Don’t Miss the Biofuels Financial Conference

Joanna Schroeder

Screen Shot 2014-07-18 at 12.23.20 PMDon’t miss the annual Biofuels Financial Conference: Climate of Opportunity hosted by Christianson & Associates. This year’s event takes place August 27-28, 2014 in Bloomington, Minnesota. The conference is aimed at plant managers, board members, plant CFO’s and more.

This year’s featured session is Expanding Beyond the Baseline. Industry experts will provide critical information about financial opportunities and options available for ensuring that your organization explores all avenues for maximizing the value of your plant’s production capabilities. Topics will cover:

  • Jonathan Olmscheid of Christianson & Associates will provide background on grandfathered volume and on the valid pathways to maximize RIN value beyond your plant’s grandfathered production volume. Since the export market provides another avenue for ethanol sales and thus increased production, Olmscheid will also touch on some key points about the export market and Canadian RINs.
  • Experts from plants and from Merjent will describe in detail the process of petitioning for pathways using two advanced technologies, from an engineering perspective as well as a general plant management perspective.
  • Paula Emberland of Christianson & Associates will review best practices and formulas for evaluating such improvement projects including diversifying co-products and improving processes, to calculate ROI, and an expert from Hydrodynamics will discuss, as an example, their bolt-on biodiesel production technology.

Early bird registration ends July 21. Click here to learn more about the Biofuels Financial Conference and to register online.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Education, Ethanol

Congressman Seeks Country Labeling for Fuel

Cindy Zimmerman

braley-headshotCongressman Bruce Braley (D-IA) has introduced a bill that would give consumers the ability to know where their fuel is produced.

“America has a decision to make about its energy future. We can gut the RFS and move toward further reliance on Saudi Arabia, Venezula, and Nigeria for our energy needs—or we can continue our path toward energy independence by making investments in ethanol and other domestic energy sources,” Braley said.

Braley’s Country of Origin Labeling for Fuels Act would require gas stations to post the country of origin of the fuel right on the pump, letting consumers “know whether their fuel is coming from Saudi Arabia or from ethanol produced right down the road.”

The U.S. consumes more than 15 million barrels of oil each day, with nearly half of that total coming from other countries, including Canada, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Mexico, and Nigeria. Since the creation of the RFS in 2005, nearly 10 billion gallons of foreign oil per year have been replaced by renewable ethanol.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFJuhl Renewable Energy Systems, Inc. has announced that its been named as lead contractor for all rooftop installations through Solar Chicago, a new program serving Chicago, Illinois and several neighboring villages. Juhl Renewable Energy Systems partnered with Microgrid Solar and local Chicago-based installation contractors Ailey Solar and Kapital Electric to jointly submit a coordinated proposal in response to a competitive Request for Proposal solicitation issued by the Solar Chicago Program Administrator, Vote Solar, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization.
  • Sunpreme Inc., a US-based solar photovoltaic company that designs and manufactures its own cells and panels, has announced the commissioning of a 82kW rooftop solar system at the Gurudwara Sahib, Fremont, California. The system is one of the largest rooftop solar installations to use Sunpreme’s advanced solar PV technology that will generate 150,000kWh of clean, emission free electricity annually.
  • Ecotech Institute now has a generator capable of powering 15,000 average America homes. The generator, which is one of the most expensive components in a wind turbine, is a donation from Alstom, the world’s leading energy solutions and transport company. Matt Pevarnik, an account executive for Alstom who serves on Ecotech Institute’s advisory board, spearheaded the donation.
  • Dominion Virginia Power will install more than 3,000 solar panels capable of generating more than 800 kilowatts of electricity – enough to power nearly 200 homes – at the Prologis Concorde Distribution Center in Sterling, Va. The panels will be installed on the rooftops of two adjacent buildings on its campus and will cover nearly 102,000 square feet.
Bioenergy Bytes

REG Could Be Planning Illinois Biodiesel Plant Expansion

John Davis

reg-logoBiodiesel behemoth Renewable Energy Group (REG) could be looking to expand one of its Illinois biodiesel plants. This article in the Champaign (IL) News-Gazette says REG is buying up lots around its Danville biodiesel plant, as well as asking city officials to vacate alleys and portions of streets around the facility and change the local zoning from residential to industrial. The city council last night unanimously reversed the city’s planning and zoning commission’s original denial of the request back in June.

