Turning Cow Manure Into Brown Gold

Joanna Schroeder

In the heart of Wisconsin, a project is underway to produce energy from a resource that is in little danger of running low: cow manure, or “brown gold.” Thanks to a $7 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI), the University of Wisconsin-Madison and several state companies have formed a consortium to pilot the conversion of dairy farm manure into useful product streams—a project that is expected to have significant environmental and economic benefits.

cute cowThe Accelerated Renewable Energy (ARE) project is already in progress at the 5,000-cow Maple Leaf Dairy in Manitowoc County, where animal waste is separated into different streams, or fractions, of processed manure. After small plant fibers in the manure are separated out and anaerobically digested to create biogas, liquids from the digestion process are used to fertilize crops, while leftover solids can be converted into useful chemicals and bio-plastics. Larger plant fibers, on the other hand, make great animal bedding and mulch, as well as a starting material for ethanol fermentation.

WBI director and Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) faculty member Troy Runge, who is a co-investigator of the project, is interested in supporting a renewable energy economy through the development of value-added products from biomass. Runge’s lab is analyzing the ARE project’s separation techniques to improve their efficiency and economic performance.

“We are performing many of the same separations that occur on the farm, but in the controlled environment of the lab to both measure and optimize the system,” says Runge.Read More

advanced biofuels, Agribusiness, biomass, Research

Stover Harvesting Requires Careful Management

Joanna Schroeder

According to Purdue University researchers, removing corn stover from agricultural fields to produce cellulosic ethanol requires careful management to avoid adding greenhouse gas emissions and soil erosion to the environment. However, environmental impacts from stover removal can be reduced by switching to no-till corn or adding winter cover crops, but these practices likely would increase production costs, researchers reported in a study, “Environmental and Economic Trade-Offs in a Watershed When Using Corn Stover for Bioenergy,” published in Environmental Science & Technology.

“Some crop rotation and tillage combinations are more environmentally benign than others,” said Ben Gramig, a Purdue agricultural economist and the study’s lead researcher. “But there are water quality and greenhouse gas tradeoffs when collecting stover.”

As Gramig explains, stover is the parts of a corn plant that remain after grain harvest. Greenhouse gases from cropfields are released into the atmosphere when carbon escapes disturbed soils during stover removal. Emissions also occur when nitrogen fertilizer is applied to the land or crop residues decompose. Plowing fields loosens soil and, when combined with removing stover, causes increased soil erosion.

The study examined the environmental effects and costs of stover collection from eight corn-soybean rotation and continuous corn systems in a watershed typical of the eastern Corn Belt. The comparisons were made by combining results from watershed and greenhouse gas computer simulation models and minimizing the cost of stover collection, to select which farming practices to use in an agricultural watershed.

Read More

advanced biofuels, Agribusiness, Carbon, Cellulosic, corn, Research, Video

RFS & E10 Blend Wall White Paper Released

Joanna Schroeder

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has released a “white paper” analyzing the federal renewable fuels standard (RFS) and the so-called E10 blend wall. On page two, the white paper highlighted that new fuels are banned from competing with petroleum products unless first approved for use by the federal government. According to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA), this federal petroleum mandate hampers consumers from purchasing the ethanol blend of their choice.

Energy Chairman Upton John Shinkle:POLITICO“It has been more than five years since the RFS was last revised, and we now have a wealth of actual implementation experience with it,” the white paper explains. “In some respects, the RFS has unfolded as expected, but in others it has not. Several implementation challenges have emerged that received little if any consideration prior to passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Furthermore, the overall energy landscape has changed since 2007. It is time to undertake an assessment of the RFS.”

In addition, the white paper examines issues for producers, refiners, auto manufacturers, and fuel retailers. and poses a number of questions for discussion. The committee is requesting interested stakeholders to send responses to these questions by April 5, 2013.

“IRFA welcomes a full, fair, and factual review of the RFS by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  However, the initial white paper focused on the so-called “blend wall” is very one-sided,” responded IRFA Executive Director, Monte Shaw. “In fact, it seems to approach every issue from the Big Oil point of view.  For example, despite the contention, there simply is no such thing as a real ‘E10 blend wall.’  The reality is that refiners are going to great lengths to construct an artificial blend wall through their own direct actions as an excuse to tear apart the RFS.  Such a conclusion by elected officials would be highly ironic given that the RFS was enacted with the expressed purpose of cracking the petroleum monopoly and forcing the oil companies to allow alternative options to compete – options like cheaper, cleaner, higher performing E15.

