EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future

Joanna Schroeder

Year two is underway in the EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future, competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors. The program offers students hands-on experience in designing future cars. The competition began in 2011 and during year one, the competition emphasized the use of math-based design tools and simulation techniques in establishing vehicle foundation.

In year two, students will be challenged to reduce the environmental impact of a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, donated by GM. The teams must do this without compromising performance, safety and consumer acceptability. In years two and three, students will build the vehicle and continue to refine, test and improve vehicle operation.

There are 15 teams competing in the EcoCar 2 challenge and many of them will head to the winter workshop in Austin, Texas on January 23, 2013 where the year two competition schedule will be unveiled.

During the three-year program, General Motors provides production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. DOE and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, provide competition management, team evaluation and technical and logistical support. By sponsoring Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions, GM and the DOE are developing the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Carbon, Electric Vehicles, energy efficiency, Video

Rice Solar Energy Project Gets Green Light

Joanna Schroeder

SolarReserve has been given the green light from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to sell power from its 150 megawatt solar project under an amended 25-year power purchase agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). According to the company, the Rice Solar Energy Project will be the first large-scale solar project in the state to include energy storage capabilities.

artist_picture_of_rice solar energy projectLocated in eastern Riverside County, and sited on privately owned and previously disturbed land in the Sonoran Desert, the Rice Solar Energy Project, with eight hours of full power energy storage, should generate more than 450,000 megawatt hours annually of energy – enough to power more than 65,000 homes during peak electricity periods. The solar project will utilize a dry-cooled system to minimize water usage in the desert location resulting in less than 20 percent of the water used per kilowatt of electricity produced by conventional coal or nuclear facilities. Financing activities are underway, and the project is expected to break ground in early of 2014 with commercial operation scheduled for mid-2016.

CPUC Commissioner Ferron said of the project, “In my personal view, projects like the Rice Solar Energy Project will be important to demonstrate that we can firm and shape intermittent renewables with clean technology, not just with fossil technology.”

The hope for the project is that it will be more flexible in terms of being able to support renewable integration to the grid.

“SolarReserve’s market leading technology is a true alternative to conventional generators and can provide firm and reliable electricity as needed by the utility or system operator, day and night,” added SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith. “This capability will be crucial as California progresses towards its 33 percent renewable target. We are also making tremendous strides in exporting this proven U.S. technology worldwide to markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and our projects in Nevada and California help establish the U.S. as an innovation leader in alternate energy.”

Alternative energy, Electricity, Energy, Energy Storage, Solar

Bioenergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

Bioenergy Bytes

Regional Clean Energy Challenge Winners Named

Joanna Schroeder

Aerosol Control Technologies (ACT) of Washington University in St. Louis, has won the $10,000 Missouri Clean Energy Student Challenge. The team will compete for more than $300,000 in prizes in the second annual Clean Energy Student Challenge on April 4, 2013 in Chicago. ACT is developing an advanced particulate matter capture system that will significantly improve diesel engine efficiency using electrostatic precipitators.

missouri student clean energy challenge“ACT absolutely exceeded expectations and brought a first-class business plan with cutting-edge technology to the Challenge,” said Joshua Campbell, executive director of the Missouri Energy Initiative who held the Missouri competition. “This was their second year and their success clearly demonstrates what a tremendous learning experience it is. They took what they learned last year and created an application that I think could take them to the national competition.”

Applications to the Missouri Clean Energy Student Challenge were submitted in a range of technology areas from waste-to-energy solutions and biofuels to solar cells and new wind energy innovations. As the Missouri winner, ACT will compete in the 2013 Challenge and will receive mentoring and training to prepare business plan presentations to a judging panel comprised of venture capitalists, corporate investors and business leaders. The winner of the 2013 Student Challenge will compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Competition in Washington, D.C. this summer.

“The Student Challenge is truly bringing the best and the brightest students from some of our nation’s most prestigious universities to the forefront of the clean energy world,” added Amy Francetic, executive director of the Clean Energy Trust. “They have taken wonderfully innovative technologies and built viable business plans around them.”

biofuels, Clean Energy, Solar, Waste-to-Energy, Wind

Ethanol Industry Responds to API E15 Study

Joanna Schroeder

The American Petroleum Institute (API), released a new E15 study today and representatives of all the major ethanol industry associations issued statements. In addition, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) held a media conference to discuss why the study oil-funded study was “flawed” and “misleading”. Ethanol experts Kristy Moore, Vice President for Technical Services for RFA, along with Bob Reynolds, President of Downstream Alternatives, Renewable Fuels, noted that with nearly 100 studies on E15, it is the most tested fuel in the history of the country.

zarco-ethanol blends pumpMoore said she recently called the EPA and asked them how many fuel additive applications they get a year and they get more than 500 that would be nearly identical to the E15 additive applications. This has been the norm, she said, since the fuel additive program began in 1974. It is my contention, she continued, and is well documented, that no fuel additive has been studied in history to such as rigorous degree as E15.

