"Power Plays" Book Review

Power Plays: Energy Options in the Age of Peak Oil by Robert Rapier (Paperback - March 28, 2012)

Robert Rapier's "Power Plays: Energy Options in the Age of Peak Oil" is an important book to read for anyone who wants to engage in informed discussions on renewable energy and, more specifically, fuel alternatives to oil. It is an easy read, albeit focused on the facts without much embellishment.

The book provides an overview of the current energy paradigm and the salient factors for scientifically comparing various energy options. It doesn't trace the chronological history of oil the way Yergins' "The Prize" does but it gives a sober SWOT (strengths weaknesses opportunities threats) view of energy alternatives. The author uses this background to help explain his interpretation of energy policies that would enhance energy security.

Robert is best at explaining concepts that receive short shrift from journalists in the media. His explanation of "energy return on energy invested" (EROEI), for instance, helps clarify what it is and why it is important.

He is one of my most reliable touchstones for determining what technologies are likely to provide sustainable alternatives to oil. There are many reasons for this. The first postings I read from his R-squared blogs (about six years ago) was a debate with Vinod Khosla challenging the state of the art of conversion technologies for producing cellulosic ethanol. Like many biofuels supporters I didn't want to read that they might not be ready for prime time. Robert was certainly right to suspect Khosla of overhype about the Range Fuels project. Regrettably, it didn't survive commissioning after hundreds of millions of dollars in private and public investment.

While I have been reluctant to cede Robert's point of view on occasions, I have to admit that he has the credentials to challenge some base assumptions about the sustainability and the energy efficiency of many biofuels projects. He is one of the most respected writers on The Oil Drum community blog and Consumer Energy Report. His bio reports "he has 20 years of international engineering experience in the chemicals, oil and gas, and renewable energy industries, and holds several patents related to his work. He has worked in the areas of oil refining, natural gas production, synthetic fuels, ethanol production, butanol production, and various biomass to energy projects." He has a MS in Chemical Engineering and was a Process Engineering Team Leader for ConocoPhillips in Aberdeen, Scotland for six years.

He is occasionally accused of being stubborn and "brusque" but in the midst of overt hype about alternative fuel technologies, it is worthwhile submitting technologies to a skeptical eye - particularly if you are an investor. One of his favorite topics of discussion is promoting "due diligence" to reduce the risk of investment. It merits a full chapter in the current book and a summary list of ten indicators which should be on every analyst's "must consider" list.

His chapter on U.S. Energy Politics gives an interpretation of each of the last eight administrations' (starting with Nixon) declarations for energy independence. It is a subject about which much is promised but not much is achieved. The time is now and I hope this book get broad circulation among policymakers who might otherwise hew to the party line.

I think this book provides much needed information for planning ahead to meet an unpredictable energy future. As Robert affirms at the end, we must not take the availability of our energy resources or our energy future for granted. The longer range we plan now the better able we will be to meet the challenges ahead.

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technorati BIOblog, BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, hydrolysis, syngas, cellulosic, legislation, gasification, security

INEOS Bio to license syngas fermentation technology

INEOS Group Holdings PLC, one of the three largest chemical conglomerates in the world, has announced the July 1, 2008 formation of a new company, INEOS Bio, whose initial focus will be the commercialization of what they call "the World’s leading second generation bioethanol technology process" to serve the global renewable transport fuels market.

The technology has been in development by Bioengineering Resources Inc. of Fayetteville, Arkansas for over two decades. While the process can certainly use cellulosic material as feedstocks (switchgrass, corn stover, wood wastes, rice straw, etc.) it does not produce "cellulosic ethanol" in the purest sense of the term. Through gasification, it reduces all components of the feedstock, not just the cellulose, into a syngas that is then fermented into ethanol with the water filtered out. Pound for pound, the process is anticipated to produce the highest amount of ethanol (roughly 105 gallons / ton of feedstock - depending on the carbon content and btu energy of the feedstock blend) of any thermochemical biorefinery process. As a result, Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) can be used as a feedstock and tires and fossil residues (like petcoke) can be blended in to increase the volume yield.

As illustrated in their website animation, the heat generated by gasification will be captured for co-generation of electricity - a byproduct that will help reduce the energy cost of the system and provide an important second profit stream.

The company plans on licensing new commercial-scale facilities that will be producing millions of gallons of ethanol by 2011.

Below is the press release as published on the new INEOS Bio website.

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Cars to run on fuel from household waste within two years
July 19th 2008, Fayetteville, AR
(Click here for video announcement)

INEOS now has technology to produce commercial quantities of bio ethanol fuel from landfill waste. Second generation bio ethanol reduces greenhouse gases from car use by 90% and doesn’t use food crops in the production process.

Cars to run on fuel from household waste within two years

“This is a breakthrough technology” says INEOS Bio CEO.

INEOS, one of the world’s top three chemical companies, announced today that it is aiming to produce commercial quantities of bioethanol fuel from biodegradable municipal waste within two years.

INEOS new technology will produce bioethanol in huge quantities from municipal solid waste, green waste, animal waste and agricultural residues amongst other things.

According to Peter Williams, INEOS Bio CEO, “Consistent with changing policy, in regions such as North America and Europe we see around 10% of the gasoline or petrol being replaced with second generation bioethanol. We believe our technology will make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and the world’s need for fossil fuels."

INEOS Bio Ethanol releases up to 90% less net greenhouse gases than petrol. One tonne of dry waste can be converted into about 400 litres of ethanol, which can be blended with or replace traditional fuels to substantially reduce vehicle emissions.

The technology – already proven at pilot plant scale – uses a simple three-stage process. The waste is first superheated to produce gases. Then, through a patented process, the gases are fed to naturally occurring bacteria, which efficiently produce ethanol. Finally, the ethanol is purified to make the fuel ready to be blended for use in cars.

Car companies have already developed engines that can run efficiently on both bioethanol and conventional fuels. Up to now, the challenge has been that bioethanol has been manufactured primarily from food crops and this has raised concerns on price and availability.

Peter Williams says, “The fact that we have been able to decouple second generation biofuel from food is a major breakthrough, and we expect our technology to provide a low-cost route to renewable fuels”.

Dr Geriant Evans is the Technology Transfer Manager for the UK’s National Non Food Crops Centre. He says: “This technology really ticks all the boxes. It turns waste into biofuel; it reduces greenhouse gases and doesn’t rely on food crops. We need this produced on a global scale as soon as possible. It’s a revolutionary technology”.

Governments, NGO’s and Municipal Authorities are already welcoming second generation Bio Fuels such as INEOS Bio Ethanol, which will contribute to both reducing greenhouse gases and the ever-growing waste disposal problem.

The process was developed in Fayetteville, Arkansas where Dan Coody is Mayor. He recognises the enormous potential.

