The Biomass Innovation Park will provide harvesting, handling, storage, densification, pre-processing, and transportation for multiple feedstocks including switchgrass, and serve as a foundation for all biomass feedstock used to create biofuels, biochemicals, bioproducts, biomaterials, biopower, and bioenergy. The 21-acre park is located adjacent to the Genera/DDCD demonstration-scale biorefinery in Vonore.

“This facility will integrate biomass receiving, storage, separation, pre-processing, and compaction. It will initially process up to 50,000 tons of switchgrass but is designed to handle a wide range of energy crops and other biomass feedstocks,” said Genera President and CEO Dr. Kelly Tiller. “We will also have energy crop R&D demonstration plots onsite, as well as some demonstration scale novel conversion processes and technology.

Switchgrass studies are currently underway and more than 6,000 acres of switchgrass are being grown by local farmers within a 50 mile radius of the plant. Genera has contracted with the farmers to convert the switchgrass to cellulosic ethanol. The first phase of construction will completed by the end of 2010, in time to store and process switchgrass from the fall harvest.

“The Biomass Innovation Park will be a unique and valuable asset in answering many of the questions farmers, biorefineries, and the entire bioenergy industry are asking about sufficient, sustainable, scalable, cost effective supply chains for energy crops;” concluded Dr. Tiller.

“Coulomb’s first customer was the City of San Jose and we’re pleased to be back, both to welcome the electric vehicle transformation to Silicon Valley and also to bring jobs to install and maintain electric vehicle infrastructure,” said Richard Lowenthal CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “Thanks to our $37 Million ChargePoint America program, San Jose will be one of the first cities in the nation to enable its residents to buy vehicles that don’t pollute and don’t depend on oil.”

Coulomb is working with Ford, Chevrolet and Smart USA, three companies that have announced that they will introduce EVs in the Bay area in upcoming months. The first two ChargePoint America stations are now installed at the McEnergy Convention Center parking center. The program goal is to install 5,000 charging stations in nine regions of the U.S. including Austin, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose/San Francisco, California; New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; Bellevue/Redmond, Washington; and Washington D.C.

“The installation of San Jose's first ChargePoint America station is an important step forward in our efforts to make the Bay Area the Electric Vehicle capital of America,” said Mayor Chuck Reed. “Our partnership will Coulomb Technologies is the perfect example of how Silicon Valley can lead the world in clean tech innovation and create new jobs in our community.”

Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network is open to all drivers of plug-in vehicles and provides authentication, management and real-time control for the networked electric vehicle charging stations. ChargePoint Network’s unique features also include a ChargePoint iPhone App, location of unoccupied charging stations via smart phones and charging status sent to you by SMS text or email notification.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Protec Fuel joined representatives of the Norfolk Naval Base and Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) in Norfolk, Virginia to cut the ribbon and open the new E85 pump. In addition to providing fuel for the Navy Fleet and city fleets, the station is open to the general public.

Norfolk is home to the largest fleet of vehicles using alternative fuels in United States. As the largest Naval complex in the world, the Norfolk Naval base has 2,585 flex-fuel vehicles (FFV) in their fleet. “When the largest fleet in the state of Virginia is fueling their vehicles with alternative fuels like ethanol, it shows the strong desire to rely more on domestic made fuel and less on foreign oil,” said RFA Director of Market Development, Robert White. “With the Navy taking this lead, we only hope that it will promote the use of America’s fuel throughout the rest of the U.S.”

Todd Garner, Managing Partner of Protec Fuel said they are proud to be partnered with NEXCOM and The US Navy by building and opening this new E85 station. “The Norfolk Naval E85 station, serving the largest Naval base in the world, will effectively serve the general public and the large flex-fuel fleet vehicles simultaneously,” said Garner. “Economic and environmental benefits aside, this station and E85 will help get our troops home and strengthen our national security through domestically produced fuels.”

Read more here.

A newly released working paper, entitled “Placing the 2006/08 Commodity Price Boom into Perspective,” from the Development Prospects Group at the World Bank, concludes that “…the effect of biofuels on food prices has not been as large as originally thought, but that the use of commodities by financial investors (the so-called “financialization of commodities”) may have been partly responsible for the 2007/08 spike.”

