Students Fly the Skies with Biofuel

Joanna Schroeder

Purdue faculty and students took to the skies with biofuel when the Purdue Embrarer Phenom 100 flew during the recent Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture, an international plane show. The airplane was unique in that one engine was filled with traditional jet fuel while the other engine was filled with a biofuel blend prepared by the Air Force. The plane was flown from the Purdue airport to Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

According to David Stanley, Purdue’s Air Transport Institute for Environmental Sustainability (Air TIES) co-director, the demonstration flight was one of the first in the U.S. in which a university-owned jet flew with biofuels. This flight is just one in many that will bring Purdue closer to its goal of operating a green training fleet.

Pilot Lisa Lewis, director of flight operations at Purdue Airport, was joined in the cockpit by student co-pilot, Braxton Baker. Air TIES uses student researchers on their projects because they are the next generation of aviation leaders.

Screen Shot 2013-09-02 at 12.17.41 PMRichard Simmons, executive director of research at the Air Ties Research Center noted that while there have been many flights, they have mostly been with larger jets. This flight was unique, he said, because it involved a smaller aircraft in a university setting. Simmons explained that it is one of the first university jets to travel using a biofuel blend.

Upon arrival, the jet was taxied to the exhibit area and viewed by air show attendees.

“The fuel was approved and meets the same specifications as a jet fuel,” Simmons said in an article in AgriNews. “There was very little concern about performance. That’s one reason we want to go back and compare performance data and validate it.”

Before and after the flight, key performance measurements will be studied and selected system inspections will be made. During the flight, engine and fuel system measurements were compiled and corresponding data from previous research from the laboratory will be compared and analyzed as the basis for an exploratory paper on the use of biofuels in aircraft of this size. The biofuel Purdue is studying includes Camelina-based HEFA (hydroprocessed esters and fatty acid).Read More

aviation biofuels, Renewable Energy, Research

Get to Know A Face of Ethanol

Joanna Schroeder

One message that was delivered during the 26th Annual Ethanol Conference over and over again is that both legislators and consumers need to know the faces of ethanol – to hear personal stories of how ethanol benefits America. One member of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) has realized the power of a personal story and that is Gene Griffith, CEO and co-founder of Patriot Renewable Fuels based in Annawan, Illinois.

ACE13-ignite-and-unite-gene-and-kathy-griffithWhen Patriot went into production five years ago, Griffith noted that a shift was beginning from consumer acceptance of ethanol to consumer skepticism. “At that point in time, we’ve seen a lot of change in the acceptance of ethanol and they way its promoted and the way its accepted not only by the person on the street, but by the policy people in Washington, D.C.” he explained. “So it’s changed a lot and I think we need to do some things to correct that.”

When asked about when he realized that he needed to step up and begin promoting the positive message of ethanol, Griffith said during the last few months all the major ethanol associations have launched campaigns and he started looking at what they were doing. He realized that the industry isn’t going to get good support unless they step up, and so he has tried to help get more community involvement.

It was then they he along with several others, including his wife Kathy, realized that they needed to figure out how to use social media. They identified that their five year anniversary would be a good event with which to begin trying out some social media tools. They began actively using their Facebook page, set up a Twitter account and even began blogging on their website. In a matter of days, thousands of people, both from their local community and elsewhere, began learning about Patriot Renewable Fuels, their partners, employees and their products.

Griffith said that while trying to figure out how to use the tools was a bit overwhelming, he also noted that they are definitely getting the message out and encourages other ethanol plants to do the same.

Learn how to get into the social media game and why you should get into the social media space in my interview with Gene Griffith.