“We’re proud that this technology has been developed here and it is definitely a technology that we’d like to employ in the City of Fayetteville. It will help us reduce our landfill, reduce our CO2 emissions and our reliance on foreign fuels all at the same time”

With the technology proven at pilot scale, the next challenge is to bring second-generation bioethanol into commercial production. INEOS aims to do this within two years.

Peter Williams, INEOS Bio CEO says: “We expect to announce the location of the first commercial pilot plant fairly shortly and we will quickly roll out this technology around the world. We aim to be producing commercial amounts of bioethanol fuel, for cars, from waste within about two years. "

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technorati bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, syngas, cellulosic, gasification

Converting Smoke into Energy using Algae

Solena Group - an innovative international company whose mission is "committed to combating climate change by promoting renewable bio-energy to replace fossil fuel" - has projects deployed or under development for using plasma arc technology to cleanly gasify feedstock into syngas. Teamed with Rentech Technologies, they can convert the syngas into bio jet fuel. Otherwise they can use the syngas to produce clean, green electricity.

But what about emissions? Turns out they have an answer for that as well citing their development of air filtering technology at their Alicante, Spain research facility that take manufacturing fumes and, using algae to absorb the greenhouse gases, create new biomass that can be converted into bioenergy.

Here are some excerpts from a NY Times article that cited the company's carbon sequestering technology...

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March 26, 2008
For Carbon Emissions, a Goal of Less Than Zero
By MATTHEW L. WALD

Algae, which have a high energy value per pound and consume carbon dioxide, are being cultivated at a biofuel demonstration facility run by the Solena Group in Alicante, Spain.

IF the world is going to sharply reduce the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by midcentury, then many businesses will have to go carbon neutral, bringing their net emissions of the greenhouse gas to zero.

But some could go even further by removing more CO2 than they produce. Instead of carbon neutral, how about carbon negative?

In academic and industrial labs worldwide, researchers are working on technologies to reach that goal. Success could create the ultimate green business — for example, one that produces fuel whose emissions are more than offset by carbon dioxide stored during production. The businesses would be successful if, as anticipated, Congress puts a tax on emissions or starts a trading plan that makes carbon credits valuable.

For some experts, it’s not a question of whether businesses will go carbon negative but when.

Carbon-negative technologies of some sort will be essential, said Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. The world is facing the certainty of massive emissions for decades to come from plants already running, he said, adding that atmospheric concentrations must be stabilized. “We’ve got such a carbon overshoot looming in the future that this is going to have to happen,” he said.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions was necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. But capturing the gas from coal plant smokestacks or switching to fuels that produce less of it when burned goes only so far.

“The great problem is actually removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” said Geir Vollsaeter, an environment expert and former general manager of carbon dioxide at Shell International, a subsidiary of the oil giant.

While much engineering work would have to be done to make a business carbon negative, the outlines are clear.

Take the concept of building a coal plant that captures and stores carbon dioxide. Such a plant could have zero emissions, because the coal would be turned into gas and processed to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen, a pollution-free fuel, would be burned, and the CO2 pumped underground for permanent storage.

But Robert Williams, a research scientist at Princeton University, said that not only coal could be gasified; you could also make the same fuel by starting with plant matter or other biomass.

And then, he said, “if you put any CO2 underground that is derived from biomass, that’s negative CO2 emissions.” That is because plants or trees — the raw material for the fuel —pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, and the gasification and storage takes that carbon out of circulation.

Mr. Williams said the more likely route would be to gasify a mixture of coal and biomass to keep the process carbon neutral. But the balance depends on the cost of separation and storage versus what kind of tax or other fee Congress might put on emissions.
...

A Washington company, the Solena Group, also has a carbon-negative plan, which emerged from the decision by regulators in Kansas last year to turn down a permit for two new coal-burning power plants because of the millions of tons of carbon dioxide they would produce. The regulators insisted that the builder of the plants, an electric co-op called Sunflower, had to permanently remove the carbon from circulation. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the Kansas State Legislature are still arguing over whether the plants should be built.

Solena says it can use the carbon. The company employs a high-temperature process to break up anything organic into a flammable gas. The organic material could be algae, which have an extremely high energy value per pound. And algae eat carbon dioxide.

Solena is in discussion with Sunflower to build a 40-megawatt power plant that would run on gasified algae; the algae would be grown in thousands of clear plastic cylinders, 3 feet wide by 10 feet tall, sitting in the Kansas sun and fertilized with sodium bicarbonate, made with carbon captured from Sunflower’s coal plant. For each 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide, the columns would yield a ton of algae.

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technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, syngas, cellulosic, algae, gasification

New Planet Energy to assume Florida Ethanol Project

A number of announcements have been made in the within the last month involving two of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) EPAct 932 grant winners.

First, on May 8th, Iogen announced that it was not going to build its first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Idaho after all - foregoing the US$80 million grant offered by the U.S. Department of Energy. Their press release is titled Canadian company nixes Idaho for ethanol plant, picks Saskatchewan. The Canadian government is putting a package together of $500 million to help fund next-generation biofuels plants and the American D.O.E. was unwilling to raise its grant amount.

Regardless of where the first plant is located, proving the commercial-scale base technology will provide comparative evidence of value and yield for future developments.

That means that there are now officially five EPAct 932 grant projects under development.

On June 2, 2008, Alico announced that it was backing out of its grant-winning cellulosic ethanol project. Its situation is different than the other developers because it is a land management company that was reliant on Bioengineering Resources, Inc. (BRI) for its syngas fermentation conversion technology. The license for the BRI technology for this project is now being handled by New Planet Energy, LLC which plans to take over development of the southern Florida plant at a location separate from Alico property.

New Planet Energy management includes many of the executives involved previously in marketing BRI technology. Gary Smith, NPE's Chief Executive Officer, served as CEO of High Plains Corporation from 1998-2001. He was Chairman of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) from 2001-2002. The company is also retaining the consulting services of Craig Evans who managed governmental compliance for the EPAct grant for Alico.

Below are two press releases - first by Alico and secondly by New Planet Energy.

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Alico to Discontinue Ethanol Efforts

LABELLE, Fla., June 2, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Alico, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALCO), a land management company, announced today that it will no longer explore the development of an ethanol facility. As previously announced, the Company had been selected by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and by the State of Florida to potentially receive grants and loan assistance to partially offset the costs of such a project. However, Alico will no longer pursue these grants.

During the past year, Alico has been working with New Planet Energy LLC on this project and NPE is continuing its pursuit of cellulosic ethanol. As a result of Alico's decision, Alico will have no further financial commitment or liability to New Planet Energy, the DOE or the State of Florida for this project. In reaching its decision to discontinue the ethanol project, Alico's management and Board of Directors determined that the risks associated therewith outweighed any reasonably anticipated benefits for Alico.