“In what was perhaps an unintended moment of balance, the white paper does highlight that federal law establishes a federal petroleum mandate – a federally enforced prohibition of any fuel that contains less than 85 percent petroleum.  The federal petroleum mandate is one of the biggest problems today preventing fuel competition, consumer choice, and lower cost fuel options for Americans,” concluded Shaw.

biofuels, Ethanol, Iowa RFA, RFS

Bioenergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFOn June 12, the Sustainable Energy Coalition – in cooperation with Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Caucuses – will host the 16th annual Congressional Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency EXPO + Forum. The event is FREE and will be held at the Cannon House Office Building – Caucus Room U.S. House of Representatives Independence Avenue and New Jersey Avenue SE; Washington, DC.
  • Amyris, Inc. has welcomed the announcement that Tonon Bioenergia, a Brazilian agro-industrial group with growing investments in the sugarcane industry, has signed a contract to acquire the Paraiso Bioenergia sugarcane mill, which supplies feedstock to Amyris’s farnesene production unit in Brotas, Brazil.
  • Algae.Tec has confirmed the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been formed between Algae.Tec and WorleyParsons to support the company in its current projects.
  • Butamax Advanced Biofuels, LLC has announced it will appeal the Court’s claim construction and decisions on certain motions before the Court in Butamax’s litigation against Gevo.
  • Solectria Renewables, LLC, has announced that Anita Worden, Chairwoman of Solectria Renewables, has been named one of the 20 “Women to Watch” by Mass High Tech.
Miscellaneous

OriginOil Claims Solution for Fracking Water Problem

John Davis

Originoil1The folks at OriginOil say they have the solution for the problem of what to do with all of the wastewater leftover from hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking,” the process used to free petroleum and other non-renewable fuels from the ground.

Riggs Eckelberry is the CEO of OriginOil, a company dedicated to extracting oil from algae for a variety of uses, including making that oil into renewable fuel. In an interview with Joanna, he said they’ve developed a chemical-free, low-energy process that uses electronic pulses to separate the algae from the water, and that same technique works well getting petroleum out of the fracking water.

“That water when you are fracking an oil well is full of petroleum,” he explained. “We found our process, independent of algae, does a great job of removing up to 98 percent of those particulates … easy to purify to drinking water or groundwater standards.” He added the fracking industry needs to start treating its water or become impaired, calling it of national strategic importance.

Riggs-Eckelberry-Headshot1Riggs went on to say that this process gives the oil industry a chance to be on a more environmentally friendly path, preserving that income flow for them and saving them money. It costs 21-26 cents per gallon to treat the dirty water. His company’s process could get that down to 7-8 cents per gallon, even below the 11-cents-per-gallon rate just to haul the untreated water away. “At that point, why would you do anything else?”

He said the application could work in other contaminated water situations, such as mining tailings and wastewater.

Listen to Joanna’s interview with Riggs here: Interview with Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil

algae, Biodiesel

Economist Says E85 Will Solve RINS Price Issue

Cindy Zimmerman

A highly respected oil economist believes the solution to the current Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) price issue is more sales of E85 (85% ethanol).

verlegerEconomist Phil Verleger has weighed in on the RINS situation in the latest edition of Notes at the Margin, his weekly email report about news impacting the petroleum industry. “The obvious solution to the RIN price problem involves no EPA intervention and no regulatory action,” Verleger wrote. “It simply calls for boosting E85 sales.”

Verleger explains that because refiners will be required by EPA this year to have 9/10s of a RIN for every 10 gallons of gasoline, and each gallon of E85 generates 0.85 RINs, a sale of 10 gallons of E85 produces a surplus of nearly 7.6 RINS which they can sell. “My point is that when the price of RINS gets high enough, that the price of E85 on a per BTU basis will be less than the price of gasoline,” said Verleger in a phone interview with Domestic Fuel. “At some point companies will almost be willing to give away E85 to get the RINS.”

According to Verleger, the RINS issue has been created by the resistance of some refiners to the RFS. “The oil industry doesn’t like to sell less oil,” he said. They want to get the program changed so that “they can sell more gasoline and not have to use as much ethanol.”

Listen to interview with Verleger here: Economist Phil Verleger

Audio, E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Oil, RINS

What’s the Real Deal with E15?

Joanna Schroeder

What’s the real deal with E15? Do we hate it? Do we love it? Well Big Oil certainly has not shown an affinity for the ethanol fuel blend. But why?

Ron Lamberty ACEAccording to Ron Lamberty, Senior Vice President for American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), American Petroleum Institute (API) began its campaign against E15 as part of its attempt to get rid of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). One of the things API has done, explains Lamberty, is hyped a study by CRC that found E15 could be harmful to your vehicle. Yet what hasn’t gotten out, he says, is that when CRC submitted the request for proposal, they sought out vehicles that would be particularly sensitive to higher blends of ethanol.

