Biodiesel Giant REG Says ‘No’ to Crude Oil at Port

John Davis

REGBiodiesel giant Renewable Energy Group (REG) doesn’t want to ship crude oil through its new port and plant in Washington state. This article from the Seattle Times says the Iowa-based company is leaving crude oil out of its plans for the mammoth Grays Harbor biodiesel plant REG bought last summer from Imperium Renewables.

The document was filed in late November, as comment on a draft environmental impact statement. A REG spokesman on Wednesday confirmed the decision.

Imperium’s original bid to ship crude came amidst a tough market for the renewable fuels that had originally inspired the facility’s construction in 2007. The biofuel frenzy was soon overwhelmed by the financial crisis, and later sidelined by growing production of domestic oil in the U.S. interior.

A significant amount of that crude, produced in North Dakota, has been finding its way to the Pacific Northwest, carried by train.

It’s used by refineries here, but Pacific Northwest ports are also an ideal spot to ship the crude to refineries in Alaska and California — or even abroad, now that the U.S. has reauthorized domestic crude exports for the first time since the 1970s.Imperium sought to jump on that bandwagon before it was sold.

“We are pleased that REG has listened to the people and made this decision. Now we need to continue our fight to convince the other proponents that it is time to follow this lead and abandon their risky projects to bring crude oil to Grays Harbor,” said R.D. Grunbaum, a member of the Stand Up To Oil campaign and Citizens for Clean Harbor, in a press statement.

Biodiesel, REG

Ethanol Industry Responds to API’s State of Energy

Joanna Schroeder

Yesterday American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Jack Gerard delivered the 2016 State of American Energy Address. During the presentation he made remarks about the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), federal energy legislation that API has been a vocal opponent of since it’s inception in 2007.

API Jack Gerard,jpgCiting impediment of environmental improvement and cost to consumer Gerard remarked, “For example, ignoring clear consumer preference and in spite of the current record levels of domestic crude oil production, EPA continues to push the Renewable Fuel Standard, a relic of our nation’s era of energy scarcity and uncertainty.

A 2014 Congressional Budget Office study projected that the RFS could raise the cost of fuel prices because “Given the design of the RFS, the cost of encouraging additional sales of high-ethanol fuel falls on the producers and consumers of gasoline and diesel.”

What’s more, there is very little consumer demand for high ethanol fuels….It is well past time that we end or significantly amend the RFS.”

The ethanol industry responding to API’s continued attack on the RFS. Tom Buis, Growth Energy co-chair said, “API’s ‘State of American Energy’ speech, brought to you by Big Oil, is nothing new. While oil companies talk about the future of energy in this country, they seem fixated on a finite resource and fail to acknowledge that renewable fuels play a critical role in meeting the nation’s growing energy needs.

growth-energy-logo1“Year after year, API attempts to drive the narrative that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) must be reformed or repealed. This argument is fundamentally flawed. The claims that renewable fuels will increase the cost of energy or that they are worse for the environment are simply ridiculous. Countless independent studies have shown that renewable fuels like ethanol help drive down the cost of fuel. Furthermore, when it comes environmental damage, no one has a worse record than oil companies. Their record of ecological disasters is extensive and deeply troubling.Between 2008 and 2014, more than 25,000 oil spills accounted for more than 217 million gallons of oil and petroleum based products being dis­charged into U.S. navigable waterways, territorial waters, tributar­ies, the contiguous zone, onto shoreline, or into other waters and land that threaten the environment. That’s an average of more than 30 million gallons spilled a year. In contrast, ethanol is biodegradable and no beaches have ever been closed due to an ethanol spill…

API notes the importance of consumers in their speech, yet seems to believe the American consumer is best served by denying them a choice. Furthermore, they attempt to distort the truth saying there is no demand for renewable fuels. Yet major retail chains like Sheetz, Kum & Go, MAPCO and others are adopting higher blends and offering them to consumers and seeing tremendous success and growing demand.

The bottom line is that API wants to kill any competition that may threaten their bottom line and record profits….The RFS is a win-win for America, as it is an essential part of a true ‘all of the above’ energy strategy needed to meet the growing energy demands of the 21st century.” (Click here for Buis’ complete remarks.)

