Burning Bio News

On Feb. 2, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its regulations for the national Renewable Fuel Standard. The bottom line is that the EPA determined that corn grain ethanol reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 20 percent and qualifies it as a conventional biofuel. The ethanol industry hailed this finding as a significant victory and a new market opportunity, while the livestock sectors stated that not much was new. Cole Gustafson, Biofuels Economist from NDSU cautions that as long as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is backing a more restrictive use of ethanol policy ethanol use will be constrained.

The chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board is expressing concern about the USDA’s shift in emphasis toward locally grown and organic foods. Tim Burrack of Arlington, Iowa is attending USDA’s annual outlook conference in Washington this week. He says modern agriculture has come under attack from many conference speakers and attendees. “I’ve farmed for 37 years and what I’m hearing out here is radically different than what has taken place in the first 36 years of my career,” Burrack says.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced today a $1.6 M investment in clean energy economic development and job creation, marking another step forward in Maryland’s goal of building a vibrant clean energy sector. These awards mark the first round of the Clean Energy Economic Development Initiative (CEEDI), with applications for the second round of funding being accepted until April 30, 2010.

A recent report from the North American Wood Fiber Review confirms what many livestock producers already know. The market for wood fuel pellets is smoking hot. It has dramatically reduced local availability of sawdust and wood chips and fueled the market for one-time cheap bedding. Average sawdust prices in the U.S. Northwest were $28 per oven-dry metric ton (ODMT) in 2004, peaked at $74 per ODMT in late 2008, then declined to $64 during third-quarter 2009. Prices in other U.S. regions have followed a similar pattern.

With the launch of the most recent space shuttle, the Endeavour, took with it a biofuel experiment. Part of the payload is a study of the Jatropha curcas plant, used for producing biofuel, to see if the breeding process can be speeded up for commercial use.

The Obama administration announced that it has drafted rules that would require federal government to take climate change into consideration for the first time when judging actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). According to the statement, any proposed activity would have to emit the equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide “to trigger a quantitative analysis.” The Statement can be viewed at: http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/post-carbon/NEPA-Guidance-FINAL-02182010.pdf

On February 11, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) released its initial estimates of farm income and production expenses for 2010. ERS forecasts net cash income at $76.3 billion, up $5.5 billion from 2009. Soybean planted area for 2010 is expected to fall nearly 500,000 acres from last year to 77.0 million acres as improved returns for corn and rotational considerations boost corn plantings. Corn plantings for 2010 are expected to rise 2.5 million acres from last year to 89.0 million, the highest level since 2007. The Index for all presentations from the USDA Outlook Conference can be found at: http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum/

Two of the world’s leading companies in the enzyme business, Novozymes and Danisco of Denmark, announced this week that they had found a way to produce enzymes that could reliably and affordably convert agricultural waste into cellulosic ethanol. The developments at Novozymes and Danisco are being touted by the companies as a way to avoid using food feedstocks like corn in the creation of biofuels. According to Novozymes, advances in the enzyme development have reduced costs by 80 percent over the past couple of years, bringing the cost of a gallon of cellulosic ethanol within striking distance of $2 a gallon.

University of Central Florida professor Henry Daniell has developed a technology to produce ethanol from organic waste products. Daniell’s technique — developed with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding — uses plant-derived enzyme cocktails to break down orange peels and other waste materials into sugar, which is then fermented into ethanol.

American Process Inc. is ready to begin small-scale production of ethanol at its new Thomaston, GA plant. The American Process technology ferments sugar byproducts from the paper production industry into ethanol. With this technology, a medium-sized pulp mill could produce about 14 million gallons of ethanol.

The U.S. EPA has come up with a new system for renewable identification number (RINs) that should be easier to use as well as cut down on the possibility of human error. A new, web-based reporting system, the EPA Moderated Transaction System (EMTS), has been developed to replace the cumbersome 38-digit RIN reporting system.

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program proposed rule is finally out, and seems to have revived some interest and enthusiasm in the program. At the same time, however, many are anxious for the proposed changes to be finalized, for further clarifications and for the current freeze on the program to cease. Without warning, as of Feb. 8, the USDA terminated collection, harvest, storage and transport (CHST) payments and indicated new applications for the payments would not be accepted until the final rule is in place.

A 55 MW power plant has been proposed to be built in Shelton, WA. Construction of the biomass plant is a joint venture between equipment manufacturer John Deere, and Adage LLC. Once completes, the plant will provide approximately 125 direct and 150 indirect jobs.

The New York State Public Service Commission has approved up to $35 million to build a renewable power plant in Rome, NY. The proposed biomass facility will produce 9.6 megawatts of electricity and generate steam.

British Airways plans to build a plant that will produce biojet fuel from plasma gasification of biomass. The plant will convert 500,000 tons of solid waste per year into 16 million gallons of jet fuel as well as generate 20 megawatts (MW) of excess renewable electricity annually for export to the national grid.

Buoyed by a slowly recovering economy and rational behavior returning to energy and commodity markets, ethanol producers saw a return to profitability in the second half of 2009. Temporarily idled biorefineries resumed operation and recently finished facilities began operation as the industry marched on toward meeting the volume requirements of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Two-thousand nine was a record year for ethanol production, with 200 biorefineries churning out an estimated 10.6 billion gallons of renewable ethanol.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) collects farm data for the USDA. They recently released a study on the changes in farm numbers for 2009. They reported the number of farms in the United States in 2009 is estimated at 2.2 million, virtually unchanged from 2008. Total land in farms, at 919.8 million acres, decreased 110 thousand acres from 2008. The average farm size is 418 acres, unchanged from the previous year. –mj: The real finding was at the end of the report where NASS ran research on there two predominant methodologies for assessing farm numbers and found that the Census methodology produced more real farms than their standard survey method. Just as impressive is that NASS works very hard to always do a better job. They set their standards of quality higher than most agencies. Well done, NASS!

General Motors (GM) says the U.S. needs 12,000 ethanol fueling stations. GM has produced 4 million of the 7.5 million flex-fuel vehicles on U.S. roads now, said Coleman Jones, GM biofuel implementation manager. “Today there’s 2,200 (ethanol fuel stations) that are out there but that’s not enough,” said GM Vice Chairman Tom Stephens. “Two-thirds of the pumps are concentrated in 10 states and those 10 states have only about 19 percent of the flex-fuel vehicles that we have on the road,” said Stephens. “That’s a big problem for us.”

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.

ZeaChem Inc., a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into fuels and chemicals, announced it has produced bio-based acetic acid at the purity concentration level of a salable product. Acetic acid is a commercial product and is also ZeaChem’s intermediate building block for the production of cellulosic ethanol and bio-based chemicals. “ZeaChem’s biggest fermentation hurdles are now behind us and we have significantly de-risked future integrated operations”.