Burning Bio News

Expansion of 28 locally-grown fruits and vegetables examined by Dave Swensen, Iowa State University. The states studied were Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The study showed that a significant amount of produce could be grown locally, but success depends on the development of new infrastructures in Midwest communities to advance the use of local food, locally.

CN (Canadian National) - North America’s largest mover of forest products - is on track to haul more than 800,000 tons of wood pellets (http://www.cn.ca/woodpellets) this year and sees more opportunities in the future for this “green” source of heating energy. “Since 2005, we have experienced a 16 per cent compounded annual growth in our wood pellet traffic, and we see growing potential for this business in domestic and international markets,” said James Foote, executive vice-president, Sales and Marketing.

Goodfield, IL-based, Chip Energy is developing a biomass conversion infrastructure. “What Chip Energy plans to do is develop the infrastructure,” said Paul Wever, Chip Energy, referring to a network of biomass conversion facilities where wood could be ground, mulched or made into pellets for fuel. While Chip Energy is already handling biomass and developed its own gasifier, it is currently out to develop the collection, storage, and handling facilities that are required in the emerging biomass marketing infrastructure.

Ethanol supporters launched a campaign to increase access to the fuel across the country by installing 5,000 blender pumps nationwide over the next three years. The “Bring Your Own Ethanol” campaign brings together the American Coalition on Ethanol, the National Corn Growers Association, the Renewable Fuels Association and several states, including Kentucky, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. There are currently about 2,000 E85 pumps countrywide, and only 180 of those are blender pumps, said Ron Lamberty, vice president for marketing development at the ACE.

The Western US has tremendous amounts of wind and solar energy with electricity users located far from the plains and deserts where it is created. To get power from wind turbines to customers in the cities will require thousands of miles of new transmission lines. Wind is the easy part. Building the lines is tougher. Wind power projects are on hold while transmission line right-of-way agreements are being hammered out. Opposition is coming from lines that cross forest and private land in which the owners do not want the lines.

Bio-Blend Fuels, Manitowoc, WI, uses bacon fat to produce biodiesel. They also distribute it through their own blending station. According to the article, the Kaderabeks’ blend of 20 percent biodiesel-80 percent regular diesel sold for $2.17 Monday while “B99″ (almost all fuel from the pig fat) was $1.99.

Biofuels company Poet LLC and Magellan Midstream Partners LP announced a joint venture to study whether they can build a dedicated ethanol pipeline with an estimated cost of more than $3.5 billion. The 1,700-mile pipeline would deliver ethanol from plants in Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to distribution terminals in the northeastern United States.

Last week, the Bloomington School District in Minnesota closed its schools for a day after some of the district’s school buses wouldn’t start in sub-zero temperatures while others had trouble running. The problem was quickly linked to the quality of biodiesel before an analysis of the fuel was conducted. Minnesota requires 2 percent biodiesel to be blended into diesel fuel sold within its borders. As it turns out, 12 of the school buses out of the 109-bus fleet would either not start or had trouble running because of a paraffin wax buildup that clogged their fuel filters, said Edward Gorr, laboratory supervisor with the University of Minnesota, who analyzed the fuel. There was no problem with the biodiesel fuel itself.

Green Earth Technologies announced today that their G-OIL(TM) Ultimate Biodegradable green motor oils are now being offered in a bulk program. G-OIL is environmentally safe green motor oil made with American-grown renewable animal fats utilizing the power of nanotechnology. The new bulk program will allow customers to purchase G-OIL 10W-30, 5W-30, 10W-40 and SAE 30 in 55 gallon drums, 275 gallon totes and 6,750 gallon tankers.

PelletSales.com LLC, a national distributor of biomass that specializes in wood pellets, has developed proprietary software that allows the company to gauge biomass demand and locate supply throughout the United States.

The Sno/Sky Agriculture Alliance of Monroe (WA) will spend its $96,806 grant on constructing facilities for canola, mustard and other oilseed crops harvested by its six members. This facility will be a storage depot for biodiesel feedstocks. The grant will cover about 1/3 of the cost of building six, 20,000 bushel silos that will allow storage of multiple oil seed crops. Another grant of $28,650 is going to the Institute for Washington’s Future of Seattle to do a feasibility study on storage and transportation of crops. These grants were part of $2.7 million of federal, USDA, Rural Business Enterprise Grants.

The Iowa Interstate Railroad has ordered 12 new locomotives at $2.2 million apiece. The locomotives purchase, which will be added to Iowa Interstate’s 40-locomotive fleet, comes after the railroad has spent $22 million to upgrade much of the track on its 373-mile system from Council Bluffs across central Iowa to Bureau, Ill., just west of Chicago.

Sears plans to reduce and phase out the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in its packaging and merchandise. Sears has long-term goals for using biobased plastics or those with higher recycled content that can be reused, recycled, or composted.

A federal judge dismissed the bankruptcy case of Earth Biofuels Inc., which distributes country music star Willie Nelson’s biodiesel fuel, after the company agreed to an interim restructuring deal put forth by a group of hedge funds.

New Mexico residents are trying to escape high heating bills by turning to wood burning stoves. But this alternative may may also become expensive as the cost of firewood continues to rise. Last year snowbound residents had to pay $235 per cord. This year the price of firewood per cord has already hit $230. This is contrast with CA policies that have outlawed wood-burning stoves.

Next-generation alternative fuels, plant-derived ingredients for silkier skin lotions, and textiles made from a corn-based polymer that helps carpets shed stains are part of DuPont Co.’s expanding push into biological materials. Sales from such bioscience products are expected to generate annual revenue of $2.3 billion in 2012.

Bakersfield-based BioEnergy Solutions and New Hampshire’s Microgy will capture the gas at dairy farms, clean it and deliver it to Pacific Gas & Electric. This is part of PG&E’s initiative to increase renewable sources of natural gas.

Firewood dealer’s business thriving this year. At least one Southern Illinois firewood dealer has seen a drastic increase in sales volume this year. This is an interesting contrast to the bans of burning firewood in California.

From feed pellets to fuel pellets. An idle elevator in St. Johnbury, VT, has become a bulk fuel pellet distributor.

Pacific Natural Energy (PNE), has created the BioBox, a mobile processing plant that turns waste vegetable oil into high-quality biodiesel. There is a market for small-scale biodiesel production systems between garage-based hobbyist and commercial-scale. PNE’s BioBox system includes 4 - 20′ cargo containers, the reactor, a hazmat storage container and 2 - 6,000 gallon storage tanking systems.