Alternative Energy / Biofuels

• Ethanol Works and is Here to Stay

  Jennifer Johnson at Wahpeton North Dakota’s Daily News has looked into ethanol smack in the midst of America’s prime oil boom of the Bakken oil field. For all the naysayers, ethanol is here and looks to stay. Ethanol fuel blends increased by 133 percent in North Dakota in 2010.  It seems to be because North Dakota does what no other state seems to be able to get done.  They’re putting in the blender pumps at the service station – at least that’s the suggestion from the North Dakota Department of Commerce. Ethanol Blender Pump Diagram. The Dakota Plains gas station…

• India Aims to Reduce Costs of Algal Oils by Factor of 25!

  India's Institute of Chemical Technology is aiming to reduce the cost of producing oils from algae from Rs 500 per litre to roughly Rs20 per litre. Using a combination of careful selection of algal species plus genetic engineering to produce higher oil production, ICT researchers believe they can bring the price of algal fuels down to earth. In the US, there already exist technologies to generate algal biofuels but the cost of production is very high, around Rs500 a litre. India aims to bring down the cost to Rs20 per litre from micro-algae that can be grown on a super…

• Marine Biofules One Step Closer to Becoming Reality

  Seaweed biofuel farms have come a step closer to reality with an improvement in the way seaweed sugars can be converted to ethanol. Dried seaweed can be fermented to produce ethanol but breaking down galactose, the dominant sugar in seaweed, is a slow process. Now, researchers have modified the expression of three genes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is used in the fermentation process to break down sugars to ethanol. The improved strain creates more enzymes, leading to a 250 per cent increase in the rate of galactose sugar fermentation compared with a control strain, according to a paper…

• US Government Steps Up its Support for Advanced Biofuels

  Two federal agencies are providing loan guarantees worth hundreds of millions, but the sector still faces funding and technology issues that are challenging its ability to scale-up operations. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will offer a $250 million loan guarantee to develop a commercial biorefinery utilising technology developed by Coskata. The USDA’s guarantee will be the largest ever awarded for a biofuel facility and will allow the sponsors to move forward with the financing of the 55 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol facility in Alabama. The loan guarantee essentially allows Coskata to begin raising capital for the facility,…

• Ethanol Industry Moves One Step Closer to E15 Mandate

  This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the use of 15% ethanol fuel blends (E15) for 2011-2006 model year cars: EPA Grants E15 Fuel Waiver for Model Years 2001 – 2006 Cars and Light Trucks WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today waived a limitation on selling gasoline that contains more than 10 percent ethanol for model year (MY) 2001 through 2006 passenger vehicles, including cars, SUVs, and light pickup trucks. The waiver applies to fuel that contains up to 15 percent ethanol – known as E15. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson made the decision after a…

• U.S. Ethanol Policy Contradicting Every Principle of Sound Economics

  U.S corn farmers and ethanol distillers are among those celebrating passage of last month's tax bill. A little-noticed provision of the law extends ethanol tax credits ($.45 per gallon, plus a bonus for small producers) and tariffs on ethanol imports ($.54 per gallon), previously set to expire at the end of 2010. Should the rest of us also celebrate? I think not. U.S. ethanol policy contradicts every principle of sound economics. It encourages use of fuels whose opportunity costs are high while discouraging use of those whose costs are low. It promotes trade flows that run opposite to comparative advantage.…

• Biofuels Production and Magic Bullet Thinking

  Using marginal lands not suitable for food crops, 50% of the world's liquid fuels can be produced, according to U. of Illinois scientists. Published in the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology, the study led by civil and environmental engineering professor Ximing Cai identified land around the globe available to produce grass crops for biofuels, with minimal impact on agriculture or the environment. Under any of the projections, Africa has more than one third, and Africa and South America have more than half of the total land available for biofuel production. Thus, the locations of biofuel production potential and demand…

• Creating Jet Fuel from Biomass Waste

  First British Airways, and now Qantas are teaming with the Solena Group to build commercial plasma gasification and Fischer-Tropsch plants to create synthetic jet fuel from carbonaceous biomass waste. Solena's joint venture with Qantas – which could be announced within the next fortnight – follows a tie-up with British Airways, signed in February last year, to build the world's first commercial-scale biojet fuel plant in London, creating up to 1,200 jobs. Once operational in 2014, the London plant, costing £200m to build, will convert up to 500,000 tonnes of waste a year into 16m gallons of green jet fuel, which…

• The Issues with Corn Ethanol

  Brian Westenhaus, over at New Energy and Fuel, has been telling me what a good product corn ethanol is. He is very familiar with raising corn for ethanol, and can see how the process has been improved in recent years. Now it takes hardly any petroleum and chemical inputs from the farmer in order to grow a crop of corn for ethanol. The process is very mechanized, so it does not take much labor either. He has been having some discussions with Robert Rapier, who sees corn ethanol as being a problem, primarily because of its low energy return. I…

• Everyone is Lying About Ethanol

  Let’s start with a lie, albeit most likely the lowest level of lie, everyone is lying about ethanol.  It has gotten so that the lies are pervasive, even such that John Stossel at Fox News is making quotes and suggesting that ethanol is a huge political boondoggle. One such silliness is that Americans subsidize ethanol at the cost of $1.76 a gallon.  Gee, at 900,000 barrels a day or 37,800,000 gallons a day times 365 days times 1.76 gets to nearly $25 billion a year.  I think we’d notice that much more than the silliness we see floating out there…