Iowa Lawmakers Ride-and-Drive on Biodiesel

John Davis

ia-biodiesel-branstadLawmakers in Iowa got the chance to experience the power of biodiesel for themselves. The Iowa Biodiesel Board (IBB) held its its first ever Ride-and-Drive event at the capitol in Des Moines as part of the group’s annual “Biodiesel Day on the Hill” event, whose riders included Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds.

“As a nation, we should continue to prioritize both a diverse fuel supply and clean, fuel efficient vehicles,” said Grant Kimberley, IBB executive director. “With diesel vehicles running on biodiesel blends, you get both.”

Biodiesel is an advanced biofuel made from agricultural byproducts and co-products, such as soybean oil.

Vehicles on hand included a diesel Chevy Cruze, the only small domestic diesel car; a Ford F-250 Superduty pickup; a Ram 3.0L EcoDiesel pickup; and a diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee. All ran on biodiesel blends during the event. The new 2015 models are approved for 20 percent biodiesel (B20).

Iowa biodiesel producers and supporters were also able to thank Iowa legislators for their support. Earlier this year, the state raised the fuel tax while providing a partial exemption for diesel blended with at least 11 percent biodiesel (B11).

Biodiesel, Legislation

Phoenix Energy Gets $4.9 Mil Grant for Biomass

John Davis

phoenixenergyA California company has received a $4.9 million grant to build one of the first forest-sourced biomass gasification plants. Phoenix Energy‘s joint venture, North Fork Community Power’s project, received the money from the California Energy Commission to build the plant, as well as funding research into the emerging field of forest biomass use.

The plant will utilize local forest biomass sustainably sourced from restoration and fuel reduction activities on local forest lands, including the Sierra National Forest. The biomass will be used to make electricity, heat and biochar – a solid carbon byproduct that is used as a soil conditioner and filter media. The project will also be one of the first projects to use forest-based fuel under California’s new SB 1122 bioenergy law.

“This project is a fantastic community story and an example of what can be accomplished with a robust a public/private partnership,” said Phoenix Energy CEO, Gregory Stangl. “In the North Fork community, a sawmill was the main employer for years, and local jobs evaporated when it closed down in the 1990’s. This facility will not only make an impact on reducing fire danger and stopping wasteful ‘pile and burn’ disposal of excess forest material, but will bring back permanent jobs to a town where the forest economy used to provide them. California is littered with communities up and down the Sierra foothills with a similar story,” continued Stangl.

The plant will be built in phases with an initial 1 MW financed mainly by the California Energy Commission grant and private and community investors.

biomass, Government

Va Tech Scientists Turning Corn Husks into Hydrogen

John Davis

vatechzhang1Scientists at Virginia Tech have found a way to get hydrogen from corn husks. This article from Yahoo says the husks and stalks are not only a plentiful feedstock for the potential car fuel, but they’re cheap, too.

“We have demonstrated the most important step toward a hydrogen economy — producing distributed and affordable green hydrogen from local biomass resources,” said study co-author Percival Zhang, a professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

The study was led by Joe Rollin, a former doctoral student of Zhang’s at Virginia Tech. Together they co-founded a start-up company called Cell-free Bioinnovations.

The process builds on previous research using xylose, “the most abundant simple plant pentose sugar, to produce hydrogen yields that previously were attainable only in theory,” said the PNAS report.

Other hydrogen fuel production methods rely on highly processed sugars, but the Virginia Tech team used corn husks and stalks, which are known as dirty biomass, to cut costs and make the fuel easier to produce locally.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Agribusiness, corn, Hydrogen

Can Rand Paul Pass the RFS Test?

Cindy Zimmerman

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul officially threw his hat in the ring for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, just a week after co-sponsoring the Fuel Choice and Deregulation Act of 2015 with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. The legislation would allow 15% ethanol blends to be sold year round by requiring EPA to grant a Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) volatility waiver for E15 in the summer months.

paul-energy“The EPA’s onerous regulation of fuels is artificially limiting options for consumers and producers and preventing the adoption of new fuel options that could benefit our environment, our economy, and our energy security,” said Sen. Paul in a press release about the Act. “Through competition and consumer choice, my bill will free fuel producers and automobile manufacturers to innovate and bring new products to market that can lower costs to consumers, increase domestic energy production, and benefit the environment.”

