Biomass Power: Pillar of a New Japan?

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Austin May 24, 2011

Recent events in Japan may fuel a new push toward renewable energy as the country reevaluates its energy portfolio.

In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant incident, a result of the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Northeastern Japan on March 11, the country’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that Japan will push toward more renewable energy—solar and biomass energy specifically—as pillars of a new Japan.


The road to achieving that goal appears to be long, as renewable energy in Japan has been slow to develop. In 2008, biomass, solar and wind combined accounted for about 1 percent of the renewable energy produced, most of which is generated from biomass heat. That same year, renewables accounted for about 4 percent of the country's total energy generation, compared to 11 percent in the U.S., or 40 percent in Sweden. Since then, the percent of renewbles has fallen to 2 percent.

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Initial field test results on GM poplars: bioethanol yield is almost doubled

BioFortified.org
by David Tribe on 20 May 2011
From GMO Pundit.

​Nancy, France, May 19, 2011 – The yield of bio-ethanol from the wood of GM poplar trees from a VIB field trial is up to 81% higher than non-modified poplars VIB-UGent researcher Wout Boerjan presented these results at the international conference “Bioenergy Trees” in Nancy, France.

“This is just the beginning. The results of the field test confirm that we are on the right track. Further research will allow us to select poplar varieties that are even better suited for bio-ethanol production,” said Wout Boerjan from VIB and Ghent University.

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Purdue invites Brazilian energy ideas to campus

The Exponent Online (Purdue University)
Posted: Friday, May 20, 2011 10:00 am
BY TARA SIPPLES Summer Reporter Purdue Exponent

Each year for the past six years Purdue has hosted a symposium focusing on bioenergy production but this year’s was a bit different.

This week, Frontiers in Bioenergy: U.S.-Brazil Symposium on Sustainable Bioenergy focused on building strong collaborations toward creating sustainable energy.

“What’s different about this one is that we decided to make it an international meeting and invite Brazilian colleagues up,” Maureen McCann, director of the Energy Center in Discovery Park said. “Because Brazil has been this model of how to implement biofuels and give themselves energy independence.”

The symposium focused on the issues of sustainability in the production of biofuels, including sustainable farming, harvesting and pre-processing of crops. Purdue invited Brazil because it has managed to replace a significant amount of oil consumption by using ethanol as liquid transportation fuel, and the country is at a place with sustainability that the United States would like to catch up with, McCann said.

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Value of Iowa's newly planted corn grows by more than $1 billion

DesMoinesRegister.com
11:37 PM, May. 20, 2011
Written by DAN PILLER

Iowa farmers who saw their yields cut by record rains last July could benefit from erratic weather elsewhere this year.

Planting delays in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and flooding in the lower Mississippi River valley have pushed up the value of Iowa's newly planted corn crop by more than $1 billion in the last week.

The futures price for December delivery of the corn crop planted this spring has climbed from $6.15 per bushel on May 11, the day after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported a slight increase in its surplus forecast, to $6.66 Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

In the shorter term, the July contract for corn left over from the 2010 crop rose 12 cents per bushel Friday to $7.60, completing a $1 gain for the week.

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Studies focus on feed ingredient's E. coli effects on cattle

theIndependent.com
Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011 12:15 AM CDT

After corn is processed to make ethanol, what's left of the corn looks something like slightly dampened cornmeal, though a somewhat darker yellow, and not as finely ground. Known as "wet distiller's grains with solubles" (WDGS), this byproduct is sometimes used as a cattle feed ingredient. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in Clay Center are studying the pros and cons of that practice.

WDGS is rich in protein, and also provides calories and minerals, according to James E. Wells, a microbiologist with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

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IPO Watch: BioEnergy Seed IPO Filing from Ceres (CERE, MON)

24ywallst.com
Posted: May 23, 2011 at 9:31 am

We have another initial public offering most likely coming this way. Ceres, Inc. has filed to come public in an IPO and will trade under the “CERE” ticker on NASDAQ. No financial terms were set as far as a number of shares or price range other than that the filing is initially for up to $100,000,000.00 in common stock. The underwriters were named as Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital.

Ceres is an agricultural biotechnology outfit that sells seeds to produce renewable biomass feedstocks that can enable the large-scale replacement of petroleum and other fossil fuels. It uses a combination of advanced plant breeding and biotechnology to develop new crops (dedicated energy crops) to address the limitations of first-generation bioenergy feedstocks like corn and sugarcane. It also aims to increase biomass productivity, reduce crop inputs and improve cultivation on marginal land. The company is based in Thousand Oaks, California and was incorporated under Delaware Law in 1996.

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BCAP: Matchmaking

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Austin May 23, 2011

USDA announces first project area and expects to announce more matching payments soon.

The agency is still erring on the side of caution, however, as funding amounts are unclear—and the 2012 Farm Bill is looming—but approval of the first BCAP project area has restored some enthusiasm for the program.

BCAP project areas provide financial incentives—annual payments to land enrolled and establishment cost-share payments—to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to produce biomass crops for heat, power, biobased products and advanced biofuels.

BCAP Project Area No. 1, approved on May 5, was proposed by Missouri-based, farmer-owned cooperative Show Me Energy. The 39-county project area is in central and western Missouri and eastern Kansas, and will consist of lowland and highland native mix grasses, according to Show Me Energy board President Steve Flick. “We kept it simple; we’re using no woody biomass crops,” he says. “The farmers decide if they want to plant a highland mix or lowland mix, and they don’t have to harvest it initially if they don’t want to because it’s only mandatory to harvest it once in five years.”