“We don’t have a project plan that’s approved, but we do have thoughts to expand in the future, and we have thoughts of what we might want to do,” said Bruce Lutes, general manager of the Danville plant at 300 Anderson St., east of the city’s downtown. An approved plan, Lutes added, would be an approved capital project through REG, which has done some expansion at other plants.

“We have an idea of what we would like to do,” he said.

But Lutes would not disclose details about the company’s ideas for future expansion or whether an expansion would include a boost in biodiesel production. REG Danville currently has the capacity to produce 45 million gallons of biodiesel per year, and Lutes said the facility is close to that.

“We have some needs for this place, for space… We are very cramped… and sitting on a small footprint,” said Lutes, who added that the space needs are for additional storage, maintenance and office space. “And there could be other things, but we’re not at the point where we have any definite plans or a project.”

REG officials had characterized the earlier denial of the zoning change as “dumb.”

Biodiesel, REG

Novozymes Touts Enzyme-Catalyzed Biodiesel

John Davis

novozymesEnzymes could be the key to making biodiesel from low-quality oils. This article from The American Oil Chemists’ Society’s Inform magazine says Novozymes, a biotech company specializing in enzyme technology, is touting biodiesel production at Blue Sun Biodiesel in St. Joseph, Missouri and Vieselfuel LLC in Stuart, Fla., based on using lipase as catalyst.

Production at both sites has been in operation for over a year now. Novozymes has been the enzyme supplier and partner, and the accomplishment of full-scale production is the result of lengthy, dedicated research and development work.

The new lipase technology enables the processing of oil feedstocks with any concentration of free fatty acids and with lower energy costs than with a standard chemical catalyst…

Use of the liquid lipases was a breakthrough, as they are much cheaper to produce and provide technological as well as cost benefits. By using the lipase Novozymes Callera Trans®, it is possible to produce biodiesel from a large variety of oil qualities. The ability to produce biodiesel from feedstock regardless of its FFA content ultimately makes the process a more cost-efficient way to produce biodiesel.

The article goes on to say that Novozymes is finishing up the development of the enzymatic biodiesel application and expects to launch the concept later this year.

The same magazine features another article on using a new proprietary solid catalyst process developed by Benefuel to make biodiesel. We’ll have details on that story tomorrow.

Biodiesel, enzymes, Novozymes

Aviation & Marine Biofuels to Increase by 2024

Joanna Schroeder

According to research conducted by Navigant Research, the aviation and marine biofuels market will represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the global biofuels market. “Aviation and Marine Biofuels,” found that in the last five years, more than 40 commercial airlines worldwide have flown nearly 600,000 miles powered in part by biofuel. Much of the development in this sector center on the world’s largest aviation market: the U.S. The report concludes, by 2024, biofuels will make up 6.1 percent of the aviation and marine fuel market in America.

marina gas pump“The United States is expected to emerge as the clear leader in the construction of integrated biorefineries capable of producing bio-based jet fuel and marine distillates over the next 10 years,” said Mackinnon Lawrence, research director with Navigant Research. “New biorefinery construction in the U.S. is expected to generate $7.8 billion in cumulative revenue over the next 10 years, representing 66 percent of the revenue generated globally.”

The European Union (EU) is also an active participant in the emerging aviation and marine biofuels market, according to the report. The biggest wildcard in forecasting EU growth projections is the implementation of the EU emissions trading system. If the EU moves forward with a carbon tax on airlines operating in EU territory, then investment in building aviation and marine biofuels production capacity is expected to increase dramatically across the region.

