Burning Bio News

Michael Little wants to use Boulder, CO landfill to pilot a new method of recycling solid waste and using it to generate energy. Little plans to build a pilot facility to test his technology.

Gulf Coast Energy Inc received approval from the Walton County Commission for a 70 million gallon ethanol, 10 million gallon biodiesel plant.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale scientist plans to build a biodiesel plant at the Southern Illinois Research Park to test new biodiesel conversion technologies and develop the industry.

Primafuel, received a $164,000 grant tol fund the development of a 60 million-gallon biodiesel manufacturing facility at the North Terminal facility in West Sacramento, CA.

Missouri’s sixth biodiesel plant, the 30 million gallon, Prairie Pride plant, near Nevada, MO. The plant will use treated wastewater from 6 miles away in Fort Scott, KS. The pipeline is expected to be completed this year and carry up to a half-million gallons of treated wastewater a day.

University of Northern Iowa’s, National Ag-Based Lubricants Center, has received $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and $408,000 from U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop alliances with other industry leaders.

The Midwest Assistance Program Inc. conducted the waste=characterization study between September 2006 and June 2007 on waste at 15 solid waste disposal facilities. They found nearly 45 percent of the municipal solid waste deposited in Missouri landfills could be recycled, including metals, paper, plastics and glass.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District and the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District plan to test a process of turning kitchen grease into methane. The grease will go into the sanitation district’s anaerobic digestion tanks and potentially add enough fuel to run an additional MW of generation capacity.

Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. has launched a website www.bionslcproject.com in conjunction with its proposed integrated agriculture project in St. Lawrence County. The website was created to provide a forum through which the Company can directly and publicly respond to community questions regarding the project. This is an excellent policy for every new project to consider.

The proposed ethanol plant in Mayfield, PA, experienced a setback when proper procedures for rezoning the intended property were not followed. By a 3-0 vote, the Zoning Hearing Board declared that proper procedure was not followed in October when Borough Council sought to rezone 38 acres at the request of Northeast Ethanol and Renewable Resources. This plant received its air permit from the state in November.

Biosolids trucked from the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District in Duluth are helping generate alfalfa atop a 500-acre tailings waste basin at United Taconite’s iron ore processing plant in Forbes, MN. Biosolids + iron ore mine tailings = alfalfa (biomass) + $

Valley Forest Wood Products began producing pellets on Dec. 29 at it’s 50,000 ton, Marcell, MN plant.

Ethanol made from switch grass can provide five times more energy than is consumed in the growing and refining processes, according to five years of research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Concise, Readable review of Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (”EISA”) by Ashley Henry

Panda Ethanol Inc. received a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality air permit for the company’s planned 115 million gallon-per-year ethanol refinery in Sherman County, Texas. The Sherman County facility will be engineered to gasify up to 1 billion pounds of cattle manure per year.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors asked County Executive, Anthony H. Griffin, to look into the possibility of starting a vegetable oil exchange program similar to one in Montgomery County. Montgomery has set up a Web page, http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/veggieoil, to help restaurants and other businesses dispose of waste cooking oil by giving it to motorists. Griffin said that unlike biodiesel, vegetable oil is not certified by the federal government for use as a motor oil. He also said that engine systems modified to use vegetable oil require certification by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Plans to build the state’s largest biodiesel refinery (100 million gallons) at Campbell Industrial Park, Honolulu, HI, suffered a blow yesterday when Imperium Renewables Inc. said it was delaying an initial public stock offering that would have provided the financing for the the $91 million plant. Power Plants in HI run on diesel fuel. The biodiesel produced will off-set the demand for fossil fuels.

Researchers at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, are working on commercialization of a promising microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology. This fuel cell uses bacteria to make electricity.

SUNY Cobleskill has dreams of turning cow manure into electricity with a gasifier. The U.S. Congress approved $1.3 million for the college’s new bio-energy project. That brings the amount of federal funding the Schoharie County college for their small gasification plant to nearly $4 million.

Argonaut BioFuels will spend $16 million to open a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Bumpass, VA, creating 65 new jobs.