Researchers develop method to prevent ethanol corrosion

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By NACE International | October 03, 2013

 

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First leg of Brazilian ethanol pipeline opens

Biofuels Digest

 Meghan Sapp | July 2, 2013

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Petrobras Ethanol Pipeline Pullback Raising Fuel Price

BloombergBusinessWeek
By Stephan Nielsen on November 26, 2012   Read more

Brazil's Petrobras opts out of ethanol pipeline

The Wall Street Journal
Oct. 26, 2012, 2:52 p.m. EDT
By MarketWatch

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Report addresses landfill gas pipeline injection issues

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Luke Geiver
May 31, 2012

The Gas Technology Institute (GTI) has issued a report outlining the process of integrating renewable landfill gas into pipelines.

According to Kristine Wiley, senior scientist in the infrastructure sector of GTI, the purpose of the document is to identify criteria that stakeholders should consider when developing a landfill gas recovery facility for introduction of biomethane into a natural gas pipeline. “The document provides a framework and a structured approach that pipelines, developers and landfill operators can use to begin the critical process of technical collaboration necessary to understand each other’s’ requirements and ultimately, to make each landfill gas development project a success story,” she said.

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POET abandons $4B ethanol pipeline project

Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane January 23, 2012

In South Dakota, POET has decided to postpone plans for a $4 billion pipeline between the Midwest and the East Coast. The company will be unable to get a federal loan guarantee for the project which began in 2009 as a joint venture between POET and Magellan. After studies indicated financing would require a federal loan guarantee, Magellan put their interest on hold; with the new development, POET has decided to focus their efforts on other projects.

“We continue to believe that the pipeline is a viable project with tremendous benefits for the country,” said POET Founder & CEO Jeff Broin, “But with little prospects for a federal loan guarantee in the near future we are currently focused on other efforts. While a pipeline could improve the efficiency of ethanol distribution and lower costs for motorists, the system that we have in place today has allowed ethanol to flow seamlessly into more than 90% of the gasoline sold.”

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Ethanol-Loving Bacteria Crack Pipelines

Laboratory Equipment
August 3, 2011

U.S. production of ethanol for fuel has been rising quickly, topping 13 billion gallons in 2010. With the usual rail, truck and barge transport methods under potential strain, existing gas pipelines might be an efficient alternative for moving this renewable fuel around the country. But researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) caution that ethanol, and especially the bacteria sometimes found in it, can dramatically degrade pipelines.

At a conference this week, NIST researchers presented new experimental evidence that bacteria that feed on ethanol and produce acid boosted fatigue crack growth rates by at least 25 times the levels occuring in air alone.

The NIST team used a new biofuels test facility to evaluate fatigue-related cracking in two common pipeline steels immersed in ethanol mixtures, including simulated fuel-grade ethanol and an ethanol-water solution containing common bacteria, Acetobacter aceti. Ethanol and bacteria are known to cause corrosion, but this is the first study of their effects on fatigue cracking of pipeline steels.

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Brazilian ethanol pipeline system receives funding

PipelinesInternational.com

The Brazilian Development Bank has approved a bridge loan of approximately $US960 million for Logum Logistica to implement an ethanol pipeline and to install product collection centres.

The logistic system for transporting ethanol is part of the Brazilian Government’s Growth Acceleration Programme and comprises 1,330 km of pipelines with a transportation capacity of 20.8 MMcm/a as well as ten ethanol storage terminals.

The system will link the main ethanol producing regions in the states of São Paulo and Goiás, Triângulo Mineiro, south and southeast of Mato Grosso do Sul and northern Paraná to consumption centres in Greater São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as the ports of Ilha D’Água (in Rio de Janeiro) and Caraguatatuba (in São Paulo), for export and/or shipment of ethanol to other consumption centres in the country.

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Logum Logistica Wins $924 Million Loan for Ethanol Pipeline

Bloomberg
By Stephan Nielsen - Sep 29, 2011 4:39 PM CT .

Logum Logistica SA, a joint venture backed by Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4), won a 1.7 billion real ($924 million) loan from development bank Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social for a project to transport Brazilian ethanol by pipeline.

The bridge loan will cover a first phase of the project that includes three sections of pipeline in the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo-based Logum Logistica said in a statement today.

Trucks currently move almost all Brazilian ethanol, transportation that costs an average of 8 centavos a liter, according to Joao Chierighini, logistics manager at Sao Paulo- based ethanol trader Bioagencia. Logum will be able to charge mills a significant fee to use the pipeline, which can reduce freight costs by as much as 30 percent, he said.

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CSX, Kinder Morgan team up for ethanol hub at Port of Tampa

Tampa Bay Business Journal
Date: Friday, September 16, 2011, 4:51pm EDT

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, CSX Corp. and the Tampa Port Authority finalized an agreement to bring ethanol into the Tampa market via the nation’s first ethanol unit train-to-pipeline distribution system.

TPA will build rail track and support infrastructure to handle 100-car unit train deliveries and a multi-product unit train offloading yard at Hooker’s Point.

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Paraguay Plans $1 Billion Pipeline To Boost Trade With Brazil

NASDAQ April 13, 2011

BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- Paraguay plans to move forward with a $1 billion pipeline project to bring in petroleum products from Brazil and send back soyoil and ethanol, Paraguay's Industry and Commerce Ministry announced Thursday.

The pipeline network will run from Villa Elisa to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and then connect to Brazilian pipes which will run from Foz de Iguazu to Paranagua, the ministry said in a press release.