The official candidate’s new campaign website says nothing specific about biofuels in the Energy section beyond “encouraging energy freedom, new technologies, and discoveries” but does mention support for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Sen. Paul did not participate in the recent Iowa Ag Summit where potential candidates were asked specifically about their stance on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) but an aide last week confirmed that he is opposed to “the government telling consumers or businesses what type of fuel they must use or sell.”

“Sen. Paul supports removing regulatory barriers to the use of ethanol and other renewable fuels, which would likely have the effect of growing the use of these environmentally friendly fuels,” said the aide quoted in the National Journal.

Ethanol industry leaders have applauded Sen. Paul for his co-sponsorship of the E15 bill, but all say that support of the RFS is what they really want to see in a presidential candidate.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government

Canadian Company Plans Biomass Pellet Plant

John Davis

sustaneA clean-tech company in Canada is looking to build a $13-million commercial plant to turn biomass into pellets. This article from Halifax’s Chronicle Herald says Sustane Technologies Inc. will make the biomass pellets from landfill waste.

The demonstration plant, which would be at Chester’s Kaizer Meadow landfill, is slated to be operational in mid-2016.

Warden Allen Webber said Tuesday that Sustane CEO Peter Vinall approached the municipality about six months ago about helping to commercialize the technology.

“At that point in time, he was really looking to attract our waste to a facility he intended to build in another municipal unit,” Webber said in an interview.

“We met with him on several occasions and convinced him that the most appropriate location would be Chester because we owned a landfill and did control 30,000 tonnes of waste, both of which he needed.”

The plant would take about 40 percent of the waste in the landfill and convert it into the fuel pellets, and the technology is hoped to save municipalities 20 percent in the landfill and disposal costs.

biomass

Louisiana REG Plant Update

Cindy Zimmerman

reg-laDamage to the Renewable Energy Group (REG) Geismar, Louisiana biorefinery from an April 2 fire will take 2-4 months to repair, according to the company.

“While preliminary damage assessments are still ongoing, the damage appears to be contained to a limited area of the production facility,” REG reports in an update this week. “The Company plans to incorporate a one-month maintenance shutdown that was previously scheduled for this summer to bring filtration and other upgrades online during the restoration time period.”

Our highest concern is the continuing recovery of the two employees who were injured last Thursday. We also appreciate the cooperation and understanding of our customers, vendors and service providers during this time.

REG expects to be able to resume loadout operations for Renewable Hydrocarbon Diesel in inventory later this week.

REG, renewable diesel

Researchers Build Biomass for Batteries

John Davis

uhouston1Researchers at the University of Houston have discovered a polymer made from biomass that could end up being a key ingredient in a new organic material battery. This article from the school says the discovery promises a low-cost, environmentally friendly energy source.

The discovery relies upon a “conjugated redox polymer” design with a naphthalene-bithiophene polymer, which has traditionally been used for applications including transistors and solar cells. With the use of lithium ions as dopant, researchers found it offered significant electronic conductivity and remained stable and reversible through thousands of cycles of charging and discharging energy.

The breakthrough, described in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and featured as ACS Editors’ Choice for open access, addresses a decades-long challenge for electron-transport conducting polymers, said Yan Yao, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UH Cullen College of Engineering and lead author of the paper.

Researchers have long recognized the promise of functional organic polymers, but until now have not been successful in developing an efficient electron-transport conducting polymer to pair with the established hole-transporting polymers. The lithium-doped naphthalene-bithiophene polymer proved both to exhibit significant electronic conductivity and to be stable through 3,000 cycles of charging and discharging energy, Yao said.

The researchers say the discovery opens the door for cheaper alternatives to traditional inorganic-based energy devices, including lithium batteries, and could make for cheaper electric cars one day.

biomass, Research

Nebraska Ethanol Producer Helps Retailers

Cindy Zimmerman

NEB logoA northeast Nebraska ethanol producer has been working with retailers in that area to provide additional fuel choice for consumers.

