ACE Conference 2026

Pressure Cooking to Improve Electric Car Batteries

Joanna Schroeder

David Kisailus and Jianxin ZhuResearchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering have redesigned the component materials of the battery found in electric vehicles in an environmentally friendly way. The goal was to solve several problems with the technology including they take a long time to charge; the charge doesn’t hold long enough to drive long distances; they don’t allow drivers to quickly accelerate; and they are big and bulky.

By creating nanoparticles with a controlled shape, the research team believes smaller, more powerful and energy efficient batteries can be built. By modifying the size and shape of battery components, they aim to reduce charge times as well.

“This is a critical, fundamental step in improving the efficiency of these batteries,” said David Kisailus, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering and lead researcher on the project. In addition to electric cars, the redesigned batteries could be used for municipal energy storage, including energy generated by the sun and wind.

The initial findings are outlined in a recently published paper called “Solvothermal Synthesis, Development and Performance of LiFePO4 Nanostructures” in the journal Crystal Growth & Design. Kisailus, who is also the Winston Chung Endowed Professor in Energy Innovation, and Jianxin Zhu, a Ph.D. student working with Kisailus, were the lead authors of the paper.

The researchers in Kisailus’ Biomimetics and Nanostructured Materials Lab set out to improve the efficiency of Lithium-ion batteries by targeting one of the material components of the battery, the cathode. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), one type of cathode, has been used in electric vehicles because of its low cost, low toxicity and thermal and chemical stability. However, its commercial potential is limited because it has poor electronic conductivity and lithium ions are not very mobile within it.Read More

Alternative Vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Research

Cadillac ELR Leaves Detroit Smart Grid Ready

Joanna Schroeder

PrintThe LA Auto Show is taking place this week and the new Cadillac ELR will have some unique new features. The vehicle will leave Detroit, Michigan smart grid ready by using the extended range electric vehicle (EV) technology. Combined with OnStar’s could-based connection, the ELR will be able to communicate with the electric grid and potentially save energy.

ELR owners will have access to the OnStar RemoteLink Mobile App, which in addition to allowing drivers to check their vehicle’s operating systems and send remote commands, gives them access to EV specific functions. The EV-tailored app shows owners their vehicle’s current state of charge, electric range, electric miles driven and eMPG, or equivalency of electric miles per gallon.

The RemoteLink Mobile App also will allow ELR owners to control and schedule vehicle charging, including an option to charge during off-peak hours when electricity rates are lowest. In addition to the RemoteLink app available today, OnStar is an enabler for solutions that may benefit drivers in the future.

“While RemoteLink is really our first Smart Grid service to be available for consumers, the same connection we use to enable the app’s EV functions can be used to open the door for more energy cost and load control benefits,” said Russ Eling, manager, Smart Grid and EV Services, General Motors.

OnStar has four unique Smart Grid APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, that utilities and third-party companies can work with to develop real-world solutions for the 2014-Cadillac-ELR-018-mediumELR including demand response, time-of-Use rates, charging data, and aggregated services.

An example of an aggregated service solution would be charging with renewable energy. A regional transmission organization would send OnStar a signal letting it know that renewable energy is available on the electric grid. OnStar then uses this signal to manage the charging of one or multiple EVs in order to utilize the available renewable energy.

OnStar recently partnered with TimberRock Energy Solutions, Inc. using Demand Response to aid with TimberRock’s ability to store and charge with solar energy.

Alternative Vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Smart Grid

Tri-State, LARD Buy, Upgrading Bridgeport Biodiesel

John Davis

tsb-logo1Tri-State Biodiesel and Lard-NABF LLC (LARD), both based in the New York-New Jersey area have purchased and are upgrading Connecticut-based Bridgeport Biodiesel. Biodiesel Magazine reports the venture brings together a major cooking oil-to-biodiesel recyclers with one of few biodiesel production facilities in the area.

Through this deal, Bridgeport Biodiesel also leverages [parent company The Sustainable Biodiesel Company (TSBC)’s] extensive biodiesel fuel distribution network, supplying both wholesale and retail products to gas stations, trucking fleets and heating oil consumers throughout the region.