Growers can sell their crop to any qualified biomass conversion facility. Flick says Show Me Energy will buy all biomass produced in the project area for use at its Centerview, Mo., biomass pellet plant, which is in the process of validating modular technologies for gasifying biomass pellets to produce electricity and biobutanol.

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European Commission Funds Global Project to Produce Ethanol, Biodiesel and Bioproducts From Algae

PRNewswire

BRUSSELS, May 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Nine partners from seven countries have joined in an innovative project to show that ethanol, biodiesel and bioproducts can be produced from algae on a large scale. The BIOfuel From Algae Technologies (BIOFAT) project, largely funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program, aims to demonstrate that biofuels made from microalgae can offer energy efficiency, economic viability and environmental sustainability.

Algae's potential for providing high-energy-yield products with low greenhouse gas emissions has been long understood, but the potential downside from such development is less clear. BIOFAT seeks to maximize the benefits from algae while minimizing environmental impacts. Along the way, the project will introduce the world to the algorefinery, a facility that can produce high-value co-products in addition to biofuels.

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Blog unavailable May 23-27

The CABER Bioenergy blog is on vacation for a few days. See you again after Memorial Day!

EPA announces next step for boiler and incinerator standards

Biomass Power & Thermal
By U.S. EPA May 16, 2011

As previously announced, the U.S. EPA is seeking additional public feedback and gathering more information on the final standards for boilers and certain solid waste incinerators that were issued in February 2011. These additional opportunities for public input will ensure that any final standard will be informed by input and feedback from key stakeholders, including the public, industry and public health communities.

Input through the public comment process already resulted in dramatic cuts in the cost of implementation, while maintaining maximum public health benefits, under the rule announced in February. As part of the reconsideration process, EPA will issue a stay postponing the effective date of the standards for major source boilers and commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators to allow the agency to continue to seek additional public comment before an updated rule is proposed. This process of careful consideration of public comments, and close attention to both costs and benefits, is consistent with the president’s directives with respect to regulation, as set out in executive order 13563, issued on Jan. 18.

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Corn & Soybean Digest
Source: National Corn Growers Association
May 20, 2011 12:50pm

The National Corn Growers Association has always believed that ethanol production is good for American agriculture and the economy at large, and now on the global scale we are seeing support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which this week published a new analysis that supports the claim that biofuels could help improve food security in rural economies.

"Farmers know that ethanol has a measurable and positive impact on communities, which is greatly needed in today's economy," says NCGA Ethanol Chair Keith Alverson. "However, it is nice to see more of the world starting to realize what we've been saying and showing for quite some time."

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Improving Ethanol Production Economics

WOWT.com
Updated: 8:51 AM May 20, 2011

Iowa State engineer scales up process that could improve economics of ethanol production.
Iowa State University's Hans van Leeuwen has moved his research team's award-winning idea for improving ethanol production from a laboratory to a pilot plant.

Now he knows the idea, which produces a new animal feed and cleans water that can be recycled back into ethanol production, works more efficiently in batches of up to 350 gallons than on a lab bench.

"We're learning we can reliably produce good quality and good quantities," said van Leeuwen, Iowa State's Vlasta Klima Balloun Professor of Engineering in the department of civil, construction and environmental engineering.

What van Leeuwen and a team of Iowa State researchers are producing is a fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus, that makes a high-quality, high-protein animal feed from the leftovers of ethanol production. The process of growing the fungus also cleans water from ethanol production so that it can be recycled back into fuel production. And the process, called MycoMeal, could one day produce a low-cost nutritional supplement for people.

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Money in peril for new ethanol pumps

Des Moines Register
11:21 PM, May. 19, 2011
Written by PHILIP BRASHER

Washington, D.C. — A program that would subsidize installing new ethanol pumps at rural service stations could be on the chopping block as lawmakers look to slash the U.S. Agriculture Department's budget.

Next week, a House appropriations subcommittee will unveil a proposed 2012 budget for the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration that will cut overall spending for the agencies by 13 percent as part of a Republican effort to shrink the federal deficit.

The Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP, was cut by 25 percent this year, and backers want to avoid another reduction.

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Study Predicts Cellulosic Ethanol Won't Contribute to Renewable Fuel Targets by 2022

Environmental Protection
•May 19, 2011

A new study evaluates the viability of the wood-based transportation fuel sector in the United States. Wood biofuel projects attract strong private and public investment, and advance federal energy policy objectives. Published by Forisk Consulting and the Schiamberg Group, the study details 12 technologies and 36 projects that convert wood to fuels including ethanol, butanol, diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel. Projects producing drop-in fuels have superior potential for investors. Wood-based biofuels will fail to contribute substantively to EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard targets in 2011 or 2022.

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Brazil: We will import U.S. ethanol when needed

Des Moines Register
11:31 PM, May. 18, 2011
Written by LYNN HICKS

The world's biggest producer of sugarcane ethanol has no problem using its corn-made cousin, the Brazilian ambassador to the U.S. said Wednesday.

"As long as we need it, we'll import it," said Ambassador Mauro Vieira, who met with editors from The Des Moines Register on Wednesday.

Brazil imported a record amount of ethanol in the first quarter of 2011, because of a poor sugarcane harvest last year, high sugar prices and higher domestic demand, said Platts, an energy information service. Most of that imported ethanol came from the United States; Iowa is the nation's largest producer.