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen soundly rejected API’s claims. “I’m not sure what reality Jack is living in, but it is clear that he believes API’s actions and policies are making our nation more energy secure when nothing could be rfalogo1further from the truth. Perhaps he has convinced himself that fracking will provide the answer to all of our nation’s energy needs. What Jack conveniently failed to mention is that as oil prices have crashed, so has the rig count. The number of active U.S. oil rigs has plunged 67 percent from its peak in 2014. Last week’s rig count was actually the lowest since May 2010, according to the oil field services firm Baker Hughes. If Jack spent time living in the real world, instead of his revisionist reality, he would find himself whistling past the graveyards of shuttered wells that have been abandoned in the bust that inevitably follows a temporary boom of an oil well.Read More

biofuels, Ethanol, Growth Energy, Iowa RFA, RFA, RFS

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDF1Algae.Tec has announced that it has completed the commissioning and initial startup of an algae production plant to produce algae-based nutraceutical products. The plant is located at the Company’s Manufacturing & Development Centre in Atlanta.
  • Auto manufacturers will need to meet aggressive fuel efficiency targets over the next decade – 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) in the U.S. and Europe’s 95 grams of carbon dioxide emission per kilometer. While advanced technologies like all-electric vehicles, super-light carbon fiber composites, and hydrogen fuel cells will all be available, Lux Research’s analysis found that micro-hybrids will provide the most economical route to meeting 2025 targets.
  • TXU Energy has announced TXU Energy Solar Advantage, the market’s first electricity plan that’s 100 percent backed by solar power generated in Texas. The plan comes on the heels of the company’s new, high-efficiency solar rooftop offer, and it further expands consumers’ renewable electricity choices from TXU Energy.
  • Folsom Labs, provider of sales & engineering software for the solar industry, and nearmap, provider of high-resolution imagery, today announce the integration of their products. The combined solution streamlines the sales & engineering process for solar installers in Australia and the United States.
Bioenergy Bytes

The Climate Trust

Joanna Schroeder

As the new year has kicked off, The Climate Trust has released its prediction list of 10 carbon market trends to watch in 2016. The trends range from climate change playing a larger role in federal decision making to increased carbon market linkage and momentum in conservation finance.

Image credit: Flickr/Yann Caradec

Image credit: Flickr/Yann Caradec

“The Trust pays close attention to market signals throughout the year, identifying areas where we can have the greatest impact,” said Sean Penrith, executive director for The Climate Trust. “Each year, we look forward to putting together our team’s collective knowledge and sharing our industry insights.”

And the top trends….

1. Carbon pricing will play a key role for many jurisdictions worldwide as they plan to meet their emission reduction targets from the Paris negotiations. Roughly one quarter of the world’s emissions now fall under some form of carbon pricing system.

2. In Oregon, policies related to clean energy will take center stage in 2016. Importers of transportation fuels will be under obligation to comply with the state’s Clean Fuels Program in 2016. This program is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation fuels 10% by 2025, by integrating more low-carbon fuels (like ethanol and biogas) into the fuel supply.

3. Climate Risk Gets Real for Private Industry. Beginning with the groundswell at Climate Week in New York in September 2015, and becoming more strident at the Paris climate summit, it is clear that the era of managing and disclosing a corporation’s exposure to climate risk has arrived.

4. Addressing climate change will play a larger role in federal decision-making and political platforms in 2016. With the energy created by the COP21 gathering in Paris still buzzing around us, a presidential campaign well underway, and a little more than a year left for members of the Obama Administration to leave their full mark on history, it seems clear that 2016 will be a year of climate action.

5. Increased U.S. carbon market linkage as states prepare for the Clean Power Plan. The final draft of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan was released in 2015, with 24 states filing a lawsuit against the plan questioning EPA’s authority. The lawsuit is unlikely to succeed. In fact, many of the states involved in the lawsuit are still drafting compliance plans; 24 other states launched a countersuit in support of the Plan; and George Bush’s EPA chief reminds the states that EPA’s authority has been upheld by the Supreme Court twice before.
Read More

biofuels, Carbon, Clean Power Plan, Climate Change, Environment

IU Researchers Create Hydrogen Biofuels

Joanna Schroeder

Indiana University researchers have developed a highly efficient biomaterial that catalyzes the formation of hydrogen by splitting H2O and creating hydrogen and oxygen. The resulting fuel can be used to power vehicles that essentially run on water. According to the research team, a modified enzyme gains strength from being protected within the protein shell — or “capsid” — of a bacterial virus. This new material, called hydrogenase, is 150 times more efficient than the unaltered form of the enzyme. The process of creating the material was recently reported in “Self-assembling biomolecular catalysts for hydrogen production,” in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Trevor Douglas MSU photo by Kelly Gorham.