Authors of the report, John Baffes and Tassos Haniotis, argue that energy prices, as well as speculation, played significant roles in the non-energy commodity price spikes seen in the recent past. “We conclude that a stronger link between energy and non‐energy commodity prices is likely to have been the dominant influence on developments in commodity, and especially food, markets,” says the report. “Demand by developing countries is unlikely to have put additional pressure on the prices of food commodities, although it may have created such pressure indirectly through energy prices.”

Another point they make is that biofuels only represent 1.5 percent of worldwide grain and oilseed use. “This raises serious doubts about claims that biofuels account for a big shift in global demand. Even though widespread perceptions about such a shift played a big role during the recent commodity price boom, it is striking that maize prices hardly moved during the first period of increase in US ethanol production, and oilseed prices dropped when the EU increased impressively its use of biodiesel. On the other hand, prices spiked while ethanol use was slowing down in the US and biodiesel use was stabilizing in the EU.”

In a 2008 Policy Research Working Paper, authored by Donald Mitchell, lead economist for the World Bank's Development Prospects Group, which claimed 70-75 percent of the increase in food prices that year was due to biofuels and the related consequences of low grain stocks, large land use shifts, speculative activity and export bans.

So, this new paper is a big about-face from the 2008 view and actually says what most biofuels advocates were saying all along, according to Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen. “In reversing course, this World Bank report reaffirms the marginal role biofuels play in world commodity and food prices,” said Dinneen. “The RFA has long noted that ethanol production has continued to increase while corn prices have now returned to normal levels. Volatile oil prices, speculation, and adverse weather conditions all played far more significant roles in driving commodity prices to record and near record prices.”

It is interesting to note that these “working papers,” although released by the World Bank, done by World Bank economists and posted on the World Bank website, come with a disclaimer that says they represent “work in progress” and that the findings “are entirely those of the authors” and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank.

Link to July 2008 working paper.
Link to July 2010 Working Paper.

LS9: the right technology to scale up biofuel production

The biofuel market is turning into a diverse romp of venture-backed companies auditioning different microbes, catalysts and feedstocks, all with the same goal: to quickly, efficiently and cheaply transform renewable, non-food products (ranging from sugar cane to switch grass to carbon dioxide) into viable forms of fuel that can work in today’s gas tanks.

The problem is, almost all of these players hit the same ceiling: they can’t figure out a way to inexpensively scale with the technology they have. But biofuel startup LS9 may have just changed that.

The company’s scientists have published a paper, academically titled “Microbial Biosynthesis of Alkanes,” claiming that they can now implant genes into E. coli that allow the bacteria to directly churn out alkanes — otherwise known as the hydrocarbons in car and jet fuel — in one step. This is a major breakthrough for the field, one that has been chased for years.

Littlefield, Texas may be cotton country, but they are going green with biodiesel

Photo from: http://www.texasgreen.biz/index.html

LITTLEFIELD, TX (KCBD) - In the heart of Littlefield's cotton industry, you will find a biodiesel plant called Texas Green. Anyone can use their alternative fuel with little or no modifications to their car, simply if they have a diesel engine.

Jeffrey and Jerry Bigham started the alternative fuel plant three years ago when they noticed they could provide energy to local people from local products. "It is a local fuel and can be used locally. So we can take our products you can take cotton seed oil, you can take tallow, you can take waste vegetable oil from our restaurants," says Jeffrey Bigham.

Texas Green uses mostly beef tallow, or animal fat from local slaughter houses, mixes it with chemicals to create their biodiesel fuel. "Clean it up and recycle it and make it into a fuel we can use in our tractors to plow the fields of cotton or sort them. Or to use it in our diesel trucks that we use to move our cattle or work on our ranches," says Bigham.

Bigham says some states have mandates put in place that forces gas stations to use a percentage of biodiesel in every gallon of diesel fuel. "For instance in Minnesota, 2 percent of biodiesel has to be in every gallon of fuel sold," says Bigham.

