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McAdams: 'Show me the gallons'"Show me the gallons," said Michael McAdams, president of the Advanced Biofuels Workshop and keynote speaker at the Advanced Biofuels Workshop, which took place June 14 in St. Louis as a co-located event at the 26th International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo. McAdams said he was bringing the audience into the "no spin zone" and discussed the troubling issues regarding the lapsed biodiesel and other tax credits that are crippling America's drive toward energy independence. "It's not just tax credits that Congress is dealing with," he said. Health care, oil spill liability, offshore drilling and a number of other pressing issues are occupying Congress' time. "You pick them and I work with them," McAdams said. "I protect you from those you elect." He then observed that he wasn't sure how the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was ever going to get cleaned up because BP is so busy coming to Washington for hearings.READ MORE Game-changing pathways to advanced biofuelsThe one-day Advanced Biofuels Workshop, a co-located event at BBI International's 26th annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo, took place June 14 in St. Louis. The conference's first panel-Game-Changing Pathways: Exploring New Roads to Tomorrow's Advanced Biofuels-demonstrated the wide range of products from, and process techniques for, advanced biofuels production. Today the advanced biofuels industries are in the "let a thousand flowers bloom" mode, said Gregory Pal, senior director of corporate development with LS9 Inc. "Over time there'll be a shake-out and others will fall by the wayside," Pal said, referring to the questionable feasibility of some products and processes now under investigation.READ MORE  A second life for idled industrial facilitiesAt the Advanced Biofuels Workshop June 14 in St. Louis, a panel took place that should be of interest to the many idled and distressed biodiesel facilities in the U.S., thanks to the long-lapsed biodiesel tax credit. The panel, titled, Second Life: Upgrading Existing Industrial Facilities for Advanced Biofuels Production, discussed opportunities where misfortunes otherwise abound. Richard Aves, CEO of Cetane Energy LLC, presented on the retrofitting of biodiesel plants to hydroprocessing facilities to produce between 200 to 2,000 barrels (8,400 to 84,000 gallons) per day of renewable diesel. He said Cetane Energy got U.S. EPA certification of its fuel in April 2009, and the company is currently looking at first-gen feedstocks for its second-gen process.READ MORE READ MORE Hard work has made biodiesel a 'drop-in' fuelSteve Howell, technical director for the National Biodiesel Board and president of the Marc-IV consulting firm, said he was at the Advanced Biofuels Workshop's Drop-In Biofuels panel to present what "infrastructure-ready" biofuels means to him and the biodiesel community. He also gave an industry update and spoke to the sustainable nature of biodiesel. Biodiesel is a great example of a sustainable fuel based on waste or excess materials. Since soybeans are grown for the meal, soy oil is a byproduct of the soy crushing industry. In more recent times, many plants have been built or retrofitted to utilize waste greases, used cooking oils and animal fats, or any combination thereof. "No one fries more food or grows more livestock for the waste," Howell said.READ MORE |
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