Posted October 15, 2009
 
 After six months of negative net returns, the model developed by the <a href="http://www.agmrc.org/ ">Agricultural Marketing Resource Center</a> for a hypothetical, single-feedstock biodiesel refinery using soybean oil, showed a return to the black in September. 

 
 Biodiesel revenue for September showed $3.02 per gallon, the soybean oil cost was $2.35 per gallon, natural gas 3 cents per gallon and methanol cost 9 cents per gallon. AgMRC's model plant showed a total breakeven cost per gallon, including variable and fixed costs of $2.96 per gallon. The net return over variable costs was 32 cents per gallon, and the net return over all costs for September was 6 cents per gallon. 
 
 The net return over all costs had ranged between a negative 2 cents to negative 22 cents per gallon from April through August, with May being the poorest month. However, the net return over variable costs remained in the black throughout the entire period, with May being the lowest month at 4 cents per gallon.
 
 The overwhelming impact of soybean oil prices, which amount to close to 90 percent of the overall cost of biodiesel production, is shown in the comparison of September's improving numbers with the poorest month, May 2009. The biodiesel revenue for that month was actually slightly higher than September at $3.10 per gallon. However, soy oil was 38 cents a gallon higher at $2.73 per gallon, natural gas remained the same at 3 cents per gallon and methanol cost was lower in May at 6 cents per gallon. AgMRC's model plant showed a total breakeven cost per gallon, including variable and fixed costs of $3.32 for that low month of May 2009. The net return over variable costs was 4 cents per gallon in May and the net return over all costs was a negative 22 cents per gallon. 
 
 It should be noted that the model indicated negative net returns over all costs for the latter half of 2007 turning to positive in March of 2008 until March of 2009. During that year, biodiesel revenue started at $5.16 per gallon, peaked at $5.51 in June 2008 and dropped to $2.68 per gallon when the net return over all costs dropped into the red. EIA reports the spot diesel price at Chicago a year ago in October, 2008, was $2.85 cents per gallon.
 
 While the AgMRC data may provide a trendline for an Iowa-based hypothetical soy biodiesel plant, it doesn't illustrate the entire picture. Last month's return to the black in the AgMRC profitability chart showed a biodiesel breakeven cost of production of $2.96 and an Iowa-based biodiesel price of $3.02. That compares with U.S. DOE Energy Information Agency reports of Chicago spot prices for No. 2 diesel that averaged $1.74 per gallon during September, putting biodiesel at uncompetitive price even with the $1 per gallon blenders tax credit. It does however, give an indication that the pressure on the biodiesel industry may be letting up, particularly for those plants that have successfully transitioned to multi-feedstock capability, producing ASTM quality fuel while blending in lower cost, waste-based feedstocks with soybean oil.
 
 Agricultural economists specializing in biofuels at Iowa State University update the prices and costs on a monthly basis on their Biodiesel Profitability Chart. The chart uses a hypothetical 30 MMgy soy-based biodiesel plant built in 2007. Basic assumptions about fixed and variable costs and efficiency rates are provided. The spreadsheet calculates revenue per gallon of biodiesel produced, cost per gallon, return on equity, and more. Price data for the hypothetical plant is taken from publicly available sources, with all prices all based in Iowa starting with April 2007. The spreadsheet also allows individuals to change multiple variables reflecting an actual situation to see how the calculations play out. 
 
 To access the Biodiesel Profitability Chart visit: <a href="http://www.agmrc.org/renewable_energy/biodiesel/profitability.cfm">http://www.agmrc.org/renewable_energy/biodiesel/profitability.cfm</a> . The AgMRC also provides balance sheets for soy oil and soybean supply and demand, with relevant biodiesel data points, under the "prices, trends and markets" tab.

AgMRC: biodiesel profitability turns corner

There is a growing global debate over biodiesel and its potential role in deforestation of species-diverse lands. Yes, for more than a year the biodiesel industry has been trying to set the record straight on indirect land use, and has succeeded in some measure, but there is much more to the complex issues at stake. It's been said that environmental policy is a luxury only rich nations can afford. Some argue that the number one enemy to the environment is the poor-not the rich. What is interesting about this is that...

 
 To view this entire F.A.M.E. Forum biodiesel blog entry and archived entries, visit <a href="http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/fameforum">www.biodieselmagazine.com/fameforum</a>.

F.A.M.E. Forum biodiesel blog: responsible environmental policy or oppression of the poor?

For buyers at Greenergy International Ltd. headquartered in London, not a day goes by without a discussion on sourcing sustainable biofuels. The biodiesel producer and fuel distributor is joined by all U.K. fuel suppliers facing new carbon and sustainability requirements. The U.K.'s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation started with mandatory reporting, with the first year closing in April. The carbon savings standard takes effect April 2010, and the feedstock sustainability standards will begin in 2011. The U.K. standards will be harmonized with the European Commission's rules for the Fuel Quality Directive and the Renewable Energy Directive currently in development. Those standards call for 35 percent greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions for biofuels in the first years of the program, and compliance with sustainability requirements now in development. The U.K. implemented its RTFO in advance of the EC directive taking effect, providing experience for other EU states, as well as the rest of the biofuels industry, to consider when devising their own schemes.
 
 The challenge for Greenergy buyers has been to get more complete information about the supply chain of the ethanol and biodiesel it handles. "We're not talking segregation of physical product," explains Alex Lewis, Greenergy head of communications. Instead, it is an accounting function described as mass balance, tracking purchases and sales; and noting the feedstocks used to manufacture the biofuel, the location where they are produced, the fuel's carbon savings and whether it meets sustainability criteria. Greenway's first report, filed this summer, was verified by an independent auditing firm in a manner similar to how certified public accountants review annual financial reports.
 
 Greenergy is a relative newcomer among U.K. fuel distributors, opening its doors in 1992 as a supplier of ultra-low sulfur diesel. In 2002, the company launched GlobalDiesel, a branded biodiesel blend, followed the next year by their ethanol blend, GlobalPetrol. In 2005, Greenergy began construction on the first of two 100,000 metric ton-per-year (approximately 30 MMgy) biodiesel plants at the English east coast port of Immingham. Greenergy has become the U.K.'s largest and fastest growing independent oil company, now selling more than 4 billion liters of fuel a year (more than 1 billion gallons), claiming a 13 percent share of the U.K.'s on-road fuels market.
 
 As part of its commitment to be a leader in providing sustainable renewable fuels to the consumer, the company posts its RTFO reports on its Web site, giving a glimpse of what a market built on sustainable biofuels may look like for all producers in the future. In the first year of the RTFO-April 2008 to April 2009-Greenergy reported carbon savings averaging 61 percent overall against fossil fuel equivalents, significantly above the U.K..'s target of 40 percent. Of that, 43 percent met sustainability standards compared with the government target of 30 percent. 
 
 Greenergy's strategy to achieve its first year performance for GHG savings was to source as much tallow and tallow biodiesel as possible, mostly from the U.S. Tallow as a byproduct of meat production (in this case, a generic term encompassing all animal fats) is automatically deemed to meet sustainability standards in the U.K. and is rated at an 81 percent GHG savings. Almost all of Greenergy's soy purchases were from the U.S. as well, although none met a qualifying standard because no U.S. agricultural standard has been benchmarked by the Renewable Fuels Agency. 
 
 Underlying Greenergy's main concern with the RTFO is the lack of sustainability standards in multiple supply nations. "Whilst we welcome the adoption of carbon targets, we question the usefulness of the second target in measuring the performance of the obligated companies," the company stated in October 2008. "While the quarterly reports provide a lot of data, we believe that they fail to provide meaningful information on the supply chains of obligated companies." Obligated parties in the U.K. are refiners and distributers who pay duties, essentially, including biofuel producers selling directly to fleets and other consumers, in addition to fuel distributors. "For widely used biodiesel feedstocks such as U.S. soy, European (non-U.K.) rape and Canadian canola, there are no standards in general use which meet RTFO requirements," according to Greenergy. "Yet all are long-standing historic crops grown under well-regulated agricultural regimes. Not meeting a qualifying standard in these cases does not mean that the crops have been grown in an unsustainable way. The simple government goal of 30 percent of feedstocks coming from sustainable sources fails to take into account the variation from crop to crop and country to country in the potential for crops to have a negative environmental impact." The company gives the example of soy grown in the U.S., which is highly unlikely to have been grown on recently deforested land compared to palm oil grown in Indonesia, where deforestation for oil palm production is a distinct possibility.
 
 <img src="http://images.bbibiofuels.com/img/10152009_3_43_22_PM.jpg" alt="nov.09bdm_policy.chart1" border="0" />
 

 In the effort to increase the supply of qualifying sustainable biofuels, Greenergy has been involved with the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, an international effort involving soy producers from South America and India, along with industry and nongovernmental organizations, whose effort is similar to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Greenergy is also working with Brazilian groups to develop a system to certify sustainable sugarcane ethanol. Greenergy says it has no plans to handle U.S. corn ethanol because of its poor sustainability profile, although the company does list the U.S. as the major supplier of soybean biodiesel. "We've started to talk to our U.S. suppliers to explain what would be involved [to meet the sustainability standard]," Lewis tells Biodiesel Magazine. "There is a lot of interest. People like to be ahead of the game-it opens up new markets for them." Last year, the company was able to confirm that U.S. soybean feedstocks were grown on established cropland, and Greenergy encourages its U.S. suppliers to develop more detailed supply-chain knowledge. Lewis believes it will not require a dramatic change in practices, but rather the documentation of practices in use that indicate better carbon savings and sustainability performance than the RTFO default values.
 
 Devising Defaults	
 Chris Malins, communications director for the U.K.'s RFA administering its RTFO, explains the default values for GHG savings are based on worst-case scenarios for each fuel pathway. For U.S. biodiesel, the feedstock rated lowest is canola, which sets the U.S. default at minus 8 percent GHG savings. Interestingly, the default value for Canadian canola biodiesel is 35 percent. Taking numbers from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, Malins says the difference reflects assumptions about fertilizer application. "Our default LCA [life-cycle analysis] assumes substantially higher applications of ammonium nitrate, triple superphosphate and potassium chloride for the U.S. default than the Canadian default," he explains. For those familiar with U.S. canola production, the difference between the U.S. and Canadian score raises multiple questions, since more than 90 percent of the U.S. canola crop is grown within 100 miles of the Canadian border in similar soil and climate conditions as the Canadian production, using similar production practices. Don Scott, sustainability director for the National Biodiesel Board, says they noted a similar problem with some initial European GHG savings values for soy biodiesel that, when explored further, were derived from South American practices, which are significantly different than U.S. methods.
 
 <img src="http://images.bbibiofuels.com/img/10152009_3_44_18_PM.jpg" alt="nov.09bdm_policychart2" border="0" />
 
 Malins says the U.K. system provides two ways to address low default values. One, a company can document the actual practices for a specific area of feedstock production, and use the manual carbon calculator provided on the agency's Web site to determine the rating. The calculator could also be used to identify which changes in production practices would offer the greatest improvement in GHG savings. Two, an organization such as the U.S. Canola Council can challenge the accuracy of the FAO figures and provide evidence for suggested revisions. The U.K.'s RFA default values, however, will soon be supplanted by the European Commission's Renewable Energy Directive, Malins adds. Reports from the EC Directorate for the Environment indicate the EC system, due out in the next year, will also incorporate the ability to challenge the defaults or provide site-specific data. "It is worth noting that all country level default values are designed to be inherently conservative," Malins adds. "This is to encourage the provision of actual information and ultimately to encourage lower carbon production." 
 
 While the GHG savings ratings involve the familiar life-cycle analysis, for which the International Standards Organization has established a protocol, measuring sustainability is new. Only one certification system, developed by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, is in place worldwide. The RSPO wrote a broad set of environmental, social and economic principles that are further elaborated in a list of criteria and indicators. Each member nation in the RSPO has developed a national plan to apply the principles and criteria to its situation, which is then approved by the RSPO in a process that allowed public review and comments. The RSPO also approves certifiers after reviewing their certification work plans. The Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels has patterned its work on the RSPO efforts, along with other certification systems. The comment period for Version Zero of the RSB proposed principles and criteria closed last spring and Version One was due out this fall. While industry participation among producers for the RSPO is obviously limited to palm oil producers, the RSB has involved stakeholders, including farmer groups, biofuel producers and industry buyers, from across the world. The negotiations around what sustainability will mean in practice also includes the biofuel industry's biggest critics-environmental groups and other organizations with concerns about worker's rights and indigenous peoples. Many of the social organizations raise concerns targeted at developing countries, where labor laws and land rights are not as well established as in North America or Europe. 
 
 There are indications that most existing European and North American agricultural practices will meet sustainability criteria. Malins points out that in the U.K., the country's farm program known as the Assured Combinable Crop Scheme is considered adequate for U.K. sustainability requirements. Those familiar with Germany's sustainability certification development say the cross-compliance requirements of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy are considered sustainable. Cross compliance ties any farm program payments to compliance with multiple agricultural best practices addressing soil and water quality and other environmental concerns. Germany's sustainability guidelines in development do add requirements above the current cross-compliance measures to protect areas with high natural value, such as grasslands with significant diversity, and areas with high stocks of carbon, such as wetlands. Direct land use change in the U.K. and German proposals is addressed by requiring eligible feedstocks to be produced from existing cropland.
 
 While Europe is much further along in the development of sustainability guidelines than the U.S., there is one topic Europeans are watching unfold in the U.S.-indirect land use change. The incorporation of indirect land use impact in the proposed rule to implement the revised U.S. renewable fuels standard sparked an industry-wide critique of the concept's assumptions and untested methodology. The EC's Directorate for the Environment studied the methodology and potential policies this summer, with the expectation of opening a public comment period on resulting proposals in the fall. A directorate spokesman gave no indication to what extent indirect land use might figure into those policies.
 It remains to be seen whether emerging sustainability and carbon requirements will elicit an industry response similar to the indirect land use issue. The U.K. experience to date would suggest that it will not. Implementation of the RSPO and the RSB appear to be proceeding with broad industry support. The real challenge may be for the biodiesel industry to keep on top of all the efforts in the future, providing current data and thoughtful feedback to policymakers, and keeping a watchful eye on the details.
 

 Susanne Retka Schill is assistant editor of Biodiesel Magazine. Reach her at (701) 738-4922 or <a href="mailto:sretkaschill@bbiinternational.com">sretkaschill@bbiinternational.com</a>.

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The United Kingdom's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation gives a glimpse of the future.

U.K. Accounting for Sustainability

Is biodiesel sustainable? To American soybean farmers, it obviously is. When asked this question, Johnny Dodson, president of the American Soybean Association and farmer from Halls, Tenn., says, "We continue to develop new varieties, we're increasing our yields with new technology. Soy biodiesel is a renewable, green, environmentally friendly fuel." His colleague on the ASA board, John Hoffman, a farmer from Waterloo, Iowa, says, "I think soybean farmers are a long ways down the road to sustainability." He points to the increase in yields and no-till practices that result in soybeans using less energy for each bushel produced. New varieties are becoming more water efficient and soybeans are a legume that fix nitrogen from the air into the soil, benefitting the crops that follow.
 
 Growing more soybeans from less land using fewer resources is one answer to the question of sustainability, but the concept of sustainability has much broader implications. The renewable fuels standard (RFS2) as revised in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was passed to create demand to help build the biofuels industries, while incorporating three areas of sustainability. One is that eligible biofuels must come from existing cropland. Second, biofuels must meet targeted greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. For biodiesel, this means a target of 50 percent fewer GHG emissions compared to fossil fuels. Lastly, there is a provision for the U.S. EPA to document water impact, although those findings were not to be incorporated into the rules. 
 
 There is a global context as well, with the European Union's movement towards using sustainability criteria for biofuels, and international roundtables that involve multiple stakeholders writing sustainability criteria for palm oil, soy and biofuels. Those voluntary movements are developing certification systems where third parties verify the sustainability principles are being followed. The U.S. soybean and biodiesel exporters may face sustainability criteria down the road.
 
 The biodiesel industry is faced with learning what the new sustainability concept means in practical terms, in order to answer its critics and find ways to improve. The National Biodiesel Board's sustainability director Don Scott has been giving much thought to this as he works on the NBB response to the EPA's proposed rule. He also represents NBB in the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels and facilitates the NBB's task force on sustainability. Scott says the biodiesel industry had sustainability in mind when it established a goal of meeting 5 percent of the country's diesel demand with biodiesel by 2015, although sustainability is not explicitly mentioned. "We can produce that much biodiesel with currently available oil supplies, and without upsetting markets and creating indirect effects," he says. This would displace petroleum diesel derived from imported crude, and help reduce GHG emissions. The targeted biomass-based diesel volumes in the RFS are lower than the NBB's 5 percent goal, but would still provide some economic sustainability with a mandated level of use to help keep biodiesel producers going in poor markets until a rebound. "It (biomass-based diesel mandate) was an insurance policy to keep us on track to energy independence," Scott says. "That was the intent of the act, it wasn't sustainability."
 
 The web of interrelated factors make sustainability discussions complex. Scott gives an example of the early discussion for the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels when waste-based biofuels were given strong preference over vegetable oils that also are used for food. "On its face, it's good," he admits. "But it neglects the benefits of using low value and under-utilized coproducts, which is essentially the situation we're at with soybean oil." The soybean market is driven by demand for the high protein soybean meal used for feed and food, historically creating large surpluses of soy oil that drag down the market. "By being able to use that coproduct and develop a market, it helps the overall economic stability of everyone," he says. Soybean oil has lost market share in the food sector, which has been picked up by soy biodiesel, helping maintain market stability. Greater market stability helps farmers and crushers working on low margins stay in business, providing protein and oil for food and energy.
 
 Scott offered another example of relationships in agricultural systems when considering sustainability. In its report on water impact of biofuels, the EPA focused on the widespread concern that an increase in corn production to meet ethanol demand would have a negative impact on water quality. "They failed to look at the biodiesel side," he says. "They missed that when farming soybeans in rotation with corn, soy fixes nitrogen in the soil and therefore reduces the nitrogen that needs to be added to the following corn crop. Rotations also reduce weed and insect pressures, reducing the need for pesticides." The GHG and water quality benefits from the soy/corn rotation are not included in the EPA analysis. Scott says, "Any impacts of the EPA regulations that may limit soybeans will affect water quality." 
 

 When sustainability begins to be discussed globally, it gets even more complicated. "Anytime you try to look at agriculture at global scale, it gets difficult to mandate what the best practices are," Scott says. "Water use is one example that varies so much from region to region." In some regions where water supplies are tight, irrigation obviously becomes unsustainable for biofuel feedstocks, although the rotational benefits of certain crops may still apply. In other areas though, water supply is not a problem and irrigation is used sparingly at critical times to protect yields. "You add a little bit of water and you improve the yield, and by increasing the yield, this means there is another acre you don't have to farm," Scott says. 
 
 There are other dimensions of sustainability. Our economy has been built on energy derived from fossil fuels concentrated in large, underground pools, which are relatively cheap to mine and process. "We're not as good at harnessing solar energy," Scott says. "The better we get at harnessing solar energy, the more sustainable we become. Biodiesel is a good means of harvesting solar power, providing dense energy storage." The biodiesel industry's efficiency in energy conversion continues to improve, he says, from 3.2 units of energy produced for every unit used in production, to as high as 4.5 units in recent analyses. Producing biodiesel takes little water too, he adds, requiring on average only about a half gallon per gallon of fuel produced. "Last year, when we produced the biggest volume of biodiesel ever, using that average, the entire biodiesel industry used as much water as it took to irrigate a couple of golf courses in south Texas," Scott says. 
 
 The impacts on land use from rising biofuels production are getting the most attention in today's discussion on sustainability, particularly the inclusion of indirect international land use change projections. Scott says the NBB was comfortable with the RFS2 measure dealing with direct land use change that limits eligible biofuel feedstocks to those produced on existing cropland. The U.S. has not seen a net increase in crop acres since 1959, Scott says. Long term sustainability of the nation's land resource is not threatened by crop production, but by urban sprawl, with an estimated two acres of farmland lost to development every minute. Farm commodities aren't generating enough revenue to compete with other uses, he points out, and when land gets converted to subdivisions or shopping malls, there are much higher GHG emissions, lost habitat and impervious surfaces that upset water cycles. 
 
 Sustainability concerns have actually been addressed by U.S. policymakers for a long time, in a network of regulations to protect the quality of natural resources such as water and air. The national farm policy has dealt with land conversion through measures to stop sodbusting and swampbusting for years. The possibility of having to certify biofuel feedstocks as not coming from converted lands for the EPA's RFS2 rule struck many as being unnecessary. Dodson points out that every year when he goes into the Farm Service Agency, USDA's county-level office that administers farm programs, he has to certify his crops. The FSA provides aerial photographs of a farmer's fields to use for measuring acres, photos that also serve to document that no new land conversion has occurred. 
 
 Scott adds the industry may want to adopt an approach used by renewable electricity. Since it's impossible to separate the individual electrons produced by wind from those produced by fossil fuels, credits are assigned for renewable production based on the percentage of the total. Possibly a biofuel producer could claim a percentage of sustainable feedstocks based on farmer compliance in a given supply region. USDA offices already track all farmers and their participation in farm programs now. "EPA and USDA need to work together on this," Dodson suggests.
 
 Future Implications
 While work done by the NBB has focused on the near-term implications for the industry, discussions of sustainability also involve consideration for the future. Marty Matlock, a professor of ecological engineering and area director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainability at the University of Arkansas, has focused his attention on the long-term. "Over the next 150 years, we will have to increasingly move towards a biofuel footing in the energy sector," he says. Today's biofuel industry is starting where it can find traction to put in the infrastructure, but its future must incorporate the need to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel for an increasing world population "without one hectare more of land, and without one more drop of water," Matlock tells Biodiesel Magazine. As part of the Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, Matlock has evaluated national-scale metrics for land use, water use, energy use, soil loss and climate impact for U.S. corn, soy, cotton and wheat crops over the past two decades." We're getting better," he says. "Ecological services are increasing. Over the past 10 years, we have dramatically increased biodiversity because we have dramatically increased adoption of conservation tillage. Pesticide applications have decreased dramatically across the landscape. Soil health and soil carbon are going up." 
 
