Worldwide Biodiesel Production to Hit Record

John Davis

oilworldBiodiesel production worldwide is expected to hit a record this year, with higher mandates in South America expected to help fuel the climb. This article from Bloomberg quotes an Oil World report that shows biodiesel production could rise by about 8 percent to 29.1 million tons this year.

Brazil’s biodiesel inclusion mandate will rise to 6 percent in July from 5 percent, climbing later to 7 percent, according to Oil World.

“Assuming that the higher mandates will be largely fulfilled, Brazilian biodiesel production may increase by 17 percent to 3 million tons in 2014,” Oil World said.

Production in Brazil may show a “further massive increase” to 4 million to 4.1 million tons next year as 7 percent biodiesel inclusion is mandatory year-round, according to the industry researcher.

The report goes on to say that palm oil is gaining importance as a feedstock, making up about one-third of the world’s biodiesel production. Soybean oil for biodiesel is also expected to rise this year, primarily in the U.S., Brazil and Argentina.

Biodiesel, International, Soybeans

Hydro Dynamics Bolts On Biodiesel for Ethanol Plants

John Davis

boltonbiodiesel1A Georgia company is making ethanol plants more profitable by offering technology for “bolt-on” biodiesel operations. Hydro Dynamics, Inc. has partnered with World Energy and PhiBro Ethanol Performance Group to offer Hydro Dynamics’ ShockWave Power Reactors that turns corn oil from ethanol production into biodiesel.

The majority of ethanol plants already recover their corn oil and much of this ends up converted to biodiesel. By integrating a biodiesel plant directly into the ethanol plant a producer can realize many competitive advantages due to reduced transportation cost, shared infrastructure and the ability to merge coproduct streams.

In order to offer ethanol plants a seamless “bolt-on biodiesel” solution HDI is expanding its existing relationships with World Energy of Boston, MA and Phibro Ethanol Performance Group of Teaneck, NJ. World Energy is a leading producer, supplier and distributor of biodiesel and HDI has previously partnered with World Energy’s WMG Services business unit for sale of the SPR to the biodiesel industry. This new venture expands the cooperative offering to include not only the SPR, but complete plants designed by WMG Services. Phibro Ethanol Performance Group is the exclusive marketer of LACTROL® antimicrobial to the ethanol industry and HDI has been partnered with Phibro for commercializing the SPR to enhance yield. Phibro’s technical expertise and extensive customer relationships make them an excellent partner to help bring biodiesel to the ethanol industry.

The SPR technology is well-known and proven to biodiesel producers, as it helps crank out more than 500 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

Biodiesel, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Equatorial Guinea Installing Solar Microgrid

Joanna Schroeder

The government of Equatorial Guinea is installing a self-sufficient solar microgrid project in Annobon Province in partnership with three American companies: the consulting firm MAECI Solar, GE Power & Water and Princeton Power Systems. This project will be Africa’s largest self-sufficient solar microgrid and will bring significant benefits to the West African nation. It will supply Annobon Island with reliable, predictable power and will supply enough electricity to handle 100 percent of the island’s current energy demand.

Annabon Province“The solar microgrid will feature 5-MW solar modules and system integration by MAECI, an energy management system and controls from Princeton Power Systems and energy storage from GE,” MAECI said in a news release. Chris Massaro, senior vice president of MAECI noted that the project would both raise the quality of life and advance the Equatoguinean government’s goal of diversifying the economy.

“The Annobon Electrification Project will be the platform for economic growth on the island by bringing a much needed power supply that will enable the development of multiple industries, add 700 to 1,000 direct and indirect jobs to Annobon Island and significantly raise the standard of living,” added Massaro.

Annobon Province consists of tiny Annobon Island and has a population of 5,000. The Annobon Province currently has reliable electricity for only a few hours a day, but the solar microgrid aims to provide electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The project is a part of Equatorial Guinea’s National Economic Development Plan Horizon 2020, which aims to make Equatorial Guinea an ’emerging economy’ and accelerate its development and democratization by 2020.”

