Minnesota Ready for B10 Biodiesel Mandate

John Davis

MnSoyBiodieselMinnesota’s Department of Agriculture says the state is ready for the 10 percent biodiesel mandate for each gallon of diesel sold. This posting from Biodiesel Magazine says the news was welcomed by the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.

“Biodiesel has been shown to be great for the environment and the economy,” said George Goblish, MSGA president. “It’s common sense to keep moving forward with biodiesel because it has been proven to work. It’s a win for air quality, a win for consumers, a win for the industry and a win for agriculture.”

Currently, every gallon of diesel fuel sold in Minnesota contains a blend of 5 percent biodiesel (B5), made primarily from soybean oil. The move to 10 percent (B10) is written into a statute passed in 2007, provided all necessary criteria have been met. Since they have been met, MDA is recommending the state move forward with its commitment to B10. The higher blends would only be available during summer months.

“Biodiesel has been used in Minnesota for more than a decade and the state leads the nation in biofuel acceptance,” Goblish added. “Moving to B10 means cleaner air, more jobs and greater energy diversity. Whether you drive a diesel vehicle or use mass transit, this change is good for all Minnesota.”

Currently, about 800 million gallons of diesel is used in Minnesota each year. With three biodiesel refineries in the state producing more than 60 million gallons of the green fuel annually, to make that 10 percent mandate, either those refineries are going to have to step it up or the state will have to buy a little from its neighbors.

Biodiesel, Soybeans

Wind Production Tax Credit Part of House Hearing

John Davis

USCapitolAs lawmakers battle over the budget and Obamacare, the wind production tax credit could also come under fire. This blog posting from the political paper, The Hill, says House Republicans today are taking aim at the credits at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

“With the federal government currently at a standstill over budget negotiations, it is imperative for Congress to continue to root out and address wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars,” states an advisory for the Wednesday hearing on the production tax credit.

An IRS official is scheduled to speak, as well as those favoring and opposing the tax incentive. The hearing starts at 9:30 am EDT in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

We’ll follow the develops and let you know if anything comes out of this hearing.

Government, Legislation, Wind

West Coast Offshore Wind Energy Site Evaluated

John Davis

PrinciplePowerThe federal government is considering leasing an area off the shore of Oregon for a floating wind energy project. This story from North American Windpower says the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will determine the competitive interest in leasing the area for the proposed Principle Power Inc. project.

According to BOEM, Principle Power’s proposed WindFloat Pacific Project, which would be located about 16 nautical miles west of Coos Bay, Ore., in about 1,200 feet of water, is designed to generate 30 MW of electricity from five “WindFloat” units, each equipped with a 6 MW offshore wind turbine. The proposed lease area covers about 15 square miles.

BOEM says it must assess whether there are other parties interested in developing commercial wind facilities in the same area in order to determine whether it is appropriate to issue a lease on a non-competitive basis, or whether a competitive process is required.

In addition to inquiring about competitive interest, BOEM is seeking public comment on the proposal, its potential environmental consequences, and the use of the area in which the proposed project would be located.

Last year, Principle Power received a U.S. Department of Energy grant to explore offshore wind projects in state and federal waters.

Over the next year, BOEM expects to hold more competitive auctions for wind energy leases off the shores of Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Government, Wind

Boston Wind Company to Start Solar Project

John Davis

firstwindA Boston-based wind company is breaking ground on a series of solar projects in Massachusetts. First Wind announced the beginning of the 17-megawatt total projects in Warren and Millbury, the first renewable energy projects in its home state and its first solar development.

“It is exciting that we are able to develop and build our very first solar projects in our home state of Massachusetts,” said Paul Gaynor, CEO of First Wind. “Massachusetts has led the way on renewable energy issues, and we are excited that we are able to add some clean energy projects right here in the Commonwealth, which will further enhance our growing portfolio of projects and customers in the Northeast. We are also very pleased to partner with UMass to deliver clean, renewable solar power to their campuses while delivering genuine economic benefits to the host communities and cost-competitive clean, renewable energy for years to come.”

Most of the power generated from will be delivered to the Lowell and Medical Center campuses of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) through a long-term deal. Power production is expected to start next June.

Solar, Wind

Wisconsin Wind Farm Gets Commission Green Light

John Davis

HighlandwindA Wisconsin wind farm gets the approval to move forward after the developer convinces regulators it can reduce noise levels. This article from reNews.com says the 44-turbine, 102.5MW Highland Wind Farm in St. Croix, being developed by Emerging Energies, got a 2-to-1 vote in its favor from the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

St.-Croix-mapThe Hubertus-based developer fine-tuned operating plans to comply with noise restrictions after the board initially rejected the project in February. Emerging Energies said it would curtail some turbines at night.

“Commissioner Montgomery set high standards for us to meet and gave us another chance to prove that we were able to comply with the state’s noise standard for wind turbines,” said Emerging Energies.

The commission also doubled the number of sound monitors that would measure compliance and increased sound monitoring to four times a year.

Siemens and Nordex turbines are being considered for the $250m project. When finished, Highland will connect to Xcel Energy’s 161kV transmission line.

Wind

Research to Look into Food Waste-to-Ethanol

John Davis

greenbeltResearchers are going to be looking into the feasibility of fermenting food waste and sweet potato into ethanol. Greenbelt Resources Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Diversified Ethanol Corp. will have California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo look into the fermentation testing at a commercial level.