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New tool for weighing pros and cons of bioenergy

WEBWIRE – Tuesday, May 17, 2011

FAO-developed methodology offers policymakers a way to evaluate potential benefits of growing energy crops, avoid pitfalls

Rome - As interest in bioenergy production continues to grow, FAO is promoting the use of a new methodology designed to help policymakers weigh the pros and cons of investing in the sector.

FAO’s "Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Analytical Framework" was created to help governments evaluate the potential of bioenergy as well as assess its possible food security impacts.

The framework was recently finalized following a three year development and field test phase in which it was applied in Peru, Tanzania and Thailand.

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Ukrainian-Belgian company to plant switch grass for biomass in Chornobyl zone

interfax.com.au
5-18-11

The State Agency for the Exclusion Zone Management, jointly with PhytoFues Investments, a Ukrainian-Belgian company planting and using biomass, is intending to conduct an experiment to produce biomass in the Chornobyl exclusion zone to be used for energy generation, the agency's deputy head, Mykola Proskura, has said.

"We would like to complete major field studies in a year," he said at a press conference in Kyiv.

According to Proskura, the essence of the experiment is the planting of switch grass in the Chornobyl area to get biomass that will be burnt at thermal power plants to produce biogas.

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New Study Breaks Link Between Land Use, Biofuels

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Joanna Schroeder – May 16th, 2011

In a new study released today by Michigan State University (MSU), biofuel production in the United States through 2007, “probably has not induced any indirect land use change.” The report was conducted by Seungdo Kim and Bruce Dale, both MSU scientists, and the results will be published in the next issue of the Journal of Biomass and Bioenergy. ILUC is the theory that any acre used in the production of feedstocks for biofuels in the U.S. results in a new acre coming into food or feed production somewhere else in the world.

Dale and Kim empirically tested whether indirect land use change (ILUC) occurred through 2007 as a result of the expansion of the U.S. biofuels industry, spurred in part by the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) that calls for 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended in fuel supplies by 2022. The researcher’s derived their conclusion after studying historical data on U.S. croplands, commodity grain exports to specific regions and land use trends in these geographical regions.

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Letter to Congress From U.S. Biofuels Leaders: Don't Mess With RFS

PRNewswire

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sending a significant signal of industry unity to Capitol Hill, the leading advocates of the U.S. biofuels industry sent Congress a message today that urged lawmakers "to stand firm in the face of calls to waive or repeal the groundbreaking biofuels provisions included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), including the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS)."

The message was detailed in a letter signed by Michael McAdams, president of the Advanced Biofuels Association; the Honorable Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization; Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association; Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Ethanol Council; and Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol.

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ZeaChem signs long-term feedstock agreement for poplar residue

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Kris Bevill May 17, 2011

ZeaChem Inc. has signed a long-term feedstock agreement with GreenWood Tree Farm Fund LP for its first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefinery. Poplar tree residuals provided from GTFF, which is managed by GreenWood Resources Inc., will provide the majority of the feedstock required for ZeaChem’s 25 MMgy facility, which will be located at Boardman, Ore. Construction of the facility is expected to begin in late 2012 or early 2013, depending the progress of a USDA loan guarantee application, according to ZeaChem CEO Jim Imbler. When complete, the plant will produce cellulosic ethanol and a variety of bio-based chemicals, including acetic acid and ethyl acetate.

Imbler said the agreement with GTFF marks an important milestone for his company, which aims to become a world leader in low-cost advanced biofuels and biobased chemicals production through the use of a hybrid biochemical-thermochemical process to utilize biomass-derived sugars. “We are proud to have GreenWood Resources as a partner in our commercial operation,” he said. “The model we have developed provides a significant strategic advantage and is something that GreenWood Resources and ZeaChem will seek to replicate around the world.”

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Are Biofuels Ethical?

Buildings
05/09/2011

The race to develop biofuels is on, and an article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy is taking a look at ethical issues and questions surrounding the rapid rise of this emerging energy.

Professor Joyce Tait, Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Party on Biofuels, and Scientific Adviser to the Innogen Centre at Edinburgh University, reports on the Council's proposed development of a comprehensive ethical standard for biofuels.

The standard would address six ethical principles surrounding production of biofuels, including the protection of human rights, environmental sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction, and fair trade.

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New biofuel to spar with ethanol

MansfieldNewsJournal
May 10, 2011
Written by Philip Brasher
Columnists - Opinion

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Imagine filling up the car on a fuel that isn't made from oil but doesn't have the drawbacks of corn ethanol, including its lower energy content and ability to damage older cars or gas pumps.

Such fuels could be made from the same sources as ethanol, including corn and corncobs as well as straw, trees and other abundant types of biomass. But these fuels would be synthetic versions of today's gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Unlike ethanol, a renewable version of gasoline could be used in any amount in today's engines, filling stations and pipelines.

The prospect of these fuels is coming up in a debate over the direction of the government's biofuel policy as Congress is slashing spending to reduce the budget deficit.

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Photosynthesis Or Photovoltaics?

RedOrbit.com
Posted on: Sunday, 15 May 2011, 10:01 CDT

Which is more efficient at harvesting the sun's energy, plants or solar cells? This salient question and an answer are the subject of an article published in the May 13 issue of the journal Science.

Although both photosynthesis and photovoltaics harvest energy from the sun, they operate in distinctly different ways producing different fuels. It is not a simple task to find common ground between the two in order to compare energy conversion efficiency.