Electricity, International, Smart Grid, Solar

CSP: ELEMENTS Awarded to Southern Research Institute

Joanna Schroeder

Southern Research Institute has signed a jointly funded cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the DOE’s new Concentrating Solar Power: Efficiently Leveraging Equilibrium Mechanisms for Engineering New Thermochemical Storage (CSP: ELEMENTS) funding program. The program is part of the SunShot Initiative. CSP: ELEMENTS supports the development of high-temperature thermochemical energy storage (TCES) systems that enable concentrating solar power plants to produce electricity in the evenings and even overnight when the sun is no longer shining.

“Southern Research Institute is excited and honored to be selected by DOE for this project,” said Michael D. Johns, vice president engineering at Southern Research Institute. “We are proud to be recognized for our leadership in alternative energy, and the development of this innovative thermochemical storage system is in great alignment with the work at our recently established Southeast Solar Research Center, where we design, test, and validate technologies throughout the solar energy spectrum.”

CSP technology employs mirrors that concentrate reflected sunlight onto receivers containing heat transfer fluids. From there, the fluids are used to heat water, which in turn generates steam that is used to power turbines and produce electricity. By adding thermal storage to these facilities they are able to operate at significantly higher capacity factors and produce approximately double the energy for the same size power facility. In addition, the production of electricity can be shifted to occur at the same time as peak power demand, making the electricity much more valuable.

More specifically, the Southern Research Institute project will develop a TCES system that uses a low-cost calcium-based sorbent in a reversible closed-loop endothermic-exothermic chemical reaction cycle. The system stores energy during mid-day when sunlight is plentiful in the endothermic step, and then releases energy when the sun is no longer shining during the exothermic step, allowing for electricity to be produced in a more stable and consistent fashion. This TCES system is projected to cost less than a current state-of-the-art molten salt storage systems, and will be able to store the same amount of energy in a system about one-sixth the size.Read More

Alternative energy, Clean Energy, Energy Storage, Solar, Video

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFHeartland Institute is hosting its 9th International Conference on Climate Change in Las Vegas July 7-9, 2014. This year there will be three concurrent tracks featured at “World’s Biggest Gathering of ‘Skeptic’ Scientists and Policy Experts”. The scientists will review the latest climate research and publicly discuss the policy implications of government energy and environmental policies. The conference program features three concurrent tracks of information: science, public policy, and communications. In all, the conference will feature nearly 60 speakers participating in five plenary sessions and 21 break-out sessions.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released the third edition of its report, “Climate Change Indicators in the United States“. The report pulls together observed data on key measures of the environment, including U.S. and global temperature and precipitation, ocean heat and ocean acidity, sea level, length of growing season, and many others. With 30 indicators that include over 80 maps and graphs showing long-term trends, the report demonstrates that climate change is already affecting our environment and our society.
  • Enable Energy, a technology, product development and business strategy consulting firm focused on accelerating the deployment of leading-edge solar technology, has announced the availability of SolantéÔ, an advanced commercial solar racking system that reduces the complexity and time required to install roof-mounted solar modules. The system features robust, yet lightweight, construction and a patent-pending roof attachment plate that does not require roof excavation, welding, or identification of a truss, thereby protecting roof warranties and significantly shortening the installation process. The company intends to license the technology to solar module and racking manufacturers.
  • Sungevity, Inc. has announced a partnership with E.ON Benelux, a division of one of the world’s largest investor-owned utility companies, under which Sungevity will offer its turnkey solar energy service to E.ON’s base of customers in the Netherlands on a co-branded basis. The partnership is expected to expand to other European countries in the near future and is part of Sungevity’s increased focus on international expansion, which is expected to include a full range of marketing initiatives and strategic partnerships in targeted markets around the globe.
Bioenergy Bytes

Where do Iowa Candidates Stand on the RFS?

Joanna Schroeder

Americans United For Change want Iowans to know where their candidates for U.S. Senate stand: with Iowa farmers or Big Oil. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), legislation that mandates the U.S. transportation sector blend 36 billion gallons of alternative fuels into our fuel by 2022. With more than 30,000 comments sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on their proposed 2014 required volume obligations, aka, how many gallons of biofuels will be blended into fuel in 2014, there has still been no word on the final 2014 rule out of D.C.

