“Clean, Secure, American Energy” Campaign Launched

Joanna Schroeder

This month marks the 102 anniversary of tax breaks signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, for the oil industry. They were part of the first income tax code that took effect on March 1, 1913. As America marks this anniversary, Fuels America has launched a new campaign, “Clean, Secure, American Energy,” to highlight the success of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). This August will mark the 10th anniversary of the renewable energy legislation, a policy that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been dragging their feet on finalizing for 2014 and announcing renewable fuel volumes for 2015.

fuels-americalogoWhile oil companies have been benefiting from hand outs for more than a century, tax credits for corn-based ethanol expired several years ago. Fuels America cites that during the past 10 years, the commonsense, bipartisan RFS has tripled America’s biofuel production and helped lower our the country’s dependence on oil to the lowest level in decades – all while delivering environmental and economic benefits.

According to Fuels America, the “Clean, Secure, American Energy Campaign” is launching this week with a significant digital advertising campaign that will run on RollCall.com. The ads congratulate the oil industry by “Celebrating 102 Years of Oil Spills and Pollution”.

Last week, renewable fuel supporters highlighted the environmental benefits of the RFS by sending a letter to President Obama, urging him to ensure the EPA’s new multiyear rule for the RFS supports growth for existing and new biofuels technologies and lives up to the original intent of the bipartisan law.

“The RFS is working and has resulted in significant environmental gains,” the letter said. The RFS is America’s only fully implemented policy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.”

advanced biofuels, Biodiesel, Ethanol, Fuels America, Renewable Energy, RFS

Neste Oil Tops Waste-to-Renewable Energy List

John Davis

nesteoil_logoNeste Oil is now the world’s largest producer of renewable fuels from waste and residues. In this company news release, officials say last year, the company produced nearly 1.3 million tonnes (1.6 billion liters) of its renewable NEXBTL diesel from waste and residues, enough to power all the 650,000 diesel cars in Finland for two years.

“We can be really proud that we have succeeded in increasing our use of waste and residue-based feedstocks in the production of renewable NEXBTL fuels to such a significant extent. Thanks to this, Neste Oil has in just a few years become the world’s largest circular economy enterprise in the biofuels sector. The production of fuels from waste-based feedstock is resource-efficient, and our aim is to have the capability to use 100% waste and residues by 2017. We are constantly searching for new waste-based raw materials of increasingly poorer quality, and use the majority of our EUR 40 million R&D expenditure for raw material research,” says Kaisa Hietala, Executive Vice President of Neste Oil’s Renewable Products business area.

Neste Oil officials say they make their renewable fuel from 10 different feedstocks, including animal and fish fats, used cooking oil and various residues generated during vegetable oil refining.

Biodiesel

Lenten Fish Fries Fuel Biodiesel Production in Omaha

John Davis

omahabiofuelscoop1Truly one of the highlights of Lent, the six weeks from Ash Wednesday to Easter when Catholics make sacrifices, including meat on Fridays, is the church fish fry on those Fridays. This story from the Omaha World-Herald says the leftover fryer grease from those fish fries in the area is going to a very worthy cause: biodiesel production.

Just in time for this year’s Lenten season, a savior appeared: the Omaha Biofuels Cooperative, which is collecting used cooking oil from many area churches. The group places collection barrels out back free of charge and picks up the used oil the next day.

“They took a big-time problem off my hands,” [Pat Rupp runs the fish fries at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Gretna] said.

And what happens next is the cool part: Co-op members make motor fuel out of the used cooking oil. The co-op has a production facility in an industrial park in South Omaha, where the used oil is cleaned up and made suitable for use in powering the motor vehicles owned by the co-op members. Any diesel car or truck made after 1996 can use the fuel without modification, the group says.

The article goes on to talk about how Omaha Biofuels has agreements with many area restaurants to collect their used vegetable oil and turn it into the green fuel.

Biodiesel

Calling Energy Entrepreneurs

Joanna Schroeder

Calling student energy entrepreneurs. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $2.5 million in funding for the Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP), which hopes to inspire the next generation of clean energy gurus. This funding opportunity will support the commercialization of promising technologies for sectors such as solar and wind that reduce carbon pollution and grow the clean energy economy.

According to DOE, the goal of the Cleantech UP is to create a strong national infrastructure focused on collegiate high-tech entrepreneurship that accelerates the rate of clean energy innovWind Turbine in Northern Iowaation in the U.S, while also establishing a national Cleantech UP Hub. The program will support up to eight Cleantech UP Collegiate Competitions.