 Biofuels have the potential to improve agriculture's sustainability by introducing new crops and cropping systems. "The biofuel production landscape in 20 years will be much more complex, integrated and diverse," he says. Opportunities for grass-based biofuels or reforestation efforts with woody biomass converted to biofuels could change the landscape and offer potential for more diverse cropping. U.S. agriculture has seen major changes in each generation, Matlock points out. He can remember as a kid on the farm in Oklahoma when soybeans were a new crop. "They called them Chinese beans then," he says. "Now, it's one of our standard export crops," he says. Canola is another relatively new crop, introduced in northern regions just in the 1980s. 

 
 Offsetting that positive potential though are concerns about the loss of what Matlock calls ecosystem services. "More than 60 percent of global ecosystem services upon which we depend for the things we get from nature is in decline-and 30 percent is in dramatic decline," Matlock says. The most familiar of those are water and soil quality issues. "We're also losing disease control-the ability of the biosphere to buffer the landscape from disease," he adds, with diseases expanding at a disturbing rate. One example is the colony collapse disorder seen in honey production. "Those bees are signals of what's happening to the biosphere," he says.
 
 With the prospect that biofuels and farmers raising feedstocks will be facing sustainability litmus tests, Scott encourages people involved in the biodiesel industry to get involved in discussions about sustainability. The complex puzzle of interrelated economic, environmental and social factors that seek to minimize unintended negative impacts requires input from multiple stakeholders. Those who understand biodiesel and agriculture need to explain how things work so their concerns can be balanced with environmental and social concerns. 
 
 Matlock advises that any sustainability criteria should ensure short- and long-term prospects for success. "We're not going to be able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together all at once," he says. Policies need to be periodically revisited to look at local, national and global effects. Reiteration needs to be built into the system to avoid allowing policies to get entrenched, he says, "and we need to allow the opportunity to experiment."	
 	
 Susanne Retka Schill is the assistant editor of Biodiesel Magazine. Reach her at (701) 738-4922 or <a href="mailto:sretkaschill@bbiinternational.com">sretkaschill@bbiinternational.com</a>.

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Sustainability, the new buzz word, is likely to become the litmus test for biofuels. Biodiesel Magazine explores the sustainable dimensions of the American biodiesel industry.

The Interconnectedness of Sustainability

In late September, Carlos St. James, president of the Argentine Renewable Energy Chamber was stuck in traffic in Valparaiso, Chile, after attending a BioTop consortium conference hosted by the Catholic university here. The conference featured several prominent European and Latin American scientists who cooperated and shared information for the mutual development of each continent's respective industries. 
 
 Biodiesel Magazine asked St. James if Brazilian energy conglomerate Petrobras' recent expansion into the Chilean market-after the recent acquisition last year of ExxonMobil's Esso distribution assets-was a hot topic of discussion at the event. "This was a very academic conference and the attendees were not very interested in the business side of things," St. James says. Nevertheless, Petrobras reported plans to invest $500 million to help diversify Chile's energy mix by introducing renewable energy sources, especially biofuels.
 

 While European and Latin American scientists cooperate on biodiesel standardization, process technologies, biogas production and other exciting aspects of renewables development, trade issues between the two continents are festering. One reason for this could be that Argentina's and Brazil's biodiesel programs are rapidly increasing their power, while Europe is struggling.
 
 "The European biodiesel industry continues to suffer the effects of over-development borne of great enthusiasm to enter a new industry and with easy access to venture capital and financing, along with government subsidized prices," AREC stated in a September report. "However, they did not consider adequately their access to raw material nor competition from countries such as Argentina with large, efficient and very professional industries, nor the critical component of being among the largest producers of feedstock."
 
 By encouraging domestic processing of soybeans-soy oil and biodiesel are taxed at lower rates than whole beans-Argentina has been accused of causing distortions in the world market. This notion was disputed in a recent report released by AREC. "The president wanted to raise export taxes, but she lost that bid," St. James says. "Of course we would like to see them go down, but I don't see that happening either-we're kind of at a stalemate right now."
 
 In August, the European Biodiesel Board told Biodiesel Magazine that it was "gathering evidence" after observing that imports from Argentina had multiplied 20-fold to 85,047 metric tons (approximately 25.5 million gallons) in April, basically accusing Argentina and the United States of colluding to circumvent the EU's countervailing measures against U.S. B99. The EBB also said that the indirect subsidy for domestic soybean processing created an unfair advantage in the international marketplace.
 
 "There has been no response from Europe on the publication of our report," St. James says. "If you are the organization that represents the industry [in Europe] then you basically have to start barking and pointing your fingers, because they are only producing at half their capacity," St. James says. "We found that 25 percent of Europe's biodiesel is made from Argentine soybeans, so there seems to be some considerable hypocrisy in the fact that our soybeans are welcome there but not our biodiesel." 
 
 Peru Trade Issue
 In other South American trade issues, Peru has also reportedly begun an antidumping investigation into U.S. biodiesel imports, and could impose tariffs similar to the EU. "The Peruvians have been complaining a lot," St. James says. "Their president said that using Peru's own soy oil to make biodiesel was immoral because of its status as a feedstuff, which has really hurt their industry, so they've had to import it. We're certainly not selling biodiesel to Peru at a discount when we can sell it at the international price."
 

 Pure Biofuels Corp. operates a 127 MMly (33.5 MMgy) biodiesel plant in Calloa, Peru, that is currently under expansion. Pure Biofuels acquired InterPacific Oil SAC's biodiesel production business in 2007, Peru's largest and longest-running biodiesel processor. InterPacific currently produces 32.7 MMly of biodiesel and has been producing commercial quantities since 2002. Two plants are under construction: Industrias del Espino with a capacity 42.5 MMly near Cocache, San Martín; and Herco Biocombustibles SA with a capacity of 85 MMly near Lurin, Lima.
 
 According to the BioTop consortium, only 10 percent of the productive capacity of Peruvian plants is currently in use. In addition, it is facing difficulties meeting the B2 mandate introduced in January, primarily because of its small agricultural sector. "Thus, it is forced to import biodiesel from other countries, such as the United States and Ecuador," BioTop reports. "In early 2009, 72,000 barrels (more than 3 million gallons) of biodiesel were imported by Petro Peru to meet the blending mandate. The challenge for Peru will be to import the raw material and refine it within the country instead of importing biodiesel directly."
 
 BioTop reports that the Peruvian government has hopes that the potentials of the biodiesel market could entice farms to switch to crops other than coca, which is used for narcotics production.
 
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 Snapshot: Brazil, Argentina 
 Brazil and Argentina are among the top five biodiesel-producing nations of the world, delivering 1.03 million tons and 960,000 tons, respectively. The entirety of Brazilian biodiesel is consumed domestically, while nearly all of Argentina's methyl esters are exported. 
 
 Brazil currently has 65 biodiesel plants in operation and production is projected by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service to top 1.5 billion liters in 2009, while industrial capacity is at 4.1 billion liters. There are five major oilseed crops grown in Brazil, the FAS reports-soybeans, seed cotton, peanuts, castor bean and sunflowers. Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) adds that soybeans account for 81.3 percent of the total biodiesel feedstock. 
 
 Brazil's fuel consumption climbed 0.3 percent from last year to more than 13 billion gallons in the first half of 2009, according to ANP data. The ANP's 15th biodiesel auction was held in late August. The auction system gives preference to producers with a "social fuel stamp." All of the biodiesel sold is purchased by Petrobras and the Alberto Pasqualini refinery for mixing to the B4 standard currently in place. It seems like this price discovery apparatus is fairly transparent and efficient, compared to systems used in the rest of the world. 
 
 To encourage the increased production of biodiesel feedstocks, Petrobras and Banco de Brasil recently negotiated a financial deal that will establish credit lines for domestic oilseed producers. More than $49 million will be "earmarked" for oilseed production. Petrobras also guarantees purchase of the harvest. Some 60,000 farmers will have access to a credit line. "In practice, producers will have cash to invest in production and the certainty of a buyer," Petrobras stated in September. 

 Ethanol usage increased 17.7 percent this year to nearly 3 billion gallons, and biodiesel consumption rose 42.7 percent in the first six months of 2009 as the national mandate doubled from B2 to B4. 
 
 Petrobras' biggest oil discovery in recent decades-the so called "Tupi" area off the coast of Rio De Janeiro- and the Herculean effort required to extract the material caused speculation that the biodiesel side of the business might slow. "Biofuel production projects are carried out parallel to the pre-salt activities," says Allesandra Ribas, press manager for Petrobras. "[The company] continues investing in biofuels and increased the resources earmarked for this area by 87 percent compared to the previous business plan." The strategy for the next four years foresees investments in the order of $2.8 billion in this segment, of which $2.4 billion will be set aside for Petrobras Biocombustível, the biofuels division of the state-owned oil conglomerate. 
 
 "The subsidiary was created last year to place the company in the biofuel production segment, notably biodiesel and ethanol," Ribas says. "Petrobras will invest the remaining $400 million in the biofuels logistics area, and an additional $530 million is foreseen for biofuel technology research and development, under the management of Petrobras' Research Center. In addition to this being a market opportunity, this activity is aligned to the company's environmental commitment guidelines."
 A significant advantage for Brazil is its access to cheap ethanol as an alternative to methanol for transesterification. "This is promoted by the Brazilian sugar cane industry, but currently most biodiesel is still produced with imported methanol since the process with ethanol is more expensive, and since the methanol transesterification process is technically more mature," BioTop reports.
 
 Petrobras has developed its own flex-feedstock biodiesel process technology, but Brazilian engineering firm Dedini and its Italian partner Ballestra S.P.A. are the main suppliers of biodiesel plants in Brazil with varying production capacities from 10,000 tons to 100,000 tons per year, BioTop reports, and has current projects that are integrating ethanol and biodiesel production processes. 
 
 While Brazil uses all of its biodiesel internally, not a single plant in Argentina has sought approval for selling into the domestic market since all plants are authorized only to export fuel for marketing. This is because exports are less regulated in Argentina, with its 14 "authorized" biodiesel plants. 
 
 But that situation will change in the near future. St. James says there is a B5 mandate scheduled to be implemented in 2010 that will alter the flow of biodiesel abroad, redirecting hundreds of thousands of tons of methyl esters for domestic use. "Then the Europeans will be complaining that they don't have enough Argentine biodiesel or that the price is too high," he says.&#61500;
 
 Nicholas Zeman is an associate editor for Biodiesel Magazine. Reach him at (701) 738-4942 or <a href="mailto:nzeman@bbiinternational.com">nzeman@bbiinternational.com</a>.

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Argentina and the EU are set for a trade showdown as the Brazilian demand floodgate bursts open. Plus, the Tupi oil discovery draws attention, biodiesel provides an alternative to narcotics production, and millions of dollars in credit opens for family farmers.

South American Expansion

Canada is a net oil exporter. It has huge oil reserves, and new petroleum discoveries have been made there in the past 10 years. Basically, Canada has no real problems when it comes to energy supplies, which means its forays into biodiesel production come from a sense of social responsibility and environmental conscientiousness, and not economic or national security issues. The country, however, does have access to an excellent biodiesel feedstock source, canola, and mandates at the provincial and national levels are being implemented across the vast nation. 

 
 North of the 49th parallel, biodiesel is seen more as a value-added component for farmers than as an energy solution, and a research team is looking into Canada's specific advantages as a producer of biodiesel feedstock for its own production needs-and the global market. A link has been made between the climate of certain crops used as feedstocks for biodiesel and variations related to cold weather operability. Canola oil is one of the best feedstocks, for instance, because it is grown mostly in the frigid climes of the Dakotas and Canada. Conversely, the European distributors report they only use palm methyl esters in the summer when it's warm, because of its tendency to gel quickly in cooler temperatures. Obviously, palm trees are grown in tropical climates where it's hot. Canola and palm occupy the poles of the spectrum of feedstocks, but cultivation weather does seem to have an affect on biodiesel quality. 
 
 "I don't know if a scientific conclusion has been made between cold weather operability and the environmental conditions of the feedstock," says K. Neil Harker, director of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Sustainable Cropping System Platforms for Biodiesel Feedstock Quantity and Quality (SBQQ). "But it seems logical-canola is certainly at the top of the cold weather operability range, and palm is at the bottom."
 
 Cold weather performance is not the only fuel quality trait influenced by grow temperatures and other environmental conditions. Acid number, phosphorous content, free and total glycerin levels, total of metal ions, oxidative stability performance, sterols, kinematic viscosity and cetane are all influenced by environment and agronomics (rotations, pests, weeds and fertilizer).
 
 Responsiveness to moisture, air and soil conditions can all be adjusted to enhance certain characteristics and the SBQQ network is part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program (ABIP), designed to "integrate Canada's talent from universities, industry and government in order to stimulate creativity, leverage resources, reduce costs and accelerate progress towards commercialization of bioproducts and bioprocesses." 
 
 Sites in Alberta at Lacombe and Lethebridge, and the Saskatchewan locations of Scott, Melfort and Swift Current, represent the major soil zones and ecoregions of Western Canada, and provide a diverse range of conditions for the network to evaluate influences on biodiesel quality.
 
 More Production, Increased Risk
 Canadians know they have access to an excellent biodiesel oilseed as demand grows worldwide. To increase its canola production to 3 million tons by 2015, Harker says it will have to increase acreage, yield and frequency in crop rotations. The SBQQ brings together leading scientists, farmers and biodiesel analysts to transfer and share their expertise in order to ensure that Canada and its export markets have abundant supplies. 
 
 It is estimated that canola contributes more than $11 billion annually to the Canadian economy. For every $100 million of additional canola demand, a projected $83 million in additional Canadian gross domestic product is generated, with more than 730 new jobs created.
 

 Increasing canola production by as much as 25 percent from its current total volume presents some problems for the healthiness and longevity of soil. "The biggest challenge getting there is simply access to those additional acres," says Bill Ross of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association. A traditional rotation in Canada has been wheat, peas, barley and canola. This means that canola was grown one in every four years on Canadian farms, but as producers shorten rotations and reduce crop diversity, increased risk of disease, weed and insect outbreaks could threaten canola biodiesel feedstock quality-and quantity. "Club root, for instance, may totally prevent you from shortening the rotations," Harker says. "It's a disease that's very long-lived in the soil."
 
 This past year was a record breaker for Canadian canola as 10.9 million tons were grown on 6.4 million hectares (15.8 acres). "We have several different studies with different seed streams from regions in Alberta and Saskatchewan," says Dave Murray, a biodiesel analyst for the Alberta Research Council. "We're actively looking at a variety of crops as feedstocks because canola is particularly hard on soil. It's a cash crop so people want to grow more of it, but it can cause a lot of damage."
 
 Diseases such as sclerotina build up in the soil when canola cycles through the rotation more frequently, but if producers are in a four-year rotation, there's no need to worry about build-up. Therefore, increasing production can actually have a negative correlation with sustainability. Disease and pest risk are very high when canola rotations are short and continuous. "Of course, those factors can lead to reduced yields," Harker tells Biodiesel Magazine.
 
 Sacrificing sustainability for frequency is unacceptable. If a farmer is going to shorten his canola rotation, there has to be a strategy to mitigate increased risk. "With shorter rotations, your management takes over and you have to scout for things like sclerotina, and be ready to take over-ready to spray," Ross says. "We're also trying to find a variety that is more resistant or using biological controls that make the plant attack the fungus. So we're funding some of that research."
 
 Competitive Edge
 Canada would need 600 MMly (158.5 MMgy) of biodiesel to meet a federal B2 mandate, which is expected to go into effect sometime in 2011. Meanwhile, Canada's methyl ester refining capacity is projected to reach 216 MMly by the end of the year, a 71 percent increase over 2008, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said. "The mandates might help with some people's plans to put up plants," Ross says.
 
 Interestingly, the majority of Canada's biodiesel production does not come from virgin oils. "For biodiesel, in 2009, 49 percent of the production capacity is estimated to be tallow-based (an increase from 36 percent in 2008), 37 percent yellow grease-based (a decrease from 59 percent in 2008) and 14 percent canola-based, an increase from 2008 levels where canola-based biodiesel accounted for six percent of the production capacity," FAS stated. "By 2010, forecasts [indicate] that tallow-, yellow grease- and canola-derived biodiesel production capacity will account for 46 percent, 37 percent and 17 percent, respectively."
 
 Canadian biodiesel production is relatively non-existent, so producers have to look elsewhere for buyers today. With that said, competition among raw material suppliers is becoming increasingly fierce. Low price palm oil from Asia, record soy crops in South America and the U.S., an increased use of waste greases, tallow and animal fats are all creating a dynamic world marketplace for buyers. Canada sees it all opening up for canola, and some of its superior traits as a source for biodiesel. 

 
 According to reports, Europe makes a quarter of its total methyl ester reservoir from imported feedstocks-mostly from South America. Canada isn't really looking to compete for the European market. "We don't ship anything to Europe," Ross says. "It's the U.S. plants that use Canadian canola for biodiesel production. ADM's plant in Velva, N.D., uses a lot of seed from Manitoba and Saskatchewan." 
 
 Agricultural producers in Canada know the raw material business for methyl ester manufacturing is set to take off. Following a $1 million investment from the federal government, the Canadian Agriculture Ministry commented that this "research network will help farmers grow more canola more often, giving them a competitive edge in the burgeoning biofuels industry, and giving them more income, which will in turn boost the economy."
 
 Nicholas Zeman is an associate editor for Biodiesel Magazine. Reach him at (701) 738-4972 or <a href="mailto:nzeman@bbiinternational.com">nzeman@bbiinternational.com</a>.

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Quality issues during biodiesel production typically revolve around distillation additives, process technologies and ASTM methods at the refinery level. A new emphasis, however,  is being focused on the field, where biodiesel feedstocks such as canola are grown and harvested. A Canadian team is examining how to tweak environmental and agronomic conditions for a superior biodiesel feedstock.

The Main Rotation

Fermentation processes, combined with traditional recovery methods, are emerging as a successful path to biobased coproducts from biodiesel production. Worldwide, interest in industrial biotechnology grows as new technologies prove product capabilities and economics.
 
 Glycerin is one of the most widely available chemicals in the world, touting a production of more than 2 billion pounds1 and growing. As the biodiesel industry well knows, the supply of glycerin will continue to dwarf demand until more than 5 billion pounds is expected to hit the world by 20201. Prices of glycerin in the U.S. have either been widely fluctuating or painfully low, reflecting a dependence on soybeans, refining capacity and biofuels policy, but predominantly reflecting the large supply of glycerin entering the U.S. marketplace. 
 
 In 2008, biodiesel crude glycerin production reached approximately 251 kilotons in the U.S., on top of the estimated 150 kilotons of glycerin from nonbiodiesel sources2,3. U.S. demand for glycerin's traditional uses in soaps and cosmetics, food additives, industrial foams and transportation fluids were outstripped by supply on the order of some 75 to 100 kilotons. The slow rise in crude oil prices over the past six months may give encouragement to biodiesel margins, but it won't solve glycerin's long-term picture.
 
 Businesses and research groups around the world are focused on launching innovative and sustainable technologies capable of connecting glycerin to valuable applications. Researchers in the biotechnology industry are well aware of the supply issues surrounding glycerin, and have recently invested in the means to develop technologies to convert glycerin to biofuels and a portfolio of other end-products.
 

 Industrial biotechnology company Glycos Biotechnologies Inc. (GlycosBio) of Houston, Texas, recently developed a biotransformation technique that directs crude glycerin from the biodiesel process into ethanol at high-yield efficiency. Using microorganisms as biocatalysts-enzymes or microbes that initiate or accelerate chemical reactions-GlycosBio makes possible the conversion of a disadvantaged coproduct into another prominent chemical. Scientists recognize that glycerin is sometimes difficult to convert in a microbial transformation, but its inherent chemistry opens alternatives to produce hundreds of compounds. For that reason, biofuel producers can tap crude glycerin streams to produce new and valuable coproducts. 
 What does this mean for the biodiesel industry? This new biological process enables owners of biodiesel plants to use glycerin streams within their plants to diversify coproducts and provide revenue management flexibility. Crude glycerin exiting the separation units can be converted to products such as ethanol and propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is an important component of polyester resins, industrial solvents and hydraulic fluids, and boasts a U.S. market of $786 million. At 85 cents per pound, propylene glycol has the potential to add 29 cents in production margin per gallon of biodiesel. If soybean oil prices begin to rise again, glycerin provides minimal plant contribution against low oil prices; but unlike glycerin, the industrial uses, and prices, for propylene glycol present a more sustainable source of economic value. 
 
 Translating this into plant dollars, a 50 million gallon plant that converts nearly 4.5 million gallons of crude glycerin can churn out 25 million pounds of propylene glycol, the value of which is more than $21 million at today's prices.
 
 <img src="http://images.bbibiofuels.com/img/10152009_4_09_44_PM.jpg" alt="nov.09bdm_glycerinchart" border="0" />
 
 Microbial Biotransformation
 The science begins by modifying the metabolic pathways of selected microorganisms to digest glycerin and ensuring that growth conditions and metrics are met by the cultured strains. From there, only strains that consume large amounts of glycerin with a minimum of interfering coproducts are selected. High-throughput screening expedites the selection of characteristics based on glycerin consumption, conversion yield and minimizing competing metabolites. Exclusive production of the desired product is crucial, but measures can be taken to moderate byproducts if they prove useful in maximizing the primary target. Successful strains are introduced into fermentation reactors containing crude glycerin with two goals in mind: minimize reaction time and select strains for actual process stream conditions.
 
 From there, the fermentation is scaled up and process development begins. In designing actual operating conditions, feedback to the laboratory fermentation work helps scientists to develop strains with the actual production process conditions. Over the past six months, GlycosBio researchers have doubled the production titer of certain products, while increasing the rate kinetics and glycerin consumption of the strain. 
 
 The technical problems that industrial biotech companies such as GlycosBio face include the challenge of scaling a different bioreaction for each biobased product that the company rolls out. Those problems are compounded under risks of contamination, variable crude feedstock content and alignment with downstream recovery operations. However, those tasks can be overcome at manageable expense using prepilot bioreaction volumes far smaller than commercial scale. 
 
 The disruptive capability of the technology is the ability to biologically ferment glycerin into higher value biochemicals or fuels that can provide revenue during periods of lower biodiesel crush spreads. That's the concept of a biorefinery-like a petroleum refinery, several strata of liquid fuels, chemicals and energy are produced. The biorefinery was conceived to be a more economically sustainable model.
 

