September 30, 2008

July Ethanol Production Hits New High

July Ethanol production moved sharply higher ending the month with 799,764,000 gallons of total production. This marks the first month that daily production topped 600,000 barrels per day with 614,000 barrels per day produced.

July 2008 - 799,764,000 gallons
June 2008 - 736,848,000 gallons
May 2008 - 778,806,000 gallons
April 2008 - 708,456,000 gallons
March 2008 - 730,674,000 gallons
February 2008 - 631,050,000 gallons
January 2008 - 664,356,000 gallons
December 2007 - 636,762,000 gallons
November 2007 - 602,592,000 gallons
October 2007 - 588,756,000 gallons

January 2007 - 488,082,000 gallons

Source: - Energy Information Administration

September 29, 2008

Caterpillar Approves Use Of B20 Biodiesel For Compact and Mid-Range Industrial Engines

Caterpillar today approved the use of B20 biodiesel -20% dilution of biodiesel with standard diesel - across its range of compact and mid-range engines including the C0.5 through C2.2 Tier 4 Interim (11-66 hp), the C4.4, C4.4 ACERT® and C6.6 ACERT® (72-275 hp) Tier 3/Stage IIIA compliant engines. Caterpillar believes the growth of biodiesel as a fuel source and the move to higher percentage blends makes approval of this fuel source a strategic market advantage for OEMs and end users.

Addition of these engines to the B20 approved product line follows successful testing of higher percentage blended fuels in a number of installations. Results of those tests indicate trouble-free operation. Biodiesel used in B20 blends must meet the most current version of ASTM D6751 or EN14214. The final B20 blend should meet the minimum requirements of the upcoming ASTM specification for B5-B20 blends.

“This announcement further confirms Cat’s commitment to its industrial customers by bringing the broadest range of biodiesel compatible engines to market.” said Cat industrial engine marketing manager Mike Reinhart. “These engines join the previously B30 approved C7 ACERT® through C32 ACERT® and our 3400 and 3500 series. Cat industrial engines provide customers who want the flexibility to utilize a wide variety of fuels the confidence to use them in numerous industrial applications,” Reinhart added. “Biodiesel that meets industry quality standards can be good for the environment and for our customers.”

PetroSun To Build Algae Farm Pilot Plant In China

PetroSunPetroSun has entered into an agreement with a Shanghai Firm to construct and operate a commercial scale algae farm pilot facility in China.

PetroSun, Inc. announced today that the Company has executed an agreement with Shanghai Jun Ya Yan Technology Development Co., Ltd. to establish a commercial scale algae farm system pilot facility within the People's Republic of China. The planned algae farm complex will produce algae biomass for conversion to biodiesel, ethanol and other commercial products.

The terms of the agreement include a forty million dollar ($40,000,000US) sole funding commitment from Shanghai Jun Ya Yan Technology Development for the construction and equipping of the initial algae farm system. The profits from the venture will be allocated on a 50/50 basis between the parties. PetroSun China has been granted the license from PetroSun, Inc. for the algae-to-biofuel technology and will manage the operations in China.


Source : PetroSun Press Release

September 24, 2008

Ethanol Production More Energy Efficient Than Previously Thought

University of Nebraska at LincolnUniversity of Nebraska at Lincoln researcher Kenneth Cassman concluded in a upcoming study that ethanol production has become more energy efficient.

“Recent research conducted at the University of Nebraska clearly shows that estimates for the energy balance of corn-based ethanol are much more favorable – in fact two to three times more favorable, than previous estimates,” Cassman said. “That's because most of the published values for energy efficiency of corn-ethanol are ‘backward looking’ in the sense they evaluated older technologies with regard to energy use in corn production, the biorefinery, and co-product utilization.”

The study also addresses how much petroleum is needed to produce a given quantuty of ethanol.

Using dated information simply doesn’t work in a world where the technology and efficiency of corn and ethanol production are rapidly improving over the years,” he said. “Moreover, if the goal is to reduce dependence on imported oil, we estimate that 13 gallons of ethanol are produced for every gallon of petroleum used in the production lifecycle for corn ethanol.”

The study has been submitted to be published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Source : Clean Air Choice

September 23, 2008

Tyson Foods Executive Blames Ethanol For Rising Food Prices

Richard Greubel, president of Tyson Foods’ international division, blamed ethanol for pushing up food prices in a recent news article.

The rising price of foods in local supermarkets is a direct result of Congress’ increased mandate for U. S. ethanol production, a Tyson Foods Inc. executive told University of Arkansas at Fort Smith students Monday.

He claims that ethanol production has caused corn prices to rise which will push up meat prices. And while it is true that corn prices have gone up in part because of ethanol production, any direct link is much harder to find.

It is also true that retail prices for chicken has gone up. According to the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) the retail broiler composite has gone up from $1.674 per pound in August 2007 to $1.741 in August 2008. But the numbers that are most telling are the wholesale prices for the same time periods. The wholesale broiler composite went from $.814 per pound in August 2007 to $.719 in August 2008.

