Alternative Energy / Biofuels

• 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…

• Major Breakthrough for Seaweed Biofuel

  Getting biofuel supplies from seaweed has taken a giant leap forward from work by Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois Assistant Professor of Microbial Genomics and a faculty member in the university’s Institute for Genomic Biology. Jin and his large international team have developed a strain of yeast that can make short work of fermenting galactose using red seaweed for the feedstock. Jin points out galactose is one of the most abundant sugars in marine biomass so its enhanced fermentation will be  industrially very useful for seaweed biofuel producers. Marine biomass is a high potential renewable source for the production…

• Why Sugar Beets are Preferable to Corn for Ethanol Production

  focusing on beet ethanol makes sense for a number of reasons. Green Vision’s figures show that beets produce twice as much ethanol per acre as corn and require about 40 percent less water per gallon of ethanol produced. Using beets instead of corn also sidesteps the controversy associated with using a food product for fuel. “This is probably the most efficient use for an acre of land for biofuel as there is,” Helgaas said. _CheckBiotechIn the higher latitudes where air temperatures dip far below sugar cane growing levels, sugar beets thrive. Fargo, North Dakota's, Green Vision Group aims to turn…

• Could the Farmland Bubble be about to Burst? What Will this Mean for Corn Ethanol

  There’s another bubble blown up and ready to pop. Its farmland all across the U.S. priced off the chart.  For the alternative fuel future this is an extreme danger moment, the prime driver for alternative fuels for decades in the U.S. has come from corn based ethanol, thus what happens to corn based ethanol will have an impact on everything else.  The trailblazer market is in danger from the basics – land. The world corn market is not abundant right now – the U.S crop came up short – although there is no danger of a shortage.  The price for…