 Different Approaches
 The conversion of glycerin to propylene glycol is under development by Dow, UOP and Huntsman4. Separately, Dow and Solvay developed technology for converting crude glycerin to epichlorohydrin. DuPont-Tate & Lyle have been successful in their joint venture to produce and market 1,3-propanediol.
 
 Other companies such as Green Biologics in Oxford, UK, and Myriant Technologies in Quincy, Mass., are also developing processes around glycerin as a viable starting material for diverse chemicals such as butanol and acetone. Arkema SA in France is developing techniques to convert crude glycerin to acrolein, admittedly a small market itself, but having large potential as a precursor to acrylic acid. Arkema's process is entirely non-biological and uses a dehydration reaction on a solid catalyst producing acrolein and by-products hydroxyacetone, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and acetone4. 
 
 The production of biobased chemicals and materials is gaining momentum. ADM, Cargill and other traditional grain suppliers are among the most heavily involved in chemical production from biomaterials. Cargill owns the massive NatureWorks bio-polymeric plastics and resins operation in Nebraska. ADM formed its Industrial Chemicals unit in 2007, with the intent to produce USP-grade propylene glycol among other renewable chemicals. 
 
 Industrial Biotech Incentives
 Companies have their sights set on a projected $215 billion biobased chemicals market. McKinsey & Co. predicts that sales of chemicals from renewable, biobased sources will consume 10 percent of worldwide chemical sales in 20125. It's not a new idea, but the U.S. DOE is betting that these chemicals and other products will service biofuel plants as more profitable coproducts alternatives to glycerin.
 
 The successful approach for GlycosBio and others will be to demonstrate technologies converting high levels of glycerin to a single product, and obtain market traction quickly, making it easier to attract funding for more ambitious projects.
 
 Investment in additional chemical products and capabilities logically follow these initial breakthroughs. In fact, many companies in this space are pursuing the green field of bioderived solvents, monomers and chemical intermediates. According to McKinsey, biofuels will account for $91 billion of these sales. By 2020, most chemical manufacturers will have significant capacity devoted to bioprocessed fuels and chemicals.

 
 David Gaskin is director of planning for Glycos Biotechnologies Inc. Reach him at <a href="mailto:dgaskin@glycosbio.com">dgaskin@glycosbio.com</a>. 
 
 References
 1. Glycerin Market Analysis, ABG, Inc. for the U.S. Soybean Export Council (2007)
 2. Monthly Energy Review, Energy Information Administration (2009)
 3. BBI International
 4. Patent Watch, American Chemical Society (2008)
 5. Industrial White Biotechnology, Chemical Week (2009)

GlycosBio scientists examine a fermenter before testing it to validate alcohol production at different concentrations of glycerin.

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The profitability of a renewable fuels production facility is often related to the value of its coproduct. With glycerin's wide range of utility in specialty chemicals production, biodiesel producers can find opportunity in the biotransformation of its coproduct stream.

Biotransformation of Crude Glycerin

Algae consume carbon dioxide (CO2) for normal growth during photosynthesis. The appeal of algae is its ability to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction while serving as an oil feedstock for biodiesel production. The driver in algae-based CO2 fixation or sequestration has been CO2 sourcing from coal-fired power plants, which yield only half the power produced while creating about 83 percent of the CO2 emitted from all power sources. For each kilowatt-hour of electricity, about 2.1 pounds of CO2, sent out as flue gas from the coal-fired power plants, are produced.
 
 Between 1.5 and 3 pounds of CO2 are required for every pound of algae cultivated. Power plant projects are under great pressure to reduce CO2 emissions today; however, larger fermentation projects are also viable CO2 source targets, as are a number of commercial energy production and chemical manufacturing sources. But the CO2 streams from power and fermentation plants are different. The CO2 content from coal-fired power plants is considered lean compared to that from fermentation plants, and that difference in CO2 content can make for a broad range in capital expenses and production costs, as well as raw gas specifications for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx). Defining which algae strains will accept the use of raw flue gas with lots of sulfur and nitrogen compounds, when compared to a cleaner stream from other manufacturing processes, can be problematic. If flue gas is to be a CO2 source, one challenge is selection of viable algae for cultivation assuming little or no gas purification occurs. The application of large volumes of raw gas could also be tricky.
 
 Algae cultivation as a carbon sink is a popular idea among those in power generation. For U.S. DOE or industry-sponsored demonstration projects, the algae project is usually located near or at the CO2 source.
 
 Required capital investment, specific application technologies, and end-results will vary depending on the amount and type of CO2 emitted. It's not always possible or convenient to allow an "across-the-fence" algae production site, partly because adjacent property isn't always available.

 
 Algae-based fuel can represent up to 30-times more energy per acre than a common crop. Oil palm can average one-fifteenth the energy compared to algae. Given algae's high oil yield, it's estimated that about 1 percent of today's 1 billion U.S. farm and grazing acres (as land, pond, or ocean space) could produce enough algae to replace all petroleum diesel fuel consumed in the U.S. 
 
 Therefore, the challenges to successful development of algae for biofuels, when considering CO2 applications, include the distance from the CO2 source to the algae production site, the nature of the CO2 source, and how it impacts the cost and feasibility in this application.
 
 CO2 Sources, Applications
 Many of the recently evaluated projects, or those currently being tested, are generally coal-fired power plants, which already account for about 40 percent of today's CO2 emissions. If CO2 emissions are reduced from this sector, this would considerably lower global GHG emissions. In the U.S., CO2 is now being recovered from flue gas produced by coal-fired cogeneration plants; the economic model works because a prior energy law fosters the use of cogenerated steam for an amine (MEA) solvent recovery process-a method of concentrating lean CO2content in flue gas. Ethanol plants are in the spotlight because of their significant, concentrated CO2 emissions from fermentation. Effluent from fermentation, anhydrous ammonia, and certain hydrogen reformer processes used in oil refineries would have CO2 raw gas content, often in a water-saturated state, of 97 percent to 99 percent by volume. 
 
 Despite these high concentrations, fermentation plants' volume of emissions is only 12 to 15 percent compared to that from coal-fired power plants. Gas-fired turbine exhaust in cogeneration can be less than 3 percent. Heavier hydrocarbons have higher concentrations of CO2. Some concentrate CO2 through traditional processes such as MEA, which could cost three to five times the amount of applying CO2 from a more concentrated source, such as fermentation. Other processes are being tested, including membrane and refrigeration systems.
 
 The economics behind which type of CO2 source is used is driven by the raw CO2 content in the gas, and the impurities in the CO2 stream. If the source is relatively clean and well-concentrated, direct application for CO2 fixation by certain algae strains is feasible. The economics differ wildly between using flue gas and a highly concentrated source, however, if these projects are DOE-sponsored or within the forthcoming GHG laws, and CO2 regulations call for economic considerations, concentrating or refining gas streams become more viable.
 
 Select strains of algae may endure harsher environments when applied directly to flue gas from a power plant. It's been found that a broad spectrum of algae cannot bear the NOx and SOx in raw power plant emissions, but algae strains specifically defined as NANNO2 grew in concentrations of NOx up to 300 parts per million. Other strains, specifically NANNP2 and PHAEO2 algae, also proved successful with direct application of untreated power plant emissions.
 
 Some of the above findings have proven well in raceway ponds for algae cultivation when diffusing power plant flue gas, compared to using a refined and/or liquefied CO2. Another consideration beyond algae type and growth tolerance in the direct flue gas setting would be the availability of physical space for algae cultivation, which precipitates the question of transporting the CO2 source to the algae cultivation site.
 

 CO2 Transportation, Algae Cultivation Sites
 CO2 is typically piped, trucked or railed in liquid form and purified for merchant markets, but not so for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Liquid CO2 contains much more product versus trying to transport gaseous, dilute power plant CO2. The construction of a liquid CO2 pipeline can easily cost $1 million per mile. EOR sites receive liquid CO2 piped from more than 100 miles, requiring compression on the front end and compression sub-stations en route. When considering algae fixation as a means of sequestering CO2, and a further means of producing feedstock for biodiesel, it's technically feasible to transport CO2 via pipeline. 
 
 Consideration has been given to projects using high pressure from enriched sources of CO2, such as fermentation for various destinations (e.g., EOR). This concept could be applied to biodiesel as algae fixation with CO2, but transporting raw flue gas long distances may be new for such projects. Capital cost considerations are necessary for compression and pipeline as the basic infrastructure. Quantities of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion in the power sector can amount to 20 million tons daily globally, out of a total amount of 75 million tons of CO2 daily from all sources. Thus, all means of containing, sequestering, or fixing CO2 via algae is an extraordinary opportunity. 
 
 Summary
 The greatest level of CO2 content is found among select byproduct streams in chemical manufacturing, and the large-scale plants will probably be targeted in planned legislation and EPA directives. The first 25,000 tons per year are exempt from any cap and trade, or other mechanism proposed by the U.S. House or EPA. Other mechanisms beyond cap and trade, however, may take place with new CO2-related directives.
 
 Therefore, the focus for GHG reduction as CO2 alone will apply to larger industrial projects such as power plants, chemical manufacturing, oil refining and cement plants. If the source , such as fermentation, is enriched, then a higher-quality stream of CO2 is available up to 99 percent by volume with lower impurity levels. If this stream is flue gas from power plants, the CO2 content would probably not exceed 12 to 15 percent by volume. In either case, it's a raw gas stream. If the CO2 is liquefied and/or purified, then further investment is required. The transportation mode for this raw gas would likely be a pipeline, but minimizing the distance between the source and the algae fixation site would make most sense. Long distance transportation is possible at a price. The concepts surrounding the application of various forms of raw CO2feedstock for algae projects are entirely possible. The more complex the raw stream treatment, and the farther away an algae site is from the source, the less economically feasible the project becomes. Since a large focus on fossil-fuel-based power plants is now underway, and since this is the largest single source type for global CO2 emissions, the payback against the investment for the infrastructure surrounding CO2 treatment and transportation, in the form of revenues from the sale of algae for biodiesel, may well outweigh the challenges. This form of sequestering CO2 is unique, since it represents carbon fixation in plant life, and it also is an ingredient essential for the growth of an energy-rich product for biodiesel production.
 
 Sam A. Rushing is president of Advanced Cryogenics Ltd. Reach him at (305) 852-2597 or <a href="mailto:rushing@terranova.net">rushing@terranova.net</a>.

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Algae is of great interest as a sink for carbon dioxide from power, chemical and fermentation projects. Viable sequestration alternatives are essential to meet changing political and environmental tones set by the federal government.

Examining CO2 Sources for Algae

For a director or officer of a company evaluating a potential business acquisition, completing a due diligence review of an acquisition target can be an overwhelming task. Engaging the right types of advisors to assist you in analyzing the right types of information will get you far in managing a successful due diligence investigation.
 
 Simply put, due diligence is the process of evaluating a business and identifying the risks in owning the business or its assets from a legal, business and financial standpoint so that you may make an informed business decision about whether to proceed with the transaction on the proposed deal terms. The purposes of a due diligence investigation are to gain information about the other party to the transaction; to assist in the negotiation of the purchase price, the valuation of assets, or the identification of important deal points of the transaction, such as representations and warranties, which can contractually shift certain risks of the transaction to one party or the other; and to identify any potential "deal killers" that indicate the acquisition will not be feasible or will otherwise be unacceptable. A target company may also need to conduct a due diligence review of its proposed acquiror for similar reasons, especially if the acquiror's stock will constitute all or part of the acquisition purchase price.

 
 Typically, the board of directors of a company considering an acquisition will ultimately be responsible for evaluating whether the proposed acquisition is a sound business decision. Such evaluation should be completed in a manner that satisfies the directors' fiduciary duties to its company. Due to the complexity and volume of information involved in a due diligence investigation, directors should consider engaging advisors to assist in the analysis of the transaction, such as attorneys, accountants, investment bankers or other consultants relevant to the company's business or industry. The responsibilities of each advisor should be clearly defined in order to avoid duplicative efforts. Each advisor should also be charged with analyzing different types of information. Attorneys should spot legal issues relating to the other party's business structure and organizational documents; contracts material to the party's business; financing documents and liens on the party's assets; legal proceedings; or other matters related to key aspects of the party's business or its assets, such as real estate, intellectual property, or tax matters. Accountants and investment bankers, on the other hand, should analyze the target's financial statements, business projections, and other matters bearing on the target's financial health and the value of the transaction. 
 
 The priorities and key issues of each due diligence investigation will vary depending on the purpose of the acquisition, the transaction structure, and the nature and business of the acquisition target. For example, long-term biodiesel marketing, plant management and feedstock procurement contracts, debt financing agreements, environmental permits and liabilities, and real estate matters will likely be more important in the context of a biodiesel plant acquisition than in the acquisition of a company owning proprietary intellectual property, in which case, patent rights, licensing agreements or legal proceedings relating to infringement claims may be of higher priority.
 
 The ultimate focus of a due diligence investigation of an acquisition target should be matters that affect the value of the transaction or which will add to or detract from the anticipated benefits and synergies of the acquisition. You should identify these priorities early in the due diligence process in order to manage a successful due diligence investigation.
 
 Ashley J. Fuhrmeister is an associate with BrownWinick, a Des Moines, Iowa-based law firm serving the renewable fuels industry. Reach her at <a href="mailto:fuhrmeister@brownwinick.com">fuhrmeister@brownwinick.com</a> or (515) 248-6621.

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Managing Successful Due Diligence Investigations in Acquisition Transactions

Over the past 10 years, biodiesel has emerged as an important part of the national, and international, discussion on renewable fuels. From french fry oil to genetically modified soybeans to slaughterhouse fats, feedstock has been at the core of the discussion. While many options have been brought to the table, some promising leads have not yet had commercial success. Meanwhile, algae looms in the background, waiting its turn. 
 
 Big money is now pouring into algae research-but what many people don't realize is that those lipids are more valuable as components of other products such as nutraceuticals and bioplastics. When they do make it to the fuel industry, there will be heavy competition for them. The biodiesel industry is not the only game in town, and we can't assume that its future rests with algae. Web sites of such companies as Solazyme, LS9, and Sapphire Energy make it clear that there will be many other products based on algal oil.
 
 Over the past several years, competition to biodiesel as a diesel replacement has begun to appear. Vendors have announced renewable diesel, gas-to-liquid, biomass-to-liquid, and coal-to-liquid as possible future fuels. These are sometimes collectively referred to as "green diesel" although there is no universally recognized name. Many of these have been proposed or are endorsed by Big Oil. Existing petroleum refineries can be retrofitted to produce these diesel equivalents, and the fuels themselves don't suffer from the materials compatibility issues associated with higher blends of biodiesel. In other words, they act like true hydrocarbons, which can petition into the D975 standard for diesel at higher blends than biodiesel. It's possible that if fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) biodiesel had not come first, "renewable diesel" would be called biodiesel, and transesterification may not have grown to prominence in the first place.
 

 Some examples of this changing landscape: airlines running test flights on biofuels; the movie "Fuel" being promoted by Director Josh Tickell, a long-time biodiesel promoter, driving across country in a Prius powered by algae-gasoline; the Diesel Technology Forum unofficially endorsing renewable diesel; partnerships between renderers and diesel refiners to produce renewable diesel; the U.S. EPA giving 1.7 RINs per gallon for renewable diesel compared with 1.5 for biodiesel; the state of Texas extending biodiesel's exemption for road tax to renewable diesel; and Bosch, supplier of fuel injectors for just about every original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the U.S., driving a fleet of vehicles powered by 100 percent renewable diesel in partnership with Neste Oil. 
 
 So where does biodiesel fit in this brave new world? I'm the guy who bought a 2009 Jetta TDI just to run it on B100, so you can bet I want biodiesel to be THE alternative fuel of the future. However, it has become painfully clear to me that B100 as a major transportation fuel is not in the cards for the near- to medium-term future. I would propose that the biodiesel industry launch two major initiatives: state-by-state mandates for B2 to B5, and full support for B20 by all U.S. automakers. If we could somehow produce the 12 to15 billion gallons of biodiesel we'd need to hit B20 nationally-and manage to keep it in the U.S.-I say let the renewable diesel industry go after the other 80 percent. 
 
 At 2 percent, we would get a seat at the table. The supply chain for biodiesel would work its way into the petroleum distribution network, stakeholders would educate their employees and customers, and risk to users would be negligible. At 5 percent, we get back the lubricity lost in ultra-low sulfur diesel (and then some), stay within the diesel spec, and have full OEM support. At 20 percent, we're at the limits of OEM acceptance; we've reduced foreign petroleum imports by nearly the amount received from the Middle East, and are an integral part of diesel fuel. Meanwhile, all those cars and trucks driven by true believers can still run B100, and long-term work can be done by the OEMs to isolate and eliminate the issues related to high-blend biodiesel in future vehicles.
 
 My background is in the data storage networking industry, which is littered with technologies that didn't survive. While the march of progress never stops, one thing is clear-emerging technologies that cannot fully interoperate with existing standards face a tremendous challenge for long-term viability.
 	
 Now is the time to take a good look at business plans to consider what impact these future fuels will have on your market, and to think about partnering with or competing against these companies for feedstock, and temper enthusiasm for future feedstocks with the reality of greatly increased competition. With RFS2 further increasing demand for biofuels of all types, the stakes are only going to get higher.
 
 Jason Burroughs is a managing partner for Austin, Texas-based DieselGreen Fuels. Reach him at <a href="mailto:jason@dieselgreenfuels.com">jason@dieselgreenfuels.com</a>.

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Battle Looms for Future of Biomass-Based Diesel

The Internal Revenue Service's Oct. 1 deadline for producers to pass the Cold Soak Filtration Test in order to continue receiving the federal blenders credit came and went without much interruption or public comment. The original deadline was April 1, but the IRS extended it for six months, presumably to give those who could not meet the new demand the opportunity to make changes to their processes in order to pass cold soak filtration. 
 
 Although public discussion was scarce regarding the deadline, I have received a lot of calls and emails from biodiesel producers on the status of the new version of the cold soak test method, ASTM D7501. Several of these inquiries were about whether the new version would be in effect before the Oct. 1 deadline came. I was doubtful then, but now it is clear the answer is "no." As I have written about copiously throughout the past year, most producers do not care for the current cold soak test-it's friendlier toward biodiesel made from some feedstocks than to others, it's not very repeatable or reproducible. 
 
 The new method is expected to be a better test all around. It was designed to have different conditions for biodiesels that change states of matter during the chill, leveling the playing field, so to speak. Biodiesel that turns solid will be given extra time during the warm-up phase. Also, the new test method calls for warming up the samples to 25 Celsius to make a uniform fuel without isolated congealment. 

 
 My sources tell me progress is being made and the approval process is underway, and if anything is holding it up, it would be that there are certain ASTM protocols that must be followed. This means steps such as establishing "equivalency" between D7501 and the current cold soak method. 
 
 On a separate topic, one of India's largest automakers, Mahindra GV, will be tapping into the U.S. light-duty truck market with two diesel models that are expected to be available stateside in February. The exclusive importer and distributor for Mahindra, Global Vehicles USA in Alpharetta, Ga, said it has between 300 and 400 retail outlets agreeing to sell the TR20 and TR40 trucks. Both models are four-wheel drive with four-cylinder common rail diesel engines. Mahindra reported this fall that it had one of the company's largest sales month ever in the domestic Indian market, rising to 12.1 percent to a record 27,431 vehicle sales. I think this is great news for U.S. consumers, and for the continued dieselization of America. Eventually Americans will realize that the diesel vehicles of today are not the diesels of yesterday.

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Oct. 1 IRS Deadline Passes, Indian Automaker Prepares for US Debut

Posted November 18, 2009
 
 The third division at <a href="http://www.usfoodservice.com/default.htm">U.S. Foodservice</a> is now running on biodiesel blends. The Atlanta division's 185 tractors began using biodiesel fuel early in November following the first 7,500-gallon delivery of B5. In addition to using biodiesel blends in the tractors, the fuel will power the four-cylinder, Thermo King Engines in its 210 refrigerated trailers. 

 
 Atlanta joins the U.S. Foodservice division in Plymouth, Minn., which uses B5, and the Streator, Ill., division which uses B11 in all but the winter months. The Minnesota facility has used biodiesel blends for years, the company stated, starting with B3 and switching to the state-mandated B5. "The division has had no performance or engine longevity issues," a company spokesman said. U.S. Foodservice Minnesota is exploring a switch to B10 ahead of a state-mandate increase that takes effect in 2012.
 
 The biodiesel fuel costs on average about a penny more per gallon. Its use is expected to reduce the U.S. Foodservice-Atlanta fleet's carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 788,000 pounds-or about 4 percent-annually. The company estimates its total biodiesel usage in 2009 will be about 1.85 million gallons, about 4 percent of the company's total fuel use, which includes estimates for Atlanta's two-month usage. Biodiesel fuel is being testing in other locations as well.
 
 "Utilizing biodiesel is a continuation of our ongoing environmental strategy," said John Leake, president of U.S. Foodservice-Atlanta. "Improving our overall impact on the environment - while helping our customers find effective ways to do the same - not only makes good business sense, it's the right thing to do."
 
 U.S. Foodservice-Atlanta is active with and has a leadership role in several local, regional and state efforts to promote and protect the environment including the Georgia DNR Project, Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia and the Atlanta Zero Waste Zone. The division, which serves the entire state of Georgia and operations in parts of the five bordering states of Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, has reduced electrical consumption, increased recycling efforts and decreased truck idle time to save fuel.

US Foodservice switches to B5 in Atlanta

The Canadian Province of Manitoba began requiring an average B2 blend throughout the year, as of Nov. 1. Blending flexibility is built into the mandate to allow up to B5 in warmer months and lower blends in cold conditions. Manitoba Science, Technology, Energy and Mines Minister Jim Rondeau said the province will consider a higher mandate once there is a Canadian fuel standard in place for biodiesel blends above 5 percent. Manitoba also plans to replace the current fuel tax exemption with a five-year, 14 cent-per-liter production grant in the spring of 2010 for both on- and off-road biodiesel produced in Manitoba, to help keep the province competitive with incentives offered in other North American jurisdictions.