Get to Know a Face of Ethanol

Visit the ACE 26th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Education, Ethanol

Renewables Top 14% of Electrical Generation

Joanna Schroeder

According to the latest issue of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “Electric Power Monthly” renewable energy sources provided 14.20 percent of the country’s net electric generation during the first half of the year (through June 30, 2013). During the same period in 2012, renewables accounted for 13.57 percent of net electrical generation.

iStock_000019619550XSmallIn addition, the report found that non-hydro renewables have more than tripled their output during the past decade. They now account for almost the same share of electrical generation (6.71%) as does conventional hydropower (7.49%). Ten years ago (i.e., calendar year 2003), non-hydro renewables provided only 2.05% of net U.S. electrical generation.

Comparing the first six months of 2013 to the same period in 2012, solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) combined have grown 94.4 percent while wind increased 20.1 percent and geothermal grew by 1.0 percent. Biomass declined by 0.5 percent while hydropower dropped by 2.6 percent. Among the non-hydro renewabes, wind is in the lead, accounting for 4.67 percent of net electrical generation, followed by biomass (1.42%), geothermal (0.43%), and solar (0.19%).

The balance of the nation’s electrical generation mix for the first half of 2013 consisted of coal (39.00% – up by 10.3%), natural gas and other gas (26.46% – down by 13.6%), nuclear power (19.48% – up by 0.2%), and petroleum liquids + coke (0.66% – up by 15.6%). The balance (0.21%) was from other sources and pumped hydro storage.

“Every year for the past decade, non-hydro renewables have increased both their net electrical output as well as their percentage share of the nation’s electricity mix,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “Moreover, the annual rate of growth for solar and wind continues in the double digits, setting new records each year.”

Electricity, Geothermal, Hydro, Solar, Wind

K State Offers Tips for Biodiesel Feedstock Canola

John Davis

CanolaAs the popularity of canola rises, in part due to its role as a feedstock for biodiesel, extension representatives from Kansas State University offer some tips to encourage growing the golden crop during winter rotations.

Mike Stamm, a canola breeder and associate agronomist at Kansas State University, said about 80 percent of the canola oil consumed in the United States is imported, so it makes sense for farmers in the southern Great Plains to grow more winter canola.

“One of the reasons why we’re encouraging farmers to grow winter canola is that the same equipment used for wheat production can also be used for winter canola,” Stamm said.

Canola makes an excellent rotational crop with winter wheat, he said, because different classes of herbicide used to control weeds in winter canola also control weeds that can be troublesome for winter wheat. The roots of a canola plant can draw nutrients and water that are deep in the soil up to the surface that often times wheat roots can’t reach.

Seeds within canola pods are small, but their value is not. Each 2 millimeter (mm) diameter seed is about 40 percent oil. With a current futures price for the 2014 crop around $11.35 per bushel, canola is looking profitable for the coming year, Stamm said.

Stamm goes on to offer some tips on crop insurance, selecting the right cultivar and site, planting timing and methods, and soil, weed, insect and disease management.

Biodiesel, feedstocks

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFThe Marion City Council in Marion, Iowa has unanimously approved a deal with waste-to-energy firm, Fiberight LLC, which gives the Maryland-based firm permission to build a solid waste recycling facility in an industrial area behind the city’s Public Services Center.
  • According to a report prepared by researchers at the University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus, southwestern Ontario could support the production of a cellulosic sugar plant. The objective of the study was to examine the costs associated with the harvest, aggregation and delivery of corn stalks to a commercial plant and to determine the most viable business model to enable producers to capture a greater share of the value chain while offering a commercial facility stable feedstock supply.
  • Commercial property owners, building and sustainability managers are invited to join the San Diego Renewable Energy Society for a free, interactive, behind-the-scenes tour of six energy innovations as part of the 13th San Diego Sustainability Tour. The 13th Sustainability Tour is part of the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour. With a theme of “Be Sustainably Inspired,” this year’s tour will showcase a “Sweet 16” of unique energy innovations in the residential, non-profit, multi-family and commercial space.
  • Registration is still open for the 2013 Alcohol School sponsored by Ethanol Technology Institute. The event is being held September 15-20, 2013 in Montreal, Quebec and is designed to educate delegates on proven technology and advances in fuel ethanol and distilled beverage production.
Bioenergy Bytes

