High Quality Biodiesel, Small Community Plants

July 20, 2010

Novozymes is testing a new method for producing biodiesel that it hopes will result in high-quality fuel and a blueprint for small, community-scale plants.

But the new technology that uses enzymes instead of alcohol and acid may not immediately solve the biggest hurdle facing biodiesel: costs. Without the $1 a gallon government incentive that expired in January the fuel is not be able to compete.

Novozymes new technology uses enzymes instead of alcohol and acid to process cooking oils and grease.

The Danish company said a North Carolina pilot plant is to begin testing the new technology in an agreement with Piedmont Biofuels. The plant is relatively small in size – 12,600 gallons annually – and if successful could spawn a generation of copycat facilities of about 6 million gallons in size that serve local communities.

The goal is to produce a high quality fuel from the low-quality cooking oil and grease that might be discarded by a restaurant. Most biodiesel today comes from food oils, such as soybean or canola, and is processed using alcohol – typically methanol, or sodium methoxide. Feedstocks with a high level of fatty acid, such as grease, often require pretreatment with a catalyst, such as sulfuric acid. Part of the problem is that both sodium methoxide and sulfuric acid are hazardous to handle.

Working with an enzyme made of a protein, like egg white, is safer and simpler, claims Hans Christian Holm, Novozymes’ global marketing manager. “We’re taking the danger out of the process,” he says.

The project is the first to use a biodiesel enzyme with cooking oil and grease.

Holm says Novozymes and Piedmont must convert 95 percent of the feedstock to make the process economical. But he suggests this is possible based on laboratory tests. At that conversion ratio, costs should be equivalent to biodiesel made from soybean oil, but higher than diesel from fossil fuels.

“I think it will be a step in the right direction,” he says. But it is part of an evolution for the industry.

The challenge is that biodiesel costs in general can be as high as $4.50 a gallon, or well above the roughly $3 for diesel. The market took a big hit this year when the $1 a gallon federal subsidy expired.

It may take more than a new production technique or a pint-sized plant to reverse the fall.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

The Difficult Bullish Case For Cellulosic Biofuel

June 17, 2010

Biofuel producers have their fingers crossed on several key Washington policy decisions. They may be holding their fingers for some time.

The news from the halls of government wasn’t encouraging on Wednesday. A bill to extend the expired biodiesel tax credit failed in the Senate, a sign that renewing the ethanol credit later this year could also be politically sticky.

The EPA meanwhile balked on a measure to raise the blending cap for ethanol. A decision had been expected in June and now appears more likely by late summer, at the earliest.

About 50 cellulosic ethanol pilot plants operate in the U.S. Several hundred demonstration plants around the world await funding

The uncertainty from these delayed decisions is likely to keep the industry in financial limbo – just as it was hoping for something better. Since the depths of the recession early last year, financing for new plants has been hard to find. Money isn’t likely to flow freely any time soon.

Things could be so different. Cellulosic ethanol is finally coming of age. Technological kinks appear to be working themselves out, and pilot projects are ready to pass the baton to demonstration ones.

As many as several hundred second-generation cellulosic ethanol plants await funding and the certainty of government decisions could help them lock in money.

There is good reason to think they should move ahead, says Poul Ruben Andersen, global marketing director for Novozymes’ bioenergy business. Four cellulosic demonstration plants are in operation (two in the United States and two in Europe) and the results are favorable.

“It is still early days,” says Andersen. But “this makes us confident.” In the U.S., Iogen and Verenium operate facilities, while in Europe Inbicon and Abengoa are demonstrating production. The plants are similar size, each about 1.5 million gallons.

Just as important, the industry believes second-generation costs are coming down. Cellulosic ethanol is more expensive than corn ethanol, which sells at about $1.60 a gallon. Large-scale production should bring it to below $2, or under the comparable price of gasoline.

