Missouri Governor Voices Support for Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

nixonWith the harvest nearing completion in Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon last week joined the Missouri Corn Growers Association at a grain elevator in the northeast part of the state to support the state’s corn growers and ethanol industry.

“Each year about 20% of Missouri’s corn crop is turned into about 300 million gallons of ethanol – a renewable, domestic energy source that fuels vehicles worldwide,” said Nixon during the event at the recently-expanded Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility. “Last year Missouri’s ethanol plants accounted for $829 million of increased economic activity in the state, including about 1500 jobs.”

Despite action in the state legislature last month that rejected a rule change to allow sales of E15 (15% ethanol fuel), Governor Nixon indicated his administration will continue to work on that issue. “We’re going to keep supporting fuels from the farm and work to get Missouri drivers more choices at the pump through safe and sensible options like E15,” said Nixon.

Listen to the governor’s remarks here: Missouri Governor Jay Nixon

Audio, corn, E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government

DOE Announces Rooftop Solar Challenge

Joanna Schroeder

DOE Rooftop Solar ChallengeThe U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced eight teams that have been selected to participate in the Rooftop Solar Challenge. The teams will receive a combined $12 million, matched by more than $4 million in outside funding. The groups are tasked with moving the solar rooftop industry forward through cutting the red tape surrounding residential and small commercial solar rooftop projects. The teams will work to streamline and standardize solar permitting, zoning, metering and connection processes.

“Responsible development of all of America’s rich energy resources is an important part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and will help ensure America’s continued leadership in clean energy,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Today, solar modules cost about one percent of what they did 35 years ago, and permitting and interconnection are an increasingly large portion of overall solar system costs. Through the Rooftop Solar Challenge, the Energy Department is helping to make the deployment of solar power in communities across the country faster, easier and cheaper – saving money and time for local governments, homeowners and businesses.”

The Energy Department’s Rooftop Solar Challenge is a part of a larger effort to make solar energy more accessible and affordable and position the U.S. as a leader in the quickly growing global solar market. Non-hardware, or “soft,” costs like permitting, installation, design and maintenance now account for more than 60 percent of the total cost of installed rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems in the United States. Across the nation, there are more than 18,000 local jurisdictions with their own PV permitting requirements as well as more than 5,000 utilities that set rules for connecting to the power grid.

DOE Rooftop Solar Challenge TeamsThe Rooftop Solar Challenge brings together city, county and state officials, regulatory entities, private industry, universities, local utilities and other regional stakeholders to address differing and expensive processes required to install and finance residential and small business solar systems. During the Challenge’s first round, 22 regional teams worked to dramatically reduce the soft costs of solar – serving as models for other communities across the country. These efforts helped cut permitting time by 40 percent and reduce fees by over 10 percent – making it faster and easier for more than 47 million Americans to install solar.

Building on the Challenge’s first round, the eight teams announced for the next phase will help further expand the reach of innovative strategies that are making it easier, faster and cheaper for more homeowners and businesses to finance and install solar systems. These awardees will develop and replicate creative solutions that help standardize complicated permitting and interconnection processes that often vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; facilitate easy, cheaper bulk purchasing; and support user-friendly, fast online applications. See a full list of the Rooftop Solar Challenge teams and their projects.