Alico Chairman and CEO John R. Alexander stated, "In reaching this decision, Alico will continue to focus on our core operations of real estate management, including agriculture and development opportunities, to provide returns for our shareholders."

About Alico, Inc.
Alico, Inc., a land management company operating in Central and Southwest Florida, owns approximately 135,500 acres of land located in Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee and Polk counties. Alico is involved in various agricultural operations and real estate activities. Alico's mission is to grow its asset values through its agricultural and real estate activities to produce superior long-term returns for its shareholders.

CONTACT: Alico, Inc.
John R. Alexander
(863) 675-2966
La Belle, Florida

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New Planet Energy to Assume Florida Ethanol Project

Alico, Inc., today announced that it was withdrawing from its role in developing an advanced biofuels plant using the gasification/fermentation technology of Bioengineering Resources, Inc. (“BRI”) in the State of Florida. Alico has been working with New Planet Energy, LLC (“NPE”) on this project for the past year.

“Despite Alico's decision not to go forward, New Planet Energy has assumed this project, has selected and is in the process of acquiring a site for the project in the State of Florida, and intends to pursue the venture to its successful conclusion,” it was confirmed by Gary R. Smith, Chief Executive Officer of New Planet Energy, LLC.

Craig Evans, who has served as an independent consultant to Alico, Inc. since the inception of its relationship with BRI, and who has been handling day-to-day operations for the project and for all grant and loan guarantee issues on behalf of Alico, has been hired by NPE Florida to assure that there will be complete continuity as part of the phased transition, Smith noted.

The New Planet Energy plant in Florida will produce ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks, initially from yard, wood and vegetative wastes, taking ethanol production beyond reliance on food resources in the production of biofuels.

Contacts:

Jim Stewart
Vice President, Marketing & Public Affairs, New Planet Energy, LLC
323-650-5095

Craig Evans
Project Consultant to NPE Florida, LLC
561-302-5782

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Finally, a news story in the online Palm Beach Post reveals more information about New Planet Energy's plans in Florida from an interview with Project Consultant Craig Evans. Some excerpts from the story...

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Start-up takes over abandoned ethanol project

Evans said New Planet Energy, also known as NPE Florida, has been working on the project with Alico for the past year. NPE will use the same technology that Alico was planning to use, a gasification/fermentation technology developed by Fayetteville, Ark.-based Bioengineering Resources Inc.

The goal is to produce 7 million gallons of ethanol a year in the first phase, then ramp up to 21 million gallons by late 2010 or early 2011.

By 2012 or 2015, plans call for the plant to produce 105 million gallons of ethanol a year, Evans said.

"That will be the first of 20 plants planned in Florida in the next five to seven years by this company," he said.

Jim Stewart, marketing and public affairs vice president for Los Angeles-based NPE, said the privately held company was formed in 2007 to assist in the commercialization of Bioengineering Resources' technology.

Alico's recent write-down and the tight credit markets made its board averse to risk, and recent news about ethanol's role in the energy crisis played a decisive factor, Evans said.

"The negative publicity about ethanol had a huge impact. That was the death knell," Evans said. "The whole food-to-fuel debate has been exaggerated."

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technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, syngas, cellulosic, gasification

Coskata to build demonstration plant near Pittsburgh

Coskata announced today that they are building a demonstration-sized (40,000 gallon per year) cellulosic ethanol plant. This is significant because it could represent the first scale-up of a syngas-fermentation (SF) pilot technology in the world.

The other possible scale-up of this advanced technology is the BRI process that is a party to the ALICO project - a DOE EPAact grant winner of last year. That project is still awaiting licensing resolution among the parties that submitted the original proposal.

BACKGROUND
Ethanol is almost always seen as a process involving the fermentation of sugars into alcohol. Most of the debates about ethanol has to do with what feedstocks are going to be used and what process to break down the feedstock structure to isolate the sugars. The yield comes only from the sugar in the feedstock. Food vs. fuel, Energy Return on Investment (EROI), water usage, biofuel yield - these are all very real issues that will impact what, where, and how facilities will be located and financed.

Syngas-fermentation offers an alternative. Instead of biologically breaking down the feedstock using enzymes, the feedstock is gasified into component molecules of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. These become the building blocks for reformulation as higher alcohols. Some technologies, like Range Fuels', use inorganic catalysts to effect the reformulation. SF, on the other hand, relies on microorganisms in controlled bioreactors to eat up the syngas and produce ethanol and water.

It is a very attractive alternative because it is omnivorous (any blended biomass will do including unrecyclable urban waste and fossil derivatives like tires, auto fluff, petcoke, and plastics). The yield is high because the non-sugar content of the feedstock can be utilized for its molecules. The higher the content of carbon in the feedstock, the higher the yield of ethanol gallons per ton. It requires very little water (roughly 1 gallon per gallon of biofuel) and most of the energy for gasification comes from the feedstock itself.

Below is the complete press release that was posted today.

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Coskata Inc. Chooses Madison, Pa. for Commercial Demonstration Facility to Produce Next-Generation Ethanol
Alter Nrg, Westinghouse Plasma to support 40,000 gallon cellulosic ethanol plant

Madison, Pa. – April 25, 2008 – Coskata Inc., a leading developer of next-generation biofuels, said today it will produce 40,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year at a commercial demonstration plant near Pittsburgh.

The $25 million project will be located at the Westinghouse Plasma Center, the current site of a pilot-plant gasifier owned and operated by Westinghouse Plasma Corporation (WPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Alter Nrg Corp.

“Coskata has been eager to reach this milestone, because it will be a significant demonstration before building our first commercial plant that we can produce ethanol from non-food based sources for less than $1 a gallon,” said Bill Roe, president and CEO of Coskata. “This facility is being built with some of the leading gasification technology, supplied by Alter NRG, and in one of the most progressive states for next generation ethanol."

The plant, located about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is expected to begin delivering ethanol in early 2009 utilizing a variety of input materials, including woody biomass as well as agricultural and industrial wastes. General Motors, a strategic partner and investor in Coskata, will use the next generation ethanol for testing in flex-fuel vehicles at its Milford, Mich., Proving Grounds.

“We are delighted Coskata has chosen the State of Pennsylvania as the first location for production of their next generation ethanol,” said Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. “Coskata’s cutting edge facility will strengthen Pennsylvania’s already first class reputation as a leader in producing and delivering alternative fuels and will bring us one step closer to further reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”

Coskata announced in February that it will commission a full-scale, 50 million – 100 million gallon-per-year commercial plant by the year 2011. This facility is being planned in parallel with the construction of the Madison demonstration facility and is expected to break ground this year.

“The Coskata syngas to ethanol plant, using Westinghouse Plasma Corporation’s gasifier will make for a world-class demonstration,” said Mark Montemurro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alter Nrg. “We view Coskata’s highly efficient process as a perfect complement to our environmentally responsible gasification technology.”

