Burning Bio News

New Jersey-based Garden State Ethanol has selected a closed landfill site in Woodbine, Pennsylvania, for the location of a $200 million biofuel plant that would use more than 100 bioreactor tanks to convert algae into ethanol and biodiesel oil. A local water-treatment plant would provide the 100 million gallons of treated but nonpotable water that would run through pipes to Garden State Ethanol. The project has many hurdles to clear, but there are signs of progress. An environmental study has revealed no endangered species at the location. This facility plans to produce 13 million gallons of biodiesel oil and 25 million gallons of ethanol each year.

Jurors in a federal court have ordered Cello Energy, a biofuel startup run by Alabama’s former ethics chairman, Jack Boykin, and backed by both Silicon Valley cleantech investors Khosla Ventures and pulp maker Parsons & Whittemore Enterprises, to pay more than $10.4 million in a fraud case. In 2007, Cello promised P&W that it would make $16-a-barrel fuel from biomass and it has gone downhill from there. – mj: This is interesting on two fronts. 1) Reportedly, investor Khosla Ventures viewed the $16/barrel claim as a long-term goal, while investor Parsons & Whttemore Enterprises thought it was already able to achieve this. 2) Cello Energy is showcased by EPA as the industry anchor for their revised RFS2 rules. What does this Fraud suit say about their rule analyses?

The Old Town Fuel & Fiber mill in Maine (US) is reinventing itself by developing technology to produce bio-butanol, a jet fuel, from parts of trees that would otherwise go to waste. The mill was closed and its entire workforce laid off in 2006, after which it was acquired by a group of investors known as Red Shield. Red Shield won a $30 million grant from the US Department of Energy to work on a pilot ethanol production plant, but funds ran out and they filed for bankruptcy last year, shutting the plant once more. However, in November of last year, Lynn Tilton, a New York venture capitalist bought the mill, invested about $40 million and shifted its focus to bio-butanol. Initial capacity will be 1.5 million gallons per year.

At least 700 people turned out June 29 for a meeting (Greenville, OH) organized by opponents of a $92.8 million plan to inject carbon dioxide from a nearby ethanol plant more than 3,000 feet underground. “We don’t want to become the dumping ground for carbon dioxide,” Vehre, former Darke County Solid Waste District director, said prior to the meeting. –mj: Wow. This sequestration project has not even begun (no permits, no agreement with the local ethanol plant (Andersons Marathon Ethanol LLC) and the community is outraged …all because the don’t want to be come a dumping ground? I believe we can do better than pumping CO2 deep underground, mostly because it pulls it out of the economy. CO2 will become too valuable to bury. Sorry I don’t understand the dumping ground fear.

Start-up Algenol Biofuels Inc. has formed a partnership with The Dow Chemical Co. to develop a $50 million, algae-to-fuel pilot- scale plant. Algenol, launched in 2006 by four partners, has been running on private funds, with the founders themselves injecting $70 million into the company so far. Dow will contribute land (Freeport, TX), engineering and water-management expertise, its advanced materials technology as well as a main feedstock - carbon emissions - to the project.

EPA is granting California’s waiver request enabling the state to enforce its greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles, beginning with the current model year. The first California waiver request was made in December 2005 and was subsequently denied in March 2008. -mj: The saga continues… This has been a significant controversy. It appears that things will calm down a bit now. However, California currently will not allow on-farm generation of electricity from manure digesters because their NOx standards for stationary engine emissions are 10x more restrictive than the rest of the country. No engine exists that can meet those standards. Hum…

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service pegs corn stocks at 4.27 billion bushels as of June 1, up 6 percent from June 1 of last year. In the acreage report, NASS pegs corn plantings at 87 million acres, up about 1 million acres from last year. “For the 2009/2010, the greater availability of corn supplies makes it more likely that the EPA will increase the ethanol blend rate from the current 10 percent to 12 percent or 13 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2010,” according to Terry Francl, senior economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation.

John Plaza, CEO of Wash.-based biodiesel company Imperium Renewables, said that the state’s inability to reach its own goal of running agency vehicles with 20 percent biofuels is causing more problems for the cash-strapped industry in WA. The state’s shortcoming in meeting its biofuel goals compounds the woes for an industry that has been forced to contend with high feedstock costs, unexpected shifts in national policy, punitive tariffs imposed by the European Union on top of a protracted global recession that has dramatically cut demand for diesel fuel and limited lending. “The credit crisis has created a lot of structural issues for biodiesel project financing,” he said. WA state plans to postpone their mandated goal one more year.

USDA is revising the CRP regulations to implement certain changes to CRP as required by the 2008 Farm Bill. The purpose of CRP continues to be to cost-effectively assist producers in conserving and improving soil, water, wildlife, and other natural resources by converting highly erodible and other environmentally sensitive acreage generally devoted to the production of agricultural commodities to a long-term vegetative cover. As CRP’s purpose and goals have changed over time, it is possible that unintended barriers to enrollment may exist. Therefore, we request comments on any barriers to enrollment and what steps should be taken to remove them. –mj: CRP is generally used to describe potential biomass production acreage. It appears that USDA is beginning to adjust their rules to accommodate this without compromising conservation goals.

Verenium Corp. and BP announced that their jointly-owned, commercial cellulosic ethanol project in Highlands County, FL, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to enter the due diligence phase of its Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program. Under this program, the DOE may provide loan guarantees for project debt covering up to 80 percent of eligible costs.

Some errors were found in Figure 1 of our last issue of Burning Bio News. The prices on the right-hand axis had not completely been updated from the earlier version of the chart. All links to this issue have been updated. I apologize for the inconvenience — mj.

The Banning City Council voted unanimously to ban the burning of sewage sludge in the city, effectively killing a controversial biofuels plant. Liberty Energy, a Bakersfield-based company, had proposed to construct and operate a 15-megawatt renewable power generation plant in Banning. The plant would operate using a mix of biosolids (treated sewage sludge) and biomass (green waste). – mj: It is disappointing to see humans resist innovative projects to utilize human sewage. Maybe the citizens of this community have found a way to eat without producing it?

Dynamotive Energy Systems Corp. announced that independent analyses of upgraded BioOil samples from their pyrolysis conversion technology have established the potential for development of synthetic hydrocarbon mobile fuels. Distillation analysis of the samples provided confirmed gasoline, jet, diesel, and vacuum gasoil fractions. Based on initial tests and analyses, the Company currently estimates that it can deliver advanced (second generation) fuels from biomass at a cost of less than $ 2 per gallon of ethanol-equivalent fuel in facilities processing about 70,000 tonnes of biomass per annum (current scale of its 200 metric tonne per day plant).

The revised State strategic plan, which will guide the activities and programs of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture for the next 4 years. The three main priorities are advocacy for the agriculture industry, economic development, and environmental stewardship.

Money is starting to flow from the Energy Department’s $25 billion loan program to develop U.S.-based advanced technology manufacturing capacity for fuel-efficient and battery vehicles, and the first $8 billion round goes to Ford, Tesla and Nissan. Ford will receive $5.9 billion in funding through 2011 to help finance engineering advances to internal-combustion engines and electrified vehicles. Tesla, whose electric Roadster can reach 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, is applying most of its $465 million to production engineering and assembly of its forthcoming-in-2011 Model S sedan. Nissan, the only foreign automaker to get loan funds, will apply its $1.6 billion to producing EVs and battery packs at its manufacturing complex in Smyrna, Tennessee.

One of the provisions of the recently passed House version of the Climate Bill is referred to as ‘Cash for Clunkers.’ The basic premise is to pay folks with older gas guzzlers to exchange them for newer, more fuel efficient cars. The authors list 5 reasons that this policy won’t work like it is planned. The largest one is that people who drive old cars, are happy in their frugality. A Toyota Prius can’t do the same stuff that a 10 year-old Ford pickup truck can do. The article made some good points.

The House on Friday narrowly passed landmark legislation meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions and create an energy-efficient economy, voting 219-212. President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to follow suit. Everyone from small farmers to nuclear energy companies would be forced to reevaluate their place in the new order. Power plants, factories and refineries would feel the first impact if the federal government moves ahead with plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by about 80 percent near the end of the century. – mj: this article is about the most balanced that I have read on this event. This is serious politics. It is very complicated and every interpretation is based on different assumptions. One thing is certain. It will force everyone to reevaluate their place in the new order. One other important fact is that this is ‘draft’ legislation. It still has a long way to go to become law. Even further to go before regulations are written and the law is implemented.

Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced the results of its SciVal Spotlight Alternative Energy Research Leadership study. Analyzing the work of 3,000 research institutions from across the globe, the study identifies the top 25, using a new method for determining leadership. Following are the top ranked institutions in the study based on the number of alternative energy research papers produced in distinctive competencies (DCs). The top five institutions (papers published in parentheses) are reported as: 1) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, US (309); National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US (271); Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy, Germany (240); Forschungszentrum Julich, Germany (234); Pennsylvania State University, US (168).

This report, titled”Green Prosperity: How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States,” was developed Green for All, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the University of Massachusetts’ Political Economy Research Institute. The report explores how investments in energy efficiency, clean technology and public transportation can raise the standard of living for everyone in the United States. The full report can be found at http://www.peri.umass.edu/green_prosperity – mj: I haven’t read this yet. My initial sense is that there is some truth in it, but intuitively, building an entirely new economic infrastructure is a very costly business. The crux of the question comes down to whether the new economy is more efficient or not?

Colorado State University is using wood to heat the 38,000-square foot Rocky Mountain Bio-Containment Laboratory on the university’s Foothills Campus (Fort Collins, CO). The wood chips are cheaper than natural gas, so the biomass boiler will save the university $60,000 per year.