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Brazil ethanol pipeline to cut transport costs 20 pct

Reuters Latin America
martes 1 de marzo de 2011 15:53 GYT

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 1 (Reuters) - A Brazilian ethanol pipeline system will lower transport costs by 20 percent for producers when it begins operations in 2012, the firm leading the project said on Tuesday.

The newly formed logistics company, Logum, expects the 1,300 kilometer (808 mile) pipeline system to bring savings by reducing higher-cost transport by truck which is now the predominant form of delivering fuel to consumers from production centers.

"It will provide additional benefits of less pollution and less wear and tear on roads from so many trucks," said Logum President Alberto Guimaraes.

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Lula inaugurates work on Brazil's biggest ethanol pipeline

FoxNews.com (Latina)
Published November 24, 2010

Sao Paulo – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inaugurated construction Tuesday of what will be Brazil's biggest pipeline for ethanol.

Lula, a former metalworker, soldered the first pipe joint of the 202-kilometer (126-mile) pipeline, which will be finished in mid-2014 with a capacity for transporting 21 billion liters (5.5 billion gallons) of ethanol per year.

The first phase of the project will start operations in 2012, according to the government.

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Department of Energy study finds ethanol pipeline could be profitable under certain conditions

CB Online (Canadabusiness.com)
By Dirk Lammers, July 20, 2010 - 3:18 PM

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A dedicated ethanol pipeline could be profitable if the biofuel expands beyond its use as a 10-percent additive in standard cars, a new government study suggests.

A U.S. Department of Energy study released Monday said the nation would first have to boost its use of the alternative fuel either through greatly expanded use of E85, an 85-percent blend that runs in flexible fuel vehicles, or a transition to 15- and 20-percent blends in standard cars.

Assuming ethanol demand volume of 2.8 billion gallons a year and a project construction cost of $4.25 billion, a pipeline would need to charge an average tariff of 11 cents more per gallon than if the fuel was moved by rail, barge or truck.

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Petrobras, Mitsui Get License to Build $1.1 Billion Ethanol Pipeline

Bloomberg
By Lucia Kassai - Jul 7, 2010

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Mitsui & Co. and Camargo Correa SA got a preliminary environmental license to build a $1.1 billion ethanol pipeline in Brazil.

The 542-kilometer (337-mile) pipeline, set to start up in the second half of 2011, will link mills in the states of Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo to the Atlantic coast, according to a regulatory filing today.

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Brazil’s $1.7 Billion Ethanol Pipeline Seeks License This Month

Bloomberg BusinessWeek
June 15, 2010, 12:07 PM EDT
By Lucia Kassai

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Cosan SA Industria & Comercio, the world’s biggest sugar-cane processor, and 84 more Brazilian ethanol makers this month will seek authorization to build a 3 billion-real ($1.7 billion) pipeline to ship fuel to a southeastern port from producing areas in Sao Paulo state.

The Uniduto Logistica SA joint venture will request an environmental license to build an ethanol pipeline spanning 600 kilometers (373 miles), more than the distance between New York and Pittsburgh, Chief Executive Officer Sergio van Klaveren said in an interview. It will transport the fuel to a port in Guaruja, in Sao Paulo’s southeastern coast, from Serrana, in the north of state.

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Boswell to introduce ethanol pipeline

Journal Express (Knoxville, Iowa)
March 29, 2010

Washington, D.C. — Today, Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-IA) and Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE) held a news conference to highlight a bipartisan effort to boost our country’s homegrown energy industry by improving infrastructure for moving ethanol from the Midwest to the rest of the country. The Renewable Fuel Pipeline Act of 2010, H.R. 4674 will also create jobs and strengthen the agriculture industries in Iowa and Nebraska.

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Building the world's longest ethanol pipeline

CNNMoney.com - Fortune
By David Whitford, editor at large
March 12, 2010: 9:55 AM ET

(Fortune Magazine) -- John D. Rockefeller figured out a long time ago that the most efficient way to transport liquid fuels long distances wasn't on wheels but in pipelines. Today POET, the privately held Sioux Falls, S.D., company that is the country's largest producer of ethanol, and Tulsa pipeline-builder Magellan Midstream Partners are poised to make the same leap.

They want to build a $4 billion ethanol pipeline -- the first in the U.S. and the longest in the world -- linking cornfields and refineries in the upper Midwest to fuel-hungry markets on the East Coast, while boosting transport efficiency (equivalent to reducing the carbon footprint) 30% compared with rail and nearly 90% compared with trucks.

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Ethanol Pipeline No Longer Pipe Dream

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – March 1st, 2010

Kinder Morgan is getting ethanol moving through the pipeline.

Those attending the Renewable Fuels Association 15th annual National Ethanol Conference in Orlando last month had the opportunity to see the Kinder Morgan terminal in Orlando and hear about the first pipeline in the country to provide commercial ethanol deliveries. “We now have the capability of handling 100 percent of the greater Orlando demand for ethanol by pipeline,” said Jim Lelio, Director of Business Development for Kinder Morgan Energy Partners.

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Ethanol pipeline bill reintroduced

Feedstuffs
(2/26/2010)

Rep. Leonard Boswell, (D., Iowa), reintroduced legislation Thursday to provide loan guarantees for a dedicated renewable fuel pipeline from the Midwest to the rest of the country.

H.R. 4674 amends the loan guarantee program under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to specifically qualify a renewable fuel pipeline as an eligible project, along with increasing the loan guarantee rate to 80%. The reintroduced legislation has been streamlined to help it more easily pass through committee and reach consideration on the House floor.

Boswell estimates construction of a pipeline would create 80,000 jobs and contribute $6.6 billion to the U.S. economy.

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