Wilks Offers Better Biodiesel Blend Analyzer

John Davis

Wilks, maker of application-specific analytical instrumentation, has built better analyzers of biodiesel blends and oil in water. The company says its new InfraCal 2 Analyzer offers additional features to its line of InfraCal Oil in Water Analyzers and InfraCal Biodiesel Blend Analyzers, including better repeatability, multiple calibrations, unlimited data storage, optional internal battery pack, touch screen display, and password protection for instrument settings.

infracal2-345The InfraCal 2 incorporates new electronics providing a better signal-to-noise ratio that improves the stability and repeatability. The InfraCal 2 for oil in water analysis now has the capability to measure from sub-ppm to percent levels, making it suitable for wastewater, produced water or frac water measurements, as well as checking hydrocarbon levels in drilling mud or drill cuttings.

For biodiesel in diesel, the InfraCal 2 has a new calibration scheme that makes it easier to get an accurate zero. It includes alerts to ensure the sample surface is clean prior to measurements – features which contribute to more repeatable readings.

Wilks goes on to say its InfraCal 2 Analyzer has a virtually unlimited amount of internal data storage and can transfer information serially or through a flash drive, giving date, time, analyst, and location information. In addition, the internal battery pack lasts up to 12 hours, bringing more capabilities right to the field without having to wait for lab results.

Biodiesel

NTSB Holds Rail Transportation Safety Forum

Cindy Zimmerman

ntsbOutgoing National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman says “regulators are behind the curve” when it comes to the transport of hazardous liquid, whether ethanol or crude oil.

“Those shipments have increased by over 440 percent (since 2005) but our regulations have not changed,” Hersman said at the National Press Club prior to the start of a two day forum on Safety of Rail Transportation of Crude Oil and Ethanol. She says accidents are happening “far too often, safety has been compromised” in oil train shipments.

Some of the concern brought about by recent accidents involving both oil and ethanol shipments revolves around the rail tank cars themselves, particularly the DOT-111, which she says is not safe enough for hazardous liquids. “Carrying corn oil is fine, carrying crude oil is not,” said Hersman.

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen testified at the NTSB forum about the safety record of ethanol shipments via the DOT-111A railcar, the intense focus of the RFA on safety training and best practices within the ethanol industry, and the need for the NTSB to focus on the root cause of recent derailments, including track conditions and human error.

RFA-logo-13Noting that 70 percent of ethanol travels to the marketplace via rail and has done so for over 30 years, Dinneen gave credit to the railroads that since 2012 have successfully shipped 99.997 percent of hazardous material carloads. “From 2006–2013, the U.S. ethanol industry moved over two million shipments of ethanol,” Dinneen testified. “However, during that period only 226 cars derailed with only 91 releasing product.”

Dinneen further testified that in each of the ethanol derailment incidents that have occurred, the NTSB determined the derailment to be the result of rail operation, such as substandard track integrity, switching failures, inspection errors, maintenance problems or lack of communication between train crews. “Keeping the cars on the track by eliminating the root causes of these DOT-111A tank car derailments is the only way to achieve a perfect safety record,” said Dinneen.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, transportation

Renewable Fuels Fuel Jobs and Economy

Cindy Zimmerman

A new industry report released today shows how the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is creating jobs and significant economic impact.

fuels-americaThe Fuels America coalition released an economic impact study by John Dunham & Associates showing that the industry supports more than 850,000 American jobs and drives $184.5 billion of economic output.

Renewable fuels now represent nearly 10% of America’s fuel supply and have helped reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil to the lowest level in years. The analysis takes into account the entire supply chain for renewable fuels and quantifies the impact to the U.S. economy, including:

• Driving $184.5 billion of economic output
• Supporting 852,056 jobs and $46.2 billion in wages
• Generating $14.5 billion in tax revenue each year

The full analysis is publicly available on the Fuels America website, including localized reports for every state and every congressional district in the country.

