From Treehugger
The green/renewable energy initiatives of Hawaii have been coming increasingly into the spotlight lately. Most recently plans for sea-water air conditioning and a mandate for solar water heating in new homes. Though still in the planning stage of development, the state may be getting another piece of green tech: a commercial-scale microalgae facility for the the production of biodiesel.
Algae Facility Planned, But Details Not Finalized
Announced yesterday, HR BioPetroleum will be partnering with Alexander & Baldwin, Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric to pursue development of an algae facility next to the Ma’alaea power plant on the island of Maui. Nothing is final yet however as regulatory approval has yet to be received, project financing details have to be finalized, and HR BioPetroleum needs to confirm the performance of its pilot and demonstration projects. Assuming all that is worked out in a timely fashion, the first phase of the facility could begin operating in 2011. This facility would be the first commercial-scale facility for HR BioPetroleum.
Praising the announcement, Hawaii governor Linda Lingle said, “There is no single source of energy that will break our dependence on foreign oil, but investments in renewable projects such as this are part of the comprehensive solution to provide energy alternatives for our state.”
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From EcoGeek
Japan Airlines (JAL) is going up into the wild blue yonder using (in part) second generation biofuel. They have a demonstration flight scheduled for the end of March 2009 that will feature a blend of jet fuel and cellulosic ethanol to power one of the four engines of a JAL Boeing 747-300 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines.
While they know the equipment they’re using, they aren’t yet decided on what biofuel they’re going with, though they’ve narrowed it down to second generation biofuels. JAL likes second generation biofuel because it doesn’t compete with people for natural food or water resources, and by using it, they may minimize (sort of) their environmental footprint. The company’s goal is a 20% cut on CO2 emissions per available tonne kilometers of its fleet, compared to 1990 levels, with a due date of 2010. So far it has achieved nearly 16% of that 20% goal. Going with a biofuel-jet fuel blend can help knock a percentage point or two off of that as well.If they’re really stretching for that goal, why not use the 787 with the biofuel cocktail, I wonder.
Using cellulosic ethanol, especially that from technology that turns municipal waste into useable fuel, is a pretty attractive notion for commercial airline flights. However, if they really want to make a dent in what they’re spending on increasingly expensive fuel and the massive amount of CO2 that commercial airline flights produce, they’ll have to figure out something more than putting a little biofuel into one engine. Talk about just dipping one’s toes in the pool. Perhaps they’re just waiting for the EU to make some headway in the science...
At any rate, Boeing will be conducting the biofuel screening and says it will pick the best performing fuel by the end of August. We'll keep our eyes out for any news updates.
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From gas 2.0
"As much was we covet electric cars like the Tesla Roadster, most of us balk at the $100,000 sticker price. But with gas prices at or above $4 / gallon, the cost difference isn’t as dramatic as you might imagine.
The NYTimes reported last week that if you account for total ownership of a full-sized truck, including insurance, interest, repairs, taxes, and gasoline, a big vehicle like Ford’s F-250 will now set you back $100,000 in the first five years of ownership. Five years is the average amount of time an owner keeps one of these trucks.
Obviously, the average person and automakers alike are noticing how expensive large vehicles have become (GM just announced it would stop making trucks and SUVs at four of its North American plants). Until May, full-sized trucks accounted for 13% of the US vehicle market. They’ve now now plummeted to 9%. Ford’s F-series trucks have been the best selling vehicle annually since 1976, but for the first time in years the top selling vehicle last month was a car: the Honda Civic sedan.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great renewable energy replacement for heavy duty trucks yet, besides incorporating hybrid technology (like GM has done) which can boost fuel economy by 20%, or modifying the fuel system to accept high ethanol blends (50% of GM’s fleet will be Flex-Fuel by 2012).
One thing has been made abundantly clear: the threshold for buying a full-size truck has gone up a few notches. I was shocked earlier this month when my mechanic said he would be downsizing to a Toyota Tacoma for his daily commute. Will he keep the full-sized truck? Of course, he says, because well, he still has a boat and horse trailer to haul around."