The Cleantech UP Hub will create a national prize, train student entrepreneurs, and serve as a coordinating body for energy entrepreneurship training, while the Cleantech UP Collegiate Competitions will provide prizes for eight individual university-focused competitions that will equip students with business skills to move clean energy technologies from the discovery phase to the marketplace. Together, the Cleantech UP Hub and Cleantech UP Collegiate Competitions will form a strategic network that increases student entrepreneurs’ participation—both in quantity and quality—in clean energy, and addresses the existing gaps in early-stage commercialization training.

Cleantech UP will build on the success of its precursor, the Energy Department’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. More information can be found here.

Clean Energy, Electricity, Solar, Wind

AmeriPride Adopts Propane

Joanna Schroeder

AmeriPride Services has adopted propane autogas fueled trucks for its fleets after a successful pilot test program. In addition to the five ROUSH CleanTech Ford F-59 delivery trucks in Topeka, Kansas, the uniform and linen company is adding 20 more in Northern California later this year. AmeriPride announced their program expansion plans at the NTEA Work Truck Show in Indianapolis.

“We’ve been extensively testing fuels and vehicles to find the right area and application that gives us the best environmental and economical benefits,” said Banny Allison, fleet services manager for AmeriPride. “Propane autogas reduces greenhouse gas emissions and has easy, cost-efficient fueling infrastructure. Because of our success in Kansas, we are implementing the same propane autogas vehicles in the Sacramento and Fresno areas.”gI_85238_AmeriPrideNew

According to AmeriPride, each of their propane autogas trucks will emit about 95,000 fewer pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime. To fuel its vehicles, AmeriPride installed a private autogas station with 1,000-gallon tank at their Topeka facility because infrastructure for propane autogas is less expensive than any other alternative fuel, partly due to fewer requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Currently the company pays $1.55 per gallon for propane autogas that, historically, has cost up to 50 percent less than diesel.

“AmeriPride has long been a champion for supporting the environment and the communities they serve,” said Todd Mouw, vice president of sales and marketing for ROUSH CleanTech, who is Ford’s only Qualified Vehicle Modifier for propane autogas. “Emissions-reducing, domestically produced propane autogas has met their criteria and now they are ready to expand into different markets with reliable Ford F-59 workhorses.”

Clean Energy, Propane

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • http://energy.agwired.com/category/bioenergy-bytes/The Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC) has added Joanne Ivancic, Executive Director, Advanced Biofuels USA to the MCEC 2015 Advisory Council. Advanced Biofuels USA , a nonprofit educational organization headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, advocates for the adoption of advanced biofuels as an energy security, economic development, military flexibility and climate change/pollution control solution.
  • Clean Focus has announced the completion of a new 3.75 MW solar project in the City of Adelanto, CA. The ground-mounted system, interconnected in late January, received its certificate of occupancy earlier this week. Construction financing was provided by Seminole Financial Services; Sol Construction led building efforts; and MPE Consulting served as lead engineer. The Adelanto project, sited on 20 acres will generate 7,156,000 kW hours of clean electricity a year.
  • A week ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Fukushima reactor disaster, five leading organizations fighting for America’s clean-energy future – Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and the Sierra Club – are unveiling an interactive online video, “Our Epic Future: Create It With Clean Energy.” The entertaining, fact-filled video allows visitors to explore three scenarios in the “Epic Energy Labs” with very different future outcomes: one dominated by fossil fuels, another in which nuclear power is the focus, and a third relying on renewable energy.
  • Terra Motors Corporation, Japanese innovator of electric two- and three-wheelers, is establishing a joint venture to deal with the manufacturing and sales of electric vehicle in Dhaka with Runner group of companies, the most famous motorbike manufactures in Bangladesh, on February 18, 2015. The name of our joint venture is “Runner Terra EV ltd.”
Bioenergy Bytes

Do You Agree With Government Controlled Internet?

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What do you think of proposed government control over the internet?”

It has been called net neutrality or open internet but now it should be called government controlled internet. In a vote along partisan lines the FCC last Thursday passed sweeping changes in how it will be regulating the internet. Basically, they are treating it like the telephone system using some very out of date laws. The goal is to provide more “equality” for users. How this plays out is anyone’s guess. Estimates have been made that the cost of the new regulations will include losing 500,000 jobs and $62 billion over the next five years. Wonder who will pay that and what they will allow. This 317 page move pushed by the Obama Administration has already caused uncertainty for investors in new technology.

It will be interesting to see what impact this has on American agribusiness in coming years.

Here are the poll results:

  • Agree – 25%
  • Disagree – 73%
  • Don’t know – 2%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, Should Congress grant TPA?

