Burning Bio News

On March 26, 2010, the U.S. EPA published the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (RFS2) Final Rule. The ‘rule’ has been circulating for several months, but it was only published in the Federal Register last week. RFS2 builds on the first RFS program, included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. That required 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into gasoline by 2012. For more information about the rule, visit http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/renewablefuels/index.htm.

A decline in sales caused by expiration of a crucial tax credit has forced Renewable Energy Group to shut down its Iowa biodiesel plants at Ralston and Newton. REG officials attributed the closures — which they announced this morning and described as temporary — to Congress failing to renew the $1-per-gallon biodiesel blenders tax credit that expired Dec. 31. Nine employees at the seven-y ear-old Ralston biodiesel plant, which has production capacity of 12 million gallons per year, and 13 employees at Newton, a 30-million-gallon plant opened in May 2007, have been laid off. Biodiesel plants REG manages at Washington and Farley laid off 21 employees in January, and REG says nearly half its production staff has been idled since Jan. 1.

BioFuelBox, a San Jose, Calif.-based startup that has spent a quiet four years working to turn waste grease, oil and fat into low-sulfur biodiesel, has ceased operations, according to a peHUB report, “after being unable to reach agreement on a new round of funding with its investors.” Last fall, the company announced it had begun operating its first biodiesel refinery, a 1-million-gallon-per-year plant.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a tax-extenders bill that includes a tax credit for biodiesel after months of delay, with the bill’s passage cheered by biodiesel producers across the country. The measure provides a $1 gallon incentive to blend biodiesel into diesel fuel, with the initial subsidy, the Biodiesel Mixture Excise Tax credit, originally passed in 2004 and subject to regular congressional renewal. The Senate bill will now need to be reconciled with a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives last year before a final vote by both congressional bodies. The legislation will then be sent to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Imperium Renewables said it has resumed production of biodiesel at its Grays Harbor County facility, three months after an explosion idled the plant. The Seattle-based company said it received this week the first of 40 railcars carrying Northwest-grown canola oil that will be converted into biodiesel. The regional market has been strengthened by recent mandates in British Columbia and Oregon for use of biodiesel, Imperium said in a statement.

The $90 million plant that produces biodiesel from soybeans was effectively taken over by the Missouri Department of Agriculture, which suspended Prairie Pride’s grain dealer license. That action was announced Wednesday by the state agency. The department was named trustee of the Prairie Pride plant in an action approved Wednesday in Vernon County Circuit Court. More than 1,000 area farmer-investors committed at least $20,000 each to the plant’s construction during 100 equity-drive meetings held around the region several years ago.

During the 2010 National Biodiesel Conference, held in Grapevine, Texas, during February, General Motors (GM) announced that a new lineup of their heavy-duty diesel pickups will have B20 biodiesel capability. GM has substantially revised their Duramax 6.6L turbo diesel engine to include B20 capability, as well as meet strict new emissions standards effective this year.

Amidst the worst economic times in the biodiesel industry’s short history, a new refinery, built around the cooperative model, is starting production in Temecula, California. Promethean Biofuels Cooperative Corp., a 1.5 million gallon production facility transesterifying used cooking oils into quality methyl esters, is holding its grand opening ceremony on Feb. 19 at 10 a.m.

While soybean-based biodiesel has been unfairly knocked at times for not being as environmentally friendly as it should be, a new study shows just how green fuel from the bean really is. A new peer-reviewed life cycle profile released by the United Soybean Board (USB) documents multiple energy and environmental benefits of U.S. soybean farming and processing, including biodiesel.

A collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the JBEI researchers engineered a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to produce biodiesel fuel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids.

Energy Quest, Inc. announced that it is to begin construction on a turn key woody biomass power plant/algae energy plant producing 24 megawatts of electricity. The plant will consist of four 6.7 megawatt (6.0 net) modular power systems and is located at Nances Creek Industrial Park, in Piedmont, Alabama. The attached Algae biodiesel plant will produce a clean and efficient fuel that can be used in any device that utilizes diesel fuel. The plant will produce approximately 24 MW of electrical power at $0.06 per KW and 20 million gallon annually of biodiesel at $2.00 per gallon. The plant will operate 24 hours a day and when completed provide 60 jobs.

After a few quiet quarters in which glycerin prices were relatively steady and low after the commodity bubble of 2008, it appears a severe crunch in US crude glycerin supply is about to unfold. But US biodiesel refiners are closing their doors amid credit woes and a government delay in extending subsidies. In the meantime, crude glycerin production rates are approaching zero, market sources say. The demand for glycerin is significant. Companies such as Procter & Gamble, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Vantage Oleochemicals refine the crude material and then sell it to makers of everything from toothpaste to polyols to animal feed. As demand increases beyond the available supply, glycerin prices are about to become very high.

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence. The sequence and its analysis appear in the January 14 edition of the journal Nature. The research team comprised 18 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The DOE, National Science Foundation, USDA and United Soybean Board supported the research.

Minnesota has relaxed its biofuels mandate by temporarily suspending a requirement for No. 1 diesel fuel to be blended with 5 percent of biodiesel for the remaining duration of the winter, state officials said Wednesday. The decision, which takes effect Friday, Jan. 15, was arrived at after filtering system problems were discovered in trucks in extremely cold parts of the state, said Phil Smith, a spokesman at the state Department of Commerce, which enforces the biofuels mandate.

The new year has brought some bad news for the biodiesel industry. As expected, the $1-per-gallon federal tax incentive expired at the end of December 2009. And, as expected, some biodiesel makers have had to idle their plants after losing the tax credit. One of the biggest to “idle in the new year” is the 180-million gallon Renewable Biofuels plant in Port Neches, Texas, just a year after it had opened.

11 Good Energy, based in Canton, Ohio Inc. announced on Dec. 8 that they have opened their G2 Diesel plant in Magnolia, Ohio. The plant has a capacity of 16,500,000 gallons per year.

Envirotek’s current production facility, Extreme Biodiesel in Corona, CA, is expanding its capacity from 2 million gallons per year to 6 million gallons.

Hero BX, Shiremanstown, PA, recently received a fresh financial injection for biodiesel expansion. Formerly called Lake Erie Biofuels, the company won a $1.64 million grant to expand production by 10 million gallons to 55 million gallons per year. Hero BX is working with Penn State Extension agronomists and seed industry experts such as Ernst Seeds of Meadville, PA, to pioneer use of camelina and possibly canola as a biofuel feedstock.

Nebraska has lost the last commercial operation of its infant biodiesel industry, at least temporarily. Northeast Nebraska Biodiesel LLC has stopped making biodiesel fuel from soybeans at its plant in Scribner, NE. The high price of soybeans has damaged the industry, just as the high price of corn caused havoc in the ethanol industry. The biodiesel plant had the capability to produce five million gallons of biodiesel per year. There are still a half dozen or so of small farm-based biodiesel plants left in Nebraska.

Global Alternative Fuels (GAF) will expand its biodiesel plant in El Paso, Texas, US, from 5 to 20 million gallons a year. The expansion also includes installing equipment to process grease thrown out by restaurants without having to blend the grease with refined soyabean oil. This and the higher processing capacity reduces production costs significantly.