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Manitoba biodiesel mandate kicks in

An Ohio partnership has declared U.S. Route 33 from Columbus, Ohio, to the Ohio River a Biofuels Corridor. Rural Action Inc. and Clean Fuels Ohio along with Hocking College Energy Institute are promoting the use of biodiesel with a goal of at least six retail biodiesel fueling points and three school districts using biodiesel in buses. Ohio offers grants for biodiesel dispensing stations at the retail level and for the incremental cost difference between petroleum diesel and biodiesel for K-12 school buses.

Biofuels corridor proposed for Ohio

ASTM International has a new standard, ASTM D7566, for alternative aviation fuels. Mark Rumizen, Federal Aviation Administration and chair of the ASTM task force, said concerns about the future cost and supply of conventionally derived aviation fuel and the imposition of carbon emissions limitations contributed to the development of the new standard. ASTM D7566 provides blend requirements and defines specific types of aviation turbine fuel that may contain synthetic hydrocarbons.  The initial standard provides criteria for the production, distribution and use of Fischer-Tropsch fuels, but is structured to accommodate other future alternative fuels that can be added in annexes after they are qualified.

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ASTM covers alternative aviation fuels

In August, India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas issued a circular "which virtually bans the sale of biodiesel by producers," the Times of India reported. Sanjeev Gupta, managing director of 50 MMgy Universal Biofuels in Kakinada, India, was not impressed. "This is not to be taken seriously," Gupta said. "Biodiesel is selling." He further observed that the circular seemed like an intimidation tactic from the state's petrol and gas industries, especially since the petroleum ministry did not have the authority to publish such a statement. A high-ranking committee oversees India's national biofuels policy, attended by a cabinet secretary-so any changes regarding biodiesel require complete approval from the government, according to Sandeep Chaturvedi, president of the Biodiesel Association of India, headquartered in Mumbai, India. 
 
 Gupta didn't seem alarmed or nervous about the document in a telephone conversation with Biodiesel Magazine, and was actually optimistic about the company's prospects following a recent $3 million shipment from its Kakinada port facility to its "first large European customer."

India's biodiesel industry discounts policy scare

At a September national oilheat industry policy summit in Baltimore, leaders expressed unequivocal support for biodiesel-blended heating oil. Oilheat organizations, such as the National Oilheat Research Alliance and the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, approved a statement resolving to ensure a minimum of 2 percent bio content in all U.S. heating oil. 
 
 The Maine Oil Dealers Association labeled the gathering last week as "an unprecedented legislative and policy summit," the goal of which was to address challenges and work toward creating ways to turn existing obstacles into opportunities. The National Biodiesel Board characterized the atmosphere of the summit as not unlike "the original Continental Congress of 1776," where "oilheat leadership from Maine to South Carolina stood one at a time to set the industry on a new, cleaner, greener and more sustainable course."

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Oilheat industry supports Bioheat

State and local governments in Illinois will be boosting their biodiesel use as the result of legislation recently signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn. The new law increases the biodiesel blend required for use by diesel-powered vehicles owned by the state or local governments when refueling at a bulk central fueling facility from 2 percent to 5 percent.

Illinois fleets upgrade from B2 to B5

The consumption of lard for biodiesel production continued to trend upward in July totaling 23.63 million pounds, up 32 percent from the 17.96 million pounds consumed in June, World Energy Alternatives reported. With the high price of virgin oils, Raj Mosali of the Ohio-based Jatrodiesel, told Biodiesel Magazine that only those plants with multi-feedstock technologies are able to make money in the current situation and offer biodiesel at a low enough price to sell significant volumes. Ultra Green Energy Services of Chicago said its biodiesel comes only from animal fats and other recycled materials, allowing sale of its product at prices well below methyl esters made from virgin oils.

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Lard use for biodiesel trends upward

Posted October 20, 2009
 
 Assessing the energy balance of soy biodiesel is a continuous effort. The University of Idaho and the USDA have been involved with the project for years-they've found that biodiesel's numbers keep improving. "New data becomes available as the industry evolves," says Jon Van Gerpen, biological and agricultural engineering department head at UI. "Ag-production practices and energy efficiencies are getting better and better all the time."
 
 The collaborative report concludes that biodiesel returns 4.5 units of energy for every unit of fossil energy required for its production. The National Biodiesel Board used the circumstance of the report's publication to criticize the U.S. EPA's proposed rule to implement RFS2. "EPA used 2005 baseline numbers for petroleum and biodiesel to project carbon impact 22 years in the future," NBB stated. "That stacks the deck in favor of petroleum." 
 
 New seed varieties and management practices have reduced the need for pesticides, tilling and fuel, and today's biodiesel plants are more energy efficient. "The EPA should take this into account when considering biodiesel's greenhouse gas reductions," said Joe Jobe, CEO of the NBB. 
 
 Some of the necessary data needed to perform this work are only processed every five years, so researchers can only study it as it becomes available or is published. "Energy efficiency data isn't available year to year," Gerpen told Biodiesel Magazine regarding the energy balance figure correlating with actual improvements in the field over the same period. "When we did our study in 2006, biodiesel had an energy balance around 3.9-it might have been better then but we didn't have all of the data available to us."
 
 Biodiesel is also the source of "valuable coproducts" like glycerin, which have been overlooked in the plan to implement RFS2. "This [energy balance study] is one more piece of information that helps to quantify the environmental benefits of biodiesel," Van Gerpen said.
 
 Biodiesel conversion was the most intensive, accounting for about 60 percent of the total energy required in the life-cycle inventory. Soybean agriculture accounted for 18 percent of the total energy requirements, followed by soybean crushing, which required almost 15 percent of the total energy. The secondary inputs added were farm machinery, and building materials for a crushing plant and biodiesel refinery.

Biodiesel energy-balance numbers published in new benchmark study

Posted November 18, 2009
 
 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. today announced that Imperium Renewables, one of the largest producers of biodiesel in the United States, has chosen the powerful iCAP 6000 Series ICP emission spectrometer to analyze biodiesel. The Thermo Scientific iCAP 6000 Series helps Imperium Renewables accurately measure the trace element content of biodiesel to ensure it complies with the strict worldwide regulations governing the biodiesel industry.
 
 Imperium Renewables can produce 100 million gallons of biodiesel per year at nameplate capacity in its flagship facility, Imperium Grays Harbor in Washington. To ensure product quality and compliance with strict government standards, the company rigorously tests its biodiesel for contaminants. Because this commitment to quality is onerous with such high product throughput, the company requires highly reliable analytical instrumentation for its routine analyses.
 
 Like most biodiesel plants, Imperium Renewables operates under stringent ASTM standards. For biodiesel to be sold as a fuel or blending stock, it must meet a set of requirements defined in ASTM D6751 or European Committee for Standardization (CEN) EN14214 standards. These standards specify the maximum allowable element concentrations in pure biodiesel finished product (B100). Until recently, the company outsourced feedstock samples and finished product testing to a third-party, and this was extremely expensive, time-consuming and inefficient. As a result, Imperium Renewables sought to create an in-house solution, focused on ICP technology, that could save time, reduce costs and increase productivity. 
 

 Imperium Renewables purchased the iCAP 6000 Series ICP because of Thermo Fisher's proven track record of providing cost-effective instruments and strong customer support. Lack of space also made the compact iCAP 6000 Series an ideal solution. Nathan Shenk-Boright, laboratory manager at Imperium Renewables explains, "We are now using ICP in our in-house laboratory, instead of outsourcing our samples for analysis. This is extremely beneficial to our customers as we can provide fast service and ensure the optimal quality of our biodiesel."
 
 The iCAP 6000 Series is an ideal ICP for high-throughput elemental analysis laboratories seeking exceptional analytical performance in a practical, reliable instrument that saves laboratory space and reduces analysis times. The iCAP 6000 offers Imperium Renewables a faster alternative to their previous time-consuming and costly outsourcing methods. It is now possible for the company to improve productivity and reliability and ensure regulatory compliance by performing extremely accurate analysis of feedstock and biodiesel in-house. 
 
 For more information on the Thermo Scientific iCAP 6000 Series of ICP emission spectrometers, please call +1 800-532-4752, email analyze@thermofisher.com or visit www.thermo.com/icap. 
 
 Thermo Scientific is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science.
 
 About Thermo Fisher Scientific
 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) is the world leader in serving science, enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. With 2008 revenues of $10.5 billion, we have approximately 34,000 employees and serve over 350,000 customers within pharmaceutical and biotech companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions and government agencies, as well as environmental and industrial process control settings. Serving customers through two premier brands, Thermo Scientific and Fisher Scientific, we help solve analytical challenges from routine testing to complex research and discovery. Thermo Scientific offers customers a complete range of high-end analytical instruments as well as laboratory equipment, software, services, consumables and reagents to enable integrated laboratory workflow solutions. Fisher Scientific provides a complete portfolio of laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies and services used in healthcare, scientific research, safety and education. Together, we offer the most convenient purchasing options to customers and continuously advance our technologies to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, enhance value for customers and fuel growth for shareholders and employees alike. Visit www.thermofisher.com.
 
 For further press information please contact: Celine Callender, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, United Kingdom Tel: + 44 1477 539 539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: thermo@scottpr.com 
 
 SOURCE: THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC

Thermo Fisher Scientific ICP spectrometer chosen by Imperium Renewables to ensure biodiesel quality

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP is moving B2 through its 115-mile Oregon Pipeline that runs from Portland to Eugene, as of late September, following successful test runs. Kinder Morgan's Oregon line is one of only a few pipelines in the U.S. able to regularly transport blended biodiesel, according to the company, as this pipeline does not transport jet fuel, eliminating the potential for "trailback" of product into subsequent jet fuel batches.
 

 "This new biodiesel shipment capability will help diesel fuel suppliers throughout Oregon meet a state biodiesel mandate that goes into effect on Oct. 1," said Tom Bannigan, KMP Products Pipeline president. "We are transporting B2 in a way that's operationally efficient, quality controlled and cost effective."
 
 The first commercial batch of approximately 100,000 barrels of B2 was created using a new blending system to inject B99 into ultra-low sulfur diesel at the company's Willbridge terminal in Portland. Other area terminals also are expected to deliver B2 to the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
 
 Other improvements to Kinder Morgan's Pacific Northwest facilities include biodiesel blending capabilities at the truck-loading rack at the Willbridge terminal and for barge loading at the Linnton terminal in Portland. In the company's Southeast operations, Plantation Pipe Line Company (operated by Kinder Morgan), became the first pipeline in the country to transport biodiesel for commercial purposes in June.

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Kinder Morgan moves biodiesel on Oregon pipeline

The U.S EPA hopes to issue its highly anticipated final rule on the revised renewable fuels standard by the end of this year, according to EPA spokesman Dave Ryan. "We're working diligently to complete the rule so all relevant provisions can be implemented in 2010," he said. 
 
 The comment period for the proposed ruling was extended three months to Sept. 25, and thousands of comments were received-the exact number of which EPA declined to give. However, the National Biodiesel Board estimated its campaign alone had generated over 8,000 responses during the public comment period. "We review all comments," Ryan said. "We make revisions to the rule as appropriate, not based on the number of comments on an issue but on the substance and importance of the comments."
 
 In a letter to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) just before the comment period closed, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson indicated industry furor over some of the proposed regulations had been heard. While citing feedback stating how important it is to take into account indirect emissions from biofuels, Jackson also said it was clear that there are significant uncertainties, in particular with the estimate of indirect land use change. "In the proposal, we asked for comment on whether and how to conduct an uncertainty analysis that could help quantify the magnitude of this uncertainty and its relative impact on the resulting life-cycle emissions estimates," Jackson wrote to Harkin. "The results of the peer review, and the feedback we have received from the comment process, supported the value of conducting such an analysis. Therefore, I have asked my staff to quantify the uncertainty associated with specifically the international indirect land use change emissions. They are working closely with USDA as well as incorporating feedback from experts who are commenting on the rule. This analysis will allow us to quantify the impact of the uncertainty on the life-cycle emissions. We will present these estimates in the final rule, and I plan to incorporate those estimates of uncertainty in my regulatory decisions."
 
 Jackson was responding to Harkin's request for information regarding an amendment he had introduced to H.R. 2996-the Senate Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010-that would have stopped funding for the EPA's implementation of any rule limiting biofuels based on indirect land use. "In light of the EPA letter, and because EPA had said it would delay issuing regulations to establish renewable fuel volume biofuel requirements for 2010," Harkin withdrew the amendment, according to spokesman Grant Gustafson.
 
 In the House agricultural committee, Chairman Collin Peterson earlier successfully negotiated language in the Climate Change bill that passed the House, which would require a full analysis of indirect land use change impacts; and would also require agreement among the EPA, USDA and Congress before any resulting policy could be implemented, delaying any possible implementation for five years. 
 
 -Susanne Retka Schil

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EPA to issue final RFS2 rule in December

India has taken sharp steps to promote the production and use of biodiesel by removing import duties, ending the excise tax on B100, and even giving benefits to blended fuels. In addition, the country has an aggressive jatropha cultivation program, said Sandeep Chaturvedi, president of the Biodiesel Association of India, which is helping to create jobs for the world's second largest population, 25 percent of which lives below the poverty line. "It will be a few more years until we see results from jatropha, so we are keeping going with used cooking and industrial oils," he said. "India has a capacity for biodiesel production that is nearly 3,000 tons (just under a million gallons) per day, but we are only operating at about 10 percent of that volume."
 

 Nearly all of the nations with significant biodiesel production capacity are operating well below peak, but the development of second-generation technologies and feedstocks remains strong. India's Center for Jatropha Promotion and Biodiesel (CJP) said years of continuous research, trials and experiments have resulted in "a big breakthrough" in the search for a viable alternative feedstock. "After having a number of successful field trials, CJP is happy to announce the much-awaited commercial release of Couple Oil Crop Cultivation technology," the organization said. 
 
 CJP is dedicated to the development of oilseed-bearing trees, nonfood vegetable oil plantation and technologies "in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, bring greater control and security of fuel supply and reduce dangerous climate changing emissions, including carbon dioxide." With an effort to "grow beyond oil," CJP has identified, developed and cultivated as many as 12 oilseed-bearing trees and nonfood oil crops in addition to jatropha. "With years of continuing research, experiments and trials, we have provided an adage to find and develop second-generation biodiesel feedstock with low-cost input technology," CJP said. 
 
 R.R. Sharma, plant science director for CJP, said jatropha plantations occupy about 50 percent of the planted land, and the rest of the acreage under development will be utilized in a sustainable manner in conjunction with experiments involving various intercropping options, patterns and agro-technologies. "We have been in search of such an intercrop for Jatropha, which should be oil-bearing like jatropha itself without competing with it for food and water, and should be capable of fulfilling jatropha fertilizer requirements while still maintaining soil fertility," he said.
 
 Emergence of the combination crop system may change the entire scenario of the biodiesel industry and shall provide much relief to it, which is desperately in need of viable, sustainable, nonfood feedstocks. "Now we can ensure an oil yield [between 1200 and 1350] gallons per hectare," Sharma said. "The same acreage of land [soon] may provide double the output." 
 
 -Nicholas Zeman

With its aggressive jatropha program, India hopes these oil-bearing nuts will provide a viable feedstock for biodiesel production and create jobs for its citizens. 

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India anticipates reaping rewards from its aggressive jatropha program

The European Commission will be conducting a public consultation this fall on proposed policies to implement the EC Fuel Quality Directive and Renewable Energy Directive. Ariane de Dominicis and Wojciech Winkler spoke about implementation of the European Union renewable fuel policies at a late September Webinar hosted by the International Fuel Quality Center, a nonprofit facilitated by Hart Energy Consulting. Winkler assisted in the Fuel Quality Directive's legislative process and is presently responsible for its implementation. Dominicis is coordinating the biofuels policies. Both work at the EC Directorate General for Environment.
 
 The RED sets targets for all member states that the EU will reach 20 percent renewable content in all energy sectors and a 10 percent renewable share in the transport sector by 2020. The FQD deals specifically with transportation fuels, calling for a 6 percent reduction in life-cycle analysis greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity between 2010 and 2020 for all transport fuels. Additional criteria call for an initial GHG savings threshold of 35 percent for biofuels, rising to 50 percent in 2017 and 60 percent in 2018 for new production facilities. 
 
 According to the preliminary default GHG ratings shared by Dominicis and Winkler, the GHG reduction targets in the FQD will present a challenge for all biodiesel except the waste-based product. The current default GHG savings value of 38 percent for biodiesel from rapeseed methyl ester is sufficient only for the first years of the program; soy methyl ester at 31 percent is not. Palm methyl ester is rated at 56 percent if methane emissions at processing facilities are mediated and only 19 percent if methane is not controlled. Waste-based biodiesel scored above 80 percent in GHG reductions. GHG emissions can be reported using either the default values or actual values can be used, Dominicis said, a policy that should create incentives to improve GHG reduction performance for different fuel pathways. The regulations will also allow the updating of default values and GHG methodology when new science or evidence is available or new fuel pathways created, she added.
 
 Direct land use change is addressed in the EC policy with the prohibition of eligible biofuels coming from land converted from high-carbon stock areas, such as wetlands, continuously forested areas or undrained peatlands. While the permanent conversion to cropland is prohibited, Dominicis added that biomass from those lands could be used. "You could use the forest, but you can't clear the forest and convert it to cropland," she said. Guidelines on how to identify such areas are currently in development. 
 

 Dominicis said the indirect land use issue is being studied now by the EC in two tracks. One group is examining the current science while another is exploring possible policies. She gave no hints whether indirect land use will ultimately be incorporated into the EC policy. A preliminary consultation conducted this summer solicited comments from industry, several EU states, and potential exporting countries that elicited a range of responses relative to incorporating indirect land use change effects. A fall consultation on the full policy will be open to the public on the directorate's Web site. 
 
 While the EC directive set the end of 2010 as the deadline for the new policies, the goal within the Directorate for Environment is to have the sustainability criteria and indirect land use issue determined by the spring of 2010, giving time for the individual member-states to incorporate the policies into their national implementation plans.
 
 Winkler addressed the fossil fuel component of the FQD in the Webinar, too. A system to collect national fuel quality data is being developed, he said, along with a system for monitoring compliance with the new GHG reduction and sustainability goals, including specifying appropriate analytical methods to measure compliance. The system will allow some flexibility, Winkler added, mentioning as an example the potential for special specifications for states with low ambient temperatures that impact biodiesel blends and variances for vapor pressure levels for ethanol blends. 
 
 The Directorate for Environment is also working on the methodology to determine nonbiofuel GHG emissions, as well as the baseline value for the fuel mixture used in 2010, he added. The goal is to develop technology-neutral approaches to achieving a 6 percent reduction in carbon intensity for suppliers of energy used in road transport and nonroad mobile machinery between 2011 and 2020. 
 
 To learn more about the EC renewable energy policies visit <a href="http://www.ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables">www.ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables</a>.
 
 SIDEBAR
 IDB releases new Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard
 The Inter-American Development Bank has released a new version of its Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard to help developers anticipate the impacts of potential biofuel projects. The first version of the interactive, Web-based tool was released a year ago and addressed 23 variables including GHG emissions, water management, biodiversity and poverty reduction. The updated version includes new social categories addressing issues related to indigenous people, local grower arrangements and impacts on food security, among others. The scorecard includes a spatial analysis tool that enables users to quickly access Geographic Information System data regarding areas for biodiversity preservation. Future versions will add data layers to show the spatial dimensions of water scarcity, cultural sites and high carbon sequestration, among other parameters. To access the scorecard, visit <a href="http://www.iadb.org/scorecard/">www.iadb.org/scorecard/</a>. 

 
 -Susanne Retka Schill

Biofuel producers in the European Union will get the first look this fall at proposed rules to implement the EC's Renewable Energy Directive and Fuel Quality Directive. PHOTO: GREENERGY 

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EC makes progress on implementing renewable fuels policy

R3 Energy LLC in Cottonwood Falls, Kan., recently started selling biodiesel from its new plant, which makes fuel from animal fats and other recycled oils. The facility was commissioned with a treatment system in place to help pass the Cold Soak Filtration Test, which is now necessary if producers want to continue receiving the $1 per gallon excise tax credit. "It's a little expensive," said Kristof Reiter. "But I think it's important that the whole industry puts out a higher quality product, and we can do that." 
 
 Over the past months, several new products have hit the market to assist producers with meeting and continuing to comply with Internal Revenue Service stipulations that require biodiesel to meet the ASTM standard for cold soak before it can receive tax benefits. 
 
 Since its 2006 launch, Cognis Corp.'s Quality Trait Analysis System has conducted more than 150 million biodiesel tests for its customers, has participated quarterly in the ASTM Interlaboratory crosscheck program and recently completed an American Oil Chemists Society-sponsored round robin of its base capabilities as per the ASTM D6708 requirements.
 
 "The beta versions of oxidation stability and cold soak filtration will be available to existing customers immediately for evaluation," Cognis stated. "The commercial versions will be released during the fourth quarter."
 
 Megan Nitz, lab director for Prairie Pride Inc. in Deerfield, Mo., said she needed to see repeatability in sample size, result range and the test phases of new cold soak products before selecting a cold soak testing platform to meet the needs of their facility.
 
 "The addition of oxidation stability and cold soak filtration to the slate of tests required on each batch of biodiesel significantly increased the analysis time by as much as 3 days," said Barbara Stefl, business director for Cognis. "With the screening capability of the QTA System for these tests, producers and buyers of biodiesel can have confidence in the quality of the product before the long method is complete."
 
 There was some speculation that the Oct. 1 deadline might be pushed back again, but as the date approached, an eleventh hour extension did not seem to be forthcoming. "I don't think it will be extended again," Reiter said. "I didn't think it made much sense to implement it in the spring [when the original deadline was set], but winter is getting ready to start and it should be enacted."
 
 R3 Energy uses Schroeder Biofuels', Cold Clear filtration technology to remove sterol glucosides and other impurities that can drop out of fuel suspension in cold weather. Cold Clear works by removing certain contaminants "that create higher than normal likelihood of surface crystallization" on filters, which can cause break downs. The system is designed to be a single pass three-stage bank of filters and absorbers that sequentially remove those compounds likely to cause filter plugging, Schroeder stated. "I think it's the easiest equipment on the market to implement into the scheme of a biodiesel plant," said Jonathan Dugan, biofuels manager for Pennsylvania-based Schroeder. "It's a simple housing with absorption cartridges that can be changed very easily, and there are no hazardous materials or chemicals involved."
 

