Europe, Biodiesel, and Market Development

There has been "news" that Europe's biodiesel industry is falling on hard times. The combination of higher ag prices, excess capacity of world B100 production, combined with the recent 'food-versus-fuel' and deforestation arguments coming from the EU's environmental circles has caused attitudes to go lukewarm towards biodiesel.

The above is my 'cliff-notes' description of the Wall Street Journal article that came out yesterday. If you are looking for the article it's titled: "Europe's Biodiesel Drive Sputters" by John Miller. (Thanks to Glenn Montgomery for emailing it out to the Biofuels4Oregon listserve)

The problem is that I don't think this argument is the real issue. The media and policy people are misdirected in their concerns. It is market development not market support that is causing the issues in Europe and the US as well.

Don't get me wrong, all the issues reported by the WSJ are real. I just don't feel they are why European biodiesel producers (or American for that matter) are having a hard time. There is a bright-line difference between market forces efficiently allocating resources and individual players making bad decisions industry wide.

The real problem is the inability of biodiesel producers to develop their own markets and customers for their products. Any business model that relies solely on brokers and middlemen to move 100% of their product is going to be doomed to little or no profits.

The EU relied to heavily on subsidies that dropped biodiesel's price artificially low against petroleum. The European producers developed a market which was driven on price not on value. When price was no longer in their favor their market immediately turned harsh. The only reason most of their customers had been inspired to buy biodiesel was because it was cheaper.

To compound European market woes, they were successful enough creating a price driven market to attract other biodiesel producers with competitive advantages in feedsock production and labor regulation enabling much lower cost B100. They had no marketing or brand differentiation to discern superior and sustainable EU biodiesel from a Malaysian or South American competitors. Hence the only signal in the market place is price.

Beyond selling biodiesel as a cheaper fuel they have no focus on developing their own markets at all. That is the problem with agriculture in general. They want the government to protect them and then scoff at niche markets as to risky. CO2 and emission reduction is a market many other technology companies have done well with. Even successfully selling products at above market rates.

Contrast that with selling the value of a product by application as opposed to selling it based solely on price. In the EU and in the US the emphasis has always been on artificially reducing the cost of biofuels as opposed to correctly raising the price of petroleum. Note the success of natural gas in the US. A fuel sold primarily on its clean attributes and therefore becoming the silver bullet solution for any emmission problem.

What this WSJ article says to me is that local biofuel companies need to develop their own markets for their products. That at a certain point the fuel needs to stand on its own with a certain deeply penetrated niche market. There are places, especially in regulated industrial markets, where biodiesel is worth more than petroleum at any price.

Tax help and mandated use might cover fixed costs for a biodiesel producer but in large commodity markets producers tend towards no profits. The producers seem to be relying completely on government help, protection, and mandates to make their markets happen.

That's Europe's problem. Their policy is just focused on creating a guaranteed market to sell into and based on this alone they hope for guaranteed profits. I just don't see it happening. Third world producers with state guided economies and no property rights will be able to dump all profits out of any mandated market. They will dictate the bottom of the feedstock markets regardless of what First World economies try to do (short of protectionism).

That is the future of commodities and is why enforcing verifiable labels like "Fair Trade", "Organic", "Sustainable", and "Made in the US" are so important. Customers seeing a value beyond price is the only place any business including biofuels can ever turn a long term profit.

Sorry for the rant.

Soy Bean Board looks "Beyond Bean"

Some interesting proposals of what will next be viably made out of soy beans.

- Soy plastics and foam use by auto makers.
- Soy based foam for home insulation.
- Soy foam backed carpeting in your house and commercial building.
- And the ultimate sole purpose for this post: Perry Ellis Soy-Underwear, with soy based textile fibers.

From the Biobased News.

US Natural Gas Pipelines

Just something interesting to look at.

Please note the west coast. In particular the lack of infrastructure in California. Makes you wonder where electrical power will come from if coal and oil are off the table as our energy needs expand. Throw on top of that regulatory environment a low carbon standard and we look a little light way out west.

Another speculation on my part. How much you want to bet there is a similarly situated amount of available natural gas in the Rockies? This resource just not being developed due to the tighter development framework for the newer West Coast over the last fifty years.

Martin Tobias Steps Out of Imperium

On the way out last week this Imperium Renewables Press Release came across my email. (Also check out the CNet article as well as the Seattle Post Intelligence article)

It was a pretty big surprise to everyone which just drives gossip from every side of the industry. Truthfully I wasn't even thinking about work at all over the holiday. It didn't even strike me as relevant to post this news until a friend from the east coast asked about it.

My thoughts. Imperium has a pretty strong wind to its back. This leads me to wonder if this is a positive thing for Imperium as they move forward to their Initial Public Offering. A strategic restructuring to move forward.

A review of Imperium Renewables fortunes:

1) Imperium has lined up a few long term supply agreements (guaranteed off take and quantifiable cash flow).

