Major Biodiesel Plant Planned for Maui

John Davis

Maui Electric Co. You can’t enjoy paradise when the skies are filled with smog… that seems to be the idea behind a $61 million biodiesel plant planned in the Hawaiian Islands. The Blue Earth Maui Biodiesel LLC refinery would provide Maui Electric Company with enough biodiesel to run its largest electric plant.
The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports the plant would produce 40 million gallons of biodiesel a year to begin with and would move up to 120 million gallons a year by 2011. It would go to a power plant that produces about 85% of the power for Maui:

Blue Earth biodiesel plant “This is a first step toward allowing Maalaea to generate all of its electricity without fossil fuels,” Maui Electric Co. President Ed Reinhardt said.

“At first there may be little or no savings for Maui rate-bearers,” Reinhardt said. “We believe that by creating a stable fuel source, we will eventually see a rate change accordingly.”

Palm oil as the feedstock would be imported to start, but officials are hopeful local farmers would produce future oils for the refinery.

And another story in the Maui News says Maui Electric Company has already used biodiesel to clear up a problem with too much smoke from a couple of its 12.5-megawatt diesel generators.

Biodiesel

How Soon Cellulosic?

Cindy Zimmerman

Mike Johanns When cellulosic ethanol will become commercially viable is a big question that has many answers.

There are those, for instance, who believe the challenges to making cellulosic commerically viable are too great to be overcome in less than a decade, maybe even two decades.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says, “You get some difference of opinion, but I really do think it’s fair to say that somewhere near the end of this decade, the first part of the next decade, you’ll see it as viable.” Johanns believes that is actually a conservative estimate – he is optimistic that commercial viability will happen sooner.

RFA ConferenceThe question will be a topic at the National Ethanol Conference this week in Tucson, AZ. The answers will be explored during the final panel discussion of the conference on Wednesday by Nathanael Greene, Senior Policy Analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council; Dr. Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee; and Corey Radtke, Idaho National Laboratory scientist.

Follow the proceedings of the conference, which starts Monday, on the National Ethanol Conference blog.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

EPIC Names New Board Members

Cindy Zimmerman

E LogoThe Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has elected several new industry leaders to its Board of Directors.

They are James Redding of Nebraska Energy, LLC; Melissa Ullerich of VeraSun Energy, Aurora; Gary Pestorious, EXOL; Alan Jentz, Amaizing Energy; Revis Stephenson, Advanced BioEnergy; and Kristi Lee, U.S. BioEnergy, Platte Valley. All newly elected board members will serve three-year terms.

Tom BranhanTom Branhan of Glacial Lakes Energy was re-elected as President of the board. “We’ve made tremendous strides in the last year in educating the public about ethanol. We’ll continue those efforts while moving forward with states on our voluntary branding initiatives at the pumps,” said Branhan. “Building demand for ethanol is a focus of our efforts.”

Other officers are James Redding, newly elected as Vice President, and Greg Krissek of Prairie Horizon Agri Energy, re-elected as Secretary/Treasurer. The remainder of the board includes Walter Kittrell of Fagen, Inc.; Dave Vander Griend, Lifeline Foods; and Larry Ward, Broin Companies.

Formed in May of 2005, EPIC now represents nearly half of the nation’s ethanol production facilities in addition to a growing number of companies and organizations that supply and support the ethanol industry.

EPIC, Ethanol, News

Op-Ed: America Safer With Alternative Fuels

Cindy Zimmerman

Here is a great editorial by Mark Bennett of the Terre Haute (Ind) Tribune-Star.

Basically, he summarizes all of the criticisms being thrown at ethanol and says that, as a matter of national security, he’d still rather pay for a home-grown fuel than subsidize Middle Eastern countries.

If self-serving interests in farm states such as Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana drive up the price of corn and, thus, ethanol, we’re not likely to end up in an armed conflict. No amount of economic inefficiency offsets that price.

Bennett also points out the “hidden costs” of sticking with oil because it is “cheaper.”

Americans pay beyond the pump price for gasoline. Those added costs include the human and financial toll from military conflicts, as well as the expense of having to guard international shipping routes, not to mention directly and indirectly subsidizing unsavory governments controlling oil-producing countries.

Many more good points in his op-ed piece – a very good read.

Some Domestic Fuel readers may criticize us for not being more “balanced” in our coverage of mainly ethanol news – in other words, not reporting all the negative stuff. There’s plenty of that out there. We believe strongly that ethanol is part of the solution – not all, just part – and we are not going to criticize it or any other potential solutions to making our country more energy independent.

Ethanol, Opinion

Gearing Up For Fleets in Anaheim

Chuck Zimmerman

Alternative Fuels and Vehicles National Conference & Expo 2007The Alternative Fuels and Vehicles National Conference & Expo 2007 is coming up fast. It’s not too late to get registered though.

