On 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.
OriginOil Claims Solution for Fracking Water Problem
The 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 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
Economist Says E85 Will Solve RINS Price Issue
A highly respected oil economist believes the solution to the current Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) price issue is more sales of E85 (85% ethanol).
Economist 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
What’s the Real Deal with E15?
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?
According 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?
Sapphire Energy To Sell Algae-Based Crude to Tesoro
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.
“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.”
What is a RIN?
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.”
Senate Spending Bill Keeps Military Biofuels
The 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.
Supporting the Renewable Fuel Standard
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Have you recently purchased a gun?”
Our poll results: Thirty-three percent said Yes, Already Own Guns while twenty-nine percent said No, Don’t Own Any. Nineteen percent said No, Have Enough, Eleven percent said Planning To, five percent said Yes, First Gun Purchase, and three percent said Other. Looks like most of you have one or more guns. Let’s hope that ammo for those guns becomes available again soon! Right now it’s very difficult to find any and we all know that to be proficient in using a gun, it takes practice/practice/practice.
Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Do you support continuing the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)?” The Renewable Fuels Standard, or RFS, program was first created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and established the first renewable fuel volume mandate in the United States. It was expanded in 2007 and increased the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into transportation fuel from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The program includes ethanol, biodiesel and advanced biofuels with the goal of helping America become less dependent on foreign petroleum.
The RFS continues to be challenged by the oil industry, some livestock and poultry interests and food retailers for various reasons but the biofuels industry contends the program is working as intended and has resulted in lower imports of foreign oil. What do you think?
ZimmPoll is sponsored by 
.
Big Oil’s Big Stall
Big Oil lobbed another attack today against the biofuels industry. Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) responded by saying the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is not about the oil industry’s comfort; it is about providing cleaner American-made alternatives to consumers.
“The RFS costs taxpayers nothing and is doing exactly what Congress intended; saving consumers money at the pump and providing them access to new affordable blends such as E15. The RFS is also disrupting the lucrative choke-hold oil companies have on the market. As a result, Big Oil is desperate to repeal the RFS this year.”
Jennings continued, “With respect to Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), every time a refiner blends a gallon of ethanol with gasoline, they get a RIN for free. When they purchase more ethanol than the annual RFS obligation, RINs are a reward and provide value to them. The fact there are 2.5 billion excess RINs available for use in 2013 is proof that over-compliance has been commonplace with oil companies. Refiners only have to buy RINs if they refuse to follow the law, and that’s what this is about – they have had more than six years to evolve and comply with the law, but have refused to adapt and change.”
“Most refiners are trying to keep an oversupply of RINs on hand, to be sure that they are able to control the marketplace. The current Big Oil hue and cry isn’t about ethanol supply; it is fear of actual competition,” concluded Jennings.
Renewable Fuels Leaders Refute Oil Industry Claims
Leaders of Fuels America held a press conference this morning to “preemptively answer misinformation on renewable fuel blends and gasoline prices” in a new report by the American Petroleum Institute.
Speaking in defense of the renewable fuels industry were the heads of several industry organizations and companies, including Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen, Advanced Ethanol Council Executive Director Brooke Coleman, Biotechnology Industry Organization CEO Jim Greenwood, Adam Monroe with Novozymes and Chris Standlee with Abengoa.
Listen to the entire press conference here: Fuels America Press Conference