2) Imperium has lined up a reasonable amount of oil supply from both Canadian canola and Pacific palm farmers (reasonably assured feedstock with a large leveraged buying position).

3) They have a large terminal in the tightest fuel supply region of the US with a mandated biodiesel blend coming in both Oregon and Washington (guaranteed market for their product with a low cost and higher volume capital infrastructure than any other biodiesel producer next to REG).

In short on a fundamental basic of business level they are sitting pretty. They just need to sell a boat load of stock to give them enough operating cash flow to grow as promised.

I think it would be hard for much of anything to be bad news for what they are doing. Regardless of which token, rockstar, legendary executive is their CEO. We will just have to wait and see.

Bio-Butanol from E-Coli

Butanol Molecule Shown Above; Source: Hydrocarbons Technology

Wired Magazine has one of the best issues ever this month. It is worth buying to check out.

Online they continue it on with even more cool information. In particular they have a list of "Top 10 New Organisms of 2007." Though I went to the article for the butanol producing bacteria I stayed for the glow in the dark cats. Can't argue with science fiction cool.

The E. Coli strain was created by a group of Canadian students from the University of Alberta who were participants in the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition.

For those of you who have never heard of butanol its a promising alcohol fuel. Butanol is significant in biofuel circles for two big reasons. Butanol has a higher btu content than ethanol making it potentially a superior gasoline blend stock and could be a breakthrough additive for biodiesel production as a substitute for methanol in production.

So both sides of the industry look to butanol for next generation potential.

Currently butanol is much more expensive than ethanol or methanol leaving it priced out of the market except in niche applications. With biodiesel production in particular butanol supposedly makes a biodiesel product with winter gelling properties far below freezing (I've heard mention of -20 degrees below 0F).

Quick background in butanol's place in the biodiesel industry its simple to understand. Biodiesel is a diesel product made from vegetable and animal fat feedstocks (follow the link to the wikipedia description).

To make biodiesel an alcohol is mixed with a catalyst (in biodiesel home brewing these are commonly methanol/alcohol racing gasoline and lye) in the proper proportions. This is then mixed with the oil feedstocks and mixed thoroughly producing a reaction.

The end primary products from this reaction is biodiesel and glycerine. Typically the biodiesel molecule is a methyl ester. Causing this same reaction with butanol would cause the end biodiesel product to be a slightly different molecule, a butol ester. The butol ester having superior cold weather properties to a methyl ester.

Taking a Holiday

Merry Christmas
(In the Mike Huckabee sense of the word)

(The above is a joke in the Politically Incorrect usage of the phrase)

A Primer on Biodegradable Plastics

The Christian Science Monitor has a great piece covering the ins-and-outs of biodegradable plastics. It offers depth I've never seen in a news story.

"Fields of Fuel" Movie Trailer

From Josh Tickell; author of From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank and Biodiesel America.

Fields of Fuel
The Movie Trailer

Check it out. It's a new cut of the trailer and worth the watch. Can't wait till Josh finishes production.

Brewer's Grain: The Next Fish Feed

Why is fish farming something to watch?

Ask any Climatologist (or militant vegetarian for that matter) and you will be told that beef as a protein source isn't going to cut it on a world wide scale. Combine the cost and waste associated with beef production with depleted international fisheries and you've got either a crisis or market opportunity. It all depends on which side of the equation you look.

New Belgian Ale is investing in developing their mash into a high protein fish feed. This being a concept in ethanol circles discussed repeatedly given the net return on calories put in for fish farming. Way more meat protein in higher value fish than you would see from the same inputs given over to beef.

For a protein poor world fish farming is a growing industry, and feeding the fish a meal rich in protein itself is a challenge. That's where beer/ethanol mash has a real market opportunity. According to New Belgian the chief protein source in their distiller's grain is the bacteria which drives the process of beer making. So essentially, with aquaculture, you turn lower value protein from dead bacteria into higher value protein wrapped up in tasty salmon.

Next thing to watch for. Large ethanol producers proposing fish farming as a vertically integrated acquisition. In particular, having a guaranteed highest market value place to put the corn mash after production might mean the difference between profitability and bleeding losses in the current ethanol market.

Read the full story about New Belgian's research efforts in the Rocky Mountain News.

Wal Mart Drops Hints that it Might Buy It's Own Power Plants

Saw it at the Environmental Leader.


Wal Mart, suggest that it would buy its own power generation. This coming after Wal Mart was criticized for only moving 1% of it's energy needs over to solar panels. The Wal Mart spokesperson saying that though greening its image, Wal Mart is still a frugal company and will move when cost effective. Green power being to expensive in the retail commercial market in the quantities they would need to buy.


If Wal Mart does buy power plants this would be big. This would be a huge move in vertical integration for a large power user. I believe it would be the first Corporation to take responsibility for 100% of its own power generation at the point of creation.

What Does the World Think?