To learn more about the event which was previously known as the Clean Cities Congress I interviewed Kimberly Taylor, with the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute that coordinates the event. I saw Kimberly at the recent National Biodiesel Conference. Kimberly says that this year’s conference has a real emphasis on fleets and the fuels and vehicles they can get today.

Listen to my interview with Kimberly here: Listen To MP3 Kimberly Taylor Interview (2 min MP3)

Audio

Minnesota Company Harvesting Power from the Sea

John Davis

INR logo Officials with Independent Natural Resources, Inc., a company based in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, say they have successfuly tested a wave-powered pumping system that will move ocean water to a hydroelectric plant and desalination facility. The Star Tribune reports the company has been working on the project for five years and has tested in off the coast of Freeport, Texas:

Mark Thomas, CEO of Independent Natural Resources Inc., said Friday from Texas that he views the test as a big step forward in the search for what has been an elusive form of alternative energy that one day could generate lots of cheap, clean power for coastal cities.

An engineering team from Texas A&M University at Galveston, which also has done laboratory testing of early stages of the wave-powered “Seadog” pump, plans to visit the Gulf of Mexico site off Freeport to review the project.

INR, Inc Officials
The company believes a one-square-mile field of Seadog pumps (see a demo of it here) could produce up to 1,500 megawatts of hydroelectricity.

Another Seadog test site is planned off the coast of California.

Miscellaneous

Pamplona Buses to Run on Biodiesel

John Davis

Pamplona, Spain is famous for its annual running of the bulls, but the city’s buses might become famous for running on eco-friendly biodiesel. Fifty city buses will run on a 100% biodiesel mixture provided by the Spanish company Acciano. Check out this story from Reuters:

Pamplona biodiesel Acciona will deliver 1.5 million liters of fuel a year, produced from vegetable oil at its plant at Caparrosa, also in northern Spain.

Acciona said the city planned to extend biodiesel use to the whole fleet of 127 buses.

“This is the first case in which 100 percent biodiesel is used by public transport in Spain on a large scale,” it said.

Pamplona was already using 20-30% biodiesel in about 50 city buses.

Biodiesel, International

John Deere Promoting Biodiesel Green

John Davis

John Deere logo John Deere Green might be more than just a highly recognizable color… it could be a way of life for the tractor-making giant. A quick mention on TheHorse.com is directing readers to John Deere’s expanded web site on biodiesel and biofuels information:

John Deere combine “The biodiesel content on the Web site will help provide farmers and others interested in biofuels with more detailed information on this topic and John Deere’s position on how these fuels can most effectively produced and utilized as high-quality energy sources,” said Don Borgman, director of agricultural industry relations for John Deere.

Click here for to see a report and video on biofuels from the John Deere web site.

Of course, John Deere was a recent sponsor of Domestic Fuel’s coverage of the National Biodiesel Conference.

Biodiesel

Cellulosic Ethanol Production Comes to Louisiana

Cindy Zimmerman

A cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant broke ground Friday in Jennings, Louisiana – the first of its kind in the United States.

Massachusettes-based Celunol Corporation also celebrated the grand opening of the nation’s first cellulosic ethanol pilot facility. Celunol officials were joined in the celebrations by dignitaries from federal, state and local government, including Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

Blanco “These two milestones mark a significant step forward for Louisiana and our nation,” said Governor Blanco in a news release. “Cellulosic ethanol represents a new way to pursue the goals of increased energy security and economic development for our rural economy, while protecting the quality of our environment. We congratulate Celunol and its partners on these milestones, and look forward to the growth of this promising new industry here in Louisiana.”

Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen also congratulated the company on the accomplishment.

“To achieve the goals for renewable fuel use put forth by President Bush and Members of Congress, it will take the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol technology,” said Dinneen. “That commercialization took a big step forward today.”

When completed, the combined facilities will have the capacity to produce nearly 1.5 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year.

With a nominal production of 50,000 gallons per year, the pilot facility will further refine technology to convert biomass such as sugarcane bagasse, wood chips and other abundant biomass sources into ethanol. The demonstration facility will use locally-grown energy cane and sugarcane bagasse in ethanol production.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

New York Becoming the Windy State

John Davis

Chicago might be known as the Windy City (actually dubbed for the city’s talkative politicians), but New York State seems to be putting nature’s wind to good use. RenewableEnergyAccess.com reports that 9,300 customers of New York State Electric & Gas… better known as NYSEG… and another 3,000 customers of Rochester Gas & Electric… RG&E… have signed up to get wind-produced energy since the two subsidiaries of Energy East Corporation started offering the program a few years ago:

NYSEG Wind Chart “The wind energy programs at NYSEG and RG&E are a natural fit with our commitment to do all that we can to protect the environment,” said Jim Laurito, president and CEO of NYSEG and RG&E. “We are pleased to be able to offer this environmentally friendly, renewable energy option to our customers.”

NYSEG customers are projected to consume 33.3 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind energy this year. In 2007, users of RG&E should use about 19.5 million kWh.

Wind