The report forecasts and market sizing for nameplate production capacity and production volumes for advanced aviation and marine biofuels. Forecasts are segmented by geography, conversion platform, and fuel type. The total addressable market size for commercial aviation, marine shipping, and U.S. military applications is analyzed, and the report also provides a qualitative analysis of key stakeholder initiatives, market drivers, challenges, and technology developments, as well as profiles of key stakeholders across the value chain.

advanced biofuels, aviation biofuels, Research

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFElevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., has announced a new collaboration with Genting Plantations Berhad through Genting Integrated Biorefinery Sdn Bhd, to be located in the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster in Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia. The 25:75 collaboration between Elevance and Genting Plantations Berhad will build a 240,000 MT metathesis biorefinery based on Elevance’s proprietary metathesis technology, and will produce renewable, high-performance olefins and specialty chemicals that can be used in multiple end-product applications, including lubricants, surfactants and detergents.
  • Minnesota Power and the Duluth Port said they reached a milestone when the 15th ship bearing wind generation equipment destined for Minnesota Power’s growing renewable energy installation in North Dakota sailed into the harbor beneath the Aerial Lift Bridge. The BBC cargo ship, Peter Roenna arrived in Duluth carrying more than two dozen renewable wind energy components after a voyage from Brande, Denmark, where the equipment is manufactured by Siemens A.G. Two other shiploads of Siemens wind equipment bound for North Dakota arrived at the port in June; two more are expected before the end of September.
  • Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited, known as “Yingli Solar,” has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Yingli Green Energy Spain, S.L.U (“Yingli Spain”) has signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with Senelec (Societe Nationaled’Electricite de Senegal), the stated owned utility company of Senegal,for a 2MW ground-mounted PV plant, one of Senegal’s flagship PV projects.
  • Astronergy donated 150kW PV panels to a solar system installed on a parking lot of a children’s hospital, Hospitl de las Californias, located in Tijuana, Baja California. The PV system has been successfully commissioned on Friday and it will cover 80 percent of the electricity needs of the medical facility, which will represent a savings of approximately 400,000 pesos a year (equivalent to US$31,133) over the 25-year useful life of the solar installation.
Bioenergy Bytes

Ethanol Safety Seminars Head to Oklahoma & Missouri

Joanna Schroeder

The Ethanol Safety seminars are heading to Oklahoma and Missouri this month with all seminars hosted by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). The first seminar will be held on July 21, 2014 at the Western Technology Center in Weatherford and is co-hosted by Oklahoma Emergency Management/LEPC. The second seminar will be held on July 22, 2014 at the Oklahoma City Fire Training Academy and is co-hosted by Stillwater Central Railroad. The third seminar will be held on July 24, 2014 at the Case Community Center in Tulsa and is Ethanol Safety Seminarco-hosted by South Kansas & Ohio Railroad. The final seminar will be held on July 25, 2014 at the Mid America Industrial Park Expo Center in Port of Catoosa and is also co-hosted by Oklahoma Emergency Management/LEPC. The seminars in Weatherford and Port of Catoosa are funded by an Oklahoma Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant while the Oklahoma City and Tulsa seminars are funded by a Federal Railroad Administration grant through TRANSCAER.

The other two seminars will occur in Missouri, with the first to be held on July 22, 2014 at the Public Safety Training Center in Joplin and is co-hosted by Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad. The second will take place on July 24, 2014 at the St. Louis Fire Academy and is co-hosted by Alton Southern Railroad. Both seminars are funded by a Federal Railroad Administration grant through TRANSCAER.

All seminars will have morning sessions from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and evening sessions from 5:30 to 10 p.m. While registration is free it is limited. Lunch and dinner will be provided. Certificates will be awarded to attendees at the completion of the course. While primarily targeting first responders, hazmat teams, safety managers, and local emergency planning committees, it is also open to the general public.

“With the heightened awareness of hazmat traveling throughout the United States on our railway systems, these types of training seminars are a very useful tool,” said Pat Foster, general manager at Stillwater Central Railroad. “This gives the railroads the opportunity to work with first responders in a positive atmosphere and to open a line of communication that sometimes may not have been there in the event of an incident.”

