Alternative Energy / Biofuels

• Waste Wood: Norway Taps into a Huge Source of Biomass Fuel

  Norwegian senior scientist Øyvind Skreiberg is transforming the chopped-off branches and tops of felled spruce trees into a fine powder that is then pressed into high-energy pellets.  The transformation is made using a process called torrefaction, a sort of extreme sauna for timber and vegetation.Norway possesses major unexploited energy resources of waste wood in the form of the branches and tops – known in their Norwegian acronym as GROT.  There is an abundance of waste wood to see when we walk in the forest after the lumberjacks have been there. When the logging machinery moves on, what it usually leaves…

• Producing Diesel on Demand from Modified Strain of E. Coli Bacteria

  A team from the University of Exeter, with support from Shell, has developed a method to make bacteria produce diesel on demand.  Sounding a bit like science fiction the technology still faces many significant commercialization challenges.But the diesel, produced by the special strains of E. coli bacteria, is almost identical to conventional diesel fuel, so it doesn’t need to be blended with petroleum products as is often required by biodiesels derived from plant oils.Synthetic Alkanes in a Petri Dish. Diesel produced by special strains of E. coli bacteria, is almost identical to conventional diesel fuel and so does not need…

• CBO Set to Assess the Use of Ethanol Blends

  I got a laugh reading this one from the CBO (Link).The cost of the review of ethanol is a measly $1m. Why has it taken so many years to have this study? More importantly, what happens if this study shows that ethanol is proven to be a dud? Answer:No later than 30 days after the assessment is completed, EPA would be required to submit a report to the Congress, indicating whether the agency agrees with the study’s findings. The NAS and EPA would have 18 months from the time of enactment to complete the study. Mid-level ethanol blends could not…

• Big Numbers, Big Profits: The Fleetingly Lucrative RIN Trade

  Renewable energy credits, or RINs, are one of the hottest things on the energy market right now because they are making up for a shortfall of refining capacity to blend ethanol with gasoline in compliance with renewable fuel standards (RFS), shortfalls from suppliers, and lower demand for gasoline. But this is a small window of opportunity, so it’s now or possibly never. The RIN is a 38-digit serial number attached to each gallon of ethanol. If an oil company or another party under blend obligations blends more renewable fuel that it needs to for the RFS quota, it accumulates more…

• Government Regulations Harming US Refiners

  March was a challenging month for refiners. Three weeks ago I discussed the issue of the looming ethanol blend wall, which is leading to soaring costs for refiners as they attempt to comply with federal ethanol mandates. Refiners saw their share prices beaten up a bit as a result. Then, at the end of March, came news that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to lower the limit on sulfur in gasoline from 30 parts per million (ppm) down to 10 ppm. The cost of complying with the new regulations has been estimated in the range of $10…

• Turning Fruit Trees into Biofuel

  Fast growing trees, especially the poplars are being studied as they produce a large body of biomass per area.  Poplars and willows are leading candidates as biofuel crops that are expected to produce cellulosic ethanol and higher energy content fuels when the sugars can be efficiently extracted.We non-tree experts are going to be surprised that peaches, apples, strawberries, cherries, and almonds, and many other plants including the beautiful and romantic rose are part of the rosid superfamily.  That means they share a large part of their genetic codes.Scientists have turned to our long-domesticated fruit trees for the clues in researching…

• Ethanol Mandate: Jumping the Gun in a Big Way

  US consumers aren’t sure the ethanol math is adding up here as they prepare for this year’s new federal mandate—they’re also not sure whether it’s good for their car engines.To wit: This year, the use of renewable fuels must rise to 16.55 billion gallons, and this means more ethanol and more ethanol-blended gasoline for cars. More specifically, US refiners will be required to use 13.8 billion gallons of corn ethanol—up from 13.2 billion gallons now--but this is too much to blend with gasoline.Right now, the gas Americans are putting in their cars is about 10% ethanol, but even this hasn’t…

• Cooking Oil Gets KLM Across the Atlantic

  Certainly it is a great leap for biofuels that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has successfully make a seven-hour flight from New York to Amsterdam flying on recycled cooking oil, after trying a number of biofuel experiments over the past five years. As of last Thursday, KLM is calling it a success and will now fly its TransAtlantic cooking oil Flight 642 using a Boeing 777-200 on this same route every Thursday.“Alongside this biofuel series, we are starting a study to further identify sustainability gains in fuel, weight and carbon dioxide reduction throughout the entire flight process. We are striving to…

• NASA Design Floating Bioreactor for Growing Biofuel

  Algae feed off wastewater and carbon dioxide to produce biomass for fuel, fertiliser and feed in floating 'photobioreactors'.NASA has developed a unique coastal floating system to produce biomass suitable for biofuels, fertiliser and animal feed, without competing with agriculture for water or land. Its Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae [OMEGA] project converts wastewater and carbon dioxide into oxygen and biomass, through the cultivation of freshwater algae.The rapid-growing algae feed off wastewater and draw on energy from the sun in large floating tubes of plastic, called ‘photobioreactors’, which are moored off the coastline. The algae remove pollutants from the wastewater,…

• Exxon’s Algae Gamble 25 Years into the Future

  Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) is spending $600 million on developing biofuels for motor vehicles from algae, but the company says success is still a quarter of a century away. Over three years into a joint venture with Synthetic Genomics Inc., Exxon says the technology just isn’t there yet for algae-based fuels, though it had originally predicted it was only a decade away from producing these fuels. So far, the JV has been unable to come up with a way to produce enough raw material from algae to supply a refinery, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson told PBS television, as reported…