Coskata leverages proprietary microorganisms and efficient bioreactor designs in a unique three-step conversion process that can turn virtually any carbon-based feedstock into ethanol, from anywhere in the world.

Coskata’s process for next-generation ethanol is environmentally superior, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 84% compared to conventional gasoline; and has the ability to generate up to 7.7 times as much energy as is required to produce the ethanol, as verified by Argonne National Labs in a well-to-wheel analysis. Additionally, Coskata’s process uses less than a gallon of process water to make a gallon of ethanol, compared with three gallons or more required by other processes.

About Coskata
Coskata is a biology-based renewable energy company that is commercializing technology to produce biofuels from a wide variety of feedstocks. Using proprietary microorganisms and transformative bioreactor designs, the company will produce ethanol for under $1 per gallon almost anywhere in the world, from a wide variety of feedstocks. Coskata has compiled a strong IP portfolio of patents, trade secrets and know-how and assembled a first-class team for the development and commercialization of its compelling syngas-to-ethanol process technology. For more information, please visit www.coskata.com.

About Alter Nrg
Alter Nrg is pursuing alternative energy solutions to meet the growing demand for environmentally responsible energy in world markets. The company’s vision is to become a North American leader in the development of innovative gasification projects for the commercial production of energy. The Company’s objective for the next decade is to utilize our commercially proven plasma gasification technology to become a senior energy producer of hydrogen, syngas, and transportation fuels (diesel, naphtha, ethanol, etc.), steam and electricity, all of which are fundamental products for the world’s growing energy needs. For more information, visit www.alternrg.ca.

About Westinghouse Plasma Corporation, a division of Alter Nrg
Relying on more than 30 years of experience in the application of plasma technology, Westinghouse Plasma Corporation (WPC) is focused on applying innovative applications using plasma for environmentally responsible energy production, waste processing and metallurgical and chemical processing solutions. Our experience, including over 24 patents relating to the plasma torch, plasma torch systems and process design, allows us to meet the needs of both research and development for industrial applications in various markets. Westinghouse Plasma Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alter Nrg, a publicly traded company on the TSX Venture Exchange. For more information, please visit www.westinghouse-plasma.com.

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technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, syngas, cellulosic, gasification

Coskata and GM partner to advance syngas to ethanol technology

Congratulations are due to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, President Bill Roe of Coskata, and General Motors President Rick Wagoner on their announced partnership to advance the vested interest GM has made in the production of cellulosic ethanol. While focusing much of their attention on building advanced E-Flex technology to reduce the need for liquid fuels, GM certainly recognizes that ethanol is going to be a major form of renewable fuel globally during most of the coming century.

Now the hard part - making all the pieces work. The paradigm shift from fossil to renewable energy will touch the everyday lives of virtually every being on the planet either directly or indirectly. "Getting from zero to five" is a footrace that will be the hard part because the development of base technology is involved. "Getting from 5 to 60" will be much easier because it will be a race of marketing vision and muscle to determine the winners.

Can Costaka refine their process and make it viable at commercially scale? What feedstock sources will they focus their attention on? At what point will they be in a position to compete with other cellulosic processes that have broader recognition and more developed pilot facilities? Will enzymatic or thermochemical processes co-exist in the future or will one nullify the need for the other?

Compared to the national political races going on, we are likely to feel the impact of this global industrial competition for much longer. Pull up a chair and pass the popcorn - assuming that corn is not all used to make ethanol!

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GM, Coskata Partner in Breakthrough Ethanol Technology
Process Makes Ethanol from Renewables Including Trash and Old Tires

DETROIT, Jan. 13 – General Motors announced a partnership Sunday with Coskata Inc. to use the company’s breakthrough technology which affordably and efficiently makes ethanol from practically any renewable source, including garbage, old tires and plant waste.

Coskata, which was formally introduced as part of GM’s opening press conference at the North American International Auto Show, uses a proprietary process that leverages patented microorganisms and bioreactor designs to produce ethanol for less than $1 a gallon, about half of today’s cost of producing gasoline.

“We are very excited about what this breakthrough will mean to the viability of biofuels and, more importantly, to our ability to reduce dependence on petroleum,” GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said.

Coskata’s process addresses the issues most often raised about grain-based ethanol production.

According to Argonne National Laboratory, which analyzed Coskata’s process, for every unit of energy used, it generates up to 7.7 times that amount of energy, and it reduces CO2 emissions by up to 84 percent compared with a well-to-wheel analysis of gasoline.

Coskata’s process uses less than a gallon of water to make a gallon of ethanol compared with three gallons or more for other processes.

Coskata, based in Warrenville, IL, can use its technology practically anywhere in the world that a carbon-based feedstock is available.

For GM, this could lead to joint efforts in markets such as China, where growing energy demand and a new energy research center could jumpstart a significant effort into ethanol made from biomass, Wagoner said.

More immediately, GM will receive the first ethanol from Coskata’s pilot plant in the fourth quarter of 2008. The fuel will be used in testing vehicles at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds.

GM is the auto industry leader in offering consumers a choice of flex-fuel cars and trucks that run on either ordinary gasoline or E85 – a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent, or any combination of the two. GM produces more than 1 million flex-fuel vehicles a year and has 3.5 million on the road globally.

In the U.S., GM has more than 2.5 million flex-fuel models on the road and is committed to making half its production flex-fuel capable by 2012. GM sells 11 E85-capable models this year and will increase that to more than 15 models for the 2009 model year.

The next logical step was making the fuel more readily available. GM has worked in partnerships with businesses, universities and non-governmental organizations over the last two years to grow the U.S. infrastructure for E85, helping to open 300 fueling stations in 15 states.

The timing of the GM-Coskata partnership coincides with President Bush’s signing of the Energy Independence and Security Act last month, which calls for a dramatic increase in biofuels – from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. Corn- and other grain-based ethanol are expected to account for up to 15 billion gallons of that new standard with 21 billion gallons coming from cellulosic and biomass sources.

One of the criticisms of cellulosic ethanol is that its development is several years away. Coskata CEO and President Bill Roe says the next generation ethanol is here today.

“We will have our first commercial-scale plant making 50 to 100 million gallons of ethanol running in 2011, and that includes the two years it will take to build the plant,” Roe said. “Success in delivering on our business plan means that we could account for a significant portion of the biomass ethanol mandated in the new Renewable Fuels Standard within 10 years.”

The partnership includes an undisclosed equity stake for GM, joint research and development into emissions technology and investigation into making ethanol from GM facilities’ waste and non-recyclable vehicle parts.

The Coskata partnership builds on a quarter century of GM research into biofuels and is part of GM’s five-fold approach to providing energy alternatives for automobiles. These include continued efforts in making fuel-efficient engines; E85 ethanol; hybrids; electrically driven vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.