Fuels America held a telephone press conference introducing the report results featuring comments from Jon Doggett, National Corn Growers Association public policy; Adam Monroe, Novozymes; Larry Ward, POET; and John Dunham, report author.

Listen to or download here: Fuels America new economic report

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Fuels America, RFA

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFThe 22nd edition of FENASUCRO, the trade fair for sugar, ethanol, and energy technology, will take place in São Paulo, Brazil from August 26-29, 2014. FENASUCRO is the meeting place for producers, professionals, and top manufacturers of equipment, and products & services for the sugarcane agro-industry. The event offers visitors the chance to explore the entire production chain: soil preparation, planting, growing treatments, harvest, industrialization, mechanization, use of by-products, sugarcane product and by-product transportation and logistics.
  • DONG Energy Wind Power’s Country manager, Benj Sykes, has been announced as the new co-chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) by Business and Energy Minister, the Rt. Hon Michael Fallon MP, who also co-chairs the group. Sykes replaces Keith Anderson, the Chief Corporate Officer of ScottishPower, who has held this role since 2010, and will remain a member of OWIC.
  • Otto Pirker from Verbund will chair Hydropower Development: Europe 2014 Summit, taking place in Porto (Portugal) on September 17-18, 2014. The event will comprise two days of formal presentations, interactive panel discussions and excellent networking opportunities, providing an ideal setting to convene with your peers to discuss both current operational and future planned hydro power plants, energy markets reform, potential barriers and support policies as well as project economics and finance.
  • UNICA, together with other unions and associations of producers from South and Central Sugarcane Technology Center (CTC) region, announced its estimate for the harvest 2014/2015 of cane sugar. The projection indicates a grind of 580.00 million tons, down 16.94 million tonnes compared to the total processed in the last harvest, which totaled 596.94 million tons.
Bioenergy Bytes

U.S. Forest Services Seeks Wood to Energy Proposals

Joanna Schroeder

The U.S. Forest Service is seeking proposals that expand wood energy use and support responsible forest management. The Forest Service also released a Wood Energy Financial App for use by community and business leaders seeking to replace fossil fuel with wood energy.

“USDA through the Forest Service is supporting development of wood energy projects that promote sound forest management, expand regional economies, and create new jobs,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “These efforts, part of the Obama Administration’s ‘all of the above’ energy strategy, create opportunities for wood energy products to enter the marketplace.”

Wood Enery AppThe U.S. Forest Service published in the Federal Register the announcement of requests for proposals under the Hazardous Fuels Wood-to-Energy Grant program. The program will provide about $2.8 million to help successful applicants complete the engineering design work needed to apply for public or private loans for construction and long-term financing of wood energy facilities. In addition, the agency announced $1.7 million in funding availability under the Statewide Wood Energy Team cooperative agreement program inviting public-private teams to seek funding to advance wood energy. Activities may include workshops that provide technical, financial and environmental information, preliminary engineering assessments, and community outreach needed to support development of wood energy projects.

“Building stronger markets for innovative wood products supports sustainable forestry, reduces wildfire risk, and creates energy savings for rural America,” added Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.

The Forest Service has also released an eBook which contains a Wood Energy Financial App that allows users to do a simple and quick analysis to see if wood energy is a viable alternative for their community or small business. The App, which can be accessed from the Web or an eBook. The App and eBook were developed through a partnership with Dr. Dennis Becker, associate professor and Dr. Steve Taft, extension economist at the University of Minnesota; Eini Lowell, wood technology specialist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station; Dan Bihn, engineer at Bihn Systems and Roy Anderson, senior consultant at The Beck Group.

advanced biofuels, biomass

UK Announces 8 Major Renewable Energy Projects

Joanna Schroeder

The UK government has announced support for eight major renewable electricity projects giving a big boost to green energy and green jobs. By 2020, the projects will provide up to £12 billion of private sector investment, supporting 8,500 jobs, and they could add a further 4.5GW of low-carbon electricity to Britain’s energy mix (or around 4% of capacity), generating enough clean electricity to power over three million homes.