Bridgeport Biodiesel is a fully permitted and operational 1-3 MMgy biodiesel facility constructed in Bridgeport, Connecticut’s visionary Eco-Industrial Park. Fully operational in 2012, the plant is engineered and permitted to produce biodiesel from a variety of feedstocks, including yellow and brown grease. Ownership of the plant is transferred to the TSBC/LARD partnership with Tri-State Biodiesel’s CEO, Brent Baker, as the new operations director of the facility.

The partnership also pledges additional capital to upgrade the plant with robust new third-generation technology, which dramatically increases the efficiency and throughput capability at the site. Completion of the expansion is expected by 3Q of 2014, bringing the total biodiesel production capacity on site to 8-10 MMgy.

TSBC is also looking for more space to make room in the same area for its algae oil partnership with The BEAR Group.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel Backers Make Case on RFS to Congress

John Davis

nbb19nov2Biodiesel backers are not quite ready to throw in the towel when it comes to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Backed by the National Biodiesel Board, they took to Washington, D.C. to voice their disappointment with the Obama Administration’s recent proposal for next year’s renewable fuels volumes.

“If the EPA freezes the biomass-based diesel target, it would put our company out of business,” said [Ben] Wootton, president and CEO of Keystone BioFuels of Camp Hill, Pa. [which faces closure because of the EPA’s proposed numbers]. “Keystone is just starting to come out of a reorganization plan. The EPA proposed freeze on biomass-based diesel would essentially cut our current market in half and force us to shut our doors. It would be a major step back for the environment and the economy in our state.”

Anne Steckel, vice president of federal affairs at the National Biodiesel Board, said more than 100 biodiesel supporters, representing more than two dozen states from California to Iowa to North Carolina, will be making sure their members of Congress understand that this proposal will eliminate jobs and threaten production in their states.

“Our producers are frustrated and disappointed that the Administration, with no explanation, is essentially freezing a growing Advanced Biofuel industry for the next two years at production levels far below where they are today,” Steckel said. “Biodiesel is an RFS success story, and this proposal turns its back on that success and on the producers who have made it happen.”

NBB points out the biodiesel industry is on track to produce a record of about 1.7 billion gallons this year, which makes the EPA’s target for the next two years of only 1.28 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel even more puzzling. NBB has already projected the proposal could cost 8,000 jobs or more.

Biodiesel, Government, Legislation, NBB, RFS

World Energy Scenarios Report: More Must Be Done

Joanna Schroeder

WEI2013-1-216x291COP-19 is taking place in Warsaw, Poland and today the World Energy Council (WEC) released a new report, “World Energy Scenarios: Composing energy futures in 2050.” The world is set to face several significant challenges in balancing global energy needs in addressing the triple challenge of the energy trilemma. The WEC study assesses two policy scenarios: the more consumer-driven Jazz scenario, and the more voter-driven Symphony scenario, which places greater focus on climate change mitigation and adaption. The report highlights that energy demand is set to double by 2050, driven by non-OECD growth (OECD is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). To meet this growing demand, total primary energy supply is set to increase by between 61 percent and 27 percent.

WEC analysis in the World Energy Scenarios shows that despite significant growth in the relative contribution of renewables from 15 percent today to between 20 percent and 30 percent in 2050, in absolute terms the volume of fossil fuels used to meet global energy demand will be 16,000 MTOE (million tons of oil equivalent( in the Jazz (the more consumer-driven scenario) and 10,000 MTOE in Symphony (the more voter-driven scenario), compared to 10,400 MTOE in 2010. This represents a 55 percent increase in Jazz but only a 5 percent decrease in the absolute amount of fossil fuels used in Symphony by 2050.

“The inconvenient truth is: we are looking in the wrong place to address the issues facing the energy sector,” said Christoph Frei, Secretary of the World Energy Council. The focus of current thinking about the energy system is biased and inadequate. If we are to deliver sustainable energy systems, the focus must shift from the supply mix to demand efficiency. We need more demand-side investments, innovation, incentives, and stronger technical standards to reduce energy intensity.”