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From Treehugger
"Algaelink, a biofuels company based in the Netherlands, was overlooked in 15 Algae Biofuels Startups to watch. So make it 16. Algaelink has signed an exclusive agreement with the airline KLM to develop biofuels for aircraft and are developing a system which would allow cruise ships to grow and process biofuels on board for feeding directly to the ships' own engines. For our part, we admire Algaelink's thinking: they understand sustainability.
Algal biofuels is sustainable, de facto, you are thinking: what else is there? A look at the Algaelink website will convince you that Algaelink thinks beyond the obvious. For example, they are promoting the flat-pack delivery capabilities of their pilot technology, saving fuel while getting eco-fuel equipment to the customer. Furthermore, algae growth and oil extraction succeeds without the addition of chemicals in the Algaelink process. This means that the "wastes" leftover from pressing the oil can be upcycled to take advantage of vitamins, antioxidants and building blocks for food and pharmaceutical applications in the algae residuals. And the cherry on top: the process is energy efficient, consuming only 26kW to turn 50% of the algae paste to oil in the 45m3/hr pilot plant.
In the Algaelink press release about the KLM deal, Hans van de Ven, Managing Director of AlgaeLink, observes: “Because of our expertise in optimising algae growth in a photobioreactor(PBR) and the extraction of biomass and oil out of the PBR , they came to us.” Reports indicate that KLM intends to have 12 Fokker-50 planes -- 7% of the fleet -- running on algal biofuel by 2010.
In the press release about the KLM deal, Algaelink hinted that negotiations were underway with "the world's largest cruiseliner." The German weekly WirtschaftsWoche confirmed in their issue of 2 June 2008 that Algaelink is currently developing a system for a shipping line, but the customer chooses to remain anonymous.
For the average person, Algaelink is good news. For the true eco- and biofuels geeks, check out the Algaelink pilot plant. You can own your own algal biofuels production pilot plant for only €69,000, less than the price of a new Tesla."
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From Gas 2.0
The company has announced that it’s investigating suitable sites for commercial garbage-to-ethanol facilities — leading baby-owners everywhere to rejoice that they may never again have to feel guilty about throwing out enough diapers each day to put the elephant in this commercial to shame (and can I just be the first to say “WTF?” to that commercial).
Over the last month CleanTech Biofuels has formed major partnerships with Green Tech America and HFTA UCal Berkeley to purchase and develop novel equipment and methods they hope will make the production of ethanol from garbage a reality. CleanTech boasts that their technology can be used to produce ethanol locally using waste that would otherwise end up in landfills — potentially reducing waste disposed of in those landfills by as much as 90%. From a recent CleanTech press release:
It is estimated that Americans [each] produce 4.4 pounds of waste per day, or 229 million tons of trash annually nationwide. This waste represents a virtually endless source of cellulosic feedstock for the production of biofuels that potentially will be available to CleanTech at almost no cost, and in some locations at a profit.
The comment about receiving feedstock at a profit is what really intrigues me. As far as I know, there are no other types of ethanol production facilities that have the potential to receive feedstock at a profit. In fact, in most cases this is a major sticking point between making cellulosic ethanol at an acceptable price and seeing dreams go down the tubes.
CleanTech isn’t alone in the push to make ethanol from waste. BlueFire Ethanol (why do all these ethanol company names have to be two words shoved together but both still capitalized?) recently announced that it will be starting construction of a facility within weeks to convert landfill waste into ethanol, and Coskata Inc. is also constructing a demonstration facility that will use municipal waste as a feedstock.
It appears that these companies are on the path to becoming major competitors. They should just merge now and avoid the future pain. CleanFireCoskataBlueTech sound like a good name to you?
The great part about making fuel from garbage is that many communities already pay fees to garbage companies to accept trash - referred to as “tipping fees.” CleanTech is looking to site their facilities in communities with favorable tipping fees, allowing them to get paid before they even start selling the ethanol.
If CleanTech or BlueFire are successful, their ethanol could be the cheapest around — and you could relax knowing that those old Pokemon cards you finally threw out might actually be doing some good.
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From Treehugger:
First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in the US
The first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States is now open! The verenium biorefinery in Jennings, Louisiana, will produce 1.4 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year with agricultural waste left over after sugarcane production.
What are Second Generation Biofuels?