Better Benchmarks = More Accurate Ethanol Picture

John Davis

Ron AlversonOne of the issues ethanol producers struggle with is some outdated information being used to argue against the positive effects of the green fuel. It’s an issue attendees of the recent American Coalition for Ethanol’s (ACE) “Unite and Ignite” conference in Des Moines, Iowa have been facing for some time. In fact, last March, Joanna talked with Ron Alverson, current President of ACE and who serves on the board of Dakota Ethanol. They spoke during ACE’s Biofuels Beltway event when about 70 ethanol backers gathered in Washington, D.C., to talk ethanol with the Nation’s lawmakers.

“When the Renewable Fuels Standard was created, it was mandated that they do life cycle assessments of carbon intensity for all these fuels, including gasoline and all these biofuels, to give us a benchmark about where we sat in terms of carbon reduction. And the first benchmarking that was done used very old data for ethanol,” he said, giving ethanol a carbon intensity score similar to gasoline. That prompted the environmental groups to quickly turn against ethanol. But five years later, Ron said there’s lots of new data out there that shows a dramatic lowering of ethanol’s life cycle carbon rating. “We’re really pleased to see that new data come out, and [soon] we’ll have that carbon intensity of corn ethanol down to at least 50 percent of gasoline.”

Ron said that each ethanol plant can make their case again to the California Air Resource Board (ARB) to show how much better ethanol really is. But even without new approvals, he believes ethanol still makes a very strong case in the economic benefit it has brought to rural America, pointing to his own community back in South Dakota, where his company’s ethanol plant is located.

“So much more economic activity going on now. We’ve created about 45 jobs at the ethanol plant, and the town only has 200 people!” Ron said. Plus, all over the ethanol industry, farmers are seeing more markets and more value for their corn, and in turn, for everything else in those rural communities. That’s a good story to tell. “Get the facts out, and I’ll think we’ll win the war.

Listen to Joanna’s interview with Ron here: Ron Alverson, current President of ACE

Visit the ACE 26th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol

Paper Challenges EPA Modeling of Ethanol Emissions

Joanna Schroeder

A new white paper released by the Ethanol Across America Campaign finds that mid-Level ethanol blends can provide significantly greater emission and health benefits than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) models indicate. “Understanding the Emissions Benefits of Higher Ethanol Blends: EPA Modeling Fails to Tell the Whole Story,” was authored by Steve Vander Griend of the Urban Air Initiative and released during the 26th Annual Ethanol Conference.

Tier 3 Emissions paper“Adding ethanol to gasoline improves it in every way. It lowers carbon, reduces common air pollutants for smog formation, lessens CO2 emissions, reduces sulfer content, and provides clean octane as a replacement for toxic aromatics. In short, it makes gasoline significantly better than what would otherwise go into your tank. EPA’s modeling does not show that to be the case, but it should.” This begins the white paper debunking the research that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commissioned to show that gasoline blended with E30 (30% ethanol, 70% gasoline) is dirtier than gasoline not blended with ethanol.

Vander Griend writes that ethanol’s chemical property has a beneficial distillation point that makes it almost impossible for it to cause the kinds of increases EPA claims. In fact, he argues, it is the highly toxic aromatics added to gasoline in the EPA testing procedures that cause significant increases in criteria emissions. He makes the case that ethanol is a superior blending agent that can replace toxic components of gasoline used for octane. Ethanol provides clean octane that, when properly blended, would create value for blends well beyond 10 percent volume.

The EPA findings relate to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and a specific model developed by the EPA required in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Click here to read the whitepaper. Visit the ACE 26th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE Ethanol Conference, Environment, Ethanol, RFS

Merle Anderson on Ethanol

Joanna Schroeder

ACE13-andersonMerle Anderson is 93, the founding father of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) and has never missed an ethanol conference and this year was no exception. Anderson gave a few brief words (and told some pretty funny stories) and said that he was very proud of what the ethanol industry had accomplished. He also said that he is very proud of the work that the ACE team has done over the years.