Bigham says these mandates limit the use of foreign oil and better yet recycles local products instead. "One of the most famous biodiesel stations is in Texas Carl's Corner, where Willie Nelson has his truck stop. That truck stop has three million gallons per year bio diesel. Willie Nelson is very, very supportive of biodiesel and uses biodiesel blends of the material he makes and sells it to the truckers right there," says Bigham.

The benefits of biodiesel, according to Bigham, include it's the safest fuel to store, use and handle, along with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "Our biodiesel is a 90% greenhouse reduction over regular diesel fuel," says Bigham.

Another benefit, Bigham says is biodiesel is completely tax free in the state of Texas, which can save people some green in their wallet. "Biodiesel is not taxed in the state of Texas, so basically every gallon of biodiesel that a service station uses they save 20 cents," says Bigham.

The Bighams say they continue to learn new techniques to make better biodiesel fuel everyday. Currently they are not in commercial production, but they hope in the future to have their own biodiesel pump located at their plant for local farmers and people in the community to use.

Connecticut adds 5% biodiesel to their heating oil, new mandate is law

Peter Aziz, President of Bantam Fuel, testified before the legislature's Environment Committee in March and explained Bantam Fuel's success with its Bantam BioHeat fuel over the last four years.

Legislation that will reduce sulfur and require increasing levels of biodiesel in home heating oil supplied by Bantam Fuel and other Connecticut oil dealers has been signed into law by Gov. M. Jodi Rell effective July 1.
Rell's approval of Senate Bill 382 came after the legislature, which heard testimony from Bantam Fuel President Peter Aziz, voted in support of the measure.
Aziz testified before the legislature's Environment Committee in March and explained Bantam Fuel's success with its Bantam BioHeat fuel over the last four years. Bantam BioHeat, Aziz testified, doesn't cost more than regular heating oil, performs well in cold weather, and burns with greater efficiency.
Improved efficiency, Aziz said, means customers use less fuel and save money. Bantam BioHeat features a biodiesel component (an organic renewable resource) equaling 5 percent. A greater biodiesel component means less sulfur being emitted in the form of greenhouse gas.
"Passage of the law is great news for Connecticut fuel consumers," Aziz said. "Their heating oil will be cleaner, more reliable and have a significant renewable energy content."

I am also happy to see more biodiesel going into the heaters of America, surely we can heat our own homes with out own fuel. This is a real success story, glad to hear the state of CT is on the ball.

New York will add 2% biodiesel to all heating oil, another green mandate

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times--Bins like this one will be installed in buildings across New York City as a result of a new law.

It was like Earth Day for the New York City Council on Thursday as members passed legislation to improve air quality and expand recycling programs.

As announced earlier this week by the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, one of the new laws will halve sulfur levels in a common type of home heating oil, No. 4, starting in October 2012. The law also will require that biodiesel fuel make up at least 2 percent of all grades of petroleum heating oil.

With the enactment this month of a New York State law that will drastically reduce the sulfur content in No. 2, the most common type of heating oil, the city’s action is expected to make an important dent in soot pollution and asthma cases.

The City Council also approved a package of bills ushering in the first major overhaul of recycling laws adopted in 1989. The new laws will increase plastics recycling, put more recycling bins in schools and public areas and allow residents to recycle hazardous waste like paint.

“This is a big day for the environment in the council,” said Eric A. Goldstein, environmental director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City. “These bills represent evolutionary, not revolutionary, change. Slow but steady wins the race.”

Another environmental group, the Environmental Defense Fund, praised the improvement in heating oil as a way of reducing the hospitalization rate for children with asthma and raising the failing grade the city now gets from the federal government for its air quality. In a report last year, the group said that about 9,500 buildings in the city burning the dirtiest grades of heating oil – No. 4 and No. 6 – account for more pollution than cars and trucks.

New Yorkers burn more than one billion gallons of heating oil a year. Bloomberg administration officials said they were working on a plan that would further limit the use of No. 4 and No. 6 heating oils by phasing out the boilers that burn them.

Here is an opportunity to save millions of gallons of foreign oil and clean up the air of a very dirty place. I hope this will lead other cities to do the same thing and add biodiesel to heating oil.