“There is no question in my mind that making ethanol more widely available is absolutely the most effective and environmentally sound solution,” Wagoner said. “And it’s one that can be acted on immediately.”

About GM
General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 76 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 280,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2006, nearly 9.1 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.

About Coskata
Coskata is a biology-based renewable energy company for economies dependent on oil. Using proprietary microorganisms and transformative bioreactor designs, the company will produce ethanol for under US$1.00 per gallon almost anywhere in the world, from a wide variety of input material. Founded in 2006 by leading renewable energy investors and entrepreneurs, including Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, and GreatPoint Ventures, Coskata has compiled a strong IP portfolio of patents, trade secrets, know-how and assembled a first-class team for the development and commercialization of its compelling syngas-to-ethanol process technology. For more information, please visit www.coskata.com.

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technorati bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, hydrolysis, syngas, cellulosic

Range Fuels cellulosic ethanol plant groundbreaking

On November 6th, 2007 a who's who of federal and state public servants, alternative energy business representatives, and technologists from all of the country came to the tiny rural town of Soperton, Georgia to participate in the groundbreaking of the country's first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility. It was a milestone for the facility owner, Range Fuels, Inc., and it promises to be the first of many such milestones for the ethanol industry, thermochemical biofuel production, forest-based rural communities, and the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture.

Besides the organizers, the roster of speakers included local elected politicians, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, and Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman - whose agency is providing $76 million in funding grants for the installation as part of the 932 Grant program announced last February. Tom Doerr, the Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture also attended.

Hosting the groundbreaking was the President of Range Fuels, Mitch Mandich (pictured at right with Vinod Khosla), who assured the audience of his company's commitment to sustaining Soperton's forest assets and ecology.

"The environmental sensitivity of renewable resources are key to our country. So for every tree removed here in Georgia, two trees are planted. When you put millions of dollars in the ground in a plant, it's important that it have the feedstock to support it and we have it here. That plant will have a minimal impact on land. We have 281 acres here of which we will probably be using less than 15. The rest of the acreage will be open space and wildlife habitat. Behind me we have already built an environmental trail and an ecology trail through the wetlands so when we have visitors to the plant we will also have a nature tour for them."

He cited and thanked numerous business partners in the audience who have helped with the siting, environmental compliance, logistics, and construction of the final plant. These include CH2M Hill and Price BIOstock Services.

Mandich introduced the principal investor of the company - venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

"For a few years now I have said that we need to declare a war on oil. Corn ethanol started that war and without corn ethanol we wouldn't be making the investments that make cellulosic ethanol possible. As the war has escalated in my view, we need better weapons. Cellulosic ethanol is the weapon we need to scale this wall and finally replace oil. Every assumption about oil and petro-based fuel is based on the fact that we have cost-effective alternatives to oil. Within a few years ethanol from this plant, unsubsidized, will be cheaper than oil even after it drops to half its current price. Renewable fuels will be cheaper than their fossil alternatives and we will create competition for oil and will balance the monopoly of oil.

Construction will start immediately with approximately 200 workers involved over the next 4 to 5 months.

Here is the entirety of the Range Fuels press release about this event:

---------------------
Range Fuels Breaks Ground on the Nation’s First Commercial Cellulosic Ethanol Plant
U.S. Secretary of Energy and Georgia Governor Attend Groundbreaking Celebration

Broomfield, CO and Soperton, GA – November 6, 2007 – Range Fuels, Inc. announced today that it is breaking ground on the nation’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant located in Treutlen County, Georgia, near the town of Soperton. Range Fuels, one of six companies selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) for financial support in building a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, will be the first to break ground.

The groundbreaking event is being hosted on the future site of Range Fuels’ Soperton Plant. The event will feature federal, state, city and county officials, including the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Samuel W. Bodman, and the Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue.

Range Fuels’ Soperton Plant will use wood and wood waste from Georgia’s pine forests and mills as its feedstock and will have the capacity to produce over one hundred million gallons of ethanol per year. Construction of the first 20 million-gallon-per-year phase is expected to be completed in 2008.

As part of its $76 million Technology Investment Agreement with the DOE, Range Fuels will receive $50 million based upon the project construction schedule for the first 20-million-gallon-per-year phase of its Soperton Plant. The remainder of the grant, $26 million, will be provided for construction of the next phase of the project.

Range Fuels selected Georgia for its first plant based upon the state’s robust wood products industry supported by Georgia’s vast sustainable and renewable forest lands. The state’s environmental sensitivity and responsible stewardship of its forest lands have created resources that allow Georgia to support up to two billion gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol production through the application of Range Fuels’ technology.

"Range Fuel's production of cellulosic ethanol from wood materials will make Georgia a national leader in innovative alternative energy production," said Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue. "This project, and others like it, will boost economic development in rural Georgia and reduce our state's dependence on foreign oil."

“The state of Georgia has provided us with an excellent opportunity to locate our first plant using its abundant, renewable forest resources as feedstock. Our technology transforms the wood and wood waste from Georgia’s millions of acres of woodlands into ethanol, a key source of transportation fuel,” said Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels. “Range Fuels’ focus on green, renewable energy will ultimately reduce greenhouse gases, promote energy independence, and create new jobs.”

Range Fuels’ approach is aimed at helping our planet restore its environmental balance. Range Fuels’ technology is self-sustaining and uses the same feedstock to make ethanol as it does to operate its plant, minimizing its reliance on fossil fuels and the consequent production of greenhouse gases. Through Range Fuels’ innovative process for producing cellulosic ethanol, the Soperton Plant will use a quarter of the average water required by corn-based ethanol plants.

In addition, the Soperton Plant has been permitted as a minor source of emissions. Its proximity to both wood supplies and ethanol markets will minimize energy expended in supplying the facility with feedstock and providing ethanol to consumer markets, further demonstrating the low-impact, environmentally-friendly nature of Range Fuels’ technology.

Range Fuels has won the support of many industry and environmental groups including the Renewable Fuels Association, the American Coalition for Ethanol, the Clean Fuels Development Coalition and General Motors.

“Range Fuels’ groundbreaking on its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant presents an extraordinary opportunity to move the country into the next generation of biofuels that will help improve the environment and secure America’s energy independence,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President for the American Coalition for Ethanol. “Now, more than ever, it is critical for us to pursue clean-burning, homegrown, and cost-effective alternatives to foreign oil. Range Fuels is among the leaders in the biofuels industry and is poised to help us achieve these goals. I congratulate Range Fuels on this important day.”