In Iowa, primary elections took place last week and newly nominated Republican Joni Ernst, who currently serves as an Iowa Legislator, has not taken a firm stand on the RFS. According to Americans United for Change, she claims to be pro-RFS but often in the same breath admits she is “philosophically opposed” to all subsidies and that she “want[s] people to choose products that work for them and not have them mandated by the United States government.”

Americans United for Change Des Moines Register pro-RFS adToday, Americans Unite for Change, in an effort to get a straight answer, has taken out a full page ad in the Des Moines Register and Cedar Rapids Gazette that asks the questions whether the tens of thousands of dollars Ernst’s campaign has already taken from the billionaire oilmen Koch Brothers is the reason why she is so hesitant to go to the mat for renewable fuels. The biofuels industry accounts for $5.5 billion of Iowa Gross Domestic Product (GDP, generates $4 billion of income for Iowa households, and supports 60,000 jobs throughout the state.

Jeremy Funk, Comm. Dir., Americans United for Change, said of the ad, “As the candidates from opposing parties interview to be the next Senator from Iowa, there are many issues like raising the minimum wage that will present a clear contrast for voters. The Renewable Fuel Standard should not be one of those issues in the state that leads the nation in renewable fuel production with 41 ethanol plants and 18 biodiesel plants.”

“And yet,” continued Funk, “Tea Party-favorite Joni Ernst is going out of her way to complicate the simple and flip-flopping all around the issue. Talking out both sides of the mouth is something we’ve come to expect from politicians, just not politicians from Iowa on the issue of supporting renewable fuels. A strong and clear voice of support for ethanol and biodiesel is needed now more than ever in Washington with Big Oil spending millions of dollars to try to put out of business their cheaper, cleaner competition so they can gouge consumers at the pump with impunity.”

But it seems the more money Joni Ernst’s campaign rakes in from big oil interests like the billionaire Koch Brothers, the weaker and murkier her position becomes.” Funk concluded, “You can tell a lot about how a politician would actually govern by the friends they keep.”

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Oil, politics, Renewable Energy, RFS

I-75 Green Corridor Project Adds 17 New Biofuel Stations

Joanna Schroeder

I-75 Corridor StationThe I-75 Green Corridor Project took a huge step forward this week with the addition of 17 new biofuel stations between Chattanooga, Tennessee all the way to southwestern Florida. This week marks the 5th year of the project that began in Knoxville, TN through a grant funded by the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Program. The goal of the project is for drivers to traverse the entirety of I-75 running on biofuels including ethanol as E85 or biodiesel in a B20 blend. In all Interstate 75 is 1,786 miles from Canada to the Caribbean. The ultimate goal is to have an ethanol/biodiesel station no more than 200 miles apart.

Since the project’s inception, over 3.3 million gallons of biofuels have been sold from stations associated with the project, and 2.6 million gallons of petroleum have been displaced. The project has now displaced over 61,000 barrels of oil, or alternatively, the U.S. has now produced over 61,000 additional barrels of renewable, American fuel.

Specifically in Tennessee, five E85 stations are now open in Cleveland and Chattanooga and nearby neighborhoods of Wildwood and Ft. Oglethorpe and one station is set to open in Knoxville this summer. Jonathan Overly, executive director of the lead organization for the project, the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition, said, “We could not have had the development of this many stations or otherwise success we have had in the project without Protec as a partner. Steve (Walk, of Protec) was great to work with and helped us achieve the project goals.”

I-75 Clean Fuels CorridorThus far along the corridor, E85 has been installed at 26 fuel stations, and B20 has been installed at nine. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming months with another six stations coming online this summer. The project is now in its final year and has resulted in the 1,786-mile interstate becoming the planet’s longest biofuels corridor.

Protec was instrumental is helping the project come to fruition. The company specializes in stations conversions and fuel distribution. “We are honored to be a major partner, fuel station installer and fuel provider for this important project,” said Steve Walk, an executive director of Protec Fuel. “This project can prove biofuels are accessible, and hopefully turn new users onto renewable fuels.”

The significance of this project lies not only in the extensive length of American interstate involved, but also the six-state, multi-partner coordination that has taken place. There is also significance in the fact that American drivers now have a greater number of fueling options, as well as alt-fuel vehicles. There are nearly 100 flex-fuel vehicle (FFV) models on the market today than can run on E85. Coupled with the fact that, by conservative estimates, there are over 10 million FFVs on the road, there is strong need for more stations offering E85.