In other words producers at the lower end of the chicken supply chain are receiving less money in August of this year compared to last while at the retail level prices are higher. So the increased cost at the retail level that we were lead to believe was to cover rising feed costs isn't being passed down to the people actually buying the corn.

Note: According to this article the same thing appears to be happening in the pork industry as well.

Retail pork price in August were up 1.9 percent from July and up 2.9 percent from August of 2007. For January-August retail pork price were up 1.3 percent from a year earlier. Only the marketers benefited from the higher retail prices. The processor-retailer margin was up 1.8 percent and the packers' margin was up 8.6 percent from 12 months earlier. The producer’s average price for January-August was down 1.2 percent from 2007.

September 19, 2008

The American Coalition for Ethanol Goes Blogging

American Coalition for EthanolThe American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is the grassroots voice of the U.S. ethanol industry. As part of their effort to provide information on ethanol, they have started a new blog titled 'Ethanol. Right. Now.' It is now part of my daily reading list and I encourage everyone to give them a look.

Ethanol. Right. Now.

September 18, 2008

ISU Researchers Using Biodiesel To Recycle Plastic

There is an article in the news today about research that conducted at Iowa State University to improve the efficiency of internal combustion engines. With some 250 million registered vehicles in this country it is much needed research. But the part that really caught my attention was the research being conducted using biodiesel to recycle plastics.

One interesting project being researched in the lab is the recycling of some waste plastics by dissolving them in biodiesel fuel. Kong and his team are checking to see if biodiesel fuel can be used to eliminate waste plastics by mixing the plastic into the fuel. The team is studying the performance of engines burning biodiesel with plastic mixed in.


Source : Daily Tech

September 15, 2008

DOE To Invest In Six Innovative Biofuels Projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that it was investing up to $4.4 million in six advanced biofuels projects. Combined with the minimum university cost share of 20 percent, more than $5.7 million is slated for investment in these six projects.

These projects represent an investment in clean energy technologies that will help expand the current biofuels R&D efforts and help meet growing energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil. These will also expand the geographic diversity and breadth of partners working on advanced biofuels development across the country and strengthen DOE collaboration with universities, encouraging the innovation necessary to diversify our nation’s energy sources.


The following six projects were competitively selected for negotiation of awards:

University of Toledo: The University of Toledo (Toledo, Ohio) will address development of cost-effective biocatalysts capable of increasing product yield in the biological conversion of lignocellulosic biomass. The project will use a novel enzyme pellet scheme for efficient fermentation of both five-carbon and six-carbon sugars. The proposed approach provides the potential of simultaneous conversion of cellulose to sugar and fermentation to ethanol with native yeasts for the first time. The University of Toledo will undertake research tasks to evaluate the implementation of the technology in several modes of operation.

Steven’s Institute of Technology: Steven’s Institute of Technology’s New Jersey Center (Hoboken, N. J.) for MicroChemical Systems with BASF Catalysts LLC is planning to evaluate and demonstrate a novel microchannel reactor to reform pyrolysis oil to synthesis gas (syngas). The project intends to use the novel reactor and precisely controlled operating conditions to produce a high yield of syngas at a reduced energy and temperature, while additionally extending the life of the chosen catalyst.

Montana State University: Montana State University (Bozeman, Mont.) will partner with Utah State University to evaluate the oil content of algae cultures available to the universities and identify populations that naturally have higher rates of oil production. In this project, they will test the oil producing microalgae in existing open ponds for growth characteristics and oil production and determine the optimal algae type and most efficient biorefinery design.

University of Georgia: University of Georgia (Athens, Ga.) plans to develop novel approaches to supply nutrients to oil-producing algal systems resulting in cost-effective algae-biofuel production systems. The project will take advantage of the abundance of litter from the poultry industry as a source of low cost nutrients, and develop a nutrient delivery system to grow algae sustainably. Additionally, this project aims to develop process methods for the harvesting of algae from open ponds and subsequent processing to biofuels and other value added products from algae.

University of Maine: The University of Maine (Orono, Maine) in conjunction with several industry and academic partners is planning to determine the optimal yield and productivity of high potential bacteria at moderate to high temperatures. The University of Maine intends to use regionally available feedstocks, i.e., pre-pulping extracts and seaweed sludge, to model alternative conversion and fermentation pathways of these feedstocks into intermediates and alcohols, respectively.

Georgia Tech Research Corporation: Georgia Tech Research Corporation (Atlanta, Ga.) plans to evaluate and model the reaction kinetics in two experimental gasifiers using forest residues under different processing conditions. This project will evaluate the impact specific conditions, pressure and temperature, on the carbon gasification rate and formation of contaminates. The resulting models will maximize synthesis gas yield from an optimized gasifier.