 Each three-stage housing compartment can treat an estimated 15,000 gallons of B100 per complete change. The filtration housing is sized for five gallons per minute of flow, but is easily scaled for higher requirements that can accommodate the specific needs of individual plants.
 
 In addition, there is a specification for blended fuel-from B6 to B20-as well as pure biodiesel, so fuel terminals and distribution centers that perform blending operations also have to comply with ASTM specifications. Therefore, Schroeder recently increased the handling capacity of its Cold Clear system to allow for the purification of blended fuel, as well.
 
 -Nicholas Zeman

After Oct. 1, biodiesel producers and/or blenders whose fuel does not pass the cold soak test may not be eligible to collect the $1 per gallon federal blenders credit. PHOTO: TERESA ALLEMAN/NREL 

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IRS deadline pressures producers to pass cold soak

The 63rd International Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany, began Sept. 15 with several interesting diesel debuts from BMW AG and several other European manufacturers, said Dirk Arnold, BMW product communications manager.
 
 BMW only offers two diesel models in the U.S.-the X5 xdrive35d and 335d models-but the automaker has a wide portfolio of compression-ignition motors available in Europe. Earlier this year, BMW announced the introduction of a 3.0 liter twin turbo diesel engine and is introducing the 740d in Frankfurt for sale in 2010, along with the 320d EfficientDynamics edition, which emits only 109 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer. "We have several new diesel offerings in Europe, where they are selling quite well," Arnold said. 
 
 The BMW Alpina line showed the D3 Bi-Turbo in Frankfurt, featuring a 2.0 liter, four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine with an aluminum block, even though less than 2,000 of these cars are made annually. 
 
 Receiving a lot of attention was the Vision EfficientDynamics concept car. This futuristic vehicle is a diesel hybrid plug-in, but costs a fortune to make. The powertrain provides acceleration to 100 kilometers per hour in 4.8 seconds, and its average fuel consumption is near 62.6 miles per gallon, BMW reported. "This is a very far look into the future," Arnold said. "Maybe this would be possible for production with some completely new diesel engine or other new technology, but for the next five years the advantage of combining diesel and electric systems is relatively low compared to the tremendous cost." 
 
 One of BMW's brands, the popular sports hatchback Mini, entered the diesel market with a new model being presented in Frankfurt. "The broad range of new models is being rounded off by the world debut of the Mini One D, a new entry-level diesel consistently upgrading the Mini portfolio of particularly economical and efficient models," BMW said. 
 
 "Engineers have been working continuously with the technical aspects of biodiesel, and blends of 7 percent to 12 percent work in our motors with no problem at all," Arnold told Biodiesel Magazine on the opening morning of the show. 
 
 The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) hosts the Frankfurt Auto Show and said it expected nearly 750,000 visitors at the event. This year, VDA focused on recovery from the financial crisis and environmental sustainability, including the production of clean diesels. "These are just some of the new models that will already be on our roads in the coming months," said Matthias Wissmann, VDA president. "And most of them feature surprisingly low fuel consumption and amazingly low CO2 emissions."

 
 Stateside, Ford Motor Co. approved B20 in its 2011 Super Duty diesel line, a move that received praise from biodiesel industry leaders and the National Biodiesel Board. Ford responded by making its 2011 line of F-Series Super Duty diesel pick up trucks compatible with biodiesel blends up to B20. 
 
 "We have a fleet advisory board and we go through a very specific process of communication with our customers, and we are always asking them what they are looking for," said Anne Marie Gattari, spokeswoman for Ford. "Biodiesel compatibility kept coming up over and over again and it speaks to fuel economy, it speaks to an environmental solution and it allows an opportunity for us to advance our technology."
 
 For vehicles currently on the road, Ford has approved biodiesel blends up to B5, so increasing the methyl ester compatibility of its models, regarding emissions compliance, engine components and other specs, required some considerable modifications. "The new 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 turbocharged diesel will employ an aftertreatment system to help comply with 2010 federal regulations to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels in diesel emissions by more than 80 percent compared with the previous standard," the company stated. 
 
 The Ford aftertreatment system for its new clean diesel technology involves a three-stage process. First, the exhaust stream enters a diesel oxidation catalyst, which converts hydrocarbons into water and carbon dioxide. NOx is then scrubbed from the emissions after receiving an injection of diesel exhaust fluid, and passes through a selective catalytic reduction chamber, which turns the gas into water and inert nitrogen. Lastly, a diesel particulate filter traps any remaining soot, which is periodically burned off in a process known as regeneration. "The regeneration process sees temperatures in excess of 600 degrees Celsius to burn away soot," according to Ford. 
 
 "Our diesel customers account for the majority of our Super Duty sales," Gattari said. "And fleet customers who often buy hundreds of models at a time represent the largest percentage of our diesel sales-they wanted biodiesel." Approximately 65 percent of the company's Super Duty sales are diesels. 
 
 -Nicholas Zeman

Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board, Daimler AG, and Matthias Wissmann, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry. PHOTO: VDA 

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Frankfurt auto show unveils new diesel options

A significant new market for biodiesel could open up if tests on biodiesel blends by an Iowan regional railroad are successful. Iowa Interstate Railroad Ltd. (IAIS) is testing B10 and B20 on one of its switching engines in cooperation with the University of Kansas and Renewable Energy Group Inc. REG is supplying the biodiesel fuel, the University of Kansas Transportation Research Institute is performing emissions testing, and IAIS is monitoring engine performance, engine wear and horsepower.
 
 Biodiesel blend tests in locomotives have been few and far between. Locomotive engine manufacturers have not yet tested nor endorsed the use of biodiesel because railroad companies are not requesting to use biodiesel. If the industry were to take interest in biodiesel, it would be a significant market. In 2007, the rail industry consumed 3.6 billion gallons of diesel fuel, making it the second largest industrial user of petroleum diesel fuel, second only to the on-road sector. 
 
 "We hope this biodiesel blend demonstration will serve as the tipping point for the rail industry's use of renewable fuels," explained REG vice president of customer and service technical, Myron Danzer. "We expect to find reduced diesel particulate matter and carbon emissions, as well as improved lubricity with the use of biodiesel. This partnership is fitting as IAIS serves several of the biodiesel plants in the REG network by transporting large volumes of our REG-9000 biodiesel nationwide. For IAIS to burn the biodiesel they haul is a prime example of going green." 
 

 IAIS President and CEO Dennis H. Miller added, "Our company has been looking at biodiesel as an alternative to diesel fuel for some time. This could open the door for more than 600 other railroads to have another source of fuel to use in their locomotives that burns cleaner and is environmentally friendly. It is also another value-added market to Iowa farmers and the ag industry by providing another use for their products." 
 
 IAIS has incorporated biodiesel testing into the regular maintenance schedule for the switching engine being monitored. The 2,000-horsepower diesel electric is a 16-cylinder, two-stroke engine. Ted Peltier, assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Kansas, said he and a student made their first trip to Iowa in June with portable emissions testing equipment. Baseline measurements were taken on the switching engine for emissions and engine performance, before the fuel was switched to B10. In late September, after 90 days in service, the team went back to repeat the measurements. A B20 fuel blend was to be used until the next scheduled maintenance in December when the locomotive will switch back to straight diesel fuel to complete the comparative analysis. 
 
 IAIS is testing power output and fuel efficiency using a dynamometer, and checking for engine wear. "In the locomotive world, people say burning bio is going to cause wear," said Randy Laughridge, assistant chief mechanical officer at IAIS. "We ask them, where's your data?" One of the purposes of the tests is to collect that data on biodiesel's impact on engine wear. While biodiesel use in older light- and heavy-duty trucks can have problems with gasket and hose compatibility with biodiesel use, Laughridge explained locomotives primarily use steel and copper lines. The impact of biodiesel on fuel filters is part of the testing, he added. "But we haven't had any issues so far," he said. "No complaints." 
 
 By press time, Peltier said the University of Kansas team had not completed the data analysis for the B10 testing conducted in late September. The Kansas team is only monitoring the gaseous emissions, he added. "Particulates are important, but the portable equipment we use for small engines could only be scaled up for the gases. The equipment we use for particulate matter tests can't be scaled up." Tests are being run for levels of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and total hydrocarbons, as well as carbon dioxide. "There aren't current regulations on CO2, but everyone expects them to be coming in the future," Peltier added. 
 
 Locomotives, along with marine diesels, are among the last diesel industry sectors required to meet more stringent emission standards by the U.S. EPA. The standards apply to newly manufactured and remanufactured railroad locomotive engines that were originally built after 1973. The first tiers of standards became effective in 2000 with the final date for Tier 0 through Tier 2 compliance set for 2010. More stringent Tier 3 and 4 standards were adopted by the agency in March 2008. The Tier 3 standards become effective in 2011 and 2012, and are expected to be met by engine design methods to reduce emissions. Tier 4 standards become effective in 2015 and are expected to require exhaust aftertreatment technologies to meet the standards. Typically, rail locomotives are kept in service for decades, receiving regular maintenance and replacement of key parts. The big diesels, which range from 600 horsepower for small switching engines to over 2,500 horsepower for long haulers, actually generate electricity to supply power to traction motors driving the running gear. With regular maintenance, the diesels undergo major overhauls every 10 to 15 years. With such a slow turnover in the fleet, EPA expects the air quality benefits from its emissions standards to extend to 2030 and beyond.
 
 -Susanne Retka Schill

Biodiesel blends are being tested in a switching engine at the Iowa Interstate Railroad's Council Bluffs, Iowa, rail yard. PHOTO:REG

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Regional railroad puts biodiesel blends to the test

We've all attended those conferences where there are lots of people looking to sell things but no one wants to buy anything. The sign of a successful conference is when buyers and sellers are both there, along with everyone in between. 
 The National Biodiesel Board's National Biodiesel Conference and Expo exemplifies what a successful event is. It provides real opportunities where everyone in the industry is in one place, which is a unique situation. And this year, it's all happening in Texas.
 
 Texas is the perfect host state for this event. Country singers croon about Texas women's beauty, but our state has much more to offer than pretty women and good country music. We boast huge agricultural potential. In terms of development, Texas is home to major sectors of the global petrochemical industry. More than any other location, biodiesel producers and marketers have a collection of end-customers available in their backyards. With a Texas twist, the conference is sure to be better than ever. 
 
 From educational and commercial perspectives, NBB's conference is without competition the premier biodiesel event. And because it's in Texas, NBB is doing it even bigger this year-with a bigger resort, bigger networking opportunities and even bigger places to sit and connect with other industry leaders. 
 

 The conference theme, "Today's Challenge, Tomorrow's Impact," captures the realities of our industry. This year we have seen plants close their doors and shut down production. We bid adieu to European markets as we knew them, fought to protect biodiesel from regulatory nightmares in the RFS2 rulemaking process, and rallied for a continued tax incentive. 
 
 The past year has been nothing short of challenging, yet it has positioned our industry to have a major impact in 2010. The National Biodiesel Conference and Expo promises to assemble experts, field leaders, tested champions and the latest technology all in one place. It's our chance to take advantage of leading contacts, business opportunities and industry insight in a concentrated setting. With new and improved sessions, tracks, networking opportunities and more, the 2010 conference will pack months of opportunity into just a few days. 
 
 NBB's conference is among the best, and it's one you simply cannot miss because it includes a broad spectrum of the industry. Some attendees will be interested in buying and selling. Others will want to get involved. Many attend the conference to learn about what is being offered, and they will apply the information to advance their business while gaining a better understanding of the commercial side as well.
 
 The event will be held Feb. 7-10 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. If you register by Nov. 13 you can still access early registration discounts.
 
 You can find information online www.biodieselconference.org or call (303) 798-3664. I urge you to join me in the Lone Star state for the biodiesel event of the year.
 
 By Jeff Truckess, NBB governing board member and executive vice president of governmental relations for Houston-based Green Earth Fuels.

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Bigger in Texas

The NBB's work with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) through the OEM outreach program, which promotes greater acceptance and use of biodiesel blends, has yielded results as Ford Motor Co. unveiled its all-new diesel engine. Engineered and built by Ford, the B20-approved engine will debut in the Ford 2011 F-Series Super Duty truck, which will hit dealer showrooms mid-2010. 
 
 "This is the first of what we expect to be many formal announcements of B20 approval in new clean diesel technology," said Steve Howell, NBB technical director. "With the formal approval and acceptance of B20 in the 2011 Super Duty, Ford now has a clean, green engine of tomorrow that will also reduce NOx emissions by more than 80 percent." 
 
 The NBB and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have spent more than $10 million testing B20 to evaluate the fuel's compatibility in new diesel engines and aftertreatment systems. In addition, many OEMs are doing their own durability tests on biodiesel blends.

 
 "It's rewarding to see the efforts by NBB and NREL start to pay off," Howell said, noting that most of the NBB funding for the testing was provided by U.S. soybean farmers through the soybean checkoff program. "The engine makers asked for an ASTM B20 blended standard, in addition to the pure biodiesel standard, and we worked hard to get it passed."
 
 Ford's support for B20 could have substantial market implications. Ford currently dominates the on-road diesel truck market with nearly a 46-percent market share of the diesel vehicle registrations in the U.S., according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

'Feed me, Seymour!' NBB's OEM outreach program pays off as Ford's newest diesel motor thirsts for biodiesel. Photo: FORD MOTOR CO. 

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Have you driven a Ford … lately?

New biodiesel plant maps now update automatically as changes happen. The new maps are database-driven and available online. 
 
 "The most important improvement is that these maps are rendered in real time, meaning no more waiting for new maps to come out," said Scott Tremain, NBB director of information technology. "Plant locations can now be administered directly from our membership information management system," or MIMS. 
 
 The new maps feature interactive street-level zooming and the ability to view all locations or filter locations by state. The results can be easily exported for use in Microsoft Excel, GPS units, or even into a PDF for printing. These features are also available on the biodiesel retailer and distributor maps.
 
 The new maps can be accessed from the www.biodiesel.org home page in the center "Start Here" box, the "Buying Biodiesel" tab in the navigation menu or anywhere previous links to the maps could be found online.
 
 Check out the new maps at: <a href="http://www.biodiesel.org/buyingbiodiesel/plants/">http://www.biodiesel.org/buyingbiodiesel/plants/</a>.

Improved biodiesel plant maps on NBB's Web site update plant data to give consumers and marketers real time information. 

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NBB biodiesel plant maps go live

Posted October 30, 2009
 
 The <a href="http://www.rspo.eu">Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil</a> announced that more than 250,000 metric tons of RSPO-certified palm oil, or corresponding certificates, have been purchased since becoming available late last year. Almost half was purchased in the last two months. The organization released the first year results a few days before opening its sixth general assembly which will convene Nov. 4 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
 
 "Six years after the foundation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, we are witnessing the first stages of a viable market for sustainable palm oil," said Jan Kees Vis, RSPO president. "Now is a great time for more producers and users of palm oil to join the endeavor, so that one day all palm oil will be produced in a socially and environmentally sustainable way."
 
 The quarter million sales accounts for 22 percent of the total certified production of 1.1 million metric tons from plantations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea over the past year. After a slow start, product manufacturers and retail companies began purchasing sustainable palm oil this past summer, the RSPO said, paying a premium for the certified sustainable product. By September and October, the market uptake of sustainable supplies rose to about 50 percent. 
 
 The rise in sales of sustainable palm oil coincides with a growing number of companies publicly pledging to fully switch to sustainable palm oil within a certain time frame (many choose 2015), as all RSPO members are required to do. Worldwide, an estimated 40 million tons of palm oil is produced annually. About 4 percent of global production capacity has so far been RSPO-certified.

 
 The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is a multi-stakeholder association created in 2003 by seven organizations and companies aiming towards sustainable production of palm oil. The roundtable includes palm growers, processors, traders, retailers, investors and leading nongovernmental organizations such as WWF and Oxfam International. The RSPO now has more than 400 members.

Certified sustainable palm sales growing after one year

The NBB has long supported innovation in feedstock opportunities. It's no surprise the organization is helping to find yet another unique alternative to support biodiesel. Twenty miles north of Salt Lake City, hopeful researchers harvested a flowery red and yellow safflower crop as part the "Freeway-to-Fuel" project. Sponsored by NBB, the Utah Department of Transportation and others, the program is testing whether nontraditional or unused lands at military bases, airports, local municipalities and roadside parcels can be used to grow and harvest biofuel feedstock crops. 
 
 The test plots at the roadside lab in Utah may hold the key to increasing biofuel production while reducing the costs for mowing, upkeep and maintenance of these unused parcels of lands. Plus, the biodiesel produced from these crops could someday fuel their equipment, reducing cost even more. 
 

 "Biodiesel is the most diverse fuel on the planet," said NBB CEO Joe Jobe. "And the Freeways-to-Fuel program can expand that reach even more. This initiative can also complement urban farming projects, offering fruits and vegetables as well as plants grown to produce biodiesel."
 
 Safflower, canola and soybeans are examples of feedstocks that can be grown and harvested to produce vegetable oil for biodiesel in addition to protein for humans and livestock. Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County officials are using 200 acres of vacant land near the airport to grow safflower for making biodiesel. The tillage required to make the land productive for biodiesel will also make it more economical for the city and county to use portions of the same land, or other publicly-owned, idle parcels, for community-supported farming.

NBB's feedstock program supports a new initiative turning underused land into unexpected opportunity. 

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Biodiesel feedstock program supports Freeways-to-Fuel project

At the national oilheat industry policy summit held in mid-September in Baltimore, oilheat leadership from Maine to South Carolina set the industry on a new cleaner, greener and more sustainable course. At the event, oilheat leadership, including National Oil Heat Research Alliance, the New England Fuel Institute, and Petroleum Marketers Association of America, approved a statement formally embracing cleaner burning fuels such as Bioheat, and endorsed an ultra-low sulfur standard and solar technology. 
 
 The historic collaboration of assembled oilheat associations and stakeholders formally adopted long-term goals, which include expanding the availability of Bioheat. A resolution calls for changes to heating oil, part of which directs that all heating oil will be mixed with a bio component by July 2010 to ensure that at least 2 percent of the fuel is renewable, with goals to increase levels over time.
 
 "It is an exciting time for the industry," said Peter Carini of Champion Energy of New York. "As an industry, we face many challenges, but most of them can be met if we embrace this exciting opportunity to create a new product that will be environmentally responsible and competitive, ensuring that our industry will be a part of the solution to the energy security and climate change challenges facing our nation." 
 
 This news means a greatly expanded market opportunity for biodiesel producers. At a 5 percent blend, the Bioheat market has the potential to increase biodiesel demand by 450 million gallons annually.

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Oilheat industry embraces Bioheat, opens door for 450 million gallon market

Five years ago, barely a quarter of the people asked had ever heard of biodiesel. Today, most people are familiar with the renewable fuel. One of NBB's core functions is raising the public's awareness of biodiesel and building confidence in the fuel-and those efforts are paying off.
 
 According to an Internet-based survey conducted in August by Moore Information, 86 percent of the participating respondants have now heard of biodiesel. That compares to just 27 percent in June 2004. The survey sampled a representative group of registered voters.
 
 <img src="http://images.bbibiofuels.com/img/10152009_5_04_23_PM.jpg" alt="nov.09bdm_nbbchart1" border="0" />
 
 But that's not all the numbers show. Not only have people heard of biodiesel, they are also becoming more familiar with what it is. In 2004, 8 percent of people were familiar with biodiesel. Today, 48 percent of those surveyed say they are familiar with biodiesel. The survey also demonstrated that people's view of biodiesel is widely positive. Also, 80 percent of consumers surveyed said they would use the fuel, the highest percentage to date. 
 
 <img src="http://images.bbibiofuels.com/img/10152009_5_04_57_PM.jpg" alt="nov.09bdm_nbbchart2" border="0" />

 
 In addition to looking at how people view biodiesel, NBB also examined how survey participants responded to certain key words and biodiesel's benefits. All of biodiesel's benefits tested well, with economic benefits leading as the greatest benefit. The survey also showed that the term "renewable" is favored over "biofuels," "alternative" and "green." 
 
 For more detailed analysis of the Moore Information survey, visit NBB's web site or contact the communications office.

Survey indicates public's awareness of biodiesel triples

>> Lake Erie Biofuels LLC has a new name, Hero BX, and with it a new marketing strategy based on its proprietary blending technology to ensure high-quality biodiesel. "HERO BX is producing superior biodiesel today using first generation feedstocks from waste oil to catfish oil, to vegetable oil, and tomorrow we will add to our feedstock portfolio the most efficient and cost competitive second- and third-generation feedstocks such as camelina and algae," CEO Leonard Kosar said. Currently producing 45 MMgy at its Erie, Pa., plant, the company plans to expand as it continues to grow its global market.
 
 >> Global Alternative Fuels LLC began commissioning the expansion of its El Paso, Texas, biodiesel plant in October, tripling its capacity to 15 MMgy within a year of opening its doors. Plans are being made to boost production another 10 MMgy within a couple of years at the multi-feedstock plant, according to Dean Rigg, chief financial officer. SRS Engineering Corp. was initially working on a methanol recovery system and feedstock pretreatment system when its role was expanded to include the two-stage expansion. 

 
 >> The nation's largest independent renderer, Darling International Inc. has teamed up with Valero Energy Corp. to apply for a U.S. DOE loan guarantee to build a facility capable of producing more than 10,000 barrels per day (135 MMgy) of renewable diesel on a site next to Valero's St. Charles oil refinery near Norco, La. For some time Darling has been studying the biofuels arena and looking for the right partner for a joint venture, according to Brad Phillips, treasurer. The company is not announcing the technology provider at this time, although Phillips said it will be a smaller scale hydrotreating process similar to current oil refining technology. 
 
 >> A Scottish consortium has bought out the original investors in Argent Energy Plc, Motherwell, Scotland. The consortium, which includes Souter Investments and existing plant managers, bought the company from a group of investors led by Cinven Ltd. Argent Energy pioneered large-scale commercial biodiesel production in the United Kingdom when it started production in 2005. "Since we started production we have delivered over 170 million liters (45 million gallons) of biodiesel and our plant is currently running close to full capacity," said Jim Walker, managing director. With a capacity of 13.5 MMgy, the plant recycles used cooking oil and tallow as feedstocks. A new preprocessing facility is currently under construction. 
 