Alternative energy, Electricity, Solar

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFZephIR Lidar has signed a new distributor agreement with Chinese firm Beijing New Energy Technologies (BNET). The deal will allow ZephIR, manufacturers of the world’s first commercial wind lidar, to tap further into the Chinese wind market: currently the world’s largest, in terms of installed capacity. The company’s ZephIR 300 is a successful, ground-based, continuous wave (CW) wind lidar system that has been deployed for over 4 million hours on projects across the globe. The partnership sees ZephIR Lidar and BNET bring the ZephIR Dual Mode (DM) to the Chinese market for the first time.
  • RGS Energy, the commercial and utility division of Real Goods Solar, Inc. has been selected by Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) to deploy a 425 kilowatt (kW) elevated solar power plant at its Hayward D6 Bus Facility in Hayward, California. The company will design, install, monitor and maintain the solar power plant at the Hayward Bus Facility. The project involves the installation of a 14-foot high, 22,000-square-foot solar bus-port canopy. The canopy will be capable of generating more than 15 million kWh over the next 25 years. Construction is scheduled to begin by the end of the year and be completed by March 2014.
  • Bharat Book Bureau has published, “Renewable Connecting to the Change – Analysis Outlook and Opportunities“. The report comprises a deep-rooted analysis of the sector focusing on the market scenarios and carves out key strategies for the investment potentials of new entrants. As like the CPV (solar) market is estimated to reach $266 million in 2014, there are only few Indian companies participating in the production of CPV. The report is designed to guide new players’ entrance into the market.
  • The New England-Canada Business Council (NECBC) will hold its 21st Annual Energy Trade and Technology Conference 2 -7 pm Thursday, November 7, 2013 and 7 am – 3 pm Friday, November 8, 2013 at the Seaport Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts. The conference will address the Keystone XL oil pipeline and cross-border siting issues, proposed hydro and wind electricity projects for the New England market, and the fast-moving and often controversial development of shale gas and shale oil and how that is causing upheavals in energy markets and energy prices.
Bioenergy Bytes

How To Make E85 Sales Soar

Joanna Schroeder

A bottleneck of too few fuel stations that offer E85 (85% ethanol 15% gasoline), along with price incongruity are two major factors that reduce the ability of E85 to help meet increasing Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) biofuel mandates. Iowa State University economists Bruce A Babcock and Sebastien Pouliot state in “How Much E85 Can Be Consumed in the U.S.” that flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) on the road are sufficient in number to consume 3 billion gallons of ethanol if E85 was priced at parity with E10 (estimates for 2014 are 16 million FFVS on the road in the U.S.).

Today, nearly every gallon of gasoline sold in the U.S. already contains a 10 percent ethanol blend. When looking at the RFS goals of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, this means that in order to achieve the goals, higher blends of ethanol will be required to be sold. Only FFVs can use ethanol blends above E15 and only vehicles manufactured in 2001 or newer can use E15.

E85 price v regular unleaded gas priceThe dichotomy lies in the fact that while 7 percent of vehicles on the roads are FFVs and growing, only 2 percent of the approximately 121,446 fuel stations in the country offer higher blends of ethanol. In addition, the distribution of flex fuel vehicles does not correspond well with the location of the E85 stations. For example, Texas, California and Florida are several examples of high FFV concentration versus low E85 availability. This results in a loss of potential market.

One other barrier to adoption, according to the paper, was that historically, E85 was priced at a level that increased drivers’ fuel costs versus conventional fuel blends due to the fuel economy loss (studies range from 15 percent to 40 percent depending on type of vehicle, driving habits, etc.) disinclining FFV owners to purchase the fuel. However, this trend is changing due to better pricing of E85 at the pump.

The authors note that while the RFS mandates renewable fuel volumes in excess of 10 percent and flex fuel vehicles and higher ethanol blends exist that would help achieve that mandate, market conditions have not been adjusted to take advantage.

“The dilemma we attempt to answer is how much E85 would be consumed if consumers had unhindered access to the E85 fuel and it was priced competitively with other fuel choices,” said Bruce Babcock, co-author of the study. “When priced at parity under these conditions, with no change to fleet size, consumption of E85 could increase to 3 billion gallons. Introducing E85 pumps in areas with large flex vehicle fleets such as Texas would also increase consumption.”

The paper also details how higher Renewable Identification Numbers (RINS), the currency per se, of ethanol credits that obligated parties such as oil companies accumulate to show compliance with the RFS, also create incentives to price E85 more competitively. This would also result in higher use of ethanol blends.

The paper and its two companion pieces, “RFS Compliance: Death Spiral Or Investment In E85?” and “The Economic Role of RIN Prices” assess the complicated path that the liquid fuel industry must take to meet the federal mandate for renewable fuel volumes.

biofuels, E85, Ethanol, RFS, RINS

Energy Title “Vital” in Farm Bill

Joanna Schroeder

More than 40 bipartisan House and Senate members including Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Representatives Dave Loebsack (D-2-IA) and Aaron Schock (R-18-IL), sent “Dear Colleague” letters to Farm Bill Conference leaders stressing the vital importance of the energy title (Title IX). In response, the Agriculture Energy Coalition (AgEC) praised the legislator’s letter of support.