The burning question, said Moore, is why are we talking about a specific CRC fuel system report and what is the significance? She said there were a few observations that they wanted to point out including: the two CRC AVFL 15 test programs confusingly utilized very different fuel sets to evaluate fuel systems and the aggressive test fuel formulation and level of ethanol concentration is highly questionable as relevant to E15.

Reynolds pointed out that this study, along with API’s earlier study, selected components that they knew would be sensitive to higher levels of ethanol so you should expect some of the results the study had.

While in general the study was not supportive of E15, Moore said that there were some data gems buried within the research.

Listen to the full press conference here that includes more in-depth discussion of observations made by Moore and Reynolds: Ethanol Industry Responds to API E15 Study

Audio, biofuels, E15, Ethanol, RFA

Changing Tunes on Brazilian Ethanol vs. US Biodiesel

John Davis

d-goodA pair of University of Illinois researchers say the reinstatement of the $1 a gallon biodiesel blenders credit has changed the equation back in favor of American biodiesel versus Brazilian ethanol.

Back in December and even earlier this month, Darrel Good and Scott Irwin found that Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, which qualifies as an advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuels Standard, was a cheaper alternative to American biodiesel to meet RFS obligations. But according to this Biodiesel Magazine article, since the renewal of the biodiesel tax credit and making of the credit retroactive back to 2012, Good and Irwin have relooked at the issue, especially after getting several comments pointing out omissions in their analysis, including the 2.5 percent Ad Valorem tax on Brazilian ethanol:

“The price relationships at the U.S. Gulf on Jan. 10 favored biodiesel blending over the blending of Brazilian ethanol, even without consideration of the opportunity cost of Brazilian ethanol,” write Good and Irwin. “That cost added substantially to the advantage of biodiesel.”

After the more complete analysis of blend economics, Good and Irwin conclude the data suggests an economic advantage to U.S. biodiesel over Brazilian ethanol in meeting the advanced biofuel requirements of RFS2.

“The biodiesel advantage is large and a dramatic change from our analysis [on January 10],” they write. “It also has potentially far-reaching implications for both U.S. corn and domestic fats and oils consumption in 2013.

Good and Irwin also point out that since Brazilian ethanol has to be shipped, that would add to the cost of that fuel.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, International, News, Research

Bunge, Sofiproteol to Review Joint Biodiesel Venture

John Davis

sofiproteol-bungeTwo agribusiness giants from each side of the Atlantic are considering their joint biodiesel venture. U.S.-based Bunge and Europe’s Sofiproteol are reviewing their operation in Europe, according to this Reuters story, as the two look to cut overproduction while demand is weak for the green fuel.

Sofiproteol, owner of the European Union’s biggest biodiesel maker, Diester Industrie, and Bunge have a 60-40 percent deal in a spinoff called Diester Industrie International (DII), which controls plants in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Austria.

“Our wish is to cut our risks and exposure on biodiesel,” Sofiproteol CEO Jean-Philippe Puig told Reuters in an interview.

“They (Bunge) are mainly present in Northern Europe and we are in France and southern Europe. So there are a number of talks going on with them,” he said.

According to Reuters, Bunge wasn’t commenting on the story. But DII stopped production a year ago at its Livorno, Italy, facility and does not plan to restart it. The weak biodiesel sector in Europe has been caused by cheap Argentine and Indonesian imports, and the European biodiesel market has been even further threatened by a change in EU policy that aims to limit the use of oilseeds in fuels.

Biodiesel, International

WSJ Attacks Biofuels, Again

Joanna Schroeder

The Wall Street Journal editorial board is attacking biofuels, again. In their opinion piece, “Zero Dark Ethanol,”  they write that advanced biofuels have not made much progress in the past six years and the cellulosic ethanol mandate, that was vacated last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals is “only a fantasy mandate will motivate the industry to make enough of a fantasy fuel.”

aeclogoIn response to the article, the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) says the Journal seems to think that motor fuel markets are free and competitive, and that in the absence of government intervention, fuels like cellulosic biofuels would succeed if worthy. Unfortunately, says AEC, 100 years of direct and indirect subsidies to the oil industry, coming at a time when the U.S. taxpayer also built out most of the large scale infrastructure that the oil industry relies on today to move its product, has largely suffocated the free market principles that would otherwise reward innovation.