“This groundbreaking clearly demonstrates that the next generation of biofuels are possible and reinforces that achieving the President’s goal of displacing 20 percent of the nation’s gasoline consumption with alternative fuels by 2017 can become a reality,” said Bob Dineen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association. “Progress like this will additionally help the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing ethanol production from processes that utilize sustainable supplies of biomass, like residue from timber harvesting and agricultural wastes.”

“On behalf of all the members of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC), we congratulate Range Fuels as they take this significant step forward in the development of cellulosic ethanol,” said Doug Durante, Executive Director of the CFDC. “This project will demonstrate that commercial production of cellulosic ethanol made from biomass or plant matter can be a reality. This facility will be one of many helping the country reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move toward energy independence.”

"Range Fuel's investment in this ethanol production facility is an important step toward the next generation of renewable fuels. Cellulosic ethanol has enormous potential for displacing gasoline and reducing emissions," said Beth Lowery, General Motors Vice President of Environment, Energy, and Safety Policy.

About Range Fuels, Inc.
Range Fuels, Inc., is focused on green energy and the production of cellulosic ethanol. The company does not use food products like corn, but rather uses waste materials and other non food sources and turns them into valuable products. The company's innovative technology uses wood chips, municipal waste, paper pulp, olive pits, and more, and converts those materials to ethanol. The company's system, named K2, uses a two step thermo-chemical conversion process. The first step converts the biomass to synthesis gas and the second step converts the gas to ethanol. The company's business model is to design, build, own and operate its plants. The company is privately held and funded by Khosla Ventures, LLC, arguably the top venture firm in the U.S. focusing on alternative, green energy systems. The leadership team melds experience from Silicon Valley's fast-paced, high-tech world, and the technologically intense coal, coal gasification, and gas-to-liquids industries. Range Fuels' vision is to introduce the world to a fuel that's renewable, sustainable, and eco-friendly in its production.

See also the Cleantech Interview with Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels, Inc.

NPR radio report on cellulosic ethanol and the Georgia groundbreaking.

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technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, syngas, cellulosic

A four-star idea for rating biofuels

Any greenhouse gas cap and trade system for ethanol and other biofuels will be dependent upon an accurate assessment of its carbon footprint - not only the amount of carbon emitted to the atmosphere during usage but also the the carbon lifecycle of the fuel's production.

If coal is the fuel, the carbon emitted is not already part of the above ground carbon cycle and is therefore carbon positive. Plus it takes energy to mine, process, and deliver coal. At the other end of the spectrum, if hybrid poplars are the feedstock, not only are the emissions carbon neutral but the growing trees are effectively sequestering carbon dioxide (with a highly valued carbon negative impact). There are benefits to crops that do not need to be tilled, are perennial, or do not require fertilizers. There are benefits to conversion processes that do not require the use of fossil fuels or electricity.

Various groups are engaged in the task of coming up with a "green biofuels" rating system that incorporates the "global warming intensity" (GWI) of the fuel, a rating for the kind of feedstock being converted, and the use of fossil fuels in the conversion or refinery process. An excellent article written by Susanne Retka Schill for Ethanol Producer magazine reports on some of the more promising efforts to come up with a system sophisticated and reliable enough to provide industry benchmarks for setting caps and for trading credits. Concurrently, it must be simple enough for commercial and residental consumers to make informed buying decisions. The more comprehensive and comprehensible the system, the better the incentives will be to motivate change to renewable fuels.

Here is a small taste of what is contained in the published article...

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Developing a Biofuels Rating System

Producing four-star biofuels may give producers a leg up when the United States develops a carbon cap-and-trade system. Methods to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and rate biofuels are being proposed and tested in an attempt to incorporate the multiple facets of cropping systems, conversion processes and industry and consumer needs.
By Susanne Retka Schill


The chart shows how a Green Biofuels Index might work for different cropping scenarios and biofuels technologies. GWI is global warming intensity. The formula shown in the middle column generates the number value. One star is awarded for each 40 value units.

All biofuels are not created equal. Renewable fuels have different carbon footprints, depending on the feedstock that's used to produce it, how that feedstock was grown, how far it was transported and how it was converted to ethanol. Before ethanol producers can join cap-and-trade programs or sell offset credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange, the hurdle to quantify and express greenhouse gas performance must be cleared. Although there are several systems and models being developed, EPM talked to researchers involved in two projects that are tackling the challenge from different angles. One is focused on a biofuels rating system, the other models a life cycle assessment of biofuels to provide a glimpse of what the future may hold for biofuels marketing.

In the end, the winners in the greenhouse gas reduction comparisons aren't surprising, but the numerical values are interesting. Switchgrass and hybrid poplar energy crops transformed into biofuels provide the most greenhouse gas reductions when compared with gasoline and diesel, at about a 115 percent reduction, in the long term when soil carbon levels are at equilibrium and no longer sequestering additional amounts. Reed canary grass reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent. The different rotations and tillage systems for corn and soybean rotations reduced greenhouse gas emissions around 40 percent. These numbers compare with current analyses of the corn-to-ethanol production process showing a 20 percent greenhouse gas reduction, Adler says.

The greatest impact on reducing the amount of greenhouse gases associated with energy use by switching to biofuels came from eliminating the life cycle greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use, followed by the storage of carbon in the soil from perennial crops. People most often think of carbon when considering greenhouse gases, but agricultural systems release methane from the soil, which is 23 times more active than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more powerful, Parton explains. Plus, the carbon sequestration effect of no-till or perennial crops has a relatively short-term positive effect on greenhouse gas emissions. "It's a positive for 20 years, then you reach a new equilibrium," Parton says.

Susanne Retka Schill is an Ethanol Producer Magazine staff writer. Reach her at sretkaschill@bbibiofuels.com or (701) 746-8385.


technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, cellulosic, gasification

The Biorefinery Concept Today

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that world biofuel output will double between 2006 to 2012. That is the primary finding from its recently published Medium-Term Oil Market Report.

According to an article from Biopact based on the report findings:

Technology for significant production of second generation biofuels based on lignocellulosic feedstocks isn't expected by the IEA to come into play by end of the 2012 outlook period.

That is certainly true. But in the meantime, considerable R&D is taking place internationally leading to the deployment of a promising number of pilot, demonstration, and commercial-scale biorefineries.

No agency knows this better than the IEA's own IEA Bioenergy group:

IEA Bioenergy is an organisation set up in 1978 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) with the aim of improving cooperation and information exchange between countries that have national programmes in bioenergy research, development and deployment.

On April 25, 2007, the IEA Bioenergy group's annual meeting, ExCo59, was held in Golden, Colorado bringing the world's experts to the home of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to discuss the current status of emerging biorefinery technologies. BioPact has provided a real service by summarizing contents of the information presented at ExCo59.