Farm in Wisconsin“The energy title is critically important to helping rural areas move towards diverse renewable energy and energy efficiency opportunities including wind, solar, biomass, biogas, efficiency upgrades, and hydro in all 50 states,” said Congressman Dave Loebsack on the Farm Bill’s Energy Title. “These programs are also helping our agricultural producers and rural economies be more efficient and adding value to things like farm waste for energy production. They also are critically important to continue to develop cutting edge advanced biofuels that will create jobs here at home and help our nation become more energy secure for use in everything from cars and trucks, to planes and our military.”

The letters continued by saying “REAP, BCAP and BAP are just three examples of energy title programs that are helping our nation utilize our rich agricultural capacity to produce reliable domestic energy. American farmers have long led the world in food crop production, but as we seek to become more energy independent and less reliant on foreign sources of energy to power our economy, ag-based energy products are increasingly important; energy title programs significantly enhance the development of our nation’s clean energy and agriculture economy.”

Lloyd Ritter, co-director of the Agriculture Energy Coalition (AgEC), said of the letters of support, “We would like to extend thanks to the more than 40 Senators and Representatives who expressed their support for vital Farm Bill Energy programs. We especially thank Senators Klobuchar and Blunt, along with Representatives Loebsack and Shock, for their leadership. These Farm Bill energy programs have supported renewable energy development and energy efficiency in rural communities and have helped create or save thousands of good paying jobs. The continued success of these programs requires the long term sustainability of a five year Farm Bill and the necessary investment to maintain healthy programs.”

Agribusiness, Alternative energy, biofuels, farm bill, Solar, Wind

UNICA Asks Gov’t to Educate Country About Ethanol

John Davis

UNICABrazil’s sugar cane growers are asking for some help from that country’s government to educate the public about ethanol. Elizabeth Farina, the President of the Union of the Industry of Cane Sugar Association (UNICA), said the industry needs to overcome prejudices caused by inadequate public policies and interference in the fuel market that hurts ethanol’s competitiveness. To that end, the Parliamentary Front for the Enhancement of the Sugarcane Industry, was officially launched in the capitol city of Brasilia.

“It is very important that society knows that even with negative results in recent years and at the expense of a growing indebtedness and dangerous for the industry, companies have invested heavily in technology to improve performance, increase production and improve sustainability. Unfortunately, the good results on the production side are not translating into financial returns. The nominal average price paid by the ethanol plant is decreasing in the last three years, while the costs of structural and cyclical production has grown relentlessly,” says Farina.

Just last year, more than $4 billion was spent on sugarcane plantation renovations and expansions in Brazil’s South Central region, representing a significant investment in that area’s economy, in addition to the money spent on infrastructure to help the biofuels industry.

“All this does not take into account the increasing resources dedicated to the development of cellulosic ethanol or second generation. It is no coincidence that our companies today get between 7 and 8 thousand liters of ethanol per hectare, while the production of ethanol from corn in the United States, does not exceed 4000 liters per hectare,” stressed the president of UNICA.

UNICA also points out that Brazilian ethanol is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an advanced biofuel.

Brazil, Ethanol, Ethanol News, International, UNICA

ButyFix- First Carbon-Negative Biobutanol

John Davis

ITRIResearchers in Asia have developed the first carbon-negative biobutanol production technology using cellulose biomass feedstock. ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) in Taiwan introduced ButyFi, the first biochemical technology for a biobutanol transportation-fuel production with a negative carbon footprint using cellulosic biomass instead of corn.

The total energy content in the lignin-rich biomass has the surplus to cover the energy for production and the entire life cycle of the fuel (well-to-wheel). Therefore, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of ButyFix bio-butanol is slightly negative. ButyFix is available for licensing to biofuel- and chemical-processing organizations. ITRI receives a 2013 R&D 100 Award in November for this breakthrough.

ButyFix technology produces bio-butanol with GHG emission reduction of over 100 percent, much higher than corn ethanol with a GHG reduction of approximately 23 percent. ButyFix achieves a butyrate yield of 0.70 g/g-sugar, which is 94 percent of carbon conversion. This carbon yield is 2.7 times of traditional ABE process.