In this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we will hear from each of those representatives – Tom Buis with ethanol group Growth Energy; Bob Cleaves of the Biomass Power Association; Brad Collins with the American Solar Energy Society; Karl Gawell from the Geothermal Energy Association; and Rob Gramlich with the American Wind Energy Association – as well as 25x'25 steering committee co-chairman Reid Smith.

Listen to the Domestic Fuel Cast here. Domestic Fuel Cast

You can also subscribe to the DomesticFuel Cast here.

The Lucky Stop station in Las Vegas offers ethanol blends of E30 and E85 and owner Mike Maalouf is pleased to offer his customers a choice. “Everyone is struggling with the way the economy is right now. By installing E30 and E85 this creates more choices for the consumer, but also assists with lessening our dependency on foreign oil,” he said. There are 13 other E85 stations in Nevada, but this is the first to offer an additional blend. The new blender pump opened for business on July 12 and Maalouf reports that his sales have already increased by 30 percent.

Growth Energy provided Lucky’s a grant through their 2010 E85 and Blender Pump Program. Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy noted that the recent certification of Dresser Wayne and Gilbarco blender pumps by Underwriters Laboratory will help promote the installation of blender pumps across the country to help decrease our dependence on oil.

“We are pleased to assist Lucky Stop with the opening of the first blender pump west of the Rockies,” said Buis. “Every blender pump we install will help make our country more energy independent and more secure, all while giving consumers a choice at the pump that includes domestic, renewable ethanol. Growth Energy is pleased to have been able to assist in Lucky Stop’s efforts and we remain committed to assist with additional blender pumps across the nation.”

The coalition Government is absolutely committed to low carbon growth, tackling climate change and making our energy supply more secure. We are sending a clear signal that Britain is open for business and that we are committed to greening our economy. This will ensure that the UK is a world leader in low emission vehicles.

Gallery: Smart ED

Continue reading UK approves $7,800 incentive for ultra-low carbon vehicles

UK approves $7,800 incentive for ultra-low carbon vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Biodiesel from butter, the list of feedstocks never stops growing

Butter could provide an eco-friendly raw material for making biodiesel fuel. Credit: USDA, Agricultural Research Service

The search for new raw materials for making biodiesel fuel has led scientists to an unlikely farm product — butter. In a new study in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they report that butter could be used as an eco-friendly feedstock, or raw material, for making diesel fuel.

Michael Haas and colleagues cite rising global demand for biodiesel, and the desire to expand the feedstock base, as motivating factors for their research. The United States alone has committed to producing 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, a major increase from the current annual production level of about 11 billion gallons. Most of that was ethanol.

Biodiesel production, now approaching 1 billion gallons annually in the U.S., is also slated to increase. As researchers seek additional and affordable feedstocks for biodiesel production, these scientists turned to butter, one billion pounds of which are produced annually. Could surplus, spoiled, or nonfood-grade butter be used to make biodiesel at competitive prices?

In an effort to find out, the scientists recovered the fat from a quarter-ton of butter and converted it into the fatty acid esters that constitute biodiesel. They found that the resulting material met all but one of the official test standards for biodiesel. The study concluded that with further purification or by blending with biodiesel from other feedstocks butter biodiesel could add to the supply of biobased fuel for diesel engines.

Sure it makes sense that butter would make good biodiesel, and as far as a food source, they are talking about spoiled stock not fit to eat, which now probably goes into the landfill.

Minnesota’s Farmfest gives away soy-based biodiesel as a prize

A crowd gathers at Farmfest to watch a debate between Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman and his DFL challenger Al Franken. In addition, various other politicians attended the annual event. (MPR Photo/Mark Zdechlik)—Photo from: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/05/farmfest1/

GILFILLAN, MInn. — Two-thousand dollars of biodiesel will be given away at Farmfest Aug. 3-5.
Stop by the Minnesota Soybean booth, No. 618, or the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute booth, No. 612, to enter the drawing. Four prizes will be given away, each worth $500.
Drawings will be held daily. Winners will be contacted by phone after the show. Contestants must be at least 18 years old.
This contest is made possible by AURI and soybean checkoff funds invested by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.
It's been a part of Farmfest for the last three or four years, said Veronica Bruckhoff, Minnesota Soybean field representative.
"It's really popular," she said. "We get tons of people who come down and visit us and look for it."