The goal of these seminars is for attendees to gain full ethanol emergency response training experience that they can put to use immediately in the field and pass along to other first response teams. A majority of this training is based on the “Training Guide to Ethanol Emergency Response,” a training package created by the Ethanol Emergency Response Coalition (EERC) that has been distributed throughout the United States and to several countries worldwide.

“The use of ethanol and ethanol-blended products continues to increase each year. With this growth comes the heightened risk of encountering ethanol emergencies on the highways, rail systems, and at transfer and storage facilities,” said Jon Hall, member of the Oklahoma County Local Emergency Planning Committee. “Our first responders must be aware of the unique challenges inherent in such emergencies. The Ethanol Safety Seminar is designed to provide an avenue for educating our responder community on the most current and effective tactics and techniques to safely react to ethanol emergencies and mitigate the hazards associated with such events.”

Click here to register.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, safety

Methes Completes First U.S. Biodiesel Transaction

John Davis

Methes1A producer of biodiesel in Canada completes its first sale in the United States. Last month, we told you how Methes Energies achieved the important BQ-9000 quality standard and that the company planned to ship more than $6 million worth of biodiesel to the U.S. That transaction has now taken place with the imported of biodiesel coming from its Sombra, Ontario facility.

This is the first time that Methes directly generated U.S. revenues. In the past, biodiesel produced at its Sombra, Ontario facility was sold to brokers and intermediaries that would import the biodiesel into the U.S. and resell the biodiesel to obligated parties and fuel distributors. With Methes now having the ability to import biodiesel to the U.S. and itself generate [Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs)], Methes can sell directly to U.S buyers, capitalize on new opportunities and improve its margins.

Nicholas Ng, President of Methes Energies, said, “This is another step forward for Methes and part of our plan to capitalize on more opportunities in the U.S. This is the first time that Methes directly generated U.S. revenues and U.S revenues will now start playing a much larger role in our overall growth strategy and enable us to expand our footprint in several states in the U.S. As for production in Sombra, things are going very well with more feedstock showing up tomorrow. In fact, we will be receiving our largest shipment by rail ever, a total of 12 railcars or over 2 million pounds of oil.”

The Methes refinery in Ontario is capable of producing 13 million gallons per year of biodiesel.

Biodiesel

Biostimulation for Algae Growth Could Help Biodiesel

John Davis

solarmagnatron1Growing algae for biodiesel seems like a viable option when you consider how oil-rich (and thus, feedstock-rich) the one-celled organisms can be. But while algae is one of the fastest growing organisms on Earth, getting enough growth out of the microbes to make the proposition commercially viable is the holy grail for algae-biodiesel producers. Researchers from AlgaStar Inc. have found a way to increase algae growth rates by 300 percent using a technique called biostimulation and a biomass grower called the SolarMagnatron.

Biological stimulation from electromagnetic fields and/or microwaves offers a novel technology that can accelerate algae growth substantially compared with natural sunlight. Laboratory tests at AlgaStar, Inc. and research collaborators at the University of Western Ontario, (UWO) have proven the biostimulation concept but considerably more research is needed. Additional research efforts are now funded for AlgaStar with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Additional grant applications and research sponsor funding will include Dr. Bruce Rittmann’s lab in the Biodesign Institute at ASU, the world class AzCATI Test Bed at ASU, NanoVoltaics, UWO and others.

The AlgaStar algae production and biostimulation system integrates two types of electromagnetic energy. The first is a millitesla generator and the second a millimeter microwave generator that radiates spontaneous growth energy into large volumes of algae biomass. The research teams have demonstrated that electromagnetic energy waves can provide an increase in algae biomass and its corresponding lipid oil production by up to 300%.

AlgaStar is using it’s patented 4500 gallon SolarMagnatron biomass production system that has an automated biosystem controller (ABC), which optimizes biomass production and uses light very efficiently. During the day, it maximizes natural sunlight, and when it’s night, special domed acrylic lenses and flat-panel glass reactors containing high-efficiency florescent and LED lights produce artificial sunlight at specific wavelengths and power levels that optimize algae photosynthesis.

More information is available on the AlgaStar website.

algae, Biodiesel, Research