Anderson said he had some stuff on his mind. He said that if you’re going to open up an ethanol plant or begin a new project, you’d better support the sale of the product. “One thing this country’s doesn’t need is more ethanol we can’t sell,” said Anderson who encouraged members to become more involved in efforts like the Biofuels Beltway March.

He also said he felt that farmers could do a better job of supporting the industry and challenged the ethanol industry to do more to encourage their support.

In addition, Anderson encouraged ACE to continue to support higher blends of ethanol including E30, so that the industry can overcome the so-called blend wall.

Listen to Merle Anderson’s remarks here: Merle Anderson on Ethanol

Visit the ACE 26th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol

Blue Marble Closes on Land Deal for Biorefinery

Joanna Schroeder

Blue Marble Biomaterials has closed on the purchase of the former GTC Oats Inc. located in Missoula, Montana. Previously, this site was a wet extraction processing plant for the creation of food ingredients. The purchase includes 3.81 acres of land, a 19,000 square foot building complex, and parking stalls for over 100 employees. The building retrofits include systems that will allow for greater energy efficiency and enable the site to be a showcase for the company’s “zero-­‐waste” focus.

blue marble biomaterials“We are excited to announce the purchase of this site which will become our first Large Commercial Bio-Refinery. The acquisition of this facility fulfills the next stage of our scaling plan to begin offering an expanded portfolio of products to global customers,” said Colby Underwood, Co‐CEO and Chief Business Officer for Blue Marble Biomaterials. “In 2011, two percent of all chemicals sold globally were sustainable. By 2025, the USDA predicts that 44% of all chemicals sold will be sustainable. Everyday, we see the explosive growth that is occurring with natural bio-­chemicals. With the increased production capacity of this facility and others planned for the future, we will become one of the bio-­chemical market leaders.”

Blue Marble expects to see significant growth in the coming months, as the site purchase comes just as the company begins closing a $15 million debt financing deal through the USCIS EB-­5 Program. The EB-­5 Program was created by Congress in 1990 as a mechanism to stimulate economic activity, encourage foreign investment in US companies, and create domestic jobs. Currently employing 24 people, Blue Marble believes it is one of the first biotechnology companies to take advantage of the program and expects to create over 300 direct and indirect jobs in the Missoula area as a result of the financing and recent site purchase.

Underwood added, “On behalf of the entire Blue Marble team, I would like to thank Governor Steve Bullock, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, U.S. Senator Max Baucus, Congressman Steve Daines, and Missoula Mayor John Engen for their support on behalf of this purchase and our company. We would also like to thank the hard working employees of the Missoula Job Service, Bitterroot Economic Development District, and Missoula County.”

advanced biofuels, Renewable Energy

Mexico Looks to Build Biodiesel Plant

John Davis

UNAMScientists in Mexico want to build a biodiesel plant that would provide fuel for Mexico City’s public transit. This story in the Latin American Herald Tribune says the the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) plan is to use waste cooking oil from restaurants and hotels and could supply more than 500 gallons a day.

A School of Engineering lab will be responsible for sourcing and quality control for the first project of this type in Mexico, postgraduate researcher Alejandra Castro Gonzalez said.

The quality of the source oil and the biodiesel must be high to ensure the smooth operation of vehicles using it as fuel and avoid damaging engines, Castro said.

Use of biodiesel will help reduce emissions of pollutants, as well as recycling a product that is now often discarded, the researcher said.

“Some (establishments in Ciudad Universitaria) discard about 70 percent and others just 20 percent (of cooking oils), so we can deduce that there are shops that cook more healthy than others,” Castro said.

The project is getting funding from the Conacyt Mixed Fund and the Federal District’s government.

Biodiesel, International