When you dig into the study, says Lamberty, you discover that CRC tested cars that already had issues such as leaky values, engine leaks and all kinds of trouble lights. So of course, he says, the cars would be sensitive to all blends of ethanol. Yet interestingly, the data also shows that the cars had the SAME trouble when using 100 percent gasoline.

So how is this a valid study? It’s not.

Get a great breakdown of the study in my  interview with Ron Lamberty: What's the Real Deal with E15?

View the ACE Biofuels Beltway March 2013 Photo Album.

ACE, Audio, E15, Ethanol

Sapphire Energy To Sell Algae-Based Crude to Tesoro

Joanna Schroeder

Sapphire Energy has entered into an agreement to sell its algae-based Green Crude oil to Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company. Under the agreement, Tesoro will purchase crude oil from Sapphire Energy’s Green Crude Farm in Columbus, New Mexico, which recently reached a new milestone: continuous cultivation and crude oil production. This begins the first step of a commercial relationship to process Green Crude oil from Sapphire’s future commercial facilities.

SAPPHIRE ENERGY, INC. GREEN CRUDE OIL ALGAE“In less than one year, Sapphire Energy has started up its commercial demonstration to grow algae; has produced crude oil from our farm; and now with Tesoro as our first commercial customer, we’re providing barrels of our oil to be refined for market use,” said Cynthia ‘CJ’ Warner, CEO and chairman of Sapphire Energy. “This moment is enormously important for the industry as it validates the benefits and advantages of Green Crude, and confirms its place as a market-viable, refiner-ready, renewable crude oil solution.”

Sapphire says it is now producing crude oil daily from algae biomass. The company says its process enables algae to be processed without the need for a timely and costly drying step. With this process, which is the result of more than four years of research, development and field trials, the entire algae cell is now used in oil production, greatly improving yield. Furthermore, the process is scalable, and has proven to be effective with a wide range of algae strains.

In initial testing by Sapphire Energy, Green Crude oil was refined into on-spec ASTM 975 diesel fuel, proving its compatibility with the existing network of pipelines, refineries and transport systems. Moving forward, the company plans to grow production significantly to further expand its commercial demonstration and begin the transition towards commercial-scale production.

Joel Larkins, vice president of Renewable Development at Tesoro, added, “Tesoro is continuously looking at new technologies for producing renewable fuels. We are pleased to become a purchaser of Sapphire Energy’s Green Crude, which shows promise as an alternative fuel solution.”

advanced biofuels, algae

What is a RIN?

Joanna Schroeder

Recently, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) gave a one minute briefing on what, exactly, is a Renewable Identification Number (RIN). Shimkus explained:

“Mr. Speaker, there’s been a lot of media coverage on RINs.

A RIN is a Renewable Identification Number, which is given to refiners upon the purchase of renewable fuels. It is then used by refiners every February to establish that they have met their previous year’s obligation under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

These recent stories raise a question as to why RINs are being blamed in the increase in gasoline prices. RINs are given away for free by ethanol and other renewable fuel producers to refiners and only have value in the submission of the report in February. We are currently in the month of March and soon to be in April.

There are questions that need to be asked on why such swift dramatic price shifts are being reported in the market. Are speculators at work? There is an excess of over two billion RINs. Why is that not proving and providing stability?

I encourage the media to ask these types of questions, but to simply jump on and blame the renewable fuels sector is incorrect.”

biofuels, Ethanol, Video

Senate Spending Bill Keeps Military Biofuels

Cindy Zimmerman

navy-biofuelsThe U.S. Senate yesterday passed a continuing budget resolution that would keep the federal government operating through the end of the fiscal year on September 30th and keep funding for advanced biofuels testing in the military.

By a vote of 40-59, the Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-PA) that would have transferred $60 million in funding for military biofuels testing to increase Defense Department operations and maintenance funding. Toomey said in a press release he was very disappointed in his colleagues who “would rather spend taxpayer dollars on more wasteful biofuel subsidies than support essential maintenance operations for our military.”

Adam Monroe, president of advanced biofuels company Novozymes, praised the Senate for continuing its support of the Navy’s advanced biofuels program. “Every day we import oil, we’re putting our troops, families and country at needless risk. We can reduce that risk with a secure energy supply, including renewable fuels,” said Monroe. Last year, Novozymes opened an advanced manufacturing plant in Blair, Nebraska which specializes in enzymes for both the conventional and advanced biofuel markets.

The Senate spending bill was approved 73-26 and now goes to the House.

advanced biofuels, biofuels, biojet fuel, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government, military