 >> National Wind Solutions Inc., Houston, has acquired a shuttered biodiesel plant in Poteet, Texas, in Atascosa County. The company is evaluating engineering proposals to modernize the facility and considering moving it to another location. If brought into production successfully, it will be the alternative energy company's first venture into biofuels. A company spokesman said if upgrading and converting to multi-feedstock capability can be accomplished economically, the company is considering further acquisitions. 
 

 >> Cummins Inc.'s filtration division announced in August it was cutting 400 jobs at its Lake Mills, Iowa, plant. The company will consolidate North American filter assembly operations in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, beginning in November. While the Lake Mills plant will lose 400 jobs, Cummins stated it will still employ 110 people there. "The current recession has led to the steepest drop in sales in the 52-year history of Cummins Filtration," said Joseph Saoud, division president. "Sales have fallen more than 30 percent since November 2008, and we do not expect any meaningful recovery in demand until 2011."
 
 >>Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, plans to invest $3.84-million in an Inaja palm biodiesel plant in the Amazon state of Roraima. According to Brazil's crop research agency, Inaja palm has seven times the oil yield of soybeans at 975 gallons per hectare. Petrobras currently has three biodiesel plants in operation at Quixadá, Ceará; Montes Claros, Minas Gerais; and Candeias, Bahia.
 
 >> U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) hosted senior U.S.EPA officials on Sept. 3 at a Newton, Iowa, biodiesel plant managed by Renewable Energy Group Inc. The forum highlighted the challenges facing the biodiesel industry in Iowa and the need for the EPA to take interim steps to implement the biodiesel volume goals under the renewable fuels standard. "Biodiesel stakeholders have made important business decisions based on the modest biodiesel volume requirements provided for in RFS2," said Manning Feraci, National Biodiesel Board vice president for federal affairs. 
 
 >> Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, announced in September that the Methes Energies' biodiesel plant will receive up to $5.4 million through the ecoENERGY for Biofuels program."Our government is delivering results for families and workers in Mississauga by encouraging clean energy development," said Minister Raitt. "By investing in this project, we are helping to create and sustain local jobs and economic opportunities now, when they're needed the most." 
 

 >> Cognis Corp. announced that it has added two capabilities to its Quality Trait Analysis (QTA) System for Biodiesel. "The addition of the oxidation stability and cold soak filtration tests to the QTA System enables biodiesel producers and buyers to quickly assess the quality of their product," the company stated. Cognis' expanded capabilities for its QTA system is the latest in a series of industry introductions in recent months as companies offer solutions for biodiesel producers preparing to meet new ASTM guidelines for biodiesel. 
 
 >> The popularity of the diesel-electric hybrid vehicles has helped Navistar become the first original equipment manufacturer to accumulate more than 5 million miles with customers driving hybrid International-brand trucks and IC Bus -brand buses. Depending on the specific application and other conditions, Navistar reports hybrid trucks can deliver up to 40 percent fuel savings in stop-and-go driving and pick-up/delivery operations. 
 
 Share your Business Briefs To be included in Business Briefs, send information (including photos, illustrations or logos, if available) to: Business Briefs, Biodiesel Magazine, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You may also fax information to (701) 746-5367, or e-mail it to <a href="mailto:rkotrba@bbiinternational.com">rkotrba@bbiinternational.com</a>. Please include your name and telephone number in each correspondence.

Pat Black, chairman of Erie Management Group, and Len Kosar, CEO, show off the new brand for the Erie, Pa.-based biodiesel producers. PHOTO: HERO BX 

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Navistar reports more than 5 million miles driven with its diesel-electric hybrids. PHOTO: NAVISTAR

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BusinessBriefs: Companies, Organizations & People in the News

USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan will tour Renewable Energy Group Inc.'s new biodiesel feedstock research center at the company headquarters in Ames, Iowa, on Tuesday, Oct. 20. 
 
 The day's events, not open to the public, will begin at 1:30pm in Nevada, Iowa, where the deputy secretary will tour a 50-MMgy ethanol plant, Lincolnway Energy, which employs a corn-oil extraction process. Then at 4:30pm, the deputy secretary is scheduled to tour REG's feedstock research center in Ames where many alternative biodiesel feedstocks, including corn oil extracted from ethanol plants, are being studied and characterized. 

 
 For more information, contact the Iowa Renewable Fuels Assocation Executive Director Monte Shaw at (515) 252-6249 or REG Communications Specialist Alicia Clancy at (515) 239-8118.

USDA deputy secretary to visit REG biodiesel feedstock research center on Oct. 20

Posted October 20, 2009
 
 The UK Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance is stepping up its campaign to prevent the British government from removing the 20 pence per litre tax differential for biofuels from April 2010.
 
 Speaking at the European Biofuels Expo and Conference 2009, Chair of the UKSBA Mark Sneesby, told how the government's plan to remove the tax differential for biofuels in 2010 would undermine the U.K.'s growing low-carbon economy by making biodiesel more expensive than fossil fuels and therefore commercially unviable. 
 
 Green captive fleet operators such as McDonalds and 3663 First for Foodservice, who currently use high-blends of biodiesel in their vehicle fleets, could see fuel bills rise by as much as 20 percent. Any ensuing reduction in demand would have a massive impact on U.K.-based sustainable biodiesel producers supplying these high-blend users. 
 
 The British government plans to remove the tax differential from April 2010, relying instead on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation as a supporting mechanism for the biodiesel industry. However, early misdrafting of the RFTO and continuing consultation around its form given the European Renewable Energy Directive mean that it is not yet a sufficiently robust mechanism to support the emerging sustainable biodiesel sector.
 
 Uncertainty around Government policy in this area is preventing adequate business planning for U.K.-based producers and preventing incoming investment in to the green economy of UK PLC from abroad.
 
 Mark Sneesby said: 
 

 "The UKSBA has been formed to create a voice for the sustainable biodiesel producers in the U.K. who are working with green companies committed to making a real difference in the reduction of carbon emissions. The use of high-blend sustainable biodiesel in these fleets is delivering 85 to 90 percent carbon savings against the equivalent fossil fuel, with the minimum of technological change and it is happening now.
 
 "Many renewable solutions, such as wind or nuclear, require long-term investment and take many years to fulfil their potential, whilst the sustainable biodiesel industry is an established and growing economic sector delivering real results in reducing CO2 emissions and providing 'green collar skills.' 
 
 "The UKSBA is in ongoing constructive discussions with HM Treasury and the Department for Transport as well as other policy makers in Westminster and Europe, proposing that the tax differential is not withdrawn until the RTFO is stable and actually working as a supportive mechanism for the industry. 
 
 "We have suggested that any tax support should be targeted towards only fully sustainable producers and high-blend users, to ensure that public money is not supporting biofuels produced from unsustainable sources.
 
 "Longer term, we have also proposed that the UKSBA contributes to the 2010 consultation around the RTFO, to ensure that it becomes the intended robust mechanism for ensuring the long-term development of the biofuels industry in the U.K.".
 For further information about the UKSBA's campaign contact: 
 
 Zoë Anderson
 The Whitehouse Consultancy for UKSBA
 Tel: 020 7793 2536 or <a href="zoe.anderson@whitehouseconsulting.co.uk">zoe.anderson@whitehouseconsulting.co.uk</a>
 

 SOURCE: UKSBA

UK Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance rallies for retention of tax support

Posted October 20, 2009

 
 <a href="http://www.innovationfuels.com/">Innovation Fuels Inc.</a> was recognized at the annual Syracuse Economic Champions banquet and awards ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The Chamber of Commerce recognizes businesses that have added employees, expanded their space or relocated due to growth. "It's recognition that it's really small business that are driving the local economy," said John Fox, CEO of Innovation Fuels.
 
 Innovation moved its corporate headquarters from Albany, N.Y., to the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, N.Y. this summer. "We moved to Syracuse largely because it is in the hub of our upstream activities," Fox said. The company is supplying biodiesel locally, and working with researchers and extension agents at Cornell University along with several farmers throughout Upstate New York on the development of pennycress and camelina as new biodiesel feedstocks.
 
 Innovation Fuels operates a 40 MMgy multi-feedstock in the New York Harbor at Newark, N.J., and has terminal facilities in Milwaukee, Wis. Plans to build a biodiesel plant in Wisconsin are waiting for market improvements, although Fox reports the New Jersey plant has been "humming along." Located in a harbor with barge, rail and truck access, the company recently added blending facilities to be able to sell B20 at the rack and have begun selling a bioheat product in the region.

Syracuse NY recognizes Innovation Fuels

Posted October 21, 2009
 
 A Renewable Energy Group Inc. limited liability corporation, REG Seneca LLC, purchased the 60-MMgy Nova Biofuels Seneca LLC biodiesel plant in Seneca, Ill., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission 8-K filing. Also purchased was Nova Biosource Technologies LLC. Both of the purchased entities were subsidiaries of Nova Biosource Fuels Inc. 
 
 The 8-K filing reads: "Pursuant to the Seneca Asset Purchase Agreement, the Seneca Purchaser (REG) agreed to acquire substantially all of the Seneca Sellers' assets, excluding certain specified assets, used in manufacturing ASTM D6751 quality biodiesel and related coproducts out of its production facilities in Seneca, Ill., including all patents and intellectual property rights to Nova's process technology, and to assume bank term debt of approximately $36,250,000." 
 
 REG had no comment on the Seneca plant purchase. 
 

 This news follows REG's purchase of three large biodiesel plants earlier this year: Western Iowa Energy, a 30 MGY facility in Wall Lake, Iowa; Central Iowa Energy, LLC, a 30 MGY facility Newton, Iowa; and Blackhawk Biofuels, LLC, a 45 MGY facility in Danville, Ill.

REG purchases Nova Biofuels' 60 MMgy biodiesel plant in Seneca, Ill.

Posted October 21, 2009
 
 <a href=" http://www.growthdesign.com/ ">Growth Design Corp.</a> unveiled plans to build a biodiesel plant across the street from its conference center in Forest City, Iowa, at an Oct. 18 open house. The firm is applying for a USDA grant to help fund the project and expects to break ground on the facility late this fall. 
 
 Growth Design intends to install two Mcgyan reactors, capable of producing 2 to 3 MMgy each, with fittings installed for a third reactor to be installed in the future, according to Bill Luetscher, Growth Design executive vice president for planning and operations. Plans are to use regionally available waste feedstocks such as corn oil removed from distillers grains by ethanol plants and waste greases available from regional meat processors. 
 
 Growth Design held the event to give their neighbors in Forest City the chance to see an artist's rendering of the planned facility. "The issue is getting people to unlearn what they know about ethanol plants and biodiesel plants," Luetscher said. The Mcgyan reactor is a new continuous flow technology that has a much smaller footprint than a traditional biodiesel reactor. The first Mcgyan installation at<a href="http://www.evercatfuels.com/about.asp"> Ever Cat Fuels LLC,</a> Isanti, Minn., went into production late this summer with a grand opening help in late September. <a href="http://www.sartec.com/mcgyan.html">The Mcgyan reactor </a> employs a permanent metal oxide catalyst in a cylinder measuring 6 inches in diameter by 6 feet that catalytically converts both triglycerides and free fatty acids to biodiesel in a single continuous flow operation. 

 
 A demonstration of the new technology was given at the Forest City event by University of St. Thomas professor of engineering Greg Mowry. He and his students built a self-contained unit , using a small-scale Mcgyan reactor. "It fits on the back of a pickup truck and can produce 7,000 to 10,000 gallons of biodiesel a year," Leutscher said. "He's looking at the technology for humanitarian uses."
 
 Growth Design is a consulting firm serving the non-profit sector. When it started in the early 1980s, Luetscher explained, it began helping groups with capital campaigns. The company's work has evolved into helping non-profit organizations develop for-profit enterprises as subsidiaries to help fund their work. The recent spike in energy prices sparked interest among several non-profits in developing alternative energy solutions to contain energy costs as well as contribute to greening efforts. 
 
 "We plan to run the commercial biodiesel plant as a for-profit business, and integrate it with the conference center where we'll also use solar, wind and geothermal energy," Leutscher said. Growth Design has one rural elective cooperative that is quite interested in the project, as well as other clients that include hospitals and colleges. Their interest in the Mcgyan process grew out of the companies relationship with Minneapolis-based Augsburg College, he added, where the Mcgyan process was initially developed.

Mcgyan process to be deployed at Forest City, Iowa

Posted October 21, 2009
 
 The Dow Chemical Co. presented at the European Biofuels Expo and Conference held earlier this month in the U.K. in an effort "to affirm our commitment to the biodiesel industry and to present our range if innovative solutions," said Donna Rohan, biodiesel sales manager for Dow Water and Process Solutions. 
 
 When it acquired rival Rohm and Haas earlier this year for $15 billion, Dow Chemical brought several biodiesel products under its roof. Amberlyst BD20 is a solid catalyst FFA esterification technology "that offers biodiesel producers the flexibility to produce biodiesel from inexpensive low-quality feedstocks without sacrificing the quality of the end product." Many facilities have been looking to expand their processing capabilities-as cash on hand becomes available-to include a larger feedstock portfolio. 
 
 Partner products Ambersep and Amberlite further the power of the feedstock purification technology platform. The biodiesel products are sold under a "differentiated business unit," Dow WPS, which offers a "broad portfolio of ion exchange resins, reverse osmosis membranes, ultrafiltration membranes and electrodeionization products."

Dow affirms commitment to biodiesel industry

Posted October 21, 2009
 

 The $50 million program that allowed the U.S. EPA to purchase or retrofit 14,000 diesel-powered vehicles and pieces of equipment has seen some results. EPA told Congress-which allocates funding-in a report issued last week that its Diesel Emission Reduction Program resulted in reducing 46,000 tons of NOx, and 2,200 tons of particulate matter over a vehicle's lifetime.
 
 DERP provides financial support for retrofits, repairs, replacements, idle reduction, cleaner fuels and other clean technologies. EPA has given sector-specific clean diesel grants for several years, although fiscal year 2008 was the first time Congress funded the program. Competitions are now underway for clean diesel funding grants totaling $60 million. 
 
 In further developments on the diesel policy front, the EPA was awarded $300 million under the National Clean Diesel Campaign under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. All of these programs support the use of biodiesel.
 
 Most of the financing is done through the Smartway Clean Diesel Finance Program. EPA launched SmartWay in 2004 to help improve the freight industry's environmental performance. Today more than 2,000 organizations participate, ranging from large multi-national trucking fleets, several rail companies, many well-known retail and commercial shippers, as well as small "mom and pop" trucking companies. 
 
 "Through their SmartWay participation, these companies both calculate and adopt strategies for lowering their transportation energy use and CO2 emissions," EPA stated. "EPA provides technical support, including tools to evaluate options for lowering fuel use and emissions, and help in locating financing for the purchase of environmental and fuel saving technology." 
 
 In 2009, the partnership projects that it will eliminate 6 million tons of CO2 and conserve more than 540 million gallons of diesel fuel, a savings of at least $1.3 billion a year in fuel costs.

EPA reports to Congress on Clean Diesel Program

Posted November 2, 2009
 
 <a href="http://www.catilin.com">Catilin Inc. </a>announced results from an analysis of its new T300 catalyst completed by <a href="http://www.sriconsulting.com/ ">SRI Consulting</a> of Menlo Park, Calif. "SRI came to us and said they'd like to do an in-depth study and publish it for their subscribers," said David Sams, vice president for business development. The independent study supported results from Catilin's internal work as well as outside engineering analysis commissioned by Catilin. SRI Consulting concluded that Catilin's solid catalyst process has a value advantage over the traditional catalytic process of 13 cents per gallon of biodiesel. When the capital expense savings are included, the advantage increases to 19 cents per gallon of biodiesel.
 
 "We are pleased that SRI Consulting has completed this review and will include the information as a supplement to their Biodiesel Production Report. This thorough analysis validated our T300 catalyst as a real breakthrough in current and future biodiesel production for use with first-, second- and third-generation feedstocks," said Larry Lenhart, president and CEO.
 
 Catilin is commercializing the research done in developing the new catalyst at Iowa State University in Ames and the U.S. DOE's Ames Laboratory. The T300 heterogeneous catalyst is nontoxic and can be a direct replacement for conventional catalysts used in biodiesel production. The drop-in solid catalyst operates at industry standard pressures and temperatures and is removed with filtration. As a result, current producers can retrofit their plants in a matter of days at very low cost. Another key advantage is that the glycerin coproduct has purity greater than 98 percent and qualifies as technical grade, which significantly enhances its overall value. 
 
 Sams reported engineering and equipment ordering is underway for the first deployment of the T300 catalyst in a sizeable plant, which he expects to be operational by early February. "We've asked other companies that have approached us and wanted the catalyst to wait," he added. "We intentionally are doing the first project individually, so we can work out any issues. The next step will be to install it in multiple plants in parallel." His goal is to begin working on the second wave of installations in January.
 

 "The potential benefits of a solid catalyst for the biodiesel industry are significant and we are glad to see Catilin pursue this work," said Glen Meier, director of technology and feedstock development for Renewable Energy Group Inc. REG has followed the development of the catalyst since work began by a team led by Victor Lin at ISU and the Ames Laboratory. "We also appreciate the efforts of Catilin to operate at typical temperatures and pressures to conserve energy, and believe this will widen the market acceptance of the catalyst," Meier said.
 
 The abstract of the SRI Consulting report is here:<a href=" http://www.sriconsulting.com/PEP/Public/Reports/Phase_2009/RW2009-5/"> http://www.sriconsulting.com/PEP/Public/Reports/Phase_2009/RW2009-5/</a>. For an earlier article in Biodiesel Magazine about Catilin's work, "A Solid Catalyst Unlike the Rest," visit <a href="http://biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3536">http://biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3536</a>

SRI Consulting reviews Catilin technology

Posted October 27, 2009
 
 A 5 MMgy biodiesel plant will be on the block in a court-ordered auction 11 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 16 conducted by Maas Companies Inc. The auction will take place on site in Keokuk, Iowa, where Tri-City Energy LLC operated the plant for approximately 17 months. 
 
 Tri-City began producing in late 2006 after refurbishing an 85 year old wheat processing plant a block off Main Street in Keokuk. Biodiesel Magazine reported at the time that a group of local investors planned a four-phase project starting with soy biodiesel processing at the 5 MMgy plant under construction, with plans to add crushing and a second, larger plant along river front property. The magazine's plant plant list recorded the plant as using animal fats and vegetable oils as feedstocks using process technology by Techno-Chemicals.

 
 A foreclosure motion begun by plant creditors was temporarily put on hold in late 2008 when Tri-City Energy announced a possible cash infusion from a new investor. That effort failed however, and last week, Maas Companies listed the court-ordered auction. <a href="http://www.maascompanies.com/response.asp?project_id=185">The Maas auction bill </a>says the plant at 219 South 5th St. in Keokuk produced 1 million gallons of biodiesel. The 17,000 square foot building sits on a 24,500 square foot lot and includes 11-12,000 gallon tanks.

Keokuk, Iowa 5 MMgy biodiesel plant auction set for Dec. 16

Posted October 21, 2009
 
 Advanced Refining Concepts LLC, owners of the trademarked ClearRefining technology, a proprietary pollution-free process for liquefying natural gas and other biogases to produce clean fuel products, today announced that it has begun construction on a new production plant in Northern Nevada. The 100,000-gallon per day plant will produce the company's inaugural product, trademarked GDiesel, a clean and efficient domestically produced No. 1 diesel fuel. The facility will be ARC's first commercial plant and is scheduled for completion in January 2010.
 
 The plant, which will be named the Peru Heights facility and has room for expansion, sits on 10 acres owned by the company at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, a 107,000 acre industrial park located approximately 10 miles east of Reno, Nev.
 
 "Beginning construction of this facility is an important milestone for ARC, advancing our goal of making America energy independent by reducing this country's need for foreign crude oil imports," said Peter Gunnerman, co-founder of Advanced Refining Concepts. "We expect the GDiesel produced at our Peru Heights facility initially will be used for large fleet operators, power producers or as blend stock."
 
 The facility, which will employ 25 full-time workers, will consist of 10 fully automated ClearRefining units, each capable of producing up to 10,000 gallons of GDiesel per day.
 
 "The location we've selected just outside of Reno is ideal for this venture," said Gunnerman. "The facility has convenient access to natural gas, existing fuel lines and is strategically located near rail and truck lines."
 

 About Advanced Refining Concepts, LLC
 Advanced Refining Concepts (ARC) develops and manufactures fuels that produce cleaner emissions and more efficient combustion. ARC's products are manufactured using the company's proprietary ClearRefining process, a pollution-free, single-step method for liquefying and combining natural gas, or other biogases, with a petroleum base to form ultra clean liquid motor and industrial fuels. Replacing traditional petroleum-based fuels with the company's domestically produced fuel products reduces greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on imported oil. The company's products, GDiesel, GPetrol and GJet, are compatible with existing fuel storage and dispensing equipment and require no modifications to vehicles or power generating equipment. 
 
 For more information, visit <a href="http://www.AdvancedRefiningConcepts.com">www.AdvancedRefiningConcepts.com</a> or <a href="http://www.ClearRefining.com">www.ClearRefining.com</a>.
 
 SOURCE: ADVANCED REFINING CONCEPTS LLC

Advanced Refining Concepts begins construction on 'GDiesel' plant in Nevada

Posted October 27, 2009
 
 Canada's biodiesel industry is looking to expand its capacity from 130 million liters (34 million gallons) of biodiesel production to between 500 to 600 million liters in order to meet the Canadian mandate of 2 percent renewable content in diesel by 2011. "Our expectation is we will get to 500 million liters by 2011," said Gordon Quaiattini, president of the <a href=" http://www.greenfuels.org/">Canadian Renewable Fuels Association</a>. 

 
 Quaiattini reported changes to the government's ecoEnergy program are expected in the next few weeks. "It will create a much clearer picture of where or when that additional capacity will come about," he said. <a href="http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/bio-fuels.cfm?attr=16 ">ecoEnergy for Biofuels</a> will invest up to $1.5 billion over nine years in support of biofuel production in Canada. Administered by Natural Resources Canada the program runs through March 2017, providing producer incentives. The incentives for ethanol production for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2009-2010 amounted to 10 cents per liter. The incentive for biodiesel was not made public because of the small number of companies involved. 
 