Once completed and in operation, the projects will contribute around 15TWh or 14 percent of the renewable electricity estimated to be produced by 2020, helping to put the UK well on the way to meeting its renewable energy target. The clean energy projects will also reduce emissions by 10 MtCO2 per year compared to fossil fuel power generation.

The projects have been offered under Contracts for Difference (CfD), which form part of Government’s Electricity Market Reform programme. They include offshore wind farms, coal to biomass conversions and a dedicated biomass plant with combined heat and power.

offshore-wind-power-Photo Christopher ThomondEnergy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey said of the announcement, “These contracts for major renewable electricity projects mark a new stage in Britain’s green energy investment boom. By themselves they will bring green jobs and growth across the UK, but they are a significant part of our efforts to give Britain cleaner and more secure energy.”

“These are the first investments from our reforms to build the world’s first low carbon electricity market – reforms which will see competition and markets attract tens of billions of pounds of vital energy investment whilst reducing the costs of clean energy to consumers,” Davey continued. “Record levels of energy investment are at the forefront of the Government’s infrastructure programme and are filling the massive gap we inherited. It’s practical reforms like these that will keep the lights on and tackle climate change, by giving investors more certainty.”

The eight projects have been awarded contracts under the Final Investment Decision (FID) Enabling for Renewables process, allocating the first CfDs that are being introduced through the Electricity Market Reform programme. Under CfDs, generators and developers receive a fixed strike price for the electricity they produce for 15 years. As a result, these contracts are vital to give investors the confidence they need to pay the up-front costs of major new infrastructure projects. The contracts are supported by the new legislative framework introduced through the Energy Act 2013. Further CfDs will be made available in the fall.

Alternative energy, bioenergy, Clean Energy, International

Lufthansa Testing Gevo’s Renewable Jet Fuel

John Davis

Lufthansa1German airline Lufthansa says it will test advanced biofuel maker Gevo’s renewable jet fuel. This Gevo news release says the goal is to get the airline to approve of Gevo’s alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ) for commercial aviation use.

“ATJ, like the Fischer-Tropsch pathway, has the potential to use lignocellulosic waste as feedstock, but promises to do so at less cost than Fischer-Tropsch,” said Alexander Zschocke, Lufthansa Group Senior Manager Aviation Biofuels. Lufthansa is a leader in the marketplace for alternative fuels.

“By using isobutanol as a renewable raw material for producing jet fuel, the resulting jet fuel has the mixtures of molecules typical of petro-based jet fuel making it directly compatible with engines and infrastructure. Renewable jet embodies the potential of cleaner, greener, and as we scale up, cost competitive drop-in fuels,” said Patrick Gruber, Gevo’s chief executive officer. “We greatly appreciate Lufthansa’s and the European Commission’s support of this effort. Through initiatives like this, the commercial airlines are seeking to prove out ATJ and move it towards commercialization. ATJ from Gevo’s isobutanol is a clean burning, homegrown, drop-in jet fuel, and we have a potential route to deliver aviation biofuels at scale and at competitive cost.”

The company says its patented ATJ fuel is truly a drop-in fuel, designed to be fully compliant with aviation fuel specifications and provide equal performance, including fit-for-purpose properties.

aviation biofuels, isobutanol

Argentina to Cut Biodiesel Taxes

John Davis

argentinaflagAs its biodiesel industry is battling the European Union over anti-dumping measures, Argentina is looking to cut taxes on biodiesel for domestic use. This article from Bloomberg says the government is proposing an exemption of a 22 percent tax on biodiesel used in thermoelectric plants and a 19 percent tax on biodiesel for gasoline blends until the dispute with the EU is resolved.