POET, the largest producer of corn ethanol, says its cellulosic pilot plant in South Dakota (one of about 50 industry-wide in the U.S.) is successful enough that production can move to the demonstration phase. It hopes to begin construction this summer in Iowa. The 25-million-gallon plant will use corncobs and discarded plant material from grain harvesting.

“We will continue to tweak this process and improve it,” says CEO Jeff Broin. For instance, the company is installing a $2 million pretreatment system to better simulate conditions at the demonstration facility It also recently discovered that a second anaerobic digester is more effective at producing power for the plant than a separate boiler.

Yet this next generation of plants requires government certainty before it can take root. A decision on tax credits is one necessary component. Investment credits, loan guarantees and more aggressive production targets also are critical, according to a report released this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

At the top of the list is the decision over blending limits. Carmakers worry an increase in the present 10 percent ethanol-gasoline limit could harm engines and catalytic converters. Industry executives hope for 15 percent or more.

At 20 or 22 percent, investors will be upbeat enough to begin funneling money into new demonstration plants, says Andersen. “That would pave the way.”

It also may get production back on track. The EPA had hoped for 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol this year, but scaled back the goal to 6.5 million as the realities of the industry became clear. Now it appears the 1 billion gallon mark won’t be hit until 2017, well behind schedule.

Once again, it doesn’t have to be this way. The National Academy of Sciences estimates enough raw material is available to produce 32 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol, or double the government’s target for 2022. The academy says 400 million tons of biomass can be found each year in the United States from agricultural discards, fuel crops, forest residues and solid wastes.

Unfortunately, a bull-run in cellulosic ethanol doesn’t appear likely in the short term. Analysts continue to expect the technology to get to scale in 2012. At the present pace, this may not be the case.

That suggests industry fingers had better remain crossed.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Solar Powered Biodiesel Bus To Use 100% Algae Fuel

May 10, 2010

Lon Baylor’s experience with biodiesel buses has had it ups and downs.

But this corporate transit manager says he is ready for the next big step. His firm, Bauer’s Worldwide Transportation of San Francisco, will abandon the 80 percent, 20 percent blend of conventional biodiesel it is using today (if there is such a thing as conventional biodiesel) for a 100 percent biodiesel concoction derived from algae.

The transition may make the Bauer’s the first algae-fuel coach line in the country. Certainly the bus will become a showpiece in a city pushing forward the frontier of green living.

Baylor, whose job it is to find alternative energy equipment for the bus company, anticipates having the algae bus in service next year. He won’t name his fuel supplier. But he calculates the project will have a 4-year investment return, not bad for an effort so new.

The bus's solar panels run an air conditioning system and free drivers from idling their engines to keep the coach cool.

He says this “second generation” biodiesel motor will have some important benefits. The company’s current biodiesel fuel clogs the bus’s ammonia-based catalytic converter, even with a 20 percent biodiesel mixture.

The new business will no longer need a catalytic converter, which takes diesel particulate out of the exhaust, since it no longer burns fossil fuels.

But he acknowledges the second-generation bus may not solve all the difficulties that come with running biodiesel. Bauer’s present biodiesel clogs fuel filters and causes the bus’s turbo drive to run hot. It also gets lower fuel economy, which the company has tried to compensate for by installing a 12-speed automatic transmission.

Bauer’s says it has had to apply for a special extension of the manufacturer’s warranty due to its use of biodiesel.

But all this has not caused it to shrink from biodiesel, despite the extra maintenance. The company has log 5 million miles with the fuel and felt comfortable enough to invest in a complementary set of rooftop solar panels.

The 12 panels perform an important function, says Baylor. Buses idle 40 to 60 percent of the time, largely to keep their air conditioning systems running, Now the solar panels can take over the job, permitting drivers to turn off their engines. Fuel mileage goes up and the air is cleaner.

The problem, says Baylor, is that the solar power air conditioning equipment is still going through troubleshooting, and bolts and latches shake loose with travel.

Nothing is built for (an alternative-energy) bus,” he says. At least not yet.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Biofuels Business A Roller Coaster, But Ford Signs Up

May 4, 2010

The United States now produces more ethanol than gasoline refined from Saudi Arabian and Iraqi oil.