 Biox Canada Ltd., Hamilton, Ontario, 67 MMly, was the first Canadian biofuels producer to sign an agreement under the program in November, 2008. Other biodiesel producers currently in production or planned that have since been accepted into the program include:
 <ul>
 Bio-Diesel Quebec, Inc,. Saint Alexis des Monts, Quebec, 10 MMly; 
 City-Farm Biofuels Ltd., Delta, British Columbia, 5 MMly; 
 Methes Energies Canada Inc., Mississauga, Ontario, 5 MMly; 
 Noroxel Energy Ltd., Tillsonburg, Ontario, 10 MMly; 
 QFI Biodiesel Inc., St. Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec, 40 MMly; 
 Western Biodiesel Inc., High River, Alberta, 19 MMly; 
 Woods Bio-Diesel, Englehart, Ontario, 40 MMly.</ul>
 

 The total planned and current capacity in the program totals 196 MMly for biodiesel, contrasted with 1.4 billion liters for ethanol.
 
 CRFA recently congratulated Biox Corp. founders Timothy Haig and Kevin Norton on being awarded the 2009 Ontario Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year-Cleantech Award earlier this year. "They are Canada's largest biodiesel producers and are clearly recognized for their leadership," Quaiattini said. The Biox entrepreneurs developed a patented production that converts both triglycerides and free fatty acids (FFA) in a two-step, single phase, continuous process at atmospheric pressures and near-ambient temperatures in less than 90 minutes, according to company information. The process achieves conversion yields greater than 99 percent, even when using up to 10 percent FFA feedstocks. "The cleantech entrepreneur award for Tim and Kevin is an affirmation of their pioneering efforts," Quaiattini added "BIOX is proof of the promise of renewable fuels in Canada. They are reducing harmful green house gas emissions, diversifying the fuel supply and creating new high value jobs."

Canada looking to expand biodiesel capacity to meet 2011 mandates

Posted October 28, 2009 
 
 The Environmental Research Center in Colorado recently partnered with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and an Eagan, Minn., company to help the Air Force Academy develop methods to cultivate and harvest algae oil as part of the Academy's Net Zero 2015 energy program.
 
 The ERC partnered with the AFRL and signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Cool Clean Technologies Inc. in order to develop processes for producing biofuels based on algae oil, said ERC director Dr. Don Veverka.
 
 "This represents an excellent opportunity for our young leaders to witness first-hand how a service academy can partner with private industry and academia," Dr. Veverka said. "They'll be working on an exciting research outcome that greatly impacts their futures and the future of the Air Force."
 
 In addition, the ERC is in talks with Dr. Juergen Polle from Brooklyn University that will hopefully lead to another cooperative research agreement, Dr. Veverka said. The partnership may result in providing additional algae strains for further investigation as a biofuel application. Dr. Polle's research is funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
 
 "These partnerships provide another superb research thrust for our cadets and the Air Force Academy in an exciting new technology," Dr. Veverka said. Cadets from various disciplines will take part as research moves forward, including involvement in a potential pilot-scale production facility.
 

 Cool Clean has partnered with several leading biofuels companies focused on the efficient and cost-effective conversion of bio-oil to various biofuels. The company has demonstrated its technology using biofuel feed stocks, such as soybeans, dried distiller grains from ethanol production, camelina, pennycress and jatropha. The extraction process is environmentally friendly and cheaper than traditional extraction processes, said Jon Wikstrom, Cool Clean's President and CEO.
 
 "We're very excited about working with the Air Force Academy and other Air Force partners," said Mr. Wikstrom, an Academy graduate. "We fully understand how important it is to have an internally controlled military fuel supply chain as a matter of national security as well as (because of) the significant environmental and cost benefits that may result from this effort."
 
 SOURCE: U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY

Air Force Academy partners with Cool Clean to tackle biofuels

Posted October 28, 2009
 
 The pace is picking up for Flambeau River BioFuel LLC's project to convert Wisconsin wood into biomass-based diesel. Honeywell Process Solutions announced Monday that it has been selected to supply and integrate the automation equipment for what it called the largest second-generation green diesel plant in the United States. The next big step is expected to happen next week with the commissioning of the pilot facility to turn Wisconsin wood into biofuel and waxes, according to Bob Byrne, president of Flambeau River BioFuels LLC, Park Falls, Wis. The pilot testing is being done at the Southern Research Institute facility in Durham, N.C.
 
 "We need to operate [the pilot facility] for 1,000 hours to meet the requirements for a DOE loan guarantee and we need to prove the mass energy balance to make sure we have a project," Byrne said. "We need to know the economics are there." An earlier proposal to collocate a cellulosic ethanol plant next to the paper mill at Park Falls was dropped because the economics proved unfavorable as the study progressed. This time, the developers are utilizing gasification and Fischer Tropsch technologies to convert woody biomass into biomass-based diesel and waxes. 
 
 The pilot facility at Southern Research Institute will be using Wisconsin wood to fuel a biomass gasifier designed by<a href=" http://www.tri-inc.net/index.html"> ThermoChem Recovery International Inc.,</a> Baltimore, Md. The syngas produced in the gasifier will be formed into liquids and waxes using catalysts developed by <a href=" http://emfuelstech.com/ ">Emerging Fuels Technology</a>,Tulsa, Okla., in a Fischer Tropsch reactor. The $257 million plant in the engineering phase for Park Falls will produce 18 MMgy of FT liquids and waxes from 350,000 dry tons of biomass per year, according to Byrne. Depending on the pressures and temperatures of the FT reactor and the activity level of the catalyst, the plant will produce up to 10 MMgy of FT waxes and 8 MMgy FT diesel or 9 MMgy of each. The plant will also be supplying steam to the adjacent paper mill.

 
 The waxes and steam utilization are key components of the project, Byrne says. "The wax and the steam will pay the bills and assuming we get the DOE grants, the diesel component provides operating income." FT waxes are a higher value product than fuel, he explained, and currently imported from South Africa and Malaysia. Flambeau River BioFuels has an offtake agreement in place with a wax developer who splits the raw product into components for different customers. 
 
 Collocation with <a href="http://www.flambeauriverpapers.com/ ">Flambeau River Papers</a> offers another revenue steam. The biofuels plant will be utilizing the wood supply currently firing a steam boiler at the paper mill, along with other waste woods and noncommercial woods. In turn, Flambeau River BioFuels will supply the paper mill with steam estimated to be worth $10 million a year. The company will also use additional waste wood and tap into wood species not currently used commercially. Byrne adds the company will be asking that sustainable harvesting criteria be followed.
 
 Although delays in getting the pilot study launched have set the project back, Byrne said they still hope to break ground by August, 2010 and be in operation by 2012. "Those are optimistic dates," he admitted. The permitting process has begun, with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources currently awaiting pilot results. Discussions have begun to determine the engineering and construction schedules. The pilot results are also needed for the U.S. DOE loan guarantees and final financing arrangements. The project has received a $30 million DOE grant which was tapped to provide $4.5 million for preliminary engineering and pilot work. "We had to match that with non federal dollars," Byrne added. "We're meeting that challenge, but it's a challenge for all of us receiving DOE grants." 
 
 Flambeau River BioFuels is working cooperatively with a second, smaller Wisconsin project that also received DOE funding. New Page Crop in Wisconsin Rapids is planning to use the same gasifier and catalysts in a Fischer Tropsch reactor to produce 6 MMgy total liquids and gases.

Advanced biofuel project picks up steam in Wisconsin

Posted October 28, 2009
 
 Corn oil extraction could be the very cement that bridges different sectors of renewable fuels production. For the biodiesel industry, corn oil extracted from ethanol plant stillage is a feedstock largely underutilized and unlike algae, pennycress and other feedstocks being investigated, it's available now. GreenShift Corp., with offices in New York and Atlanta, recently received a second patent for its corn oil extraction technique, "Method of Freeing the Bound Oil Present in Whole Stillage and Thin Stillage." 
 
 GreenShift licenses its technologies to ethanol plants, which usually sell distillers grains into animal feed markets. But the company is looking to "drill into the back-end" of corn ethanol plants to "tap into a new reserve of inedible crude corn oil with an estimated industry-wide output of about 20 million barrels per year," GreenShift said. "An estimated 3.4 million tons of corn oil passed unrecovered through the ethanol industry during 2008 alone."

 
 In addition, GreenShift has filed suit against GEA Westfalia Separator of Germany, and says Westfalia has infringed on its patent territory for recovering corn oil by evaporating, concentrating and mechanically processing thin stillage. "Well after we introduced the market to the benefits of corn oil extraction, [Westfalia] took to trivializing our innovations as they solicited and induced many in the ethanol industry into using our now patented technology well after our patent applications were published," said Kevin Kreisler, CEO of GreenShift.

Greenshift receives new corn oil extraction patent, sues Westfalia

Posted October 30, 2009
 
 Soybean farmers have a new tool available to evaluate how various practices on their farm might impact the environment, plus the opportunity to help shape future versions of the tool. The United Soybean Board, in cooperation with Field to Market: The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture recently launched the Fieldprint Calculator on its Web site at <a href="http://www.unitedsoybean.org">www.unitedsoybean.org</a>. 
 
 The Fieldprint Calculator takes information from farmers and evaluates five resource categories: land use, soil loss, irrigation water use, energy use and climate impact. It calculates productivity, efficiency and overall fieldprint and allows comparisons with state or national averages. Mike Thede, a USB director and soy farmer at Palmer, Neb., said he was pleased when he entered his farm data into the calculator. "I was surprised how small our fieldprint was." Farming in a part of Nebraska where corn and soybeans are irrigated, he thought there would be a bigger penalty for irrigation. However, his use of strip tillage practices would improve his fieldprint. He can also see where the calculator could be improved by adding more information about fertilizer practices, and their potential impact on water quality. The trial version is seeking such input from farmers as additional modules are added to the tool to expand its capabilities.
 
 In introducing the new tool, the USB said it believes the U.S. soybean industry possesses many sustainability attributes and created the soybean checkoff's Sustainability Initiative to further improve the industry's overall environmental footprint. The Fieldprint Calculator doesn't intend to provide precise environmental evaluations, but rather serve as an educational resource to get growers thinking about their operations and how their practices relate to natural resource management and sustainability.

USB adds tool to assess farm sustainability

Posted October 28, 2009
 
 Beginning in January, Brazil's diesel fuel vehicles will be required to run on B5. Escalating quickly, the country has increased the nationally mandated blend ratio from B2 to B5 early last year. The increase to 5 percent was originally scheduled for 2013.

 
 For this developing country, biodiesel production is seen as an economic opportunity for small family farms. According to Brazil's Secretariat of Social Communication, more than 90 percent of the market has received the social fuel label, a mechanism used by the federal government to ensure joint participation by small farmers and agribusiness in the biodiesel production chain. 
 
 Brazil's current domestic production capacity currently sits at 950 MMgy, more than enough to supply the volume required by the 5 percent mandate. On Oct. 27, President Luiz da Silva announced that the effort to increase biodiesel blends "will raise biodiesel production to 2.4 billion gallons in 2010, which will generate new jobs and improve the air quality in Brazil's largest cities as the country continues efforts to tackle global warming."

Brazil to increase biodiesel blend ahead of schedule

Posted November 11, 2009
 
 Yield advancements for palm oil production got a boost in early November with the announcement that a comprehensive genome sequencing project has been completed. The <a href="http://www.mpob.gov.my/">Malaysian Palm Oil Board</a> and St. Louis-based <a href="http://www.oriongenomics.com/">Orion Genomics</a> led a consortium that has sequenced three oil palm genomes from two oil palm species providing a comprehensive genetic blueprint of E. oleifera and E. guineensis including the pisifera and dura palms. In commercial seed production, the pisifera is frequently used as the paternal and the dura serves as the maternal line.

 
 Oil palm plantations on average produce 3.9 tons of oil per hectare per year, nearly 10 times more than other productive oil bearing crops. Therefore, it has the potential to meet growing demand for food and renewable fuel. Used in cooking oil, margarine, baked goods and other foods, palm oil is the most consumed edible oil in the world as well as a common ingredient in soaps and cosmetics and an important biodiesel feedstock globally. 
 
 The oil palm family has two species, the E. guineensis which originates from Africa and the E. oleifera, which is native to South America. Because of its high productivity, the E. guineensis is the commercial variety planted in Malaysia. However, the E. oleifera has many interesting traits such as a low height increment that would increase the life-span of harvestable plantings, increased resistance to disease and production of higher quantities of unsaturated fats - traits that will add value if incorporated into commercial E. guineensis lines. 

 
 "Knowledge of the genomic sequence of these oil palm varieties enables researchers to understand genetic differences between trees that are, for example, higher yielding or more resistant to disease than usual," said Mohd Basri Wahid, director-general of MPOB. "Our goal in completing the oil palm genome sequence is to dramatically improve oil yields for the production of food, feed and fuel."
 
 The consortium included Orion Genomics, MOgene LC and The Genome Center at Washington University, South Korea-based Macrogen Inc., and Adelaide, Australia-based GeneWorks Pty Ltd. In addition to sequencing and assembling the genomes of the three oil palm varieties, the consortium sequenced the expressed genes (or transcriptome) from multiple tissue types for all three types of oil palm. Transcriptome sequence will aid oil palm researchers as they seek to understand the genes responsible for yield, disease resistance and resistance to environmental stress. The initiative generated the most comprehensive genetic and transcriptional maps to date of this important crop.
 
 MPOB and Orion, along with MOgene, LC, also unveiled plans to study the epigenetic makeup of oil palm in 2010 in an effort to improve yields. "Epigenetics is the study of the pattern of chemical groups that influence whether specific genes are turned on or off," said Nathan Lakey, president and CEO of Orion Genomics. "We theorize that by studying oil palm epigenetics, we may be able to help speed the development of varieties of oil palm that produce more oil, rapidly increasing the per acre efficiency of this crop, which already is the single largest producer of edible oils worldwide."

Consortium completes oil palm genome sequencing

Posted November 4, 2009
 
 Management of Tri-City Energy LLC, a 5 MMgy biodiesel plant in Keokuk, Iowa, anticipates completion of the sale of its plant to BFSG International of Zurich, Switzerland, by Nov. 6. The acquisition will be finalized through Tomorrow's Choice in Energy LLC, or TC Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of BFSG. Also part of the transaction is the sale of Keokuk Glycerin LLC in which Tri-City Energy has a 51 percent stake. 
 
 Al Moander, Tri-City Energy sales and marketing manager, told Biodiesel Magazine that, pending the finalization of the purchase, the plant will change its name to TC Energy LLC. He also said engineers are now making assessments of technology upgrades needed at the three year old refinery to remain competitive in this business. 

 
 The plant is slated for auction in December through Maas Companies. Moander said if the transaction is finalized on or before Nov. 6, the auction will be off.

Swiss company buys Tri-City Energy biodiesel plant

Posted November 4, 2009
 
 Renewable Products Development Laboratories has recently received patents for its biodiesel process technologies and is now looking to market its product under the name Biomass Renewable Technologies Inc., after years of research and development work. "Representing ourselves as a laboratory while we tried to market our technology could have proven deadly for us, so we changed our name," said Emilia Gonzalez-Clements, chief operating officer for BRT.
 
 The company is currently preparing to commission a 3MMgy plant outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in December, and is scheduled to begin construction on a new project this month in Seattle. 
 
 BRT's technology platform focuses on feedstock purification. "Our add-on module, the Sterol Master, addresses feedstock problems before you process it in a reactor," Gonzalez-Clements says. "And our high-FFA module allows you to process tallow and greases without making a lot of soap. If you address these problems before transesterification, even the simplest reactors can handle these types of feedstock, and you don't have to clean the fuel up on the back-end."
 
 Along with the Sterol Master and the high-FFA module, BRT is also marketing the Methanol Master, which recycles and recovers methanol; and the Impurities Master, a water-wash solution that helps producers avoid the costs of absorbent chemicals, Gonzalez-Clements said. "While our current focus is on the add-on modules that solve production problems, we also offer complete plant designs," she said.

Biodiesel lab project goes commercial

Posted November 6, 2009
 
 In a deal that brings two of the largest wholesale distribution companies together, TAC Energy, a division of Truman Arnold Companies-with 400 employees and fuel sales close to 2 billion gallons per year-announced the acquisition of Fuel Managers Inc., a Tulsa, Okla.-based dealer with operations in 18 states. TAC will maintain all staff from FMI, which will operate from expanded office locations in Tulsa and Denver. 
 

 "With the integration of Fuel Manager's key customer service personnel and current customer base with our nationwide wholesale operations, we can offer expanded supply and service options that will benefit both current and new customers," said John Rettiger, vice president of TAC Energy, currently operating fuel terminals in North Little Rock, Ark., and Caddo Mills, Texas. This enterprise has more than 1 million gallons of storage capacity and distributes gasoline, aviation, diesel and bio fuels in all 50 states.

TAC Energy acquires Fuel Managers Inc.

Posted November 10, 2009
 
 U.S. soybean producers are looking at record production this year, according to USDA's Nov. 10 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. In spite of difficult weather, soybean yield was projected to come in at a record 43.3 bushels per acre, for a record total production of 3.319 billion bushels. 
 
 The larger supply is only partly offset by projected increased exports and unchanged crush estimations, resulting in increased projections for U.S. all-oilseed ending stocks for the current marketing year, 2009-'10, to be 8.8 million tons, up 1.1 million from last month's report. Soybean exports were raised 20 million bushels to 1.325 billion due to the increased supplies and increased global import demand, mainly for China, EU-27 and Russia. Soybean ending stocks are projected at 270 million bushels, up 40 million from last month's report.
 
 USDA pushed its price estimation higher as well for 2009-'10, reflecting higher corn and soybean futures prices in recent weeks. The U.S. season-average soybean price range was projected at $8.20 to $10.20 per bushel, up 20 cents on both ends of the range. The soybean meal price was projected at $250 to $310 per short ton, up $5 on both ends of the range. The soybean oil price range was projected at 33 to 37 cents per pound, up 1 cent on both ends of the range.
 
 As soybean production numbers increased, USDA backed off its estimation of the national average corn yield by 1.3 bushels per acre, dropping corn production projections 97 million bushels. The adjustments to supply and demand caused the projected marketing-year farm price for corn to be raised 20 cents per bushel to a range of $3.25 to $3.85 per bushel. 
 
 Global oilseed production for 2009-'10 was projected at 428.9 million tons, up 3.6 million from last month. Increased soybean and rapeseed production were only partly offset by lower sunflowerseed, cottonseed, and peanut production. Global soybean production was projected higher with increases for the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. 
 
 Brazil soybean production was projected at a record 63 million tons, up 1 million from last month due to an expected increased harvested area. Argentina soybean production was raised 0.5 million tons to 53 million due to increased area as producers shift additional area to soybeans from sunflowerseed. Argentina sunflowerseed production was reduced due to lower planted area resulting from dry conditions during the planting season. Global rapeseed production was projected higher as increased production for EU-27 was only partly offset by a reduction for Canada. Other changes include higher 
 sunflowerseed production for Ukraine and EU-27, and lower cottonseed production for China.
 

 Global oilseed stocks for 2009-'10 are raised 3.1 million tons to 69.0 million. Increased soybean stocks for Brazil, the United States, and China account for most of the change. Rapeseed stocks for Canada, EU-27, and India were also increased. China soybean imports were raised for 2008-'09 and 2009-'10 to 41.1 million and 40.5 million tons, respectively. Soybean exports for 2009-'10 were raised for Brazil and Argentina. Global vegetable oil stocks were projected 1 million tons higher due to increases in soybean oil stocks for Brazil, China, and India, and increased palm oil stocks for China and Malaysia.

WASDE: record soybean crop being binned

Posted Nobember 10, 2009
 
 The German biodiesel industry expressed its frustration with the EU's three-year-old chemical registration program, with <a href="http://www.agqm-biodiesel.de">Arbeitsgemeinschaft Qualitätsmanagement Biodiesel e.V. (AGQM)</a> calling it "a disaster for the biodiesel industry." AGQM declared after a Nov. 3 hearing in the European Parliament that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) responsible for the registration of chemicals under the European Chemicals Directive (REACH) is "utterly unable to handle the situation and is grossly understaffed."
 
 REACH is an acronym for registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances,<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm "> the European Community regulation on chemicals </a>and their safe use that went into force in June 2007. REACH puts the responsibility on industry to manage risks and provide safety information. Chemical properties and safe handling information is to be registered in a central database rune by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki. REACH provisions are to be phased in over 11 years from the start of the program.
 
 AGQM organized a REACH consortium with over 50 member firms that has worked over the last 20 months to meet the deadlines for the proper registration of chemicals, and sharing costs, explained Dieter Bockey, spokesman for AGQM. "The REACH procedure turned out to be a cost-driving obligation for all companies and increasingly it is a substantial burden on small and medium-size firms," he said. With a 2010 deadline for registration coming, "this cost burden turns out to be another existential threat." The risk assessment studies cost anywhere from €1 million ($1.5 million) to €2.5 million, which given the relatively small size of the biodiesel industry compared to the chemical industry puts a greater burden on smaller industries. 
 
 AGQM is calling for a reduction in the fees being charged for REACH registration and an extension of the registration deadline to the end of 2013, pointing out that the available laboratory capacity for preparing the required studies such as toxicology analysis is limited. AGQM is also demanding the ECHA staff be increased to be able to handle the chemical registration workload, which is 20 times greater than initially expected.

Germany's AGQM decries chemical registration program

Posted November 11, 2009

 
 Several trade problems have been looming between Europe and the U.S. most regarding "contamination" of soy shipments with trace amounts of "non-approved" genetically modified crops. With World Trade Organization negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda restarting, the American Soybean Association presented it priorities to U.S. trade Ambassador Ron Kirk. 
 
 For One, ASA and the National Oilseed producers do not want to be penalized for U.S. subsidies of beans and other oilseeds in the form of tariffs that discourage the penetration of export markets. "Unfortunately the current drafts on the table contain so many loopholes and exemptions, U.S. producers would receive little in market access gains while having to give up a great deal in the area of domestic support," said ASA President Johnny Dodson said. "ASA and other agricultural organizations have repeatedly emphasized the need for a big outcome on market access commensurate with the concessions U.S. agriculture is asked to make on domestic support." 
 
 Also, developing countries like Argentina and Malaysia have an indirect subsidy for the domestic processing of soybeans. This means that whole soybean exports are taxed at a higher rate than oil, meal and biodiesel. "This practice of taxing exports of a whole commodity, and particular soybeans, at a higher rate than its processed products clearly represents a significant export subsidy to the domestic processing industry, and it must be eliminated un any final Doha agreement."