The EU slapped Argentina with duties on biodiesel imports last year, saying producers have access to raw material at prices that are kept artificially low. Argentina has requested the formation of a panel at the World Trade Organization in order to resolve the dispute and said the nation is being punished for being competitive in a free market, Fernandez said.

“We’re in the middle of a true trade war,” [President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner] said during the speech. “We have to protect those who need our help.”

Argentina has about 33 biodiesel plants employing 1,600 people.

Biodiesel, International

Biodiesel to Help Drive Soybean Consumption

John Davis

d-goodBiodiesel looks to be one of the factors that will help consume the record amount of soybeans expected to be planted this year. This analysis from the University of Illinois’ Darrel Good says the expected 81.493 million acres of soybeans this year reflects a strong demand worldwide.

The USDA projects consumption of U.S soybeans and soybeans imported in to the U.S. during the current marketing year at 3.36 billion bushels, equal to the record consumption during the 2009-10 marketing year. Consumption is large in spite of continued high prices and back-to-back record production of soybeans in the rest of the world during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 marketing years. World consumption of soybeans during the current marketing year is projected at a record 9.884 billion bushels, 40 percent more than consumed 10 years ago. Much of the growth in world consumption has occurred in China, up 130 percent in 10 years. While it may not be reasonable to expect Chinese consumption to continue to grow at the pace of the past 10 years, there is no sign of a reversal in consumption. The U.S. should continue to have a large share of exports to China even with another large South American crop in 2015. Record high livestock prices and a likely increase in biodiesel production should keep domestic soybean consumption large as well.

But Good also points out that “intended” and actual “harvested” soybean numbers do vary every year.

Biodiesel, Soybeans

Forbes Flubs Ethanol Facts

Cindy Zimmerman

forbes_logoA Forbes article by a contributing editor proclaiming that “corn ethanol is of no use” contained such blatant fact errors that the author had to change it.

“Thanks to … commenters for pointing out some errors, especially my failing to mention the tax credits and tariffs have expired,” wrote author James Conca after removing that reference from the story.

Not changed is the manipulation of corn usage data in the story to avoid comparing apples to apples.

In 2000, over 90% of the U.S. corn crop went to feed people and livestock, many in undeveloped countries, with less than 5% used to produce ethanol. In 2013, however, 40% went to produce ethanol, 45% was used to feed livestock, and only 15% was used for food and beverage (AgMRC).

What those simple statements do not say is that:
1. Production in 2000 was 9.968 billion bushels, 40% less than the record 13.9 billion bushel crop harvested last year.
2. The 90% in 2000 included exports.
3. In 2013, 36% of corn usage went to “ethanol and by-products” which includes the equivalent of about one third of that amount returned as distillers grains for livestock feed.
4. Adding in exports, the total usage in 2013 outside of ethanol and by-products is 63%. If you add in about a third of the ethanol number (8.4% according to the source cited by Conca), that would be over 75% going to livestock feed, food uses, seed and exports.

Conca claims he is not “pro-oil” in one of his comment responses about the facts in the article, yet he states as a fact a statement that is blatantly false. “The grain required to fill a 25-gallon gas tank with ethanol can feed one person for a year, so the amount of corn used to make that 13 billion gallons of ethanol will not feed the almost 500 million people it was feeding in 2000.” Only livestock eat the field corn that produces ethanol and while exports of U.S. corn have declined some in recent years, global production continues to increase.

In response to a very well written comment pointing out some of the facts omitted from the article, Conca writes that he “did not know that China was importing so much Distillers Grain, that’s wonderful and does change the economics. And thank you for pointing out the taxes and tariffs have expired.”

He adds that he thinks the United States needs to “proceed full-steam on all fronts, including biofuels, and that all technologies should be supported thoroughly.” Unfortunately, articles like these perpetuating misinformation and flat out falsehoods make it difficult for biofuels to compete against detractors.

biofuels, Commentary, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News