AEC continues by saying that in order to fix a broken marketplace, Congress decided in 2007 to forceably diversify the motor fuel marketplace with renewable fuels. And much to the dismay of the oil industry and those who carry their water like the Journal’s editorial board, the program is working. The domestic renewable fuels industry has grown exponentially, despite the global recession, in less than 10 years.

The Journal, adds AEC, is also wrong to assert that “nothing has changed” in the cellulosic biofuels industry. AEC cites their recent progress report released last month, where they say the cellulosic biofuels industry is breaking through at commercial scale.

AEC posits that you would think that a newspaper with the ideals espoused by The Wall Street Journal would celebrate the reintroduction of U.S.-branded competition into a broken marketplace. “You would think they would lament the distortive effects of oil subsidies and question why cheaper alternatives to oil cannot seem to break into the marketplace. In that world, the Journal would be calling for the comprehensive energy tax reform we so badly need to ensure that the next generation of motor fuels are produced by Americans instead of China, India or Brazil. What we do not need is more yellow journalism about ethanol from The Wall Street Journal editorial board.”

advanced biofuels, AEC, Cellulosic, Ethanol

Biogas Advocates to Meet in San Francisco

John Davis

biogas brochureTurning organic waste from a liability into a profitable asset is the theme for the 2nd Annual Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas Conference 2013, May 16-17 in San Francisco. Some of the conference highlights will include tips on how to build a commercially viable anaerobic digestion:

– GET FINANCE FROM INVESTORS by hearing case studies of successful investments which prove commercial viability & long term ROI to potential investors.

– MAKE YOUR ANAEROBIC DIGESTION PROJECT COMMERCIALLY VIABLE by maximizing the value from all revenue streams including fertiliser, gas, CHP and electricity. Understand tipping fee economics and exploit your energy credits.

– UTILIZE A VARIETY OF FEEDSTOCKS FOR BIOGAS SUCCESS by securing long-term feedstock agreements from sorted organic waste & draw higher yields.

– SET UP OPERATIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE with big or small anaerobic digesters in the best locations to drive down costs and combat the NIMBY problem.

– REGULATIONS & PERMITTING Fast track your application and reduce costs by learning what to include in your pitch to agencies.

Speakers and attendees will include industry leaders, as well as government officials, including Chris Cassidy, National Renewable Energy Advisor at USDA.

More information and registration is available here.

biogas

Chasing Methane Advocates at Iowa Capitol

Joanna Schroeder

Chasing Methane TeamDFThere is no age requirement to be an advocate for the environment. During the recent Iowa Wind Energy Day, five young advocates from Chasing Methane, ranging in age from 11 to 13, came to the Iowa Capitol to encourage people to support food waste composting. Why? As Joey Titus, a 7th grader at Southeast Junior High in Iowa City, Iowa said, “Right now the food waste coming from restaurants is going to the landfill which is creating methane and methane is a 25 times more damaging at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.”

When talking about greenhouse gases (GHG), carbon dioxide typically stands center stage, but as Titus points out, CO2 is not near as damaging as methane – a gas created through the decomposition of materials in a landfill.

Titus along with his club members, Andrew Burgess, a 5th grader at Borlaug Elementary, his brother Daniel Burgess, a 7th grader at Northwest Junior High and Ethan Trepka, also a 7th grader at Northwest Junior High, all in Iowa City, formed the group back in August of 2012. Titus’s Dad is the manager of Carlos O’Kelly’s in town, one of the restaurants, along with Applebee’s that participated in food waste audits.

When the Chasing Methane team looked through the trash of two restaurants, they found that combined, they were generating about 2 tons of waste every week, and 75 percent of that waste could be composted, said Titus.

Chasing Methane Team with IA Gov Terry BranstadTitus said his group would like to see a statewide composting initiative and even a nationwide initiative because right now this methane is going up and affecting the ozone layer, which is causing global warming, and its effecting all the weather we’re having.

They were on the capitol advocating for a bill that would allow the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to perform audits at restaurants to determine if legislating a statewide restaurant composting program would reduce methane in the environment. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad listened to the pitch right before the team headed down to the capitol refuse center to conduct a waste audit. Hopefully the findings will impact state legislators to be a leading state in passing a methane reduction bill.

As Titus aptly pointed out, not only restaurants create food waste – we create food waste at home as well. With only 50 percent of food that is produced is actually being eaten, he encourages consumers to join the composting revolution. You can do this by composting, joining a composting program and even by becoming a member of Chasing Methane. All ages from all cities around the world are invited to join.

Listen to my full interview with Joey Titus here: Chasing Methane Advocates at Iowa Capitol

See the 2013 Iowa Wind Energy Day Photo Album.

Audio, biomethane, Climate Change, Environment, global warming