I used to love the farm-oriented stuff at the Minnesota State Fair even though I am a “city boy”, and I would guess the people of Minnesota were among the first to embrace biodiesel—just a hunch.

Practicing what they preach, Rothsay Biodiesel runs their own fleet on biodiesel

Photo from: http://www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroZine/english/issues/69/feature1_e.cfm

GULEPH, ONTARIO, CANADA - Rothsay Biodiesel, a division of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., said that its program to fuel its own fleets with biodiesel blends reduced carbon output by approximately 700 metric tons in 2009 -- the equivalent to removing approximately 130 cars from the road.

Three of Rothsay's truck fleets have been fueled with biodiesel blends since 2009, bringing the total number of trucks in the fleet program to 137. In 2009, the fleets consumed more than 600,000 gallons at an average blend rate of 9.2 percent. They traveled a combined 3.3 million miles with no mechanical issues or decrease in mileage, Biodiesel Magazine reported.

Rothsay biodiesel is a renewable fuel made by converting animal fats and recycled cooking oils into an environmentally sustainable alternative fuel that reduces greenhouse gases (GHG). The fuel can be used in all diesel engines today without modification.

Because of the fuel's success, Maple Leaf Foods plans to expand its biodiesel use, Mike Paszti, director of technical services and innovation for Rothsay, told Biodiesel Magazine. Use of the fuel has had no measurable impact on vehicle maintenance programs, reliability or performance.

"Rothsay's on-road fleet experience is proof of the positive benefits of blending biodiesel in Canada," said Canadian Renewable Fuels Association Chair Doug Hooper. "In everyday use and all weather conditions, Rothsay's biodiesel delivered top performance and, importantly, reduced the harmful greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and smog that is associated with fossil diesel use."

If it can work in Canada, it can work anywhere, cold as it sometimes can be there. I have always had much respect for Canada in how they handle their medical system and their biodiesel.

Alabama A&M University shows off donated biodiesel processing system

Michael Mercier / The Huntsville TimesDr. Ernest Cebert, research associate professor of plant breeding/genetics at Alabama A&M University, shows off a biodiesel processing unit that was donated by Willbrook Solutions.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Two companies in Huntsville are partnering with Alabama A&M University to convert used vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel to help run campus buses.

Under the partnership, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama will donate about 100 gallons of used cooking oil each month from its cafeteria and a small Huntsville business, Willbrook Solutions, has donated a $15,000 prototype biodiesel processing unit to A&M's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences to produce the fuel.

The biodiesel fuel will be used to operate buses that are part of the university's  transportation system.

"Waste vegetable oil is a valuable resource," said Dr. Ernest Cebert, research associate professor of plant breeding/genetics at A&M. "It's not very pretty but, once processed, it can run a diesel engine."

That amount of waste oil will be used to create 80 to 90 gallons of biodiesel fuel, according to Jim Bolte, the president of the Toyota plant in North Huntsville.

The bioenergy effort, Bolte said, "fits right in to what we're doing with our sustainability plan activities."

In 2008, a solar panel was put into service at the Toyota plant to generate enough energy to light parts of the plant. Toyota has planted about 2,500 trees on its property and hundreds more across Huntsville, said Bolte.

"We try to reduce, reuse and recycle everything," he said.

Kendell Phillips, Willbrook Solutions' CEO and president, said the company began four years ago as a Department of Defense contractor, but is moving into the alternative energy field.

"We cannot continue for the rest of our existence" so heavily dependent on petroleum-based oil, said Dr. Robert Taylor, dean of A&M's School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. This partnership with industry is very important now, he said.

Willbrook Solutions is also sponsoring a scholarship for a work-study program for biofuel development. The A&M student chosen for the scholarship is Dexter Williams of Selma, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering technology.

What a great thing to donate to a school—a biodiesel production unit. I hope students all over the country are being exposed to positive views of biodiesel as we see in this case.