The report finds that some renewables will experience exponential growth, to reach 20 percent in Jazz and 30 percent in Symphony by 2050. In particular, the use of solar for electricity generation is set to increase by up to a staggering 225 times over 2010 levels. Currently solar power only accounts for just over 34 TWh/y in the electricity generation World Energy Council logomix, but it could provide somewhere between 2,980 TWh and 7,740 TWh in 2050. This equates to between US $2,950 billion and US $9,660 billion of investment in solar, representing the largest potential investment area of any renewable energy resource. However, fossil fuels will ultimately remain the dominant energy source supplying between 77% and 59% of the global primary energy mix.

“While there will be opportunities in the future for a range of technology solutions, the ultimate issue is that demand continues to grow at an unsustainable rate,” said Karl Rose, Senior Director, Policies and Scenarios at the World Energy Council. “One of the most significant findings in the report is the strong regional variation of priorities and solutions in the energy system. Too often we look at the world as one entity and seek global solutions but the reality is very different and this needs to be recognised.”

Frei added, “The financing challenge is vast but the current lack of climate framework clarity is leading to short-term investment decisions to satisfy current demand trends. We need drastic action from policymakers and industry to make concerted efforts to align and reduce the policy risk of energy investments.”

Electricity, International, Renewable Energy, Research, Solar

Veterans Enter Fight for RFS

Joanna Schroeder

Two new organizations have entered the fight for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) today as concerns about the future of the RFS deepen with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed 2014 renewable fuels volumes going south. VoteVets.org and Americans United for Change held a press teleconference to announce their participation in the counteroffensive against what they are calling, “Big Oil’s lies about the renewable fuel industry’s remarkable record of creating nearly 400,000 American jobs that can’t be VV-AUFC logosoutsourced, revitalizing rural communities, innovating next-generation renewable energy, and making us safer by reducing reliance on oil from unstable foreign regions and regimes that hate us.”

On the call were Jon Soltz, Co-Founder and Chairman of the 360,000+ supporter veterans group, VoteVets.org; Brad Woodhouse, President, Americans United for Change; and Myrna Heddinger, Mayor of Emmetsburg, IA the site of a current POET ethanol plant and the location of Project LIBERTY, a commercial scale cellulosic biorefinery under construction by POET-DSM and expected to go into production my mid-year 2014.

Woodhouse announced a joint campaign between Americans United for Change and VoteVets.org to, “join the fight against big oil and standing up for common sense, bipartisan policies that are helping America become more energy independent.” He noted that the RFS has cut America’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil and because of this bipartisan law, the U.S. now gets 10 percent of its energy from clean renewable sources.

“For the last several months, the oil industry has been waging a misleading and self serving scare campaign against this policy,” Woodhouse added. He said their campaign will be focused on key markets and consists of advertising as well as grassroots and grasstop efforts.

Soltz, who is a veteran, served in Kosovo in 2000 and has done two tours in Iraq. he stressed that the country’s dependence on foreign oil is putting American soldier’s lives at risk. He said that people need to understand that, “If you go after ethanol, potentially you’re funding people who kill our troops. There is no question about it, oil is a blood diamond inside the Middle East that has cost us thousand of lives.”

In addition, Mayor Heddinger stressed the importance of what the ethanol industry has done for the economic revitalization of their community and surrounding towns. When asked what would happen if the ethanol industry were to collapse, she said she doesn’t even want to think of that because she said that if consumers understand the economic, energy security and environmental value of ethanol and other biofuels, the industry will continue to grow.