The study seeks to optimize three factors in biomass-based ethanol production that are critical to the scalability and adoption of the technology solutions provided by Greenbelt and Diversified: process temperature, application of various enzymes, and variations in fermentation processing. Batch ethanol yield is a key factor in the effort to scale down ethanol production to reach localized volume demands. Research parameters will report on the effect on yield from variances in temperature, pH levels, enzyme volumes and concentration, particle size, and batch volumes. The study will also compare separate hydrolysis (SHF) versus simultaneous saccharification (SSF).

Greenbelt Resources officials say they are happy to have some of the brightest at Cal Poly working on the project. The school says the funding has helped it continue research around waste-to-fuel conversion formulas.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Waste-to-Energy

Iowa, Nebraska Phase Out Non-Ethanol Regular Gas

John Davis

IowaE85PumpWhen you fill up with the lowest cost unleaded gasoline in Iowa and Nebraska, rest assured you’ll be using ethanol. The Omaha World Herald reports both of the states are replacing 87 octane fuel without ethanol with an ethanol blend.

Rose White of AAA Nebraska said most consumers already use ethanol fuel blends and won’t be affected by the change.

White said consumers may notice a drop in gas prices, depending on the additive used to achieve the octane level they select. Prices will be less, she said, from producers who blend with ethanol instead of premium.

The change in gasoline formulation can be tracked to producers’ desire to simplify the production process by eliminating regular unleaded gas. Refineries will be able to more easily supply gasoline to all areas of the country.

“This fuel changeover went smoothly in other states,” said Ginger Willson, director of the Nebraska Energy Office. “States in the upper Midwest, including Nebraska and Iowa, are some of the last states changing to this grade of fuel.”

The mix has been showing up at stations for the past couple of weeks and is expected to be complete by mid-October.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Surplus US Sugar Sold to Ethanol Makers

John Davis

usda-logoIn an effort to get rid of surplus sugar and produce green fuel, the US Department of Agriculture has sold a large block of the sweetener to ethanol makers. This article from Ethanol Producer Magazine says the government sold the sugar rather than just forfeiting it under the Feedstock Flexibility Program for Bioenergy Producers.

The program requires the USDA to purchase sugar and sell it as feedstock for bioenergy producers in order to avoid forfeiture of sugar pledged as collateral by processors when securing nonrecourse community loans for them Commodity Credit Corp. Sugar purchased by the CCC under the program is sold on a competitive basis to bioenergy producers. The regulation establishing the program requires that purchasers use the sugar to produce biofuel, including ethanol, butanol or other marketable biofuels as CCD determines.

In this sale, USDA sold a reported 136 thousand tons of refined beet sugar to bioenergy producers through FFP, about a third of the nearly 377,000 tons that was offered by processors. While the government sold the sugar at a pretty steep loss of more than $53 million, that is less than if the USDA had to forfeit the sugar without the proceeds at all.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, USDA

Biodiesel Industry Biggest Victim of RIN Fraud

John Davis

KotrbaWhile taxpayers and investors are often talked about as the victims of the recent Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) fraud cases, this opinion piece from Biodiesel Magazine writer Ron Kotrba makes the case that the biodiesel industry and those who play by the rules are the biggest victim of this crime.

It is those fine people, you, who make up a gross majority of the biodiesel industry, who suffer mostly. The stigma, the regulatory hoops through which you are now made to jump to maybe get a fair price on your RINs, the ammunition these fraudsters give Big Oil and legislators in the war to dismantle RFS, these are the biggest of wounds from the unnamed victims of biodiesel fraud.

In addition to calling out the e-Biofuels case, Kotrba goes on to chide the alleged frauders at FOGFuels who used their ill-gotten gains, not to keep a struggling company afloat, but to live lavish lifestyles with luxurious vacations. But he hopes the industry can shake this dark chapter.

The e-Biofuels investigation has been looming over the industry for a very long time, and it is good to finally see it progress to the point where charges have actually been filed. Will the publicity gained from the e-Biofuels case harm the biodiesel industry’s reputation even further, or since this case has been going on quietly for so long, will the culmination of charges filed allow the U.S. biodiesel industry to move forward with one less fraud case hanging over its head?

Biodiesel, Opinion

Environmental Impacts of Biofuel Feedstocks Studied

John Davis

corn_stover03 Photo: USDOE-NRELA two-year study has examined the environmental impacts of feedstocks used for biofuels. Minnesota Daily reports researchers from the University of Minnesota found that there are some fundamental differences between how the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture, look at biofuel production.

All three agencies differed in crop location, which Hill said is an important clarification for researchers, policymakers and biofuel investors. If the researchers had not figured out there was this difference, other scientists might only use one agency’s predictions and their conclusions would be misled.

“Our group is looking at the environmental impacts of biofuels,” [bioproducts and biosystems engineering assistant professor Jason] Hill said. “We need to understand the future of what that’s going to look at.”

“It helps us tease out the benefits and negatives,” BBE graduate student Brian Krohn said. “Some of those … lead to a U.S. landscape that’s better for the environment, and some of that leads to landscapes that have a very high negative impact.”

The biggest concern in the study is the use of corn stover for biofuels. While it is possible to take just enough of the material off the fields to get a good amount of feedstock and leave enough for soil health, the researchers did worry too much would be removed.

“If corn stover becomes a significant player in ethanol,” BBE PhD student Tom Nickerson said, “Minnesota will have a pretty big role in producing ethanol for America.”

Balance is the key, with the researchers concluding that no pathway is perfect.

biofuels, Environment, Research