Source : Department of Energy

September 10, 2008

OPEC To Lower Oil Production

Just when gasoline prices were getting back to a more livable range, OPEC announced today that they would reduce production.

Since the market is over-supplied, the Conference agreed to abide by September 2007 production allocations (adjusted to include new Members Angola and Ecuador and excluding Indonesia and Iraq), totalling 28.8 mb/d, levels with which Member Countries committed to strictly comply.


That is a reduction of about 520,000 barrels per day.

Source : OPEC

September 09, 2008

Ethanol's Use In Boats

There have been quite a few articles in the news lately about ethanol's use in boats. Most of the articles go through all the potential problems that some boats owners could have using ethanol and give the impression that anyone with a boat should be wary of ethanol blended fuel.

I must admit that although my parents had a couple of boats during the time I growing up, I got my fill of boats a long time ago. I haven't had any real experience with boats in many years, so I haven't really had any first hand experience to contribute on this issue.

But there was a piece of information in an article today that I thought was pretty interesting.

While this organization recognizes that older boats may "experience significant difficulties with E10 ethanol," it says these difficulties "affect less than 1 percent of the 13 million registered boat owners in this country."


You can decide for yourself whether or not all the hype that issue has received is fair for an issue that won't effect 99% of boaters.

Source : Does ethanol-based gas demand a boat upgrade?

September 06, 2008

Republican Platform Calls For End To Ethanol Mandates

Republican Platform 2008Part of the formal work accomplished at the Republican National Convention last week was the formation of the party platform. The platform, which spells out what the party stands for and hopes to accomplish, included a call for the ending of ethanol mandates.

The U.S. government should end mandates for ethanol and let the free market work.


Being a republican myself, adopting this measure as part of the party platform is very disappointing to me. There is no such thing as a free market when it comes to our existing fuel infrastructure. Oil companies often limit independent store owners from purchasing fuel from any other sources through supplier contracts. So unless oil companies are forced to blend ethanol into the fuel supply there will be very few outlets available to sell it. For the free market to work consumers have to have a choice and I don't think that the oil industry is voluntarily going to give it to us.

September 04, 2008

E85 Stations Top 1700

E85 pumpIn the last month 80 new E85 stations have been added to the list bringing the current total to 1743.

September 1, 2008 - 1743
August 1, 2008 - 1663
July 1, 2008 - 1627
June 1, 2008 - 1579
May 1, 2008 - 1560
April 1, 2008 - 1521
March 1, 2008 - 1501
February 1, 2008 - 1475
November 9, 2007 - 1378
May 7, 2007 - 1200

The current number plus the locations of all E85 stations can be found at the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

U.S. Takes Lead In Wind Electricty Generation

U.S. now leads world in wind energy generation but delay in extending federal tax credit places 2009 project pipeline on hold, discourages manufacturing investment

U.S. wind farms now generate more electricity than any other nation in the world and are on track to expand by over 45% this year, but the expiration of the federal production tax credit (PTC) less than five months from now threatens this spectacular progress, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today in its second quarter market report.

“The U.S. is now the world’s largest wind energy producer, with wind development sparking job creation and economic opportunity in a troubled economy,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. “But the current figures hide a dire reality: the pipeline of investment for 2009 has been on hold for months, with escalating risks and costs for the industry, because of the uncertainty about the production tax credit. At a time when unemployment is at a 4-year high and the economy needs every stimulus it can get, a rapid extension of the credit should be on any economic priority list for Congress.”

The U.S. is now the world leader in wind electricity generation. While Germany still has more generating capacity installed (about 23,000 megawatts), the U.S. is producing more electricity from wind because of its much stronger winds.

Total U.S. installed wind power capacity now stands at 19,549 megawatts (MW). The industry installed 1,194 MW in the second quarter, down from 1,532 MW during the first. This brings the year’s new capacity to 2,725 MW, more than was installed in any year except 2007. More is under construction for completion either by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, depending on when the PTC is extended. Uncertainty regarding the PTC is causing a rush to complete projects by the end of the year, with increased risks and costs for the industry and eventually for customers. Under the best-case scenario for the industry, Congress will move quickly in September to extend the credit and the pressure will be eased for immediate project completion while reopening the pipeline for 2009. Under that scenario, AWEA projects at least 7,500 MW of new capacity to be added in 2008.

AWEA also reports a strong increase in domestic investment in wind turbine and wind turbine component manufacturing facilities over the past year and a half. At least 41 facilities have been announced, opened, or expanded over that period of time. These facilities will create over 9,000 jobs when they are at full capacity. Uncertainty about the PTC threatens that level of investment as well.

“It’s clear that wind power is not only a major technology with which to fight climate change, but also one of the most promising and dynamic economic engines we have today,” said Swisher. “The nation needs an ambitious plan to promote the deployment of wind and other renewable energy technologies—and the urgent first step it must take is to rapidly extend the expiring renewable energy credits, which are the primary incentive that the nation provides for these technologies today.”