StarOilco's New Truck Logoing

The Oregonian Does Wind Power

From Wednesday's Oregonian. The picture was so well done I couldn't help but post it up. Perfect enough for Power Point. Check out the full size PDF. Its worth the look.

Nymex Launches Green Tag Exchange

From the Wall Street Journal:

In the latest sign of growing appetite for environment-related investment tools, New York Mercantile Exchange parent Nymex Holdings Inc. and a group of Wall Street trading houses plan to launch an exchange for trading carbon emissions and other environmental products.

The new market for off-sets is called the Green Exchange. The Environmental Leader also provides and even better article including extensive links.

Willow - Potential Biofuel Feedstock

Joel Ens, a grad student from the University of Saskatchewan, has proposed willow as a potential biofuel and biomass feedstock. The willow offers characteristics of growing long consistent branches rapidly. The full article available by stopping by the Biobased News.

I've never heard of a pruning a fast growing tree. Looking this direction might have real potential for Oregon. Oregon being a highly productive nursery tree state, the Willamette Valley having a great deal of rain fall, and the idea of landscaping trees serving a dual purpose should be promising.

I have heard similar proposals around bamboo as a great perennial crop. The big difference with willow being a twenty year scope of rotation versus a few years for bamboo. The bamboo root ball become to dense after a few years but bamboo as a crop should allow multiple harvests a year. The great consistent rain fall of the Willamette Valley in Oregon also contributing a great deal to the productive potential for a bamboo biomass crop.

Compressed Air Car Going Forward

I came across a little article about the upcoming launch of the Air Car as a viable transportation vehicle in the emerging economies of the world.

According to Plenty Magazine this new transportation technology is gearing up for mass production in India, China, and other developing nations. I also found a little more information at Engadget about the leading design moving into mass production by Tata Motors.

Asia Looks to Algae for CO2 Sequestration

Covered at Wired.com, and reported by the Associated Press.

Asian scientists are looking at seaweed farming as a potent tool for carbon sequestration. The article covers the basics. Seaweed grows fast, seaweed is already used in food production, seaweed has a good deal of potential as a next generation biofuel feedstock, and seaweed may take a lot of energy to harvest.

What makes this proposed algae use different than the others I've posted? This is done in the ocean and not in a closed system. So instead of a pure, scientifically controlled strains of algae they would just go for whatever takes off in the Ocean. Not exactly a measurable sure bet beyond the fact that CO2 will be used in the growth of the algae strain that takes off.

Not mentioned. The fact that large stands of algae could cure dead zones effected at the mouth of large rivers (the Mississippi and gulf of Mexico). This same use of algae could have longterm effects on the ecosystems they are grown in (meaning potential longterm environmental concerns).

Something about algae always reminds me of nuke power. Easy to understand, a great deal of potential, but for some reason the true commercial projects never seem to happen. Something about this proposal just looks like a litigation magnet.

Willie Nelson talks BioDiesel

Jeff Cooper at Syndikast recomended this site (follow the link to his work). I met Jeff while he was producing a few news segments about renewable energy here in Oregon. Some of these segments made it onto Current TV.

While checking out Current TV one of the segments that caught my eye was a Willie Nelson interview about biodiesel from PBS they had cross posted from You Tube.



As one of the first investor in SeQuential-Pacific's plant here in Salem, Oregon Willie has a very special place in my heart.

SeQuential Biofuels' Retail Concept Seen Elsewhere

My friends over at SeQuential Biofuels look to be leading a national trend. Leading earlier this year with a concept refueling station dedicated to serving a lower-carbon sustainably minded consumer demographic SeQuential launched their first station in Eugene, Oregon.

This month Convenience Store News has a plethora of stories covering the emerging trend towards higher value offerings in a traditional convenience store.

First in a story called "Reverse Migration" they cover a new trend towards brands seeking a greater urban presence for gas stations and c-stores. In an opinion piece they also mention the "Future of Convenience" being healthy fresh food. Higher value food product offerings setting up convenience stores to compete against traditional fast food with a healthier, faster, product. In another snippet they also cover the bet being made by Whole Foods to pursue an urban convenience store model (which just begs for gas/ethanol/diesel/biodiesel pumps).

Way to lead the pack SeQuential. From the first time I ever met Ian Hill at SeQuential he mentioned a vision a refueling station concept dedicated to sustainable products and true substitutes to petroleum fuel. At the time my thoughts were "Who would be dumb enough to voluntarily go into retail fueling as a business?" Today I gladly eat my words as they have done an amazing job at developing B99 markets and their first station is performing beyond traditional car-count expectations both at the island and in their convenience store.

Glad to see that the trend spotted by Ian back in 2002 was something shared by those with much more capital and far more research. He felt it in his gut, acted on it, and today I expect great things from this model of differentiated triple bottom line motor-fuel.

For another similar story. British grocery stores push the envelope on who can be the "greenest" (their words not mine). The big story are biodigesters. A technology well known here in the Northwest as its common with paper plants to reclaim a little additional energy off of their waste product.