Listen to the press call here: Veterans Enter Fight for RFS

Audio, biofuels, Ethanol, RFS

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFBioPower Operations Corporation, announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Global Energy Crops Corporation has entered into a 50-50 joint venture agreement with Alternative Green Today, LLC to license the Joint Venture’s Intellectual Property for the production of cellulosic biofuels. Targeted companies will include oil companies, sugar companies and all other producers of ethanol and transportation fuels. Global Energy will manage the joint venture.
  • Waukon Feed Ranch in Waukon, Iowa today announced it will begin offering E15 to 2001 and newer vehicles, making it Iowa’s ninth registered E15 retailer. Waukon Feed Ranch is located in Northeast Iowa at 615 Old Highway 9 in Waukon. In addition to E15, Waukon Feed Ranch features a blender pump and offers consumers E85 and other mid-level ethanol blends, as well as biodiesel.
  • According to a new consumer survey from Navigant Research, favorability ratings for alternative fuel vehicles remain high, with all three types of vehicles (hybrid, electric, and natural gas) above the 50 percent mark for favorability. Consumer awareness of specific models, however, is still relatively low: 44 percent of the respondents are familiar with the Chevrolet Volt, but less than one-third are familiar with the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S, Ford’s C-Max Energi and BMW’s i3. The survey results are summarized in a free white paper, which is available for download on the Navigant Research website.
  • In Washington, the Department of Energy has launched a new mobile app to help drivers find ethanol, biodiesel, CNG, LPG, and quick-charging EV stations. The app, compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, shows the location of more than 15,000 alternative fueling stations across the nation. The Alternative Fueling Station Locator App, now available through Apple’s App Store, allows iPhone users to select an alternative fuel and find the 20 closest stations within a 30-mile radius. Users can view the locations on a map or as a list containing station addresses, phone numbers and hours of operation.
Bioenergy Bytes

Report: EV Charging Won’t Overload Grid

Joanna Schroeder

According to a recent PSR Analytics report that measured Summer 2013 vehicle charging in the nation’s highest residential concentration of electric cars, electric vehicle (EV) owners are charging their cars much less during hot summer afternoons than most behavioral models predict. The analysis, conduced by Pecan Street Research Institute, found that not only is charging behavior is much more diverse than has been predicted, but represents a much more manageable energy load and may be highly elastic to time-of-use pricing and similar tools.

If such findings are confirmed by other research, it could significantly increase utility industry estimates on the number of EVs the electric grid could handle without triggering disruptions or requiring major system upgrades.

PSR-EV-Report-Distribution-Graph-1024x332Pecan Street’s EV research trial in Austin, Texas has what appears to be the highest U.S. concentration of electric vehicles, including over 50 in a single half-square mile neighborhood. The institute’s data-intensive research trials (currently in three states) has produced the world’s largest research database of residential energy use according to the company.

“EVs represent the largest new electric load to appear in homes in a generation,” said the report’s lead author, Pecan Street CEO Brewster McCracken. “We still have a lot of consumer research ahead of us, but these findings suggest that this new load is not only manageable, but movable.”

Summer afternoon charging has emerged as a point of focus for utilities, particularly for those serving large cities where clusters of EVs have started to appear in some neighborhoods. The concern among utilities is that homeowners with EVs will all charge upon arriving home in the afternoon, and that such charging would occur during the peak demand hours on summer afternoons. During those periods, electric grids in many parts of the world are stressed due primarily to air conditioning loads coming on as people arrive home.Read More

Alternative Vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Electricity

Project Aims to Convert Natural Gas to Butanol

Joanna Schroeder

From microbe to fuel_large

Using enzyme engineering and other capabilities, Sandia National Laboratories will work to engineer pathways from methanotroph organisms into another microbial host that can generate butanol. Butanol has long been considered one of the best biofuel options for transportation energy. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

A new project spearheaded by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are using their expertise in protein expression, enzyme engineering and high-throughput assays to develop biocatalyst technologies that can convert natural gas to liquid fuel or methane to butanol for transportation. The $34 million project by the Advanced Research Project Agency Energy (ARPA-E) is one of a set of 15 Reducing Emissions using Methanotrophic Organisms for Transportation Energy or REMOTE, projects. Sandia is a part of a two-year award led by MOgene Green Chemicals, a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Louis-based MOgene, LC.

The broad goal of REMOTE is to have another source of energy in the U.S. that doesn’t have to be imported and could lead to lower carbon monoxide emissions than conventional fossil fuels.