"In order to make meaningful comparisons between photosynthesis (which provides stored chemical potential) and photovoltaic technology (which provides instantaneous electrical power), we considered photovoltaic driven water electrolysis to yield hydrogen using existing technology as an example of artificial photosynthesis," explained co-author Thomas Moore, director of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis at Arizona State University.

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Dairy industry sets goal to launch 1,300 anaerobic digesters

Times-News Magic Valley
By Blair Koch Times-News writer Magicvalley.com
Posted: Thursday, May 12, 2011 1:30 am

On Wednesday, The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, the Dairy Research Institute and Idaho’s Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) announced plans to have 1,300 anaerobic digesters operating across the country by 2020.

The Center for Advanced Energy Studies, based in Idaho Falls, includes the U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho’s research universities.

The focus is on increasing the economic viability of dairy farms and rural communities country wide.

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Saving biofuels’ magic bugs from their own toxins

Biofuels Digest
by Thomas Saidak May 13, 2011

In California, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced that Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers have found a way to help microbes survive the toxicity caused by the very compounds that they secrete in order to produce biofuels. Many of the best candidate compounds for advanced biofuels are toxic to microbes, which presents a “production versus survival” conundrum.

Researchers at the DOE’s JBEI have provided a solution to this problem by developing a library of microbial efflux pumps that were shown to significantly reduce the toxicity of seven representative biofuels in engineered strains of Escherichia coli. Microbes employ various strategies for addressing cell toxicity but perhaps the most effective are efflux pumps, proteins in the cytoplasmic membrane of cells whose function is to transport toxic substances out of the cell.

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Bioenergy sorghum offers versatility

Southwest Farm Press
Ron Smith
May 12, 2011 11:30am

•Bioenergy sorghum offers flexibility.
•Able to adapt to market changes.
•Tolerant to stress factors.

Bioenergy sorghum offers traditional row crop farmers flexibility for rotation and end uses for the versatile crop.

“Biomass sorghum is versatile. Farmers may produce forage or biomass feedstock, depending on demand,” said Dr. Jason Wight, of Texas AgriLife Research.

Because biomass sorghum is an annual row crop, it offers farmers the versatility to be able to go into and out of production as markets and farm needs change. “It’s also a higher biomass producer versus corn and switchgrass,” he said.

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Ethanol Potential in Giant Sweet Potatoes

Agwired
Posted by Cindy • May 13, 2011 • 1:01 pm

Giant sweet potatoes could help South Carolina get into the ethanol game and provide an alternative crop for farmers to replace tobacco.

At the recent International Biomass Conference and Expo in St. Louis, Dr. Janice Ryan-Bohac attracted a lot of attention carrying around a sweet potato the size of a newborn baby.

She’s the president of CAREnergy, Carolina Advanced Renewable Energy, located in South Carolina and dedicated to the development of dedicated energy crops for the southeast, such as the eTuber™ sweet potato and sweet sorghum. “We are looking at feedstocks for ethanol and other fuels for the southeastern states because corn is not a crop that does well in the southeast. So, what we want is a very efficient crop for water, nitrogen, very high yielding,” she said, and the eTuber meets those qualifications. “These are very dry sweet potatoes, these are not in the food market, it would be a dedicated energy crop,” she explained. “We would like to build or takeover a corn ethanol plant to show that these feedstocks work, in combination with sweet sorghum, which does very well in the southeast. We want to get in the ethanol game and create clean, green jobs in one of the poorest areas of the United States.”

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New ‘corn atlas’ shows which genes are active during each stage of plant growth

University of Wisconsin - Madison
May 10, 2011

Just as a road atlas helps travelers find their way, a new corn atlas will help plant scientists navigate vast amounts of gene expression data from the corn plant, as described in the May 10 issue of The Plant Journal.

The atlas, developed by a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University, tells researchers which of corn's 50,000 genes are actively expressed in various parts of the plant during each of the major stages of plant development.

"The atlas is basically the whole landscape of the plant's transcriptome. It contains information about all of the genes in corn — where they're expressed and when they're expressed," says Rajandeep Sekhon, the study's co-lead author, a research associate in the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at UW-Madison.

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IPCC: 80% renewable energy by 2050, wind power will have an increasingly important role

reve
may 11, 2011

The Global Wind Energy Council, (GWEC), welcomes the news, saying wind power will have an increasingly important role to play in the future energy mix.

Renewable energy sources are expected to contribute up to 80% of global energy supply by 2050, according to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Following a review of 164 scenarios, the IPCC found that renewables will play the major role in any successful plan to combat climate change.

“The report clearly demonstrates that renewable technologies could supply the world with more energy than it would ever need, and at a highly competitive cost,” said Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council. “The IPCC report will be a key reference for policy makers and industry alike, as it represents the most comprehensive high level review of renewable energy to date.”

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Are Biofuels Ethical?

Buildings
05/09/2011

The race to develop biofuels is on, and an article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy is taking a look at ethical issues and questions surrounding the rapid rise of this emerging energy.

Professor Joyce Tait, Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Party on Biofuels, and Scientific Adviser to the Innogen Centre at Edinburgh University, reports on the Council's proposed development of a comprehensive ethical standard for biofuels.

The standard would address six ethical principles surrounding production of biofuels, including the protection of human rights, environmental sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction, and fair trade.