Trevor Douglas: MSU photo by Kelly Gorham.

“Essentially, we’ve taken a virus’s ability to self-assemble myriad genetic building blocks and incorporated a very fragile and sensitive enzyme with the remarkable property of taking in protons and spitting out hydrogen gas,” explained research lead Trevor Douglas, the Earl Blough Professor of Chemistry in the Indiana University Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry. “The end result is a virus-like particle that behaves the same as a highly sophisticated material that catalyzes the production of hydrogen.”

The biomaterial created through the process, known as P22-Hyd, is produced through a simple fermentation process at room temperature and is more efficient than the unaltered enzyme. In addition, the biomaterial is potentially less expensive and more sustainable to produce than materials, such as platinum, currently being used to create fuel cells.

“This material is comparable to platinum, except it’s truly renewable,” Douglas said. “You don’t need to mine it; you can create it at room temperature on a massive scale using fermentation technology; it’s biodegradable. It’s a very green process to make a very high-end sustainable material.”Read More

advanced biofuels, Hydrogen, Research

Tale of ’93 Bronco Shows How to Go Biodiesel

John Davis

ezradyer1Most of the time, we talk about the big stories of biodiesel: government policies toward the green fuel, infrastructure improvements, a plant opening. But this piece from Car and Driver points out how important some of the little stories of biodiesel also are. Ezra Dyer recalls his quest to convert his 1993 Ford Bronco to run on biodiesel.

Perhaps sustainability and emissions weren’t my priorities at the outset, but running a 7.3 in an open-top vehicle makes you intimately familiar with that engine’s major shortcoming: It’s a foul thing, a 444-cubic-inch industrial zone. One day, sitting at red light in a Mazda, my three-year-old in the back seat declares, “I smell a Bronco!” Sure enough, there’s a ’90s Power Stroke pickup on the opposite side of the intersection. Time to find some carbon-cutting, sweet-smelling biodiesel.

I go to the Department of ­Energy’s alternative-fuel website and discover an outfit called Piedmont Biofuels, a North Carolina biodiesel co-op with seven pumps around the Raleigh area. I send an email to Piedmont’s president, Lyle Estill, and a few days later I’m on the scene, Eddie Bauer ready for biopower.

The co-op’s members are a motley crowd, politically heterogeneous. As Estill writes in his book Backyard Biodiesel, “Some of Piedmont’s members are far-right-winged survivalist nuts who want to pay for their fuel in constitution silver,” while others are “hippie chicks who want to trade fuel for massages.” That’s such a weirdly specific example that I wonder if someone named Moonshadow actually rolled up to a pump and asked to get the rate in gallons per shiatsu.

I guess I’m somewhere in the middle, just a guy with a Bronco trying to save the world. Trouble is, there aren’t enough fryolators on earth to satisfy our collective demand for transportation fuel. That’s okay. Even so, once I’m fueled up on biodiesel, I plan to get real judgy. Oh, you’re going to the gas station? Why not just strangle a pelican with one hand and an Angolan peasant with the other, you monster?

Dyer goes on to tell how, with the first tank of biodiesel, his Bronco went from smelling like an industrial zone to more like a “grease fire at Arby’s,” a big improvement in his eyes. He also believes the Bronco runs quieter and makes more power running on the green fuel. A small story, perhaps, but its big success is being repeated around the country.

Biodiesel

Green Plains Completes Ethanol Transactions

Joanna Schroeder

Green Plains Partners has announced that it the acquisition of the storage and transportation assets of the Hopewell, Virginia and Hereford, Texas ethanol production facilities from Green Plains, Inc. has been completed. Totaling $62.5 million, these are the first two transactions completed since the company’s IPO. The acquired assets include ethanol storage tanks that support the plants’ combined expected production capacity of approximately 160 million gallons per year and 224 leased railcars with capacity of approximately 6.72 million gallons.

greenplains“We are pleased to complete the first drop down of assets since our IPO and believe this transaction highlights the value created for both Green Plains Partners’ unitholders and Green Plains’ shareholders,” said Todd Becker, president and chief executive officer of Green Plains Partners. “The acquisition is immediately accretive to distributable cash flow per common unit of the partnership. We believe the partnership enhances Green Plains’ ability to acquire ethanol production assets that are aligned with our growth strategy.”