Biodiesel, biofuels, E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News

FEW Kicks off with Record Crowd

Joanna Schroeder

The 30th annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) has official kicked off with a record-breaking number of ethanol producers from around the world attending. The attendees represent more than 500 producers from 194 facilities representing more than 15 billion gallons of ethanol produced per year. Producers represent traditional and advanced ethanol facilities from the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Norway and Hungary.

30th Annual FEWEthanol enthusiasts may note the significance of the 15 gallons of ethanol produced per year – the amount called for in the first-gen ethanol category of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). A hot topic for the past few months and sure to be a hot topic during FEW, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to finalize the 2014 RFS rules and announced yesterday that they were delaying compliance for 2013 obligated parties until September 30, 2014.

The host of this year’s FEW is Indianapolis, Indiana. “The record level of ethanol producers at this year’s event has created an unprecedented opportunity for industry suppliers and supporters to network with ethanol producers and share their products or services,” said John Nelson, marketing director at BBI International. “We have 520 ethanol producers representing 194 ethanol production facilities already registered and we are expecting that number to grow.”

Drawing nearly 2,000 attendees, there will be at least 25 countries represented, 43 U.S. states represented and six Canadian provinces. During the course of the event, attendees will discuss issues categorized into four tracks:

  • Track 1: Production and Operations
  • Track 2: Leadership and Financial Management
  • Track 3: Coproducts and Product Diversification
  • Track 4: Cellulosic and Advanced Ethanol

energy.agwired.com will be bringing you coverage of FEW throughout the week.

advanced biofuels, Biodiesel, biofuels, Cellulosic, Ethanol, FEW

Edeniq Stresses Cellulosic Ethanol is Here

Cindy Zimmerman

edeniqAt the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference last week, Steve Rust with Edeniq talked about new processing technology and products taking ethanol to the next level.

“Cellulosic ethanol is for real now,” says Rust. “People need to know that because this is key right now with discussions on the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

rust-headRust says new technology like Edeniq’s PATHWAY Platform is helping to make cellulosic ethanol a reality. “We have a piece of equipment that pre-treats the slurry in a corn ethanol plant and then we add a helper enzyme in it that we co-fermentate cellulosic and corn ethanol in the same fermenter,” he explained. “The nice thing about our technology is that it can be used in any dry mill ethanol plant for them to be able to get cellulosic gallons for a small capitol investment.”

Interview with Steve Rust, Edeniq


2014 CUTC Photo Album

Audio, Cellulosic, corn, CUTC, Ethanol, Ethanol News

USDA Announces BCAP Funding

Joanna Schroeder

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that the USDA will begin accepting applications June 16 through July 14, 2014 from energy facilities interested in receiving forest or agricultural residues to generate clean energy. The support comes through the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), which was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. Agriculture residues, such as corn cobs and stalks, also may qualify as energy-producing feedstock.

BCAP provides financial assistance to farmers and ranchers who establish and maintain new crops of energy biomass, or who harvest and deliver forest or agricultural residues to a qualifying energy facility. Of the forest residuetotal $25 million per year authorized for BCAP, the 2014 Farm Bill provides up to 50 percent ($12.5 million) each year for matching payments for the harvest and transportation of biomass residues. BCAP matching payments will resume this summer, while crop incentives will begin in 2015. Some matching payments will support the removal of dead or diseased trees from National Forests and Bureau of Land Management public lands. This will be turned into renewable energy while reducing the risk of forest fire.

“Removing dead or diseased trees from forests to use for biomass production creates clean energy while reducing the threat of forest fires and the spread of harmful insects and disease,” said Vilsack. “Increasing our country’s production of biomass energy also helps grow our economy. Food is made in rural America, but fuel is made in rural America, too. This program is yet another USDA investment in expanding markets for agricultural products made in rural places across the country.”

With the 2014 Farm Bill requiring several regulatory updates to BCAP, the resumption of payments for starting and maintaining new sources of biomass (Project Areas) has been deferred until a later date when the regulatory updates occur.

advanced biofuels, Agribusiness, Cellulosic, corn