According to the Nebraska Ethanol Board, Husker Ag LLC in Plainview has provided grant money and ethanol for several retail locations in northeast Nebraska including Creighton, Crofton, Hartington, Osmond, Pierce at two locations, and Valentine.

“Many Nebraska ethanol producers work directly with retailers to expand availability of American Ethanol blends like E15 and E85,” said Todd Sneller, Nebraska Ethanol Board administrator. “This strategic partnership provides consumers with additional choices at the pump, and makes clear to consumers the value of choosing fuels produced locally from renewable sources.”

husker-ag“We are very excited to see the works of many coming together to expand ethanol usage in Nebraska – the second largest producer of ethanol,” said Seth Harder, Husker Ag general manager. “Partnerships are key to moving the needle on ethanol fuel usage.”

The flex fuel pumps were also paid for in part by the Nebraska Corn Board’s flex fuel infrastructure grant program on behalf of Nebraska’s 23,000 corn producers through their checkoff program.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

CARB Holds LCFS Workshop Update

Cindy Zimmerman

carb-14-2The California Air Resources Board (ARB) held a public workshop on Friday to discuss updates to the recently modified Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (CA-GREET 2.0) Model under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Stakeholder input was received at the workshop on the new model which made some changes to the Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) component.

RFA-logo-13Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) Vice President Geoff Cooper said that while they are pleased that CARB made some updates to the CA-GREET model that were recommended by stakeholders, certain elements remain problematic, such as the model’s handling of emissions related to denaturant. “Our larger concern, however, continues to be CARB’s gross overestimation of indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions,” said Cooper. “While CARB is proposing to lower ILUC emissions somewhat, the Agency’s newest estimates are still far above the estimates coming from the rest of the scientific community. Further, CARB continues to rely on speculative and hypothetical scenarios to derive ILUC penalties, rather than using real-world land use data to inform the program. Empirical data from the past 10 years clearly show that farmers have responded to higher crop prices by using existing cropland more efficiently, not by converting non-agricultural lands to cropland. We will continue to encourage CARB to consider the most recent data and best available science on ILUC.”

unica1On the other hand, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) is pleased with the ILUC changes but has other concerns. “CARB’s revision of indirect land-use change (ILUC) modeling resulted in reduced penalties for Brazilian sugarcane ethanol and the lowest overall number in the LCFS, confirming it as the lowest-carbon biofuel available at commercial scale today,” said UNICA’s North American Representative Leticia Phillips.

However, Phillips says the environmental benefits of sugarcane ethanol in the LCFS would be even more significant if CARB included the emissions benefits of electricity co-generation in sugarcane mills using leftover plant material. “We are disappointed CARB has chosen to apply a U.S.-style average electricity mix to Brazil rather than crediting sugarcane biofuel producers for this marginal displacement of fossil energy.”

CARB will be considering re-adoption of the California LCFS at its July 2015 hearing,

Brazil, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Indirect Land Use, Low Carbon Fuel Standard, RFA, UNICA

RFA Reports February Ethanol Export Record

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association reports that U.S. ethanol exports reached a new record in February, based on an analysis of the latest government data.

RFANewlogoAccording to RFA Research Analyst Ann Lewis, U.S. exports of denatured and undenatured ethanol in February totaled 85.2 million gallons, up 24% from January, the highest February export volume on record. Year-to-date exports at 153.9 million gallons are in line with exports during the same period last year.

The biggest customer for U.S. ethanol remains Brazil, which received about one quarter (28%) of total U.S. ethanol exports in February, followed by India (20%), Canada (17%), and the United Arab Emirates (12%). The Philippines, South Korea, the Netherlands and Peru were other key destinations in February.

In addition, exports of the ethanol co-product distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) rose 13% to the highest monthly level in 5 months, as the Chinese market continues to recover. “However, exports to China remain at about half the level enjoyed prior to the market collapse,” said Lewis.

Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports, RFA