NOTE: The Whole Foods mention in the Convenience Store News was not available on line. If anyone wants to see it feel free to leave your name, fax number, or email address in the comments and I will forward you a copy of it. I will also erase your personal info after sending it (in the interest of avoiding anymore spam I keep my email off this blog).

Look at the Past to Get Ideas for the Future

I came across a few interesting items following up with the Cyclone Engine technology.

Jay Leno actually makes "A Case for Steam." This of course is the source for the picture shown above. Hard to believe but steam may have a second life in the 21 century.

Here also an interesting History of the Steam Engine. It's interesting to look at these technologies and know they were considered dead end technologies over a century ago. Yet today they look viable again to another group of tinkerers with far superior tools. Which brings me to another interesting article on technology.

Fastcompany Magazine has an article about the new Nasa space craft: To the Moon in a Minivan. What is the connection to the article above? Think of how far technology has come for the space program in the last thirty years. Now think if the geniuses like James Watt and Rudolf Diesel could do it all over again with titanium, carbon fiber, and computer controls.

The Liberace Edition

Wired Magazine recently did a little coverage about the "Autopia WTF?" picture contest held at the LA Auto Show. They formally refer to it as the LA Auto Show Caption Contest. Simple premise, a picture of a car with a caption.


The Caption with picture below:



"The Liberace Edition SLK has been a slow seller for Mercedes, moving only one unit. But Elton John is reportedly happy with it."

Interesting "Cyclone" Engine Technology

Cyclone Power Technologies has an interesting multi-fuel rated engine. Its based off of the Rankin Cycle Steam Engine invented by James Watt. As energy prices have been rising a host of old experimental technologies are marching forward. The beauty is that many of these technologies have never been played with in today's world of computer digital controls, nano technology, as well as space age polymers and alloys.

They have video and technical white papers around their technologies. Its worth a look. What is great about following these new engine designs is how the same concepts pop up in different forms. I notice the wider I drag my net over emerging technologies the more similar all the new 'outside-the-box' technologies become.

Cyclone's website promises not only small applications as shown but also in big diesel commercial and industrial application.

If this is a good idea, which it looks like it is. Watch, more than one company is commercializing it. The fun as an observer is figuring out who has not only the technical concept down but the talent to develop markets for it.

It makes me wish I was going to Power Gen next week. Now that I've seen it online I want to see it up close. But as with all things in life. Way more things to do than time and money will allow.

The Rand Institute Points to Diesel

God I love diesel, and so does the Rand Institute. (Loves in the most clinical, scientific and unbiased sense of the word)

Though this is the research paper which points to ethanol as the weakest of all liquid motor fuels I still like their analysis. (See GM post below)

Check out the Press Release. Also worth checking out is the actual working paper itself: The Benefits and Costs of New Fuels and Engines for Cars and Light Trucks. It offers some in depth cost analysis which lends itself well to citation and simplex presentation.

GM Responds to USA Today on E85

I was really surprised to see this. GM officially defending ethanol as an extension of their product line.

It looks like the engineers over at GM are looking differently at fuel. In fact on the GM website there is a blog post where a GM official representative points to Brazil as a model for potential ethanol availability.

GM came out in response to a USA Today report that E85 was inferior to all other motor fuels including gasoline. As reported in USA Today:

Graham's team calculated the individual and societal costs and benefits of conventional gasoline vehicles, gasoline-electric hybrids, high-tech diesels and flex-fuel vehicles burning E85 full time. Conclusion: Unless gasoline prices, averaging $3.10 a gallon now, rise above $4 and average $3.50 or more the next few years, or ethanol prices drop a lot, diesel's the best overall solution; E85's the worst.

On Firday, GM stood by the premise of ethanol as a viable substitute/blend-stock to petroleum gasoline. What excites me is the fact that GM is siding behind ethanol as a long term fuel. This is the first I have ever seen a major manufacturer actual come to defense of a biofuel beyond making PR laps whenever oil prices rise.

I saw it first at DomesticFuel.com and followed it over to GM's own page.

“We believe ethanol as a renewable fuel is the best near-term alternative to oil as a transportation fuel and replacing gasoline with ethanol positively contributes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions,” said GM Chief Economist Mustafa Mohatarem in the statement. “You cannot take a snapshot in time and define a mature market.”

This snapshot being a reference to where ethanol can go as a fuel technology. Where the "next generation" ethanol technologies will drive future energy prices (downward) and the performance of vehicle engines able to use the higher octane cleaner fuel (upward).

And again another excerpt from Reuters on the same subject:

"By 2012, it will be easier to say which GM vehicles are not E85-capable than to list which ones are FlexFuel," said Beth Lowery, GM vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. "And we are just as committed to helping build the infrastructure for E85."

For more on GM's E85 Flex Fuel Vehcile support check out their official E85 website: Live Green Go Yellow.

