Burning Bio News

Michigan turkey farmer Harley Sietsema plans next year to start building a turkey-litter-to-electricity plant in Howard City.

Lori Ramonas and Eric Leber, Prosser, WA, have identified new products from tons of crushed stems, skins, and grape seeds generated by WA booming wine industry. Over 40 different potential product lines were examined including grapeseed oil, flour and pellet fuels.

Producing four-star biofuels may give producers a leg up when the United States develops a carbon cap-and-trade system. Methods to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and rate biofuels are being proposed and tested in an attempt to incorporate the multiple facets of cropping systems, conversion processes and industry and consumer needs. This article describes a rating system that establishes benefits based on carbon utilization during processing. Interesting system.

The city of Milton’s insurance carrier-not taxpayers-will pay the tens of thousands of dollars spent in a legal battle over the city’s new ethanol plant (WI). The Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled March 8 that the city council violated the law with closed-door meetings while trying to convince United Ethanol to build a plant in the Eastside Industrial Park.

A 50 million gallon ethanol plant is planned for Keokuk, IA.

BNSF intermodal hub in Chicago is moving lots of grain in containers. 80 percent of the cargo containers returning to Los Angeles ports were filled with grain. According to this article, cargo shipments of grain add a significant premium in part because of the time savings in loading/unloading. Trucks are now entering the intermodal in 1.15 minutes instead of 5 to 7 minutes.

Anheuser-Busch Cos. is heading out into the field to explore new renewable fuels in the face of high energy costs. Interesting to see a beverage company using their extensive expertise to move into the energy markets.

Texas sorghum producers are optimistic about biofuel potential. Sorghum produces more biomass than corn, using 33 percent less water. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station has been conducting trials on varieties of sorghum ranging from high yielding, tall sorghum to high sugar, sweet sorghum.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced the availability of $450,000 for 16 agricultural development projects ranging from renewable energy to specialty potatoes.

Chemistry professor, Keith Kyler, at Indiana University in Pennsylvania, plans to create a full-scale manufacturing plant for the production of biodegradable plastics from switchgrass and other biomass.

A new 75 MW biomass power plant will be built in Liberty County, FL, by Biomass Gas & Electric of Atlanta in partnership with Progress Energy of Florida. The new plant will be fueled by waste wood from forestry industries, yard clippings, leaves and other woody organic materials.

Agri-Source Fuels, Dade City, FL has begun producing biodiesel from used oil. The former citrus prcessing plant will become the largest US biodiesel plant when it reaches 120 million gallons production capacity in four months.

Ford Motor Company’s announces that soy-based polyurethane foam will be used in seating applications for the 2008 Ford Mustang. Ford’s research work, along with the partnership with soybean farmers and their checkoff and Lear Corporation, helped make flexible foam technology a reality in Ford vehicles.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen announced that 14 applicants are eligible to receive Alternative Fuel Innovations Grants totaling more than $881,000.

GreenHunter BioFuels is converting a former waste oil/chemical refinery Galena Park, TX to the production of biodiesel and distillation of off-spec methanol streams from its own biodiesel production mix. Off-spec methanol acquired from third parties will be refined at this facility. GreenHunter BioFuels has obtained the necessary permit for a Biodiesel Production Unit that will allow up to 105 mgy of biodiesel production from variable feedstocks.

A report released today estimates that Americans could prevent the logging of 16.5 million trees every year by switching to Internet banking that avoids paper bills, statements and checks. Maybe. The advent of the PDF file seems to transfer the printing costs from one entity to the other.

New anti-ag group launches a manure web site. There is no correlation between the animal numbers used in the website and pollution. I used the same source of animal number data five years ago to illustrate the revenue-generating opportunities from manure. Interestingly enough two of the 3 commercial manure energy projects I used in 2002 to make my point were the Benson, MN, Fibrominn plant and the predecessor to the newly opened E3 biofuels ethanol plant in Mead, NE. Curiously, the same anti-anti group also release an anti ethanol/biodiesel report last week. I don’t get it.

Monroe, WI, firefighters were called to the Badger Ethanol Plant and found a fire in the unloading equipment at the base of the silo. No cause was given, but fires at fuel refineries are not a good thing.

A proposed $1.2 million facility in eastern Schuylkill County using typical red ‘garden’ worms to digest sewage sludge, transforming it into a pathogen-and odor-free product, could be only the third of its kind in the nation, promoters of the project say.

VeraSun Energy Corp. has announced it is buying three ethanol plants (330 million gallon capacity) as it moves toward its goal of 1 billion gallons of annual production capacity by the end of 2008.