Thankfully, these Biorefinery Concept presentations have been posted as downloadable PDFs on the IEA Bioenergy website. Several of these presentations are identical to those given at the recent BBI Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo. Those slides were only distributed to attendees.

technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, hydrolysis, syngas, cellulosic, gasification

Fuel Ethanol Workshop promotes vision and collaboration

The 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop was informative, thought provoking, and inspirational. Its scope was very broad. While enumerating the many benefits of a robust renewable energy paradigm, it also sought to promote greater collaboration between capitalism and environmentalism. It sought to stretch the range of feedstock beyond corn to cellulosic raw materials. And it provided many opportunities for attendees, embarked on a globally important quest, to meet and learn from each other how to achieve their goals.

Gateway to the Future

Symbolically, the choice of venue couldn't have more appropriate. It was held at the America's Center just west of St. Louis' inspirational Gateway Arch. Millions marvel at the futuristic elegance of its gleaming structure.

Between the vaulting legs of the arch is the underground Jefferson National Expansion Memorial - a contemporary reminder of the pioneering American spirit and its tireless urge to explore. In 1803 Thomas Jefferson oversaw the Louisiana Purchase that doubled the size of the country. He predicted it would take "a thousand years to settle." It took less than a hundred. This demonstrates that even a visionary as prodigious as Jefferson can dramatically underestimate the character and energy of his countrymen and the draw such vision represents to people around the world - many of whom immigrated to settle in the new territory. We are clearly at the gateway to a new era for emerging technologies that will transform the world energy paradigm and impact the exercise of freedom everywhere.

Building a globally important industry

The sense that biofuels companies are not just on the threshold of forming a globally important industry but also of insuring the humanitarian sustainability of future generations was highlighted during the opening session. BBI International hosts the conference and its CEO, Mike Bryan spoke eloquently to the attendees about the importance of the renewable fuels quest in global terms:

You are here to build an industry.

You represent a stronger economy - not just a stronger rural economy, but also a stronger urban economy because a rising tide raises all ships.

You also represent energy independence and energy security. Renewable energy promotes world peace. A new age in energy. When the oil wells and the oil refineries of today are nothing more than rusted relics of a past generation, renewable energy will continue to supply clean domestically produced energy not only to this country but also to countries all around the world.

We hope that soon, someday soon, we no longer will go to war over oil and that it is just simply a faded memory.

The need for both capitalism and environmentalism

Bryan was equally passionate when he spoke about the need for capitalists and environmentalists to work together:

You represent a cleaner environment. There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about capitalism and the environmentalism. They never seem to have gotten together, have they? That needs to change. We need to work with environmentalists.

You know what? Wealth creates pollution. Wealth needs to solve the pollution problem in this world. Capitalism alone is haughty, environmentalism alone is weak. But when we combine the two together we have something that can actually change the world.

It's okay to make money, it's okay to be profitable, that's a good thing. But as capitalists, as people who are in business to generate revenue and generate profit, we need to think about how we can create a better environment. We always need to be thinking about how we can collaborate with the environmental movement around the world.

To emphasize the importance of the environmental message, the keynote address was presented by Karen Coshof from Stonehaven Productions, Executive Producer of The Great Warming, a documentary about the threat of global warming and the need for "enlightened corporations, religious institutions, environmental and political leaders to recognize our moral responsibility to be stewards of the Earth today and for future generations."

Our time to stabilize global climate is shrinking fast. You are all working to move the world to a new and, I hope, a more sustainable energy paradigm. When you make your decisions and talk to each other over the next few days, factor in your children's future because failure is not an option.

Expanding the role of renewable biofuels

Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association reflected on the immense change that has taken place over the last few years when he said:

50% of the nation's fuel is blended with ethanol. Every single gallon of gasoline sold in New York and California is blended with ethanol. Every single gallon of gasoline sold in Houston, Texas - where big oil executives have to drive to work each day on your fuel - is testament to how far we have come. But we surely have a long way to go.

We have to remind people that technology is not stagnant – that we are going to get greater and greater yields from an acre of corn. That technology is going to allow us to satisfy demand for grain used in feed, fuel, and fiber throughout this country.

We need to get the message out that... the price of gasoline has a far greater impact on consumer food prices than does a bushel of corn.

A recent poll that was done revealed that more than three out of every four Americans believe we need to be doing much more. We need to be maximizing production and use of renewable fuels like ethanol.

Congress has got that message. Congress saw what the Renewable Fuel Standard has done for our industry.

Diversifying ethanol feedstock

One way to maximize production of renewable fuels is to incorporate the use of a greater range of biomass feedstock. Poet President Jeff Broin announced a new project that will use corn cobs and corn fiber as the feedstock for their commercial cellulosic ethanol production facility that will be jointly funded with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Numerous workshops shed light on advancements in cellulosic biomass conversion into ethanol. Of the six D.O.E. "Section 932" award winners, four made presentations about their processes including Abengoa, Poet, Alico (and their technology partner, BRI), and BlueFire. However, other workshops dealt with issues that were important to all ethanol production processes.

Workshop 3 dealt with logistics and the transportation grid that currently exists to service the growing industry. Sandra Dearden, President of Highroad Consulting, Ltd. made a strong point during her presentation on "Integrating Transportation: Planning for Future Growth" that rail service is not on a trajectory that will adequately service the anticipated needs of the ethanol industry. When asked about future volume capacity, Sandra responded:

The thing that scares me the most is that the freight volume is likely to double within the next 14 years. It takes two years for a railroad to receive an ordered locomotive. It takes about ten months to get someone trained to be on a crew to be on a locomotive. And, at the same time, we don't have the infrastructure capacity. The railroads have gone to the House (of Representatives) and asked for assistance for funding additional railroad infrastructure.

The current status of Carbon Credits

Workshop 7 was titled "Greenhouse Gases: Capitalizing on Carbon Credits." Should a cap and trade mechanism be fully implemented nationwide, the value of GHG emissions is estimated to represent $50-$300 billion dollars by 2020 (US Congressional Budget Office). Keeping abreast of the carbon credit systems that are developed may spell the difference between survival and bankrupcy for many developers.

How can we use carbon credits to provide incentives for responsible industry behavior without undermining the financial stability of existing leveraged corporations? If a carbon credit system is used, what input will be taken into account? The answers will tend to be regionalized state-by-state. In the meantime, experts are developing tools to calculate the value of carbon credits based on a complex set of data input. Once of these is the BEACCON model, implemented in Excel®. which is free to download from http://lifecycleassociates.com/beaccon.php.

The BEACCON (Biofuels Emissions and Cost Connection) model allows ethanol producers to evaluate the potential impacts on production costs of the global warming intensity (GWI) of different biofuel production pathways. Version 1.0 of the model focuses on ethanol plants with a capacity range between 50 and 100 million gallons per year.

Another computational model is being developed by the University of Nebraska called the Biofuel Energy Systems Simulator (BESS). It will be released July 20th for free download.