This fact is a fitting reminder of the growing prominence of the nation’s biofuels industry. Last year, ethanol production hit a record in the U.S. and new refineries under construction will expand that capacity ten fold.

The Fusion is one of 11 flexible fuel vehicles Ford offers. The company will expand biofuels vehibles 50 percent in two years.

It is no surprise then that some carmakers are showing greater interest in alternative fuel internal combustion engines. On Tuesday, for instance, Ford announced it would to expand its production of flexible-fuel cars and trucks, with 50 percent of vehicles by 2012 able to burn ethanol and other biofuels.

Of course, the biofuels business has been an up and down ride. Biofuels companies plunged into the red during the first half of 2009 as the global recession cut demand for their products. But by the second half of the year, many of the nation’s 170 refineries recovered, with profits returning and production hitting a record.

However, this year will be a little more troublesome again. Expectations are for more modest growth, with production forecast to rise 12 percent to 11.9 million gallons, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group. The nation will have 189 refineries.

The roller coaster will continue. Refineries under construction will add 1.4 billion gallons of new capacity, with the first wave of cellulosic, or second-generation, producers coming up to commercial levels.

The nation’s biodiesel business has had an even more difficult fate. While the counry’s180 biodiesel plants produced 350 million gallons of biodiesel in 2009, production was down by 50 percent from a year earlier. Part of the explanation is the global recession, which squelched demand. But a European Community anti dumping tariff on U.S. imports added to the woes. Europe has been the largest importer of U.S. biodiesel..

Today U.S. plants are operating at only about 15 percent of capacity.

Still, companies such as Ford aren’t dismayed. The carmaker builds 11 flexible fuel vehicles and has doubled that number since 2006.

This will amount to 370,000 cars and trucks in 2010. “Flexible-fuel vehicles are a great alternative,” says Sue Cischke, a Ford group vice president. If only it could be a better business.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Biofuel 3.0: A Third Wave Of Biofuels Emerges

May 3, 2010

First came the companies eager to turn corn, soybeans, sugar cane and other edible feedstock into ethanol and other fuels.

North Carolina State University wins $2.7 million federal grant to engineer superbug to create biofuel directly from microorganism

Then a second generation of start-ups began replacing the foodstuffs with cellulosic materials such as wood and grasses. Many are just now building large-scale plants to prove they can turn laboratory experiments into massive commercial production, including Amyris Biotechnologies, Codexis and ZeaChem.

Now a third-generation of biofuel makers is showing progress with novel laboratory work. This new wave is a sharp departure from the ways of the past and has interesting potential. It hopes to simplify manufacturing by avoiding the fermentation step of first and second generation companies and convert organisms directly into fuel using just carbon dioxide and sometimes sunlight.

It is an exciting prospect. Not only could these new ventures remake an industry, they could open the door to new ways to store solar energy (in a fuel!) and help remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

On the leading edge is Joule of Cambridge, MA. That company hopes a genetically engineered microorganism will directly produce fuel on large scale and hopes to demonstrate it with a Texas pilot project this summer. The process requires CO2 and sunlight.

Also pushing the dial is North Carolina State University, which received a Department of Energy ARPA-E grant of $2.7 million. The university’s experimental work makes use of microbial organisms called extremophiles that use CO2 and hydrogen (and no sunlight) to produce complex molecules that are building blocks for biofuels.

The primitive organisms live in hot fresh or salt water (167 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit) and evolved before photosynthesis developed. The lack of sunlight should make their growth cycle easier to manage.

The university plans to genetically engineer a “superbug” that will efficiently produce butanol. The work may take three years or more. But it is a promising side step around the large fermentation plants that define the industry today.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

GM And Energy Department Team Up On Jatropha Farming In India

March 31, 2010

General Motors has already invested in ethanol start-ups Coskata and Mascoma. Now it is throwing more effort behind biodiesel.