City of Portland Looking at Wind Resource

Picture shown was given to the Tribune "courtesy of" Gorge Community College. That's a real live Oregon wind project sharing agricultural land.

The city of Portland has had a goal of 100% renewable power for a while. As with even homeowners looking at the carbon footprint and energy needs such a task sometimes is easier said than done.

The Portland Tribune reports several interesting facts as it relates to Portland's project.

Not mentioned in the article. The fact that electricity is likely to increase above inflation (actually being a significant driver of inflation in the U.S. economy). The fact that these initial easy to locate and grid-tie wind resources are limited in number. The fact that long-term (over a decade) this investment will save the city a great deal of money and guarantee a longtime resource that will only get more efficient.

Also worth mention is that going for wind today would be the equivalent for investing in hydro seventy five years ago. The resource is limited and the first movers to acquire, tap, an use the resource will likely own it forever.

Its a smart move for the city. Long-term without any CO2 considerations at all it makes sense just to guarantee the city a resource with a set maintenance budget as opposed to commodity pricing.

Presentations on Carbon Trading

Worth note. Many talk about the potential for carbon off-set markets to develop. The problem though is that most of the people talking about these markets don't seem to know the specifics.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the NEBC's Managing Carbon Conference in which a total session was dedicated to the basics of getting green-tag trading projects off the ground. As either a way to mitigate a carbon footprint, finance a needed technology improvement or solely to make doing the right thing more profitable. They cover it.

Worth note. Bill Edmonds of NW Natural. Being a natural gas utility that is following (voluntarily) the lead of the electrical utilities in offering carbon offsets to its customers. This is a leading move by a utility and is nationally significant.

The Powerpoint Presentations are now available online at the NEBC's website. And I recreated the links below.

Carbon Offsets - Buying, Selling and Trading
The ins and outs of carbon offsets: markets, vendors, verification, and pricing.

Moderated by Alex Schay of Carbon Solutions Northwest with a panel of experts providing presentations.

Stephanie Berner White, 3 Degrees (PPT)
Bill Edmonds, Nortwest Natural Gas (Smart Energy Program) (PPT)
Steve Gutmann, EcoSecurities (PPT)
Erica Keeley, The Climate Trust (PPT)

The Managing Carbon Conference is expected to be an annual event. This first attempt being a spectacular success. As someone who is well read on the subject from a lay person's perspective this conference filled in alot of blanks and brought my understanding forward a great deal. I also now am thinking conversantly in how a cabon offset strategy might help finance a utility scale biofuel project. This level of understanding wouldn't have happened without the conference.

Rumor: A major luxery auto maker will go CO2 neutral. I bet BMW.

U.S. House White Paper on Climate Change (i.e. Cap and Trade)

Here it is. I've heard rumblings and talk of rumblings about potential Federal action on climate. From what I heard last week at the NEBC's Managing Carbon Conference this is the lead document to look at. Where the legislation might be going.

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee's White Paper on Climate Change Legislation.

Described in the intro, this 22 page paper is defined as the next step in the legislative process to develop a Federally required cap and trade program.

I realize this far out the sausage making process that is legislation is hard to bet on. Regardless though I can't help but think that this will be the wedge issue up there with abortion and taxes this Presidential election cycle. How pragmatically well done or weakly responded to, this issue could determine which party will hold the White House come January of 09.

Solar Green Tags

Just out...Green Tag prices are dropping! Green Tags are like RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) which are like carbon credits. Basically generating green power is worth something extra, especially to those doing nasty things to the environment...

So, for instance, if you have a grid-tied PV system, in addition to all the pride of owning the system and lowering your power bill, you can also get paid to sell the green "rights" to your juice. BEF and others have been buying green tags for $0.05/kWh. Not bad considering PGE charges $0.093/kWh of the dirty stuff. Combine this with your PV system and you add 50% to your annual savings. (By the way, if the Energy Trust helped pay for your system, you can only claim the tags for the first 5 years...then they get the cash! )

Ok, so the problem is that green tags are going down to $0.02/kWh. You can make a difference and purchase green tags. The more you buy at higher rates, the more people are encouraged to install solar and other good stuff!

Solar concentrators

Interesting new company working on solar concentrating PV. Basically a Fresnel lens (like in a lighthouse light) focuses the sunlight into an intense beam on a small PV cell. The PV cell is specially tuned for this high energy beam. The result is less silicon needed, which drives the currently high costs in PV modules. Of course, the concentrators might add some cost, too. This company is making the concentrators "track" the sun, too, which could add performance.


Seems promising, but far from market. Worse is the aesthetics. 1000 mirrors on your roof anyone? The nice thing about solar PV (like SANYO, SunPower) is that the panels look almost flat in color (blue/black). The result is that they blend in.

Mirrors? not so much. Ok, so what about commericial systems? Yes, that would be more appropriate...

The Bioprocessing Revolution

Mark Zappi has an op-ed piece that popped up on the Biobased News site. Zappi is the dean of Engineering and Director of the Bioprocessing Research Laboratory at the University of Louisiana.