Ethanol made from cellulose, as opposed to ethanol made form corn, is what is a second generation biofuel. The difference, and it's an important one, is that second generation biofuels use non-food residual biomass like the stems, leaves, wood chips, and husks, or they use non-food crops that can be grown without high energy inputs, like switchgrass.
Verenium's Cellulosic Ethanol Goals
Verenium wants to create cellulosic ethanol at $2 per gallon, which right now would make it fairly competitive with corn ethanol and regular gasoline.
But this demonstration plant is just the beginning: Next year, Verenium wants to built several commercial plants that would each produce 20 to 30 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol yearly. That's still a fairly small drop in the bucket of gasoline consumption, but it would be much better than corn ethanol, and certainly better than fossil fuels.
Cellulosic Ethanol Feedstock and Process
Verenium will use a combination of acid pretreatments, enzymes, and two types of bacteria to make ethanol from the plant matter--called bagasse--that's left over from processing sugarcane to make sugar. It will also process a relative of the sugar cane called the energy cane. It produces less sugar, but more fiber and grows taller, increasing yield.
What to do with Corn Ethanol?
One question that remains is: What do we do with all that corn ethanol?
The best hope would be to convert corn ethanol biorefineries into second generation biofuel plants. That might or might not be possible on a technical level, but we suspect that on a political level it will be even harder. The farm lobby is very good at keeping subsidies forever. When food prices are low, they ask for subsidies, when prices are high (as now), they ask for more. So who knows if the fat corn ethanol subsidies will ever be repelled?
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From Jalopnik - "It was when the oil light came on that I started to run through the appropriate next steps in my head...and realized that there aren't any appropriate next steps when warning lights start going off in a 1982 VW Vanagon camper. Particularly one converted to run on a mixture of vegetable oil and algae biodiesel grown and refined by a group of Chicago high school students. As the Sears Tower, our goal, loomed in the distance, a question loomed in my mind: Was our shared belief in the future of petroleum alternatives and, more importantly, in the fuel processing abilities of public school students and their teachers, strong enough to convince us to push further into the knot of congestion forming around the city?
The Idea
David Levine, a second-year teacher placed in Chicago through the Teach For America program, faced a common problem: how to get students to take the same interest in their studies as in Grand Theft Auto IV. His school, the Al Raby School for Community and Environment, serves populations from the predominately African American neighborhoods on Chicago's West Side, a place where the median income is more than 40% lower than the city as a whole. How could he motivate his students to invest their time and interest in the scientific process?
Levine settled on one of the biggest issues facing this generation of students: the impact, both environmental and political, of our dependence on foreign sources of fuel. According to the UN Human Development Reports, the US emits 21% of the world's carbon dioxide despite having only 4.6% of the world's population. We're currently engaged in our second war in the oil-rich Middle East. Using these issues as a starting point, Levine sought a project that would address the problems while at the same time providing an educational and compelling experience for his students. Thus the Algae Biodiesel Van was born.
The goal was to create enough biodiesel from algae, grown and processed in the classroom, to power a vehicle from the school to Chicago's Sears Tower and back, an approximately 20-mile round trip. Because algae sucks carbon out of the atmosphere, it is relatively carbon neutral to produce and, unlike corn or soybeans, isn't a food crop. But how do you turn single-celled plants into viable fuel within the confines of a classroom?
You can't miss the algae-processing unit that occupies the corner of Levine's science classroom. Giant bags filled with a specific strain of fuel-producing algae are stacked on top of one another, connected by a series of tubes that pump the bright green organic slime around a stack of fluorescent lamps to encourage photosynthesis. This would actually make a great lighting fixture for a trendy LA sushi place.
Students have been working with Levine to cultivate the algae in their classroom and refine it down to fuel. Almost all the work was done on-site, though at one point the solution had to be taken to a centrifuge at the University of Illinois Chicago for final separation, an event which afforded students a chance to see a fully operational lab.
After spending a large portion of their junior year working through the process, the students were able to create what they hoped was enough fuel to power a vehicle the full distance: one gallon. Right before the trip one of the students showed off their beaker of algaediesel, which I can attest smells much better than petrodiesel. Though that's not saying much.
Read More...
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