The Biofuel Energy Systems Simulator (BESS) model provides a holistic “cradle-to-grave” analysis of energy use and net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during the entire biofuel production cycle—including crop production, ethanol conversion, and by-product use and waste disposal via associated cattle feedlots and anaerobic biodigestion systems. The model estimates the net energy efficiency and net GHG emissions for each component of the biofuel production life cycle and also for the integrated system as a whole.

James Murphy of Carbon Green, LLC was on hand to provide an introduction to the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) - which trades Carbon Financial Instrument™ (CFI) contracts.

CCX members make a voluntary but legally binding commitment to meet annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. Those who reduce below the targets have surplus allowances to sell or bank; those who emit above the targets comply by purchasing CCX CFI contracts.

Notably, the U.S. Congress recently passed an appropriations bill amendment instructing the House to join the CCX - which requests that the House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) purchase Carbon Financial Instruments from American projects through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) to offset carbon produced by all House operations after renewable energy and efficiency improvements are made.


New Technologies

The new technologies addressed by FEW workshops this year included four of the six D.O.E. "Section 932" award winners mentioned earlier.

Bob Wooley, Principal Engineer from NREL/DOE gave an illuminating presentation on how his organization is helping the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plant and cultivate emerging technology development in the private sector. He talked about the dynamics and economics for expanding the fuel supply chain with a focus on two complex areas of the problem - feedstock supply and capital investment. They have developed a model called STELLA™ to understand how DOE activities might influence the ultimate ethanol deployment and explore what else (outside of DOE) might be needed to reach the desired deployment levels.

Other technologies included a DOE look at the emissions and performance characteristics of the SAAB 9-5 BioPower automobile and how the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company is developing plans to displace over 90% of its fossil fuel usage with renewable biomass.

Hurdles to Deployment of E85

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) held a special workshop on E85 during which their Director of Operations, Robert White, updated information about Underwriters Laboratories (UL) who rescinded E85 pump and pump component certification in September and October of 2006. This sent a chill through the distribution service industry for ethanol. There is now a process that is being developed to create standards for submitting equipment for certification and UL approval.

Back in February 2007 UL did complete a survey of dispensers across the country that concluded that E85 equipment has not resulted in any significant safety problems. A separate Brazil survey concluded in May 2007 rendered similar results. UL is now working inhouse to develop new standards which it hopes will be completed and published by December of 2007. It is anticipated that it will take a while to pass certification and it will not be until the fourth quarter of 2008 that there will be UL certified dispensers on the street.

The consequences have not completely curtailed deployment of pumps because some manufacturers are providing special warrants on safety and security in the absence of UL certification. However, this is an issue for the big box retailers (WalMart and others) and in Hawaii a program to install 25 E85 pumps was halted by the Fire Marshal because of the lack of UL approval.

Carl Donges from Clean Fuels USA talked about some equipment that his company represents that will have a big impact on how ethanol is dispensed now and will in the future. Texas based CleanFUEL USA has established itself as the leading global manufacturer of certified and approved alternative fuel dispensing equipment for both propane (LPG) and E85 and has expanded its role as an industry leader by providing comprehensive alternative motor fuel programs for fleet managers throughout the world.

Not only do they currently market dedicated pumps for dispensing ethanol but they also sell retrofitting kits and even pumps that blend different percentages of pure ethanol with standard gasoline at the dispensing station.

During Workshop 14 Jim Stewart of BRI made a presentation promoting the conversion of waste-to-ethanol using a thermochemical process. He used the occasion to launch a scathing attack accusing Big Oil companies of attempting to control renewable energy development so as to mitigate the possible negative impacts on their established businesses:

The public face of Big Oil appears to be committed to a transition between petroleum to alternative energy. But its private face is providing funds to educational institutions and think tanks that are generating unfavorable studies or otherwise opposing ethanol as a substitute for gasoline - and in subtle ways Big Oil is taking other steps to slow its expansion.

He then listed several high profile instances that he felt demonstrated the conflict of interest between the funding of educational institutions by Big Oil and subsequent research announcements detrimental to ethanol's image in the press. It is a touchy subject to be addressed at FEW because the oil companies, with their refineries that blend ethanol into their gasoline to meet state standards, are the primary customers of ethanol producers.


The promise of renewable fuel development will depend upon the collaboration of competing stakeholder interests (academia, business, social, environmental, and political) while correcting public misperceptions as reported in the press. The call is being raised for insightful leaders who can see and develop the common ground shared by these many sectors. Clearly, not all sectors were equally represented at FEW 2007, but the workshops stimulated multi-interest discourse and provided a forum for industry leaders to learn from each other.

For more information, see BBI's own publication for a Ethanol Producer recap

technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, biofuels, ethanol, hydrolysis, syngas, cellulosic, legislation, gasification, decentralization, security

Biomass Gasification at the "Chin-dia" price

Thomas Friedman talks about the need for new alternative energy systems to be affordable at the "China price" or, more broadly the "Chin-dia price" - cheap enough for China or India to deploy because with the demand for renewable energy so high in those countries, they may indeed be the first to develop and deploy them. He contends that the ultimate solution(s) will have to compete economically with the "Chin-dia price". Certainly, without near global deployment of a variety of technologies suited to each culture and eco-system, alternative energy will never effectively shift the energy paradigm to carbon-neutral renewable feedstock.

We typically think of "biomass gasification" as an elegant but expensive alternative to co-firing or fossil fuel combustion. A recent Biopact article titled Biomass gasification to power rural India out of energy povertydispells that myth:

Even though there is no magic solution to the age-old development problem of bringing electricity to the rural poor, some elements and factors have been identified as key: decentralisation, reliance on locally available energy resources (water, wind, the sun or biomass) and, crucially, the need for low-cost systems.

Experts from India think these principles and requirements converge in a technology known as biomass gasification, in an electrification concept that has become commercially feasible and reliable (in-depth discussion of the technology, here, or see the image showing a downdraft biomass gasifier, click to enlarge). The energy system may be applicable to rural areas in the developing world at large because it is the least costly of the common alternatives. Depending on local circumstances, it is estimated to be between 15 and 20 times less costly than photovoltaics.

Several community-operated experiments with decentralised biomass gasification and electrification are now underway in India, and it looks like the technology can literally turn marginalised communities into thriving and prosperous societies (see the case-study). Drawing on this success, an ambitious initiative by science institutes and the private sector has been launched aimed at mass-producing efficient small to medium-scale gasifiers

It turns out that Ludditism - the tendency of technology detractors to hold up deployment for any number of reasons - is the most expensive part of any alternative energy technology. If Americans persist in delaying implementation of even the most tested and reasonable solutions to our environmental/energy problems, we will cede leadership in the investment and development of emerging technologies.

technorati BIOconversion, bioenergy, syngas, gasification, decentralization