The formerly bankrupt automaker teamed up with the Department of Energy and will develop two new experimental jatropha farms in India. The five-year partnership will reply on funding from both organizations.

Goal is to find strains of jatropha that will grow on marginal lands in the U.S. and elsewhere

The aim is to identify new strains of the drought-resistant plant that can grow on marginal land in the U.S. and elsewhere to produce significant quantities of oil to convert to biodiesel. The oil comes from the seed of the weed-like plant, which is known for its ability to grow in sandy, gravelly soils. Strains of jatropha for the experiment have been developed through selective breeding and laboratory optimization.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he hopes the partnership will speed up efforts to turn jatropha into a commercially viable alternative to petroleum-based fuel. It will cultivate 408 acres of land in three locations, including in Kalol near GM’s India manufacturing plant.

GM has already begun testing jatropha-based biodiesel in its vehicles. The carmaker’s European division has a fleet of six cars running on jatropha blends. The company also used a 10 to 20 percent mixture to run vehicles in India several thousand miles.

GM’s biodiesel work began in India several years ago but on a much smaller scale than its development of ethanol.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Make Your Own Biodiesel At Home

March 8, 2010

Even as the Europeans argue over the environmental impact of biofuels, it seems clear that alternative fuels not derived from petroleum are here to stay.

Independence Energy has begun marketing a micro refinery for biodiesel. Think hyper-local.

So why not make the fuel you need at home? Or perhaps participate in a community refinery, supplying it with home waste, such as cooking oils and food scraps?

Ok, so it seems a bit far-fetched at present. But for biofuels to make a dent in gasoline use, production has to be massive, widespread and conducted local to keep transportation costs low.

This hyper-local nature of the industry means that small-scale plants will have to be built in communities across the country and around the world. And source material will need to be found nearby, including grasses, forest waste, lumberyard scrap, even vegetable and food garbage from homes.

Independence Energy Company is making an early play for this market. The firm has begun marketing a $100,000 “micro” refinery that is designed to make 1,000 gallons of biodiesel a day. With government incentives, that plant’s actual cost could be lower.

The plant is designed to produce fuel in 500 gallon batches with two daily work shifts.

The company’s plan to create joint ventures with local producers in U.S., Asia, Africa and South America and then consult with owners to find local feedstock.  It suggests this sourcing can be creative, such as fish oil from a fish processing plant, palm, castor beans, sunflowers, canola, camelina or jatropha.

In Europe, policy makers are trying to gauge the impact of large-scale biofuels farming on wetlands and tropical forests across the globe. The fear is that as agricultural land in developed countries is turned to biofuels, developing countries will clear cut more virgin land for farming.

With a move to hyper-local production, perhaps some of this conversion can be headed off before it begins.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Postal Service Begins Testing Electric Vehicles

February 1, 2010

The U.S. Postal Service has the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the country. It is ripe for conversion to electric power

The Postal Service is already testing an electric scooter.

That’s because the daily requirements of postal vehicles match well with the current capabilities of lithium ion batteries. The average vehicle drives 20 or so miles a day and stops between 500 and 700 times. That means its daily duties fall well within the range of an inexpensive, low power battery.

It also means each a vehicle is able to send significant power back to the battery through the use of a “regenerative” system that generates electricity from braking.

The cars and trucks in addition are free to recharge at night when power demand is low and utilities have the power to spare.

Several bills are before Congress with demands the service buy tens of thousands of electric vehicles over the next five years. Testing has already begun. Four companies have been selected to deliver vehicles to the service for one-year trials in Washington, D.C. Broad deployment is to follow.

Among those supplying vehicles is Quantum Fuel Systems.

Electric vehicles are not new to the Postal Service. Already it has been testing an electric scooter in several cities in Florida, California and Arizona. The scooter has a 40-mile range and costs 4 cents a mile to operate.

The USPS also has vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells, propane, ethanol and biodiesel. None are likely to proper quite the electrics.

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