A Peek into the New Industrial Revolution - Bioprocessing

Its worth reading. Spot on explanation in what I see happening as well.

An excerpt below:

The industrial revolution of the 1800’s and 1900’s was based on steel, fossil fuels, bricks, and mortar. Now these are staples in America’s industrial toolbox. However, most experts agree that the next industrial revolution that is just beginning is one that will be based on biology-based materials or biomass.

This revolution will usher in a totally new paradigm in terms of how society views both farm products and our organically rich wastes. Agriculture will diversify from producing only foodstocks to producing both crops for food and crops for chemical production, or in other words, both foodstocks and chemical crops. Chemical companies are investing tremendous monetary and intellectual capital in biotechnology that focuses on harnessing the vast chemical potential of plants. The result will surely be new relationships blossoming between the agricultural and chemicals production industries.

And then Zappi waves a big Louisiana flag around this emerging industry bringing this technological shift's significance home:

And Louisiana? I believe that our great state will continue its leadership role as a source of chemicals and fuel. Louisiana is one of the leading states when considering its capability to produce tremendous tonnage each year of biomass. Given the vast chemical production and supporting transportation infrastructure in place coupled with its highly productive agricultural capability, Louisiana should emerge as a leader in bioprocessing.

This is the first time I've come across Zappi. So far I like what I see and it's definitely worth a Google. I especially love those advocates for bioproducts who bring the new technology into context. Mark Zappi does a great job of doing that in this piece.

Getting started with BioDiesel, The Book.

I'm dialing it in after turkey day. Just throwing up something simple but relevant.

Below is a the link to the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels and Vehicle Data Center. Probably the single best source of information about biofuels found anywhere on the planet Earth.

The BioDiesel page is where you want to go. This link will take you to an introduction to biodiesel page. Notice the PDF listed (available for download at this site) "Biodiesel Use and Handling Guidelines." This is the introductory users manual for any fleet, individual or policy influencer as it relates to biodiesel.

Consider this book the users guide for biodiesel. Or better yet, the introductory field manual for a fleet user to move towards biodiesel as informed as possible.

This website is also a great starting off point for all things knowable about biodiesel. From power point presentations to research its all there. A cornucopia of dat for those who like to drink information from a firehose.

I'm in Milwaukee, WI. I am staying in a hotel, constructed on top of the hotel, that Teddy Roosevelt was shot coming out of. Though wounded in the chest T-Rex went on to give his ninety minute speech. Starting his speech with the comment: "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

I'm a big fan of historic places and American Presidential history. As a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt this is just icing on the cake for a great trip so far.

I'm off to Wisconsin.

The folks over at Paradigm Sensors were nice enough to fly me out as a speaker later this week for the Wisconsin Clean Cities Coalition. The topics are higher blend adoption (I'm talking B99 by the way) and quality assurance.

If you are curious about this summit check out more at the Wisconsin Clean Cities Coalition website. Or better yet check out the Wisconsin Biodiesel Blog. Its always fun to look at other parts of the U.S. and their programs, efforts, and successes.

Wisconsin background info.

The Good: One of the largest soy growing states in the Union. Wisconsin has an actual Wisconsin Biodiesel Assocation putting a face on the emerging industry. There is no soy crushing in the state though a little refining. The largest user of soy in Wisconsin is for soy-sauce and there is a potential complement between biodiesel and soy-sauce manufacturing (though I don't know the facts about this).

The Could do Better: There is a Milwaukee Biodiesel Coop (though its shut right now from what I understand dealing with Fire Code upgrades). A 45 million gallon a year project just got placed on hold because the soy prices made the bank withdraw support (though I disagree with this analysis but I quote it directly). Also, the largest biodiesel user in the Milwaukee region (from what I'm told) is the city of Milwaukee fleet which has gone forward to B10.

The Needs of Wisconsin: More voluntary adopters of higher blends of biodiesel from local sources (both feedstock and refining). A focus on commercial adoption for large industrial users currently paying extremely high prices for off-road boiler fuels, diesels, and other dirtier CO2 emitters. A regulatory environment that gives biodiesel coops and B99 retail offerings on opportunity to exist.

My Goal: Get a few B99 experiments willing to go forward before I leave. A tall order for only having three days but I've seemed to get lucky in the past. My favorite question to ask when told B99 is too risky or shouldn't be done. "What vehicles do you have exiting service? Those are the ones you should field B99 on."

Being that many fleets have vehicles that are expensed and will be sold for a negligible return on the books this is an easy sell. The redder the neck and greasier the fingernails the more likely a fleet manager is to do it. Especially if they have a racing or custom background. This sales tactic is literally almost a confidence game (though for a good cause). The older the vehicle the better it runs on B99.