The acquired assets are expected to contribute approximately $7.7 million of EBITDA in its first full year of operation. Green Plains purchased the Hopewell and Hereford assets were purchased in fourth quarter 2015.

biofuels, Ethanol

IA Gov. Branstad to Speak Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit

Joanna Schroeder

Once again, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad along with Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will be discussing Iowa’s leading role in biofuel production and development during the 10th annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit hosted by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA). The free event takes place January 19, 2016 in Altoona, Iowa.

Iowa-RFA-logo-new1“Under Gov. Branstad’s proactive leadership, Iowa has become the nation’s number one renewable fuels producing state,” said Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) President Tom Brooks. “When you combine Gov. Branstad’s successful biofuels track-record with the fact he is the nation’s longest-serving Governor, we’re excited to have him provide his unique perspectives on biofuels at the upcoming Summit.”

The Summit is free to attend and open to the public. Registration is required. Registration deadline is January 12, 2016. The 10th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit will take place at The Meadows Conference Center at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. To register to attend and learn more about the 2016 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit, click here.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Iowa RFA

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDF1Security convergence software vendor AlertEnterprise and Navigant have announced an alliance to bring critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity capabilities to asset owners and operators in the energy sector. The increased frequency of recent cyber threats and data breaches have placed additional scrutiny on security from government agencies. Together, the combined expertise of AlertEnterprise and Navigant will enable the delivery of unique solutions to address these challenges for energy clients.
  • Switch announced that all of its SUPERNAP data centers and its more than 1,000 clients who are colocated at their facilities, will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. Switch will be producing the renewable energy it needs to run its SUPERNAP data centers through new solar facilities operating in Nevada. During the construction of its new 180-megawatts of solar generation projects, Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2, the company has partnered with local utility NV Energy to utilize renewable energy from existing facilities in the state.
  • SheerWind has signed a licensing agreement with Reikon Beheer that will allow SheerWind’s INVELOX wind-power generating systems to be marketed and deployed in the Netherlands. Reikon Beheer is introducing SheerWind’s technology under the name NedPower SWH to customers in the Netherlands and expects its first pilot project to be under construction in the first quarter of 2016.
  • TPI Composites, Inc., a leading global supplier of wind turbine blades, announced that it has signed a multiyear supply agreement with Vestas Wind Systems A/S to provide blades for the V126 wind turbine from TPI’s recently announced second factory in Izmir, Turkey, which is scheduled to open for production in late 2016. The factory will be located on a 10 hectares site and initially be 30,000 m2 with the ability to expand in the future.
Bioenergy Bytes

Kolmar Buys GreenFuels’ Biodiesel Plant

John Davis

Kolmar Group AG has purchased a Connecticut biodiesel plant – Greenleaf Biofuels LLC – located in New Haven, Connecticut. The plant has been renamed American Greenfuels, LLC. With capacity of about 15 million gallons, it is relatively small for the 2-billion gallon U.S. biodiesel market but is the largest biodiesel plant in New England.

Kolmar logoAccording to Mr. Raf Aviner, President of Kolmar Americas, Inc., “This is a very important acquisition for Kolmar. It is the first such acquisition in the company’s history, and it shows the deep commitment Kolmar has to Connecticut, the environment, the biodiesel industry in general, and to the employees at the plant, in particular. Kolmar has had a strategic relationship with the biodiesel plant for several years, and bringing this facility and its employees into the Kolmar family is a good development for all stakeholders.”

The acquisition gives room for Kolmar to be a more significant biodiesel player even as an increasing number of producers sell their fuel directly.

The biodiesel industry has a few large players like Renewable Energy Group Inc (REGI.O) and is otherwise fairly fragmented.

Kolmar, a major importer of the biofuel, previously had a tolling arrangement with the Connecticut plant. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Biodiesel