Burning Bio News

Siemens Energy has successfully completed the first firing of PetroAlgae Inc.’s biocrude fuel, a plant-based, micro-crop biomass material that is processed into a solid residue. The biocrude fuel was combined with pulverized coal in a pilot-scale burner with a thermal capacity of approximately 4 MMBtu/hr. The testing was performed at a test bed installed at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and results show that the biocrude/coal fuel mixture burned well, and produced 20 percent lower nitric oxide (NOx) emissions than coal alone.

An alliance of industry, academic and government organizations, formed to commercialize technologies that will utilize concentrated solar energy to convert waste CO2 into diesel fuel. The solar reforming technology platform will be colocated next to industrial facilities that have waste CO2 streams such as coal power plants, natural gas processing facilities, ethanol plants, cement production facilities and other stationary sources of CO2. A solar reforming system is currently being demonstrated in Sacramento, CA, and demonstrations will continue both at Sandia’s facilities in New Mexico and at a power plant project site in Bakersfield, CA.

Despite environmental and economic challenges, Canada’s oilsands could account for more than one-third of U.S. oil supply within two decades, says a new report from U.S.-based Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “The fact that oilsands by themselves — were they a country — are set to become the largest single source of U.S. crude oil imports this year, emphasizes the importance they have attained as a supply source for the United States,” Cambridge chairman Daniel Yergin said in a news release.

Doty Energy WindFuels (SC) will use wind power to produce electricity, transportation fuel and reduce CO2. Wind energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Some of the hydrogen is used in chemical process that convert CO2 and Hydrogen into Hydro-carbon fuels (ethanol, gasoline, jet fuel or diesel). The first pre-commercial WindFuels plant could be producing 50 million gallons of liquid fuels per year by 2014.

Dominion Virginia Power today asked the State Corporation Commission for permission to reduce customer rates, effective July 1, as a result of a fuel rate adjustment. The company uses a diversified mix of fuel to run its power stations to generate the electricity used by its customers. According to rate provided by Dominion the residential rate has declined from an average of 10.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in March 2009, to 9.9 cents per kWh with this new rate request. – mj: not too common to hear about rate decreases these days.

Denbury is a regional oil and natural-gas producer based in Plano, TX, whose primary source of carbon dioxide is a basin near Jackson, MS. For decades, oil companies have pumped naturally-occurring carbon dioxide from geological basins into existing oil wells. The gas acts like a solvent for the oil, removing it from rock formations. Denbury plans to treat and ship its first batch of industrial emissions from a Dow Chemical Co. factory in Plaquemine, LA, to its oil fields in Texas via a pipeline network it is building, taking a liability off Dow’s hands equivalent to the annual emissions of 27,000 cars.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission plans to hold a meeting on Jan. 14 to consider whether to propose a rule on energy position limits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Nova Gen Corp. with fraud and the unregistered sale of corporate securities. Federal officials allege the La Jolla, CA, company bamboozled investors out of $2.3 million with promises of a new technology that would covert coal into green fuels and make trillions of dollars.

Two recent reports highlight the challenges facing the biofuels industry. One study was conducted by the Environmental Law Institute in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources: 2002-2008.” The second study discussed is titled, ““Potential Effects and Challenges for Required Increases in Production and Use,” was compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.” –mj: Based on the information reported here, I don’t the studies actually support the claim that US energy policy favors petroleum. I’d say that on a per-gallon-of-fuel-produced basis the exact opposite could be argued. Subsidizing commodities of food and energy spurs economic growth for the entire economy. An ‘us vs. them’ strategy is not productive.

The Reid Gardner coal plant about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, NV, has begun mixing wood chips with the coal burned to produce electricity at the plant, but locals don’t like it. –mj: By cofiring biomass with coal some coal (ancient carbon) is replaced with biomass (recent carbon). In this struggling economy adding biomass to existing facilities is an excellent first step. Once the economy is rolling again, newer technologies will be more efficient producing more power and fewer emissions from the same feedstocks. These newer plants will require greater amounts of captial.

A federal jury on Monday found Exxon Mobil liable for contaminating groundwater in New York City and awarded the city $104.7 million in compensatory damages. Dozens of similar cases are pending against oil companies nationwide over the contamination of groundwater by the additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), which is highly soluble in water and has leaked from underground storage tanks across the country. – mj: The replacement of MTBE with ethanol as an oxygenate in gasoline was a very significant non-btu, non-GHG driver. It was leaking into drinking water supplies all over the country. Many forget that the use of ethanol in gasoline is STILL providing the environmental benefits of not having MTBE in our drinking water.

Advanced Refining Concepts, LLC, has started construction on a new clean-diesel production plant in Northern Nevada, according to a news release from the company. The 100,000-gallon-per-day plant will produce the company’s trademark GDiesel. The plant will use the company’s ClearRefining technology, which is a proprietary pollution-free process for liquefying natural gas and other biogases to produce clean diesel fuel.

Researchers at CONSOL Energy, West Virginia Univ., and the National Energy Technology Laboratory have begun injecting carbon dioxide in a first-of-a-kind field trial of enhanced coalbed methane recovery with simultaneous CO2 sequestration. The $13 million field trial is located in Marshall County, WV. The site was chosen because of its accessibility, availability, and typical northern Appalachian topography and geology. In advance of the CO2 injection, horizontal coalbed methane wells were drilled in a modified five-spot pattern over a 200-acre area into the unminable Upper Freeport coal seam, 1,200 to 1,800 ft below ground, and separately into the overlying minable Pittsburgh coal seam. These wells have been producing coalbed methane and water since 2004.

The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research to be released on Friday by the Environmental Law Institute in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion’s share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases. – mj: This is an interesting contribution to the biofuel debate. EPA has claimed that the fossil fuel policy impacts can not be estimated. I am not sure that the Environmental Law Institute has conducted a flawless analysis, but it is certainly illuminating.

Colorado State University this fall will install a 2 MW solar power plant on the university’s Foothills Campus as part of Xcel Energy Solar*Rewards program. This is enough solar power to meet more than 10 percent of the university’s electric energy needs on the Foothills Campus.

Aquaculture producers who suffered losses associated with high feed costs in 2008 can apply to the Idaho State Department of Agriculture for stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Recovery Act provided $50 million for a 2008 Aquaculture Grant Program. Idaho’s share is a little over $1.25 million. The funding comes with a $100,000 cap per producer. – mj: This is not directly related to biofuels, but I still bare some scars from shepherding US aquaculture issues for about 10 years. Not unlike bioenergy, to be successful in aquaculture one needed a passion that transcended some pretty goofy federal and state laws and regulations.

ExxonMobil and biotech firm Synthetic Genomics (SGI) announced on Tuesday a new alliance to produce alternative fuel made from photosynthetic algae. ExxonMobil expects to spend more than $600 million on the project–$300 million internally and another $300 million to SGI if key R&D milestones are met.

The National Ignition Facility formally opened at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. NIF’s 192 giant lasers, located in a building the size of three football fields, will focus on a tiny target chamber with hydrogen creating conditions similar to those in the cores of stars and inside nuclear weapons. Nuclear fusion is free of carbon emissions and has the potential to create huge amounts of energy from little amounts of fuel.

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson and Sunflower Electric Power Corp. have agreed to a plan that will allow Sunflower to build one 895-megawatt coal plant near Holcomb, KS. This is the power plant that was denied three times by the previous Governor. Kansas through this project was an early adopter of using algae to remediate CO2 and first the state to designate CO2 as a human health hazard. There are a bunch of conditions that the utility has agreed to regarding renewable energy production and efficiency promotion. - mj: The ‘take-home’ message is 4th time’s a charm (plus a new Governor).

Dallas-based company Synfuels International has created a process that can convert natural gas leakage from oil drilling and refining into gasoline. The amounts of leakage are generally too small to commercially convert into a useful derivative product. This technology enhances the process efficiency, economics and the environment.