Read more

New ‘corn atlas’ shows which genes are active during each stage of plant growth

University of Wisconsin - Madison
May 10, 2011

Just as a road atlas helps travelers find their way, a new corn atlas will help plant scientists navigate vast amounts of gene expression data from the corn plant, as described in the May 10 issue of The Plant Journal.

The atlas, developed by a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University, tells researchers which of corn's 50,000 genes are actively expressed in various parts of the plant during each of the major stages of plant development.

"The atlas is basically the whole landscape of the plant's transcriptome. It contains information about all of the genes in corn — where they're expressed and when they're expressed," says Rajandeep Sekhon, the study's co-lead author, a research associate in the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at UW-Madison.

Read more

IPCC: 80% renewable energy by 2050, wind power will have an increasingly important role

reve
may 11, 2011

The Global Wind Energy Council, (GWEC), welcomes the news, saying wind power will have an increasingly important role to play in the future energy mix.

Renewable energy sources are expected to contribute up to 80% of global energy supply by 2050, according to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Following a review of 164 scenarios, the IPCC found that renewables will play the major role in any successful plan to combat climate change.

“The report clearly demonstrates that renewable technologies could supply the world with more energy than it would ever need, and at a highly competitive cost,” said Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council. “The IPCC report will be a key reference for policy makers and industry alike, as it represents the most comprehensive high level review of renewable energy to date.”

Read more

New biofuel to spar with ethanol

MansfieldNewsJournal
May 10, 2011
Written by Philip Brasher
Columnists - Opinion

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Imagine filling up the car on a fuel that isn't made from oil but doesn't have the drawbacks of corn ethanol, including its lower energy content and ability to damage older cars or gas pumps.

Such fuels could be made from the same sources as ethanol, including corn and corncobs as well as straw, trees and other abundant types of biomass. But these fuels would be synthetic versions of today's gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Unlike ethanol, a renewable version of gasoline could be used in any amount in today's engines, filling stations and pipelines.

The prospect of these fuels is coming up in a debate over the direction of the government's biofuel policy as Congress is slashing spending to reduce the budget deficit.

Read more

Biofuels industry praises Grassley ethanol bill

BrighterEnergy News
May 9, 2011

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), Growth Energy, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) have praised the legislation offered by a bipartisan group of senators, led by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, to responsibly transition and transform current ethanol tax policy.

The legislation would reduce the current blender’s credit, also known as VEETC, for a two year period before transitioning to a tax credit that would adjust based on the price of oil.

Importantly, this legislation would also improve upon current tax credits for the installation of blender pumps and ethanol fueling infrastructure. Additionally, the bill would extend tax credits for small ethanol producers as well as for advanced and cellulosic ethanol.

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ICM debuts commercial-scale biomass gasifier

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Kris Bevill May 10, 2011

Colwich, Kan.-based ICM Inc. has announced the availability of a commercial-scale biomass gasification system that can be used as a cogeneration unit or to completely eliminate fossil fuel intake at various facilities, including ethanol plants. The commercialization is the result of a project that began with a demonstration-scale gasifier in Newton, Kan., in 2009. Since commencing operations at that facility, ICM has tested more than a dozen feedstocks and amassed more than 2,100 hours of operation on the unit, proving its commercial potential with a variety of industries and feedstocks, according to Tom Ranallo, ICM’s vice president of operations.

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Celanese Says Ethanol-From-Coal Process Is a ‘Game-Changer’

Bloomberg
By Jack Kaskey - May 10, 2011 3:13 PM CT

Celanese Corp. (CE) said its technology to make ethanol from coal is more profitable than producing the gasoline additive from plants, and is a “game-changer” for the U.S. chemicals company.

The so-called TCX technology can convert coal, petroleum coke or natural gas to ethanol for 25 percent to 35 percent less than alternative processes, Celanese said today in presentation slides posted on its website. The cost of converting coal to ethanol is $1.50 a gallon, equal to making gasoline from crude oil costing $60 a barrel, the Dallas-based company said.

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Grass crop potential featured at biomass conference

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Erin Voegele May 05, 2011

Purpose-grown energy crops show great potential in both the bioenergy and biorefining industries. Those leading the research and development of miscanthus and Giant King Grass were featured speakers at the 2011 International Biomass Conference & Expo. During a panel titled Seeing the Green in Grass: Increasing Yields and Reducing Costs, representatives of Repreve Renewables, Viaspace, Green Flame Energy and Mendel BioEnergy Seeds provided attendees with agronomy and commercialization updates.

Repreve President Phil Jennings spoke about his company’s work with Giant Miscanthus. According to Jennings, cultivation of the crop offers an important opportunity for the bioenergy industry to utilize a high yield, environmentally friendly feedstock. Giant Miscanthus is the best crop in the southeast for the growth of cellulosic materials, he said.

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Southern Research Successfully Demonstrates Unique Coal and Biomass Mixture Feeder

PRNewswire.com

Could Reduce the Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emission Control on New Coal-Fired Power Plants

DURHAM, N.C., May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Southern Research Institute today announced that its Clean Energy Technology Development Center in Durham, North Carolina has achieved an important milestone in the effort to find low-cost technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The technology development, a collaboration between Southern Research and TK Energi A/S of Denmark, successfully combined both coal and biomass feedstocks for use in coal-fired power stations of the future called Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems. Use of biomass—as a supplement to coal—could allow power stations to take credit for the carbon dioxide that plants and trees take out of the atmosphere as they grow and mature. The program was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with additional financial support from Southern Research and TK Energi.

In contrast to bulky and expensive lockhoppers, the prototype feeder creates a highly-compressed "plug" of coal and biomass, so dense that the high pressure inside commercial-scale gasifiers is held back as the material is pushed into the gasifier. A primary challenge related to biomass utilization in IGCC power plants has been the inability to reliably feed a variety of biomass feedstocks to the gasifier as biomass-coal mixtures. Southern Research and TK Energi have shown this challenge can be overcome.

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Iowa State's role in the future of biofuels

Des Moines Register
10:48 PM, May. 7, 2011
Written by DAN PILLER

Ames, Ia. - Prototypes of the biofuels refinery of the future sit in a 19,000-square-foot complex on the Iowa State Research Farm west of Ames.

Two experimental plants, whose network of pipes and containers looks to the lay person like a microbrewery on steroids, produce oil from biomass such as corn stover, switchgrass, miscanthus, wood chips and algae.

One plant produces biocrude through a form of incineration called pyrolysis, which heats biomass to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit in an oxygen-free environment and then decomposes the biomass to vapors and aerosols.

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USDA Establishes 50,000 Acres for Biofuels Crops in Missouri, Kansas

SustainableBusiness.com
05/06/2011 11:37 AM

The US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would designate 39 contiguous counties in Missouri and Kansas - 50,000 acres - for the production of dedicated biofuels crops, native grasses and herbaceous plants.

This is the first Biomass Crop Assistance Program Project Area in the US - its purpose is to promote production of dedicated feedstocks for electricity, heat generation and transportation fuels.

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New product makes loading DDGS less labor intensive

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Kris Bevill May 03, 2011

It’s easy to imagine that one of the least enjoyable moments of an ethanol plant worker’s day is when the time comes to climb to the top of a railcar and, using nothing more than a hand shovel, pack a freshly deposited load of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) into the car before it can be shipped off to its final destination. This laborious process inspired Ryan Schroeder, a commodities assistant at the 73 MMgy Poet Biorefining-Leipsic plant in Ohio to come up with a better solution. In 2008, he began developing what has become known as the Load Toad. It’s a piece of equipment designed to evenly distribute distillers grains throughout the rail car, eliminating the need for hand shoveling and increasing the amount of product that can be packed into each car by up to 5 percent, or 5 tons, according to Poet LLC.

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Study Quantifies Value of Ethanol

Hoosier Ag Today
05/02/2011
NAFB News Service

A new study by economists at Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin, and released by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, puts into focus the savings in fuel prices provided by using ethanol. But, it also makes one fact clear. If ethanol disappeared, gasoline prices would rise by as much as 92 percent.

According to the report, for the ten years between 2000 and 2010, drivers saved an average of 25 cents per gallon. During that period, savings averaged 34-billion dollars. The report also indicates that in 2010, the increased use of ethanol reduced wholesale gasoline prices by an average of 89 cents per gallon.

According to Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen, - this study confirms that ethanol is playing a tremendously important role in holding down volatile gasoline prices. Dinneen notes - as rising oil prices are contributing to higher retail costs for everything from gas to food to clothing, ethanol is clearly providing some real relief for American families.

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Formidable fungal force counters biofuel plant pathogens

EurekaAlert.com
DOE/Joint Genome Institute
May 3, 2011

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Fungi play significant ecological and economic roles. They can break down organic matter, cause devastating agricultural blights, enter into symbiotic relationships to protect and nourish plants, or offer a tasty repast. For industrial applications, fungi provide a source of enzymes to catalyze such processes as generating biofuels from plant biomass. One large fungal group with such enzymes are the rust plant pathogens which cannot survive on their own so they use crops as hosts, leading to reduced yields and potentially hindering efforts to grow biomass for fuel. Factors that could reduce the growth of plant biomass, thus reducing biofuel production, are a target for investigation of the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI).

Published the week of May 2, 2011 in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the work of an international team of researchers that included Fungal Genome Program head Igor Grigoriev, as well as several members from the DOE JGI, compared the genomes of two rust fungi to identify the characteristics by which these pathogens can invade their plant hosts and to develop methods of controlling the damage they can cause. The team led by co-first author Sebastien Duplessis of the French national agricultural research institute (INRA) worked on the poplar leaf rust fungus while a team led by co-first author Christina Cuomo of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Les Szabo from Agricultural Research Service USDA and University of Minnesota worked separately on the wheat and Barley stem rust fungus. The two-genome consortia joined their efforts to compare the genomic features of the two rust pathogens to reveal the role they play in infecting the host plant and acquiring nutrients.

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Mapping tools benefit biomass supply chain

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Luke Geiver May 03, 2011

Harrison Pettit has a multistep plan to create a biomass feedstock operation because, as he told a crowd at the 2011 International Biomass Conference & Expo, “This supply chain will not invent itself.” Pettit, the vice president of business development for Powerstock, told the crowd during his presentation, which included a six-step plan necessary to create a biomass feedstock operation, that, “what I try to make people understand is that agricultural biomass will be a significant feedstock for our bioenergy and bioproducts future.” And to capitalize on that future, he explained the biomass supply chain as the equivalent of a water tributary.

The system he explained needs to have this concept of “coming into one.” The process includes taking hundreds of growers and forming them into one dedicated supply chain that includes grower relationships, field mapping and individuals who have their own preferences and practices, he said. Included in the multistep plan is to identify and profile the supply chain, model the feedstock shed at the lowest cost, execute a demonstration harvest, scale-up harvests that would meet an inventory level, build up the grower network and, finally, manage the operational risks and approaches.

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Biomass Pretreatment Less Costly Than Expected

Hay & Forage Grower
May 5, 2011 11:49 AM

Pretreating bulky biomass feedstocks to make them into a denser, more compact form as a first step toward making them into biofuels may require less energy than scientists had thought.

That’s the good news thus far from a $1.1 million study funded largely by the North Central Sun Grant Center at South Dakota State University (SDSU).

Scientists already know the biofuels of the future will likely require regional biomass processing centers to pretreat and densify materials such as switchgrass and cornstalks. Pretreating and densifying feedstocks will make it easier to ship biomass to processing facilities as much as 50-100 miles away. The new study explores some of the actual methods and technologies that could be used.

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Dedini Developing Machinery to Convert Sweet Sorghum to Ethanol

Bloomberg
By Stephan Nielsen - May 6, 2011 5:00 AM CT

Dedini SA Industrias de Base, a Brazilian maker of ethanol-production machinery, is developing systems that will process sweet sorghum into renewable fuel, as an alternative to the widely used used sugar cane.

The company is in talks with eight developers about buying a sorghum-processing mill it plans to build by 2013. It also expects to sign by April a contract to add equipment to handle the alternative feedstock at an existing cane mill, Jose Luiz Oliverio, vice president of technology and development at Piracicaba-based Dedini, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Sorghum can be harvested in the first three months of the year, the rainy season when sugar-cane harvesting typically shuts down, ethanol supplies wane and prices surge.

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Petrobras plans to up share in Brazil's ethanol market

Reuters
Fri May 6, 2011 2:23pm EDT

* State-run firm to account for 15 pct of production
* Increase follows government request

BRASILIA, May 6 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) will expand its role in the production of ethanol, the energy minister Edison Lobao said on Friday, as the country tries to keep rising fuel prices at the pump from worsening inflation. Lobao said the company should boost its share of ethanol production to 15 percent of total output in Brazil over the
next four years from the present 5 percent. The country currently produces 28 billion liters of the biofuel annually.

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Report Shows High Corn Prices Will Limit Ethanol Use, Raise Costs

PRWeb
Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 05, 2011

An Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) report released on April 28, 2011 found that high and volatile corn prices will limit the success of a renewed push to expand access to ethanol via E15 and additional E85 fueling stations. The report also found that absent a mandate, blender's credit, and tariff protection ethanol would have a market of nearly 400,000 barrels per day, approximately half of today's consumption, which suggests that the real cost of the blender's credit is significantly higher than $0.45 per gallon. The study concludes that as the volumetric mandate takes ethanol blending past 10% of the gasoline pool, gasoline consumers and producers will face higher costs.

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House panel questions future of U.S. biofuel use

The Detroit News
Last Updated: May 05. 2011 1:52PM
David Shepardson / / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington— A House committee questioned the slow development of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.

In 2007, Congress required the nation to use 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels by 2022 — including 16 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol and at least 1 billion gallons of bio-diesel.

But the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 and this year had to "substantially reduce" requirements because of "limited production capacity," said Margo Oge, director of the EPA's office of air and radiation.

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Industry leaders discuss policy goals at biomass conference

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Erin Voegele May 03, 2011

Leaders representing all sectors of the biomass industry met in St. Louis May 3 to discuss the future of the algae, biomass thermal, biomass power, biogas, biofuels and biochemicals industries during the opening session of the International Biomass Conference & Expo. While each sector represented in the panel features its own unique goals and challenges, the overarching message of the speakers was that members of the biomass community need to pull together to support the biomass industry as a whole—especially in the arena of federal policy.

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District energy project announces grant at biomass conference

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Lisa Gibson May 03, 2011

An excited Gwen Hallsmith took to the podium May 3 at the fourth annual International Biomass Conference & Expo in St. Louis. Once there, she promptly announced to the audience that her district heating project had just received state funding earlier in the day.

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Biomass conference addresses farming community's role in industry

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Erin Voegele May 04, 2011

The farming community is an integral part of the biorefining and biomass heat and power industries. However, it’s contribution to the growth of the industry can—at times—be overshadowed by the massive amount of attention paid to research, development and scale-up activities. Attendees as the 2011 International Biomass Conference & Expo in St. Louis had the opportunity to learn more about the farming community’s perspective of the biomass industry during a panel titled Enlisting Farmers in the Profitable Production of Biomass Supply Chains.

Daniel Simon, a partner in Ballard Spahr LLP’s Energy and Project Finance Group, opened the panel with a historical overview of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program. Although the program initially faced a variety of implementation issues, the USDA is forging ahead.

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Webinar highlights export opportunities, programs

Biomass Power & Thermal

By Lisa Gibson April 18, 2011

Contrary to popular belief, small U.S. companies play a significant role in the country’s exports. In fact, 97 percent of all U.S. exporters are small businesses, according to Richard Ginsburg, senior international trade specialist with the Small Business Administration (SBA). He added that companies with 20 employees or fewer account for almost 70 percent of all U.S. exporters.

Ginsburg was one of five speakers during the April 18 webinar Biomass Energy Export – Market Opportunities and Government Programs, hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC). The free event was organized through the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export Initiative (RE4I) and was designed to identify key federal government export promotion programs and highlight opportunities related to the export of biomass feedstock and equipment.

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PNNL algae study sets baseline for available US land, water

Biorefining Magazine

By Luke Geiver April 20, 2011

For anyone looking for a piece of land to start an algae production site, Mark Wigmosta from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory might be the person to speak with. Wigmosta and a team of researchers have completed a study titled, “National microalgae biofuels production potential and resource demand,” which outlines the best regions throughout the lower 48 U.S. states for algae biomass growth potential given both land and water footprint concerns. “We were hoping,” Wigmosta told Biodiesel Magazine, to produce a baseline study with “scientifically defendable estimates of the amount of land and water required to achieve a certain level of production.”

To do that, the team compiled a number of factors into their modeling system, and the result is a study that Wigmosta said shows that the 17 percent of the country’s imported oil used for transportation can be replaced by algae-based biofuel. The study was based on the notion that algae production would happen through the open pond method, and the team started by screening out areas that would require land excavation to flatten the land, and areas that may compete with other food-based agriculture, national parks or any other sensitive areas. “That got us down to 5.5 percent of the land areas in the lower 48,” he said. “At those potential sites we wanted to get an estimate of production potential and water demand.”

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Researchers in three states work on densification

Ethanol Producer Magazine

By Kris Bevill April 28, 2011

In order for ag residues and energy crops to be profitably converted to biofuels, it is expected that biorefineries will need to acquire all of their feedstocks from within close proximities to the plants. Another method of acquisition could be via regional biomass processing centers that would pre-treat and densify the feedstocks to make it easier to transport the material to production facilities. An ongoing collaborative research project being conducted in South Dakota, Michigan and North Dakota is focusing on how these regional centers could achieve this goal.

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Ethanol keeping gas prices below $4/gallon: RFA

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane May 2, 2011

In Washington, the Renewable Fuels Association reports: “Based upon current market conditions and federal renewable fuels policy, 10 percent ethanol blends (E10) are keeping gasoline prices $0.12 per gallon cheaper than they otherwise would be. As AAA reports, the current average price for gasoline is $3.88 per gallon nationwide. Without ethanol, gas prices would average $4.00 per gallon nationally. These savings do not take into account the downward pressure ethanol puts on the oil market by virtue of being 10 percent of the nation’s gasoline supply. Previous estimates of that impact show ethanol is keeping gasoline prices up to $0.60 lower per gallon than they otherwise would be.”

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What’s in a name? Numerous biotech companies make the ol’ switcheroo

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane May 2, 2011

You may have noticed that a number of biotechnology companies in the biofuels arena have been changing their names in recent years?

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Connecting the Dots

Biomass Power & Thermal

By Anna Austin April 29, 2011

Wisconsin network connects people to grassland bioenergy info and resources.

The University of Wisconsin’s Agricultural Ecosystems Research Group has launched a new network devoted to opportunities and challenges in bioenergy development in Wisconsin, while protecting environmental and ecological resources.

The Wisconsin Grassland Bioenergy Network is an information and connectivity resource linking people—farmers, researchers, project managers and others— to information, resources and other people involved in grassland/agriculture-based bioenergy in the state, while focusing on perennial herbaceous plants.

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Learning from Austria’s Biomass Thermal Success Story

Biomass Power & Thermal

By William Strauss April 28, 2011

Austria’s renewable energy policies and biomass thermal technologies are a model the U.S. could follow in reducing its reliance on petroleum fuels.

In early March in Upper Austria, more than 100,000 people visited the three-day annual renewable home energy show in Wels. The show was complimented with a world-class conference called the World Sustainable Energy Days, where more than 750 experts from 56 countries shared information on how to efficiently heat homes and businesses with renewable energy.

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An Unconventional Pellet Feedstock

Biomass Power & Thermal

By Anna Austin April 28, 2011

Researchers at the University of Manitoba are proving the potential of cattails as a fuel pellet feedstock.

Cattails are extremely fast-growing and competitive plants. In lakes everywhere, they are displacing native plant populations that support wildlife habitat and prevent erosion, in addition to hindering swimming and boating activities in recreational areas.

Though generally considered a nuisance, cattails do provide a benefit to the health of a watershed by filtering out excessive toxins and nutrients, such as phosphorous and nitrogen, before they reach a lake.

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Novozymes earnings up, despite currency fall; bioenergy sales rise

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane April 29, 2011

In Denmark, Novozymes reported 16% sales growth in Q1 2011, with acquisitions contributing approximately 5 %-points. EBIT grew by 19%, taking the EBIT margin to 23.6%. Despite the negative development in currencies compared to previous guidance, stronger operational performance allowed the company to maintain its EBIT growth forecast of 8–11% and an EBIT margin of around 22%. With a maintained EBIT growth expectation, and main currencies hedged, net profit is now expected to grow 10–13%.

Bioenergy Enzymes sales were up by 8% compared to the first quarter of 2010.

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Standardized Analytical Methods for Biomass Fuel Characterization

Biomass Power & Thermal

By Carolyn Nyberg April 29, 2011

As the U.S. power industry prepares to comply with potential regulations for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, many are considering biomass fuels as an option to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) or to meet renewable fuel mandates. In some circumstances, biomass is considered a carbon-neutral fuel, and the industry would be eligible for CO2 credits on the basis of displacement of CO2 emissions associated with fossil fuel-based electricity. Another advantage of incorporating biomass as a fuel source for electric utilities is that it has the potential to reduce the overall emission of hazardous air pollutants from power plants.

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