Replacing corn ethanol with ButyFix butanol in the United States, based on today’s ethanol consumption of 13 billion gallons, would further reduce CO2 emissions by 90 million tons/year. ButyFix butanol is the only biofuel able to achieve a transportation-fuel price of US$2.00/gallon — well below current gasoline and bio-ethanol prices — and without government subsidies.

ButyFix’s proponents say the technology can be retrofitted to current ethanol plants, performs better than ethanol as a drop-in fuel and is more compatible with current gasoline engines (without modification) and existing gasoline infrastructure. In addition, refiners can more quickly meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel standards.

biobutanol, International

SeQuential Adds Seattle Locales for Biodiesel Stock

John Davis

SequentialbSeQuential Pacific Biodiesel is adding more Seattle, Washington locations to its customer base. This story from Pacific Business News says the joint venture between Oregon’s SeQuential Biofuels and Maui-based Pacific Biodiesel is adding the Woodland Park Zoo and Husky Stadium as providers of used cooking oil for the biodiesel producer.

The longest-running commercial biodiesel producer in the Pacific Northwest, the Portland, Ore.-based company said that both facilities join a growing list of Seattle area businesses recycling cooking oil.

In 2012, SeQuential Pacific recycled enough oil from Washington businesses to offset more than 10 million pounds of carbon.

“We’ve worked hard to build a network of partners throughout the Pacific Northwest that truly value our planet,” SeQuential Pacific Biodiesel General Manager Tyson Keever said in a statement. “Our growing customer base in Washington demonstrates the environmental commitment businesses across the state of Washington continue to exemplify of meaningful and economically responsible environmental stewardship.”

Earlier this year, SeQuential produced its 20 millionth gallon of the fuel and struck a deal with the University of Oregon to recycle the athletic department’s cooking oil into biodiesel.

Biodiesel

Dutch Researchers ID Fittest of Fattest for Biodiesel

John Davis

TUdelftalgae1Researchers in The Netherlands are finding the fattest, or best oil-producing, algae in hopes of developing the fittest strain for biodiesel production. This story from TU Delft says the school’s scientists have published their findings in the scientific journal Energy & Environmental Science.

‘The ultimate goal of our research is to make oil-producing algae as fat as possible, then press the oil out of them and finally produce biodiesel suitable for cars from this oil,’ explains PhD student Peter Mooij of TU Delft.

A major threat to the stable cultivation of oil-producing algae is infection by other, thinner algae. One option is to use a sealed cultivation system and keep unwanted algae out of the system by means of sterilisation. Although this is theoretically possible, it would be practically infeasible and extremely expensive to do this on a large scale.

‘Our method is more suitable for large-scale algae production. We try to select for a particular characteristic and not for a particular species of algae. We are unconcerned whether species A or species B is used in our system, as long as they have the characteristic ‘fat’. So all algae are welcome in our system,’ says Mooij.

The article goes on to explain how the researchers are using a technique that provides light and carbon dioxide to the algae during the day that promotes oil production but keeps them from dividing by holding back the nutrients needed for cell division. Those fattest algae are then separated from the others to find the fittest, fattest strain.

algae, Biodiesel, International, Research

IRFA 2014 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit Announced

Joanna Schroeder

2013 Iowa RFA SummitThe Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) has announced the start of registration for the 8th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit and Trade Show. The Summit is free, open to the public, and will be held January 28, 2014 at The Meadows Conference Center at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa.

With discussion over renewable fuels policy at fever pitch, the 2014 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit will discuss state and national issues facing the renewable fuels industry, including the future of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), biofuels’ impact on future engine technology, and emerging markets for cellulosic ethanol, E15, and biodiesel. Featured speakers will be announced leading up to the Summit.

“The Renewable Fuels Summit is Iowa’s premier renewable fuels event bringing together industry leaders, decision makers and the general public to shape Iowa’s energy future,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “This event provides a great opportunity to hear experts address state and national issues facing the future of renewable fuels, as well as network with biofuels professionals and business leaders throughout the Midwest.”

Click here to register for the Summit and learn about sponsorship and trade show opportunities.

Biodiesel, biofuels, conferences, Ethanol, Iowa RFA