Congress is considering granting Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), formally known as Fast Track, to move forward on trade agreements being negotiated in Europe and Asia. Every president since Franklin Roosevelt has been given this authority to negotiate agreements that can just be voted up or down by Congress, but there is opposition even in agricultural circles to granting TPA or even pursuing new free trade agreements. What do you think?

ZimmPoll

Tennessee Waste-To-Energy Facility Approved

John Davis

PGHEplant1A sustainable waste-to-energy facility has been approved for construction in Tennessee. PHG Energy (PHGE) says its deal with city of Lebanon, Tennessee, will build a downdraft gasification plant that will cleanly convert up to 64 tons per day of blended waste wood, scrap tires and sewer sludge into a fuel gas that will generate up to 300Kw of electricity. The power generated from this plant will provide the plant’s internal power needs as well as contribute electricity to the wastewater treatment plant where it will be located.

“This is not incineration or burning,” Lebanon Mayor Philip Craighead pointed out. “There is no smoke or odor. The feedstock material is broken down at very high temperatures in a sealed vessel, and about 95 percent of what goes into the gasifier comes out as the fuel gas.” Craighead also said the remaining 5 percent to 10 percent of material exiting the gasifier is a high-carbon biochar that can be recycled or sold for agricultural or industrial uses.

PHGE President Tom Stanzione said the Lebanon project will deploy what his company believes is the world’s largest downdraft gasifier and added, “This is the same basic technology we utilized in all our previous designs, and we have upgraded capacity and power density to accomplish a lot more gasification in what is not a lot more space.”

The Large Frame gasifier, as the company refers to it, has been vetted through a rigorous testing process for more than two years at PHGE’s research facility. A standard PHGE gasifier can convert up to 12 tons of feedstock per day to fuel gas, while the Lebanon model will process up to 64 tons per day without substantially increasing the footprint of the plant.

PHGE officials say the plant will keep more than 8,000 tons of material out of landfills each year – the equivalent of a line of trucks over 4 miles long, as well as cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 2,500 tons each year.

This project will mark the 14th gasifier installation for PHGE.

Utilities, Waste-to-Energy

Moms Fight Colorado Roll Back of Renewable Energy

John Davis

CO_MomsKnowsBest1A group of moms in Colorado are fighting proposed changes in that state’s legislature to Colorado’s renewable energy standards. The group, Colorado Moms Know Best, say they oppose the changes that would rollback from 30 percent down to 15 percent of the energy produced and consumed in the state.

“Moms believe we have a moral obligation to protect children’s health and future, ensuring they have clean air is one of the very basics,” said Data Gutwein with Colorado Moms Know Best. “The reality is that chopping the state’s renewable energy standard in half would mean relying more on coal-fired plants and more kids dealing with asthma and other respiratory problems.”

Colorado has been a leader in renewable energy. In 2004, Coloradans passed the first state ballot initiative to establish a renewable energy standards; 29 states and the District of Columbia have since adopted similar standards. In the years since, Colorado has added tens of thousands of clean tech jobs with an average salary of $78,000, according to the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce’s 2014 Energy Cluster report.

“Renewable energy is not only good for kids’ health, it’s also great for their future career options,” said Colorado Moms Know Best’s Dana Gutwein. “If Colorado can remain on the cutting edge of the renewable energy industry, our children will be able to prepare for plentiful high-paying, clean tech job opportunities.”

The group has previously helped influence Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission to adopt stricter air quality standards for oil and gas operations in the state of Colorado.

biofuels, Government, Legislation

Iowa Governor Visits Golden Grain Energy

Cindy Zimmerman

gge-branstadGolden Grain Energy officials and employees had the opportunity to thank Iowa Governor Terry Branstad for his support of ethanol when he paid a visit to the plant in Mason City on Wednesday.

“Governor Branstad has always been very supportive of the plant and the industry as a whole. It means a lot to be able to have the governor here in person to give a pat on the back to all of the people who have worked hard to help us reach the billion gallon production mark,” said Dave Sovereign, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Golden Grain Energy.

Governor Branstad toured the plant as to mark Golden Grain Energy’s recent production milestone of producing one billion gallons of corn ethanol.

“The backing and support from the governor’s office and from the local community helps us go a long way as we work towards producing another billion gallons of ethanol,” said Sovereign.

For his part, Governor Branstad had a photo posted on his Facebook page with – “Golden Grain ethanol just produced their BILLIONTH gallon of ethanol. To celebrate, the governor visited and got one of their t-shirts. “Keep calm and fuel on” ‪#‎iagov‬”

ACE, Ethanol, Ethanol News