Methanotrophs are microbes that can metabolize methane. Sandia’s Blake Simmons, manager of the labs’ biofuels and biomaterial science and technology group, calls this microbe the “poster child” of organisms that are capable of metabolizing and converting methane. The goal of the project is to engineer pathways from these organisms into another microbial host that can generate butanol. Butanol can be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine and, along with ethanol, has long been considered one of the best biofuel options for transportation energy.

“The need for hydrocarbons that are nonpetroleum in origin is still growing, including applications such as aviation and diesel engines,” said Simmons. “But in its natural state, you’re not going to readily burn natural gas in those types of engines, and the same goes for some combustion engines.” Natural gas, he explained, requires a special modification to be used effectively as a liquid fuel in vehicles, much like biomass needs to be converted before it can be used as a drop-in fuel.

“With biomass, we are essentially taking something that exists in nature and converting it into a low-cost, low-carbon, domestically-sourced fuel. With this project, we’re using natural gas as the input rather than biomass,” Simmons continued. Natural gas extracted from the ground is not renewable, he pointed out, but it is playing an increasingly important role for the Department of Energy and the nation’s energy supply.

Simmons said MOgene brings a great deal of organism expertise to the table, while Sandia offers enzyme engineering and other capabilities.

Using organisms to convert natural gas into liquid transportation fuels isn’t a new objective for the research community, Simmons said. “There have been plenty of investigations into this in the past, since there are plenty of organisms in nature that thrive and survive and multiply off of natural gas metabolism. The problem, though, is that they exist in unique, tailored environments and are typically very slow at what they do.”Read More

Alternative energy, biobutanol, Natural Gas, Research

EPA Proposal Pulls the Rug on Advanced Biofuels

Joanna Schroeder

Advanced-Biofuels-Association-LogoAccording to the Michael McAdams, president of the Advanced Biofuels Association, if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sticks with the 2.2 billion gallons in the final rule, the agency will pull the rug out from underneath the growing advanced biofuel industry.

This was in response to the EPA’s proposed 2014 fuel for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that proposed the target for advanced biofuels at 2.2 billion gallons with a range from as low as 2 billion gallons and as high as 2.51 billion gallons. The 2.2 billion gallon target represents a 20 percent cut from the 2013 level and a disheartening 1.55 billion gallon reduction from the volume as outlined by statue.

“Innovative companies have responded to the challenge of producing cleaner, low-carbon fuels by investing a collective $14 billion in the development of advanced and cellulosic biofuels. However, today’s proposal reveals that EPA might still deliver a devastating blow to this nascent sector and a victory for the oil industry by cutting the volume requirements for advanced biofuels. Such a move will chill future investments necessary to produce large-scale quantities of renewable fuels that cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent compared to gasoline,” said McAdams.

McAdams explained that RFS compliance is tracked by assigning renewable identification numbers (or RINs) to each ethanol-equivalent gallon of biofuel. “ABFA conservatively estimates that our industry will generate at least 3.5 billion RINs in 2013 that qualify as advanced biofuels, exceeding this year’s target of 2.75 billion advanced RINs by at least 750 million gallons. To continue to support new advanced biofuel production, EPA should set the 2014 advanced biofuel target at 3.75 billion gallons as contemplated by statute. This target can be met and exceeded by current production plus carry-over RINs.”

Anything less than requiring 3.75 billion gallons from advanced biofuels in 2014, he noted, would be a step backwards from the Obama administration’s commitment to address climate change. He also stressed that ensuring the success of the advanced biofuels industry is his top concern and as such will actively engage in the comment period.

As McAdams pointed out, companies still in the development and construction phases will also be significantly affected. James Moe, Chairman of the Board for POET-DSM POET DSM logoAdvanced Biofuels, whose cellulosic ethanol plant is under construction and set to begin full operations by mid-year 2014 noted that next year, for the first time in history, the U.S. will produce meaningful volumes of cellulosic ethanol.

“With a number of new plants coming online including POET-DSM’s Project LIBERTY, we can finally say that commercial cellulosic ethanol production has arrived,” he said.Read More

advanced biofuels, AEC, Cellulosic, Ethanol News, POET, RFS