Conflicts still in the forefront as new Doha round begins

Posted November 11, 2009
 
 Researchers in Ohio, a traditional soybean production stronghold, have been doing work to fight off an enemy of one of the state's major cash crops. With funding from USDA, Ohio State University's Agricultural Research and Development Center and the Ohio Soybean Council are part of an aggressive program to fight aphid infection.
 
 Also known as plant lice, aphids rapidly reproduce and live on sap from host plants. "These insects deform or kill plants and invite other worrisome insects to infected cropland because of their honeydew secretions," said the Ohio Soybean Council. "Aphids can also be infected with fungi, viruses and bacteria to further damage crops, and have the potential to greatly impact Ohio's 26,000 soybean farmers and their multifaceted industry valued at $1.9 billion." 
 
 Through genetic modification platforms, OSU researchers are developing a new aphid resistant soya variety that simultaneously addresses the specifics of Ohio's climate; Ohio experienced an increase in the aphid population this last summer. Researchers scouted Ohio farmland in August to assess pest damage and to collect aphid samples for further testing. "Understanding aphid traffic patterns will assist researchers in formulating resistant varieties," OSC stated. 
 
 Aphids first appeared in Ohio in 2001-buckthorn, a common shrub found throughout the state, has been identified as the pest's overwintering host. Additionally, scientists are noticing a change in the usual two-year cycle of high-low aphid populations, the reasons for which are puzzling. "At this time we have to admit we don't know," said Ron Hammond, an entomologist at OSU. "We will recommend that farmers maintain extra vigilance next summer until we see trends in what the aphid population is doing."

Ohio scientists gearing up to fight destructive aphids

Posted November 11, 2009

 
 Camelina cleared another hurdle for the future success and adoption of the new biodiesel feedstock. The North American Camelina Trade Association announced Nov. 10 that it received approval from the Center for Veterinary Medicine, a department of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for the use of camelina meal in the diets of feedlot beef cattle up to 10 percent of the weight of the total ration. Camelina meal has already received approval from the FDA for inclusion in up to 10 percent of the weight of the total ration of broiler chickens based on a broiler feeding study. This study was the first project funded by NACTA, through a grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture.
 
 "Opening up the feedlot beef market for camelina meal feeding opportunities is a tremendous step in building a strong, long-term market for camelina production," said Scott Johnson, president of NACTA. "Increasing the number of markets for the most significant co-product of camelina oil production ensures growers the ability to drive additional revenue from the crop beyond just oil." 
 
 NACTA will continue working to obtain certification from the FDA for additional market segments such as laying hens, swine and dairy. "Camelina meal is an excellent source of protein, and with the growing demand for biofuels made from camelina oil, it is extremely important that our producers have multiple co-product outlets," Johnson said. The study on camelina use in laying hen rations is nearing completion and soon to be submitted to the FDA. "We expect this to occur by year's end and go through a review process that takes about six to eight weeks," he said. Once the laying hen study is submitted, the next target is a feeding study for swine. NACTA and member companies are working on Canadian approval as well.
 
 NACTA was formed in February 2009 by 13 camelina seed companies, processors and researchers. Johnson, president of <a href="http://www.susoils.com/ ">Sustainable Oils Inc.</a>, serves as president of the trade association; Craig Parker, CEO, <a href="http://www.willamettebiomass.com/ ">Willamette Biomass Processors Inc.,</a> is treasurer; and David King, <a href="https://www.camelinacompany.com/Default.aspx ">Great Plains-The Camelina Co</a>., is secretary. The association works to promote research, production and the development of new markets for camelina. Camelina sativa is a member of the mustard family and a distant relative to canola. It is a fast-growing, short-seasoned crop that produces good yields on modest rainfall, and is a low-input crop that fits well into crop rotations without displacing the primary food crops. Its high oil content and other properties make it a great fit for biofuel production. Its high sustainability profile made it a candidate for the high-profile biofuel blend tests in the aviation industry this past year. 

 
 Other hurdles have been cleared for the new crop as well, including catastrophic crop insurance. "We really need to work toward a comprehensive crop insurance program similar to what is available for other commodities," Johnson added. One grass control herbicide is available for use in camelina, and work continues on other weed control measures as well as continuing research on agronomic practices. "In addition, it's critical for the crop to have access to efficient logistics and crushing to fill the demand that we are creating for the crop," Johnson said. Plantings of the new crop are expected to approach 100,000 acres this year, which is considered a major step towards full commercialization of the new crop.

Camelina meal approved for feedlot cattle

Posted November 16, 2009
 
 Gen-X Energy Group Inc. has plans to rebuild its biodiesel plant and expand production 15 miles away at Richland, Wash., after its two-year-old plant at Burbank, Wash., was destroyed in a July fire. CEO Scott Johnson said the fire was started by a portable outhouse outside the building. The building exterior caught fire and heat damage destroyed the equipment inside. 
 
 Plans are being finalized to double production to a 10 MMgy multi-feedstock biodiesel plant. Rail lines at the 15 acre site are being installed now, Johnson said, and engineering work has begun on the site and tank farm. "We have the reactor part engineered already," he added. "We were getting ready to put our second generation reactor in the plant when it burned down." The new system will be less energy and water intensive than the 5 MMgy plant being replaced.

Gen-X to rebuild at Richland, Wash.

Posted November 17, 2009
 
 Renewable jet fuel developed by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has won the Best of What's New Award from Popular Science Magazine in the aviation and space category. The awards are announced in the December issue of Popular Science, which is on stands now.

 
 Best of What's New recognizes outstanding innovation, vision, and execution of revolutionary products and technologies from companies, universities, laboratories, and government agencies. The aviation and space category recognizes anything that flies, inside or outside the atmosphere, as well as devices and technologies for exploring those realms. The 11 categories include technologies, computing, gadgets, security, green technologies, and home entertainment, to name a few. 
 
 "This is our favorite editorial project of the year because we get to comb through thousands of new products and technologies and then recognize the most outstanding 100 with awards," said Popular Science Editor-in-Chief Mark Jannot. 
 
 "We are truly honored and excited to be recognized by Popular Science," said EERC Director Gerald Groenewold. "This is a tremendous example of the type of practical, cutting-edge technologies the EERC is commercializing on a continual basis, as well as a perfect example of our ability to partner with private industry and government entities worldwide," he said.
 
 The EERC's fuel was created from completely renewable crop oils, such as canola and soybeans. Developed through a variety of existing contracts, the fuel was vigorously tested at the Wright–Patterson Air Force Base Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and meets all of the screening criteria for jet propellent-8 (JP-8) aviation fuel, a petroleum-based fuel widely used by the U.S. military. One major advantage of the EERC's renewable fuel is that the fuel can be tailored to meet a wide variety of mission-specific requirements.
 
 In July 2009, the EERC's renewable JP-8 was also successfully flown in a rocket in the Mojave Desert, outside of San Diego, California. The fuel burn was so successful that the rocket approached Mach 1 (the speed of sound) and reached an altitude of about 20,000 feet. The rocket has previously been tested with standard Jet-A fuel and rocket propellant-1 (RP-1) kerosene, for which the rocket was originally designed.
 
 The EERC is the first enterprise in the world to produce 100 percent renewable jet fuel and diesel from crop oils through its Advanced Tactical Fuels Program, with support from government and private entities. The EERC is working with several commercial entities to commercialize the technology, which would produce billions of dollars worth of alternative fuels annually.
 
 More information about the Best of What's New Awards and the other award winners is available at <a href="http://www.popsci.com">www.popsci.com</a>. 

 
 The above project was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office and was financially supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Disclaimer: The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressly or implied, of the U.S. Army, DARPA, or the U.S. Government.
 
 SOURCE: EERC

Featured in December Issue of Popular Science on Stands Now

Renewable jet fuel receives "Popular Science" Best of What's New award

Posted November 16, 2009
 
 <a href="http://www.dicksondata.com">Dickson Co.</a> is offering two new tools of interest for process automation. The <a href="http://www.dicksondata.com/article/article_61.php">Dickson Data Logger Selection Guide</a> is an online step-by-step resource guide to find the best-match technology for monitoring temperature, humidity, pressure or electronic signal events. Dickson provides a wide selection of data loggers and chart recorders for monitoring purposes.

 
 Multiple selection factors are provided including instrument displays, remote probe availability, alarm options, wireless/Ethernet/battery-operated or outlet-powered, operating ranges and cost. Users are able to drill down and mix and match various features until they identify the range of instruments that match their specifications.
 Chris Sorensen, Dickson vice president sales and marketing, explained, "We know that the data logger or chart recorder that is the best fit for one user's application may not work well for another, and we maintain the world's widest selection of top-quality instruments to ensure you'll never have to make do with a less than optimal instrument match to your application."
 
 Dickson also offers<a href="http://www.dicksondata.com/calibration/calibration_order.php"> a comprehensive calibration guide </a>on its Web site that reviews calibration methods to choose from, the development of calibration schedules, and more. "All instruments lose accuracy over time due to normal usage and the environmental conditions to which they are exposed," Sorensen said. "Periodic NIST-certified calibrations maintain the accuracy of your instrument throughout its life. This guide is designed to make it very easy for users of chart recorders and data loggers to navigate the many choices in calibration approaches to find the one that is best-matched to their application requirements."

Dickson offers selection, calibration guides

Posted November 17, 2009
 
 Houston-based engineers and biodiesel blenders The Hammonds Companies markets the Biobor line of fuel additives and has several new products making their debut this month. Specifically, Biobor MD promises to enhance fuel performance and economy, aid in lubricity, which is extremely critical with the use of low sulfur diesel, clean up the engine by reducing sludge build up and prevent gelling of the fuel. 
 
 Biobor has focused on eliminating the microorganisms as the "industry standard for 30 years" but the new products-Bibor MD, Biobor EB and the Hum-Bug detector kit-are designed in particular for marine applications. "Biodiesel has more of propensity for growing bugs [because it attracts water]," Carl Hammonds, founder and president of Hammonds Companies, told Biodiesel Magazine. "But we're still early enough in the stages of use and care for biodiesel that we really don't know some of its long term effects." 
 

 Along with using additives, Hammonds said making sure tanks are clean and dry is the best way to protect against various types of contamination. Certainly the outfit is no stranger to biodiesel handling. The company currently provides blending services for a "major fuel marketer and distributor" but could not reveal that name of the company because of a nondisclosure agreement. "It's a travel plaza [business model] where biodiesel can be blended up to 20 percent right at the pump."
 
 To supplement its additive line, Hammonds also manufactures in-line blending equipment so marketers and distributors can precision blend diesel and biodiesel fuels at various percentages "from the terminal to the hose," Hammonds said, as well as fluid additive injector systems. 
 
 "Biodiesel MD is more for marine applications, but the flagship product in the line, Biobor JF, is designed to accommodate over-the-road applications. "We see this sector as using the most biodiesel," Hammonds said. "In addition to being a microbicide, Biobor is a pour-point depressant that can keep the fuel from gelling at low temperatures."

Hammonds offers new microbicide additive for marine applications

Posted November 17, 2009
 
 Members of the <a href="http://biodiesel.org/">National Biodiesel Board (NBB) </a>called on lawmakers to extend and reform the biodiesel tax incentive. 
 
 "The biodiesel tax incentive is working. Since its enactment in 2004, U.S. biodiesel production has reached commercial scale, and the nation has realized the job creation, environmental and energy security benefits that come with the expanded production and use of biodiesel," stated Manning Feraci, NBB's vice president of federal affairs. "These benefits will simply be lost if the credit lapses."
 
 The $1 per gallon biodiesel tax incentive encourages the use of biodiesel by making the fuel price competitive with petroleum diesel fuel in the marketplace. The incentive is currently set to expire on December 31, 2009. Absent the biodiesel tax incentive, the use of biodiesel in the marketplace will be cost prohibitive, and the domestic production and use of biodiesel will cease.
 
 During visits with lawmakers, biodiesel industry leaders expressed strong support for S. 1589, the Biodiesel Tax Incentive Reform and Extension of Act, introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), and H.R. 4070, companion legislation introduced yesterday by Representatives Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and John Shimkus (R-IL). This legislation would reform the biodiesel tax incentive by changing the current blenders excise tax credit to a production excise tax credit. This will improve administration of the incentive, eliminate potential abuses and improve tax compliance. The proposals would also extend the biodiesel tax incentive for five years, providing the certainty entrepreneurs need to create jobs and expand the use of biodiesel.

 
 "Biodiesel use is consistent with a policy that values the creation of green jobs and expanded use of low carbon fuels. The tax incentive plays an integral role in achieving these goals, and it is vitally important that Congress extend this worthwhile, effective incentive," concluded Feraci.

NBB pushes 5-year biodiesel tax extension, House version introduced

Posted November 17, 2009
 
 The Massachusetts biodiesel mandate, which has been criticized for allowing only waste-derived biodiesel to qualify, is moving forward despite what the Massachusetts Oilheat Council called in it's Nov. 13 newsletter a "spell of relative silence" surrounding the mandate. 
 
 On Sept. 30, MOC president Michael Ferrante sent an email to Dwayne Bregger, director of renewable and alternative energy development in the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, asking specifics regarding the mandate, to which Bregger replied, "Do know that we are moving forward with the Early Action Year beginning July 2010. We anticipate the EPA RFS2 protocol for greenhouse gas reductions to be available by the end of this year and that we will find it acceptable for adoption for [the Massachusetts] program. At that time, DOER will be able to qualify all biofuels (regardless of feedstock) that can demonstrate the 50 percent GHG reduction." 
 
 The state's exclusion of soy and other virgin oil biodiesel in its mandate was based on EPA's proposed RFS2 rule, which was flawed in methodology used to calculate GHG emissions from crop-based biodiesels. In Bregger's response to Ferrante, he wrote, "The eligibility of biofuels from agricultural feedstocks will depend on whether they meet the 50 percent GHG reduction criterion as per the Protocol, which we will adopt (most likely EPA RFS2 protocol)." 
 
 Bregger also said, "Tracking the biofuels (and differentiating "advanced"/qualified biofuels from others) into [Massachusetts] and then through the [Massachusetts] market is an area that we are much engaged in now. We will need to complete those procedures and then move into draft regulations." 
 
 In a separate email to all of the state biofuels stakeholders from Phil Giudice, commissioner of the Massachusetts energy department, Giudice wrote, "DOER has committed to initiating the mandate in July 2010 as an Early Action Year." This means that "Early Action Credits" will be given beginning in July 2010 for all gallons of qualified biodiesel sold into the Massachusetts market, which may then be applied to the 2011 mandate obligations. Giudice noted, "However, to the extent that the successful implementation of the federal RFS2 program, the promulgation of DOER reulations and demonstrated industry readiness make possible, DOER will move to begin mandatory compliance prior to July 2011." 
 
 According to the MOC, it's still unclear what percentage level-either 2 percent or 3 percent-mandatory compliance beginning in 2011 or earlier will start.

Mass. biodiesel mandate moving ahead despite uncertainties

Posted November 17, 2009

 
 Schroeder Biofuels sells its Cold Clear filtration system-meant to lower the biodiesel cold soak number-through a network of distributors of which Houston's Dexter Biodiesel Solutions is the largest. "I have eight to 10 units already that I've sold and are operating in the field," said Nathan DeMartino of DBS. "You can't go to any other distributors or even Schroeder for a demo unit."
 
 The Cold Clear Demo system is a 5 gallon-per-minute unit. This unit will be able to process 15,000 or more gallons of biodiesel before the elements need to be changed. It is recommended that this unit be placed at the end of the biodiesel process in a "slip" stream for best results during the trial. 
 
 The average cost per gallons is 2.5 - 3 cents. "That's around $450," DeMartino said. "And if the customer decides they like the equipment and wants to move forward I will credit that back to them." 
 
 "The deposit is around $3,200, which is the cost of the one of the system housings," DeMartino told Biodiesel Magazine. "That's fully refundable, and the cartridges will treat about 15,000 gallons." Essentially, customers can test the Cold Clear system for the low price of the cartridges without committing to the purchase of the more expensive system housings. 
 
 "This is a great opportunity for biodiesel producers that are interested in the Cold Clear unit and want to see how it performs on their specific fuel," DBS said.

Dexter Biodiesel Solutions offers Cold Clear demo

Posted November 18, 2009
 

 BioCat Fuels, founded in 2008 to partner with McNeff Research Consultants to commercialize the Mcgyan biodiesel process technology, is looking to raise $7 million through a private placement memorandum to launch a new biodiesel project using Mcgyan reactors. Ric Larson, BioCat CEO, said the company plans to build a new plant in Illinois or retrofit a closed biodiesel plant. Clayton McNeff, primary inventor of the Mcgyan process, chairs the BioCat board of directors and said, "We have licensed the Mcgyan process to BioCat Fuels to develop processing facilities for the technology. We have been very impressed with the quality of the biodiesel that we are now producing in Isanti" at the Ever Cat Fuels plant in Minnesota. 
 
 In reviewing the benefits of the Mcgyan reactor technology, Larson said, "[It's a] continuous process that can convert nonfood waste oils that other processes are unable to convert. More importantly, the process uses no water, has no hazardous waste stream and uses oils not suitable for human consumption." 
 
 He also said there's more demand for biodiesel than there is available product right now. "States are increasing their mandates and the incentives they offer for using biodiesel. For example, Illinois offers an incentive where using 11.5 percent biodiesel eliminates the state fuel tax on the diesel fuel for farmers, truckers and construction companies. In 2008, Illinois alone consumed over 200 million gallons." 
 
 The BioCat Fuels private placement memorandum offers shares at $1 with a minimum purchase of 20,000 shares. For more information email CEO Ric Larson at riclarson@biocatfuels.com.

Company seeks $7 million to launch Mcgyan biodiesel plant

Posted November 18, 2009
 
 The biofuels industry is at the point where the Internet was in 1992, Riggs Eckelberry, CEO of OriginOil Inc. said in his remarks at the Next Generation Biofuels Feedstocks USA conference in San Francisco, Nov. 16-17. Not quite 20 years ago, the Internet was a "slow and painful academic system", Eckelberry said, until the first Netscape browser was launched in 1994 that introduced a new way of looking at computing-computers to communicate and not just compute. The wide sharing of the free browser launched a revolution in communications that has become global.
 
 Biofuels will explode just as the Internet did in 1994, Eckelberry said. "We need a new way of looking at biofuels," he urged, plus the technology to support them and the wide sharing of that technology. He observed that biofuels are being unfairly compared to other renewable technologies that will take trillions of dollars and decades to put the infrastructure in place to deploy wind, solar, geothermal and other energy solutions. He urged the audience to "change the conversation," adding that "only biofuels can deliver new energy, right now. The proof?- My existing car can run on new energy." Eckelberry advocated replacing the existing centralized petroleum refining and power generation approach with a distributed system. OriginOil is exploring such an approach to deploy its patented technology for a single-step, algal oil extraction process.
 
 As an algae-technology developer, Eckelberry was one of several speakers addressing feedstock developments. Analyst Will Thurmond reported a "mix of optimism, pessimism and everything in between" among participants at the conference. In Thurmond's remarks at the conference, he discussed his in-depth study of emerging algae companies. "Algae will be a good long-term bet," he said, but like cellulosic ethanol, suffers from the "in-just-three-more-years syndrome." Algae will need tax credits or other incentives to get off the ground, he predicted, with the U.S. Department of Defense most likely being the first customer for the new feedstock. 
 
 About 20 development projects worldwide are ready to move from the laboratory to pilot stage at this time, he said, with the largest facility in the world covering just five acres. Once the proof of concept is completed on the pilot scale, the next level will be to move to demonstration scale and prove the economics. He also reported the emphasis among algae developers is moving away from algae oil for biodiesel production. "A lot of companies that got into algae used to be biodiesel producers and were investing in algae for biodiesel," he said. "Now they're talking about meal and high value products, and saying they are algae food and fuel companies."

Industry urged to change the conversation on biofuels

Posted November 18, 2009

 
 Instrumentation firm Flow Line Options Corp. (Flo-Corp) announced it has just supplied Smart Fuels LLC with process measurement and control solutions to run its biodiesel refinery in Fruitland, Fla. Construction on the Smart Fuels Florida plant began earlier this year and is expected to be operational in 2010, using waste cooking oils and animal fats for biodiesel production. According to the company, the glycerin produced through transesterification will be used for process energy. 
 
 Some of the Flo-Corp equipment installed at the facility includes MEMFlo volumetric flow meters and trademarked MFT two-wire flow transmitters to precisely monitor the flow rate through the heaters, and calculate the amount of oil going to the reactor. Also installed were Flo-Corp's trademarked EchoSafe ultrasonic level transmitters to gauge fluid levels in the tanks, and CalFlo SwitchGuard flow and temperature switches for additional protection.

Smart Fuels biodiesel project selects Flo-Corp controls

Posted November 19, 2009
 
 Brazil's state-run Petrobras Biofuels acquired a 50 percent stake for $32 million in a BSBIOS SA plant in the state of Parana that is expected to begin commercial operations in the second quarter of 2010. The new plant has an installed capacity of 120 MMly (about 30 MMgy).
 
 Petrobas Biofuel currently has a capacity of 324 million liters of biodiesel per year, with plants in Montes Claro, Dandeia and Quixada. The Parana plant will give the company a presence in the country's southern region. BSBIOS is one of the largest biodiesel producers in southern Brazil with a 160 MMly plant in Passo Fundo using soybean oil, canola and sunflower. The new plant at Marialva, Parana, is in the final stages of construction. 
 
 In October, the Brazilian government announced it would advance the implementation of a B5 mandate from 2013 to 2010. The Ministry of Mines and Energy said the B5 target should increase the production of biodiesel in Brazil to 2.4 billion liters, making Brazil the second largest producer of biofuels in the world. The ministry has also announced an oilseed research program to reduce the country's dependence upon soybean oil as a biodiesel feedstock.

November 2009

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Business Briefs

BusinessBriefs: Companies, Organizations & People in the News

Columns

Battle Looms for Future of Biomass-Based Diesel

Oct. 1 IRS Deadline Passes, Indian Automaker Prepares for US Debut

Featured

U.K. Accounting for Sustainability

The Interconnectedness of Sustainability

South American Expansion

The Main Rotation

November 2009