis

Just a month until the first day of spring, and I’m sure after the kind of winter much of the country has seen, many people are REALLY looking forward to even some of the springtime chores such as mowing the lawn. The folks at Toro want to make that process a little greener.Toro logo

This article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says the Bloomington, MN-based company is introducing a line of mowers that run on biodiesel at the Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, California:

Two dozen models of Toro’s new biodiesel ground equipment will be on display at the world’s largest golf show, as will Toro’s new diesel-to-biodiesel conversion kits that range from about $30 to $500. The kits will hit the market in June. Toro’s new turf equipment will be delivered to commercial customers in 2008, officials said.

The mowers will run on 20% biodiesel, and there are plans in the works to have some equipment run on 100% biodiesel by the year 2009.

The company is also working on some prototype utility vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells.

Biodiesel, Hydrogen

West Coast Biodiesel Giant Nabs Big Investments

John Davis

Imperium1.gif Seattle-based Imperium Renewables has announced it has secured $214 million in investments… possibly a record for biodiesel makers in the U.S. and reflecting a trend in more money going into the renewable fuel.

From an Imperium Renewables press release:

Imperium Renewables, Inc. today announced it has closed its Series B round with $113million of private equity and has mandated Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking to act as sole book-runner and lead arranger of a $101 million Senior Secured Credit Facility.

The company, one of the largest biodiesel producers on the West Coast, will operate the nations largest biodiesel plant when its Port of Grays Harbor facility opens this July. With this investment, the company will continue its plans to open additional facilities around the world, including Hawaii, the Northeast United States and internationally.

All of the Imperium facilities are expected to produce a total of 400 million gallons of biodiesel a year by the end of 2008.

A reported $2.6 billion in investments were sunk into biodiesel in 2006… an increase of nearly 80% from 2005.

Biodiesel

Johanns to Keynote Biofuels Investment Seminar

Cindy Zimmerman

Mike Johanns Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns will be the keynote speaker at a symposium next month on biofuels investments.

“Biomass and Biorefinery Deals 2007” will bring leading government officials, developers, equity and venture financiers, and technology providers together to discuss how to best accelerate the implementation of emerging biomass and biorefinery technology and optimize the revenue flows for projects.

The symposium will be held March 26-28 at AED Conference Center in Washington DC. More information can be found here.

Biodiesel, conferences, Ethanol

FCStone to Serve as Market Maker for CBOT Ethanol Futures

Cindy Zimmerman

CBOT The Chicago Board of Trade has announced that FCStone has become an electronic market maker for the CBOT’s Ethanol futures contract.

According to a CBOT release, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Robert D. Ray said, “FCStone brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the CBOT’s Ethanol complex, which we believe has become the benchmark for domestic ethanol prices. Ethanol processors and investors have already noted the improved liquidity that FCStone has brought to our market, and we are committed to working with FCStone and the rest of the biofuels industry to create

FCStone is a broad-based commodity risk management and trading company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa.

Ethanol, News

Developing More Crops For Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Ceres The head of energy crop company Ceres told the National Academy of Sciences this week that biotechnology-based innovations across the biofuels production chain will bring the cost of a new generation of cellulosic biofuels down significantly, while vastly increasing supply.

According to a company release, Ceres president and CEO Richard Hamilton said, “Biofuels produced from dedicated energy crops will be able to compete economically with gasoline, but the industry will need support early on to get the first several cellulosic biorefineries built.”

Hamiliton made a presentation to the academy’s Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

Ethanol Track Talk

Cindy Zimmerman

Nascar General Motors has been actively encouraging NASCAR to make the switch to ethanol for some time now, especially since the IndyCar Series has now gone to 100 percent ethanol and the American LeMans Series has adopted a 10 percent blend.

The Associated Press reports there is more talk on the track this year about switching to ethanol.

“Without a doubt, I think we should look into it,” driver Jeff Burton said. “Although our impact on environmental issues is probably very, very small from an actual use standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, we could have a major impact.”

Driver Kyle Petty says NASCAR’s marketing horsepower might drive alternative fuels into the mainstream, helping consumers get over the image of hippies tinkering with their 1980s Mercedes to make them run on vegetable oil. “I think once you start seeing alternative fuels show up in places like racing and places where you least expect them, then you don’t think about that guy with the Volkswagen van that runs off of whatever,” Petty said.

Ethanol, News, Racing