Also - on a technology geek note - check out Paradigm Sensors hand held biodiesel specifier. They tell me a beta is due out soon (any day now) and I can't wait to see these in the field. These handhelds will take those of us who need to receive railcars of dubious origin occasionally a tool much farther evolved than the old "pHlip" test.

Europe and Biodegradable Lubes

Lubes and Greases North America covers the emerging European standard for biodegradable and biobased lubes. If you are curious about why biobased lubes aren't tearing up the marketplace like biofuels are the standardization issues of Europe lay some of it out for you. (See page 38 for the start of the article)


As many in the US consider biobased lubes as a potential growth opportunity for the biofuel industry these off the beaten path trade information sources become more an more valuable. Usually the only sources of information about these emerging technologies are found from those making the products and of course the claims about them.


From my understanding biobased lubes stand the best market development placement as one of two things. Hydraulic fluids or heat transfer oils. Lubricating oils require some pretty noxious chemicals and heavy metals to make them function as lubricants in especially in extreme environments (such as a windmill gear box).


So in essence you would be creating hazardous waste (even though the base stock would by biobased) and you would be substantially increasing the service requirements of the equipment. Take for instance gear box applications. With full synthetic petroleum based lubes you have extremely long drain intervals. Especially for remote equipment that is expensive and energy intensive to service. The inconsistency of on road vehicle engines also make the passenger car market also a poor place for biobased lubes.


The easy to reach markets for biobased lubes is in near water applications. Interestingly enough most industrial operations near rivers and water are hydraulic in nature. Moving containers off of ships being the most prominent industrial activity. Biobased lubes being a superior hydraulic fluid in this case.


When looking at biobased lubes look at the application not the market. Common sense goes along way in examining the higher value products of the petroleum world and where biobased substitutes can easily cross over.



Special Note: Please do not confuse biobased lubes with biodegradable lubes. There is a difference. There are petroleum based synthetics that are readily biodegradable on a comparable level with biobased products. These have a much longer track record with performance levels similar to non-biodegradable counterparts. These biodegradable products also have a long track record of comparable performance along no biodegradable lubes.

I'm at a CO2 conference.

Interesting statistic. The City of Portland's recycling program reduces the equivalent of 100,000 vehicles off the road in CO2 terms.

Source: Portland Office of Sustainable Development

My rant about Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars

USA Today covered hydrogen fuel cell cars and speculates why are they not available. Then they settle on price as the reason. This in turn spurs the rant you see below.

To put it bluntly. Fuel cell technology bores me. It bores me on so many levels. Primarily though its because at my fundamental core I feel like I'm being manipulated every time someone rattles a new fuel cell development in front of me. Like a shiny set of keys dangled in front of a drooling new born the expect me to ooooh. I've yet to be shown a reason to fall in love with hydrogen. Let alone a hydrogen car.

In short; I don't believe in the fuel cell car. I don't believe in the Loch Ness Monster. I don't believe in the existence of Sasquatch. And again - I don't believe the hydrogen automobile making it into Ford or GM showrooms. I'm not in argument that any of the above could exist. I just don't believe they do.

Here is why. Hydrogen has a business model in existence today. It would work exactly the same with the an identical distribution system, the same real estate (only larger tanks) and probably the same regulatory/safety concerns. This business model is propane.

Propane is readily available, reasonably priced, and readily usable by cars on the road. Why hasn't it taken off? It's clean right.

All the problems with propane supplanting gasoline as a motor fuel exist for hydrogen. In fact, any gasoline vehicle can easily be converted back and forth from gasoline, to propane, to gasoline so there are fewer barriers to entry. Though not a true flexible fuel, propane and natural gas will run in any gasoline engine with slight modification. So for hydrogen to be a true fuel paradigm shift it takes something other than emissions to be the motivator. It takes superior technology.

I ask all readers to think critically about what a fuel cell is and does. Think about what it would lend itself best to. It surely isn't a 500 mile round trip on one fill up. Its power generation.

The true value of fuel cell technology isn't in four wheel vehicles. Its in buildings.

For a sedan or pick-up truck to work the big breakthrough for hydrogen isn't actually getting the fuel cell to work well. Hydrogen fuel cells aren't the break through technology that we are waiting for. Its mass produced battery technology, improvements in information technology married to a vehicle, and improvements in what boils down to is essentially a hybrid power train.

I'll say it again. When you look at the hydrogen car the break through technologies have nothing to do with hydrogen. They have to do with a hybrid electric power train.

Contrast vehicle technology with commercial real estate (which doesn't need even close to as much to field this technology). Over 50% of the energy used in the US is in buildings and facilities. Large commercial structures are immense energy users with complex systems, budgets to invest for longterm payback, onsite trained facility personnel, and a complex group of systems all benefiting from combined heat, power, steam, and water.

Fuel cells, as an emerging technology, make sense for buildings and not for mobile vehicles. If for anything the cost of compressing hydrogen into a vehicles tank for a short trip doesn't make sense. The concept of putting gasoline, ethanol, diesel, or biodiesel into a vehicles tank as a source for hydrogen also doesn't make any technical sense . Especially when thousands of commercial facilities already have systems and talented people familiar with reclaiming waste streams for energy and handling emission reduction technology.

To me the only reason hydrogen car research exists is that the US DOE and EPA fund research for hydrogen cars. You also have some extensive large R and D divisions in the auto manufacturers who can throw off a whole host of valuable technologies under the same research framework though without actually delivering a sub $30K hydrogen car. If anything what hydrogen really offers is a black-ops cover for next generation hybrid vehicle technologies.

To me the hydrogen car is a monument to misdirected policy choices. Every time I read about a hydrogen car I get the same feeling I do when seeing Britney Spears motherhood status discussed. I feel like its inconsequential information put forward just for the hope it draws the right number of eye-balls to a television screen or newspaper. Its advertising disguised as news.

Green Star and the "Food vs. Fuel" Debate.

I saw this press release in the Biobased News.

Recently a UN report blasted the effect biofuels would have on food (commonly referred to as the "Food vs. Fuel debate"). From what I understand the biggest criticism being hoisted towards ethanol production's push on recent corn prices. In rebuttal, Green Star Products issues a press release citing soy as an example of a Food and Fuel opportunity.


In short = Green Star blasts ethanol from corn, points to soy as a good feedstock to be developed in farming rotations, and that algae has a huge potential future to make all these issues moot (note that Green Star also has high hopes for algae).

The coolest fact in the press release:

For each bushel (60 pounds) of soybeans produced only 10 pounds of extracted oil is used in making biodiesel. The other 50 pounds (the soy meal) is used to feed the hungry of the world as one of the best high protein foods available.

Fischer-Tropsch and Jet Fuel Research

Recently, there seems to be quite a bit of news around aviation grade biofuels. Primarily the highest profile being Virgin Atlantic Airlines and The U.S. Department of Defense (see Syntroleum).

A biofuel meeting jet fuel specifications is starting to become a holy-grail technology of sorts. On par with ethanol produced from corn-stover. There is a very simple argument that a bio-jet fuel can be classified as a paradigm shifting technology. That if perfected would allow one of the largest energy uses in the first world economies to leap frog beyond petroleum.

The big stumbling block to this paradigm shifting concept is the low tolerances required to operate a plane a mile in the sky. If you can make a jet fuel, as the logic goes, you now can make any fuel. The scale, scope and specifications required offer up aviation as the pinnacle of what a biofuel must be to truly arrive on the world stage.

Essentially its pretty simple. If there is a fuel problem while airborn, as we used to while I worked as a flightline refueler in the Air Force, the crew has the rest of their lives to figure it out. Being the solution development time in this situation is minutes instead of the typical "five years out" a DOE grant holder gets away with the stakes become a little higher.

These are the constraints of aviation fuels (commonly called either Jet-A or the military nomenclature of JP-8). A biofuel/syn fuel must operate at extremely varied altitudes and temperatures (typically -30 degrees Fahrenheit and lower). It must store well and be predictable when aging (i.e. we must be able to give it a shelf life and quality assurance system). The fuel also must have better emissions than petro-Jet A, a similar cost per Btu, and of course the basic consistency regardless of the feedstock the fuel is derived from. You also have specification constraints as well to operate in existing jet turbine engines (i.e. it must look like Jet-A to existing engines; this being expressed typically in specific gravity, cetane, ingrained water content, etc.....).

Enter good old Fischer-Tropsch as the hoped solution. With a product typically called "syn-diesel" this technology is proven but expensive. It also pulls a consistent product out of such feedstocks as coal, agricultural waste, solid waste, and just about anything with a significant Btu content. So like most issues of energy, the issue becomes who can commercially demonstrate the better iteration of a technology invented by old dead Nazis.

A story covering the basics of this ongoing endeavor of the search for a bio-aviation-fuel popped up this morning. Check it out in the Aviation International News online.

Saab's Bioethanol Bet

In the news.

For those of us who follow such things we have heard talk of the Bioethanol Saab for a few years now. Well its debuting in Australia. The first modern E85 designed car rolled out for mass purchasing and marketed as an E85 vehicle.

Very timely given the fact that ethanol is selling for $0.50 a gallon less than petro in many places (no subsidy required).

SIJ Provides Webinars

Pretty excited to see this. The Sustainable Industries Journal (SIJ) is rolling out webinars.

I'm a big fan of webinars in general. The SIJ's parent company Celilo Group has done this in the past with their NW Current franchise as well. The few I've done have been extremely informative and packed with the type of information you usually must spend thousands of dollars to get via traveling to a conference. This in particular being a huge way to add value and spread information for a news provider. Great way to show leadership for a trade journal.

The first one is "Emerging Green Build Products" running later this week on November 14th.

To register go to: www.SustainableIndustries.com/events

Range Fuel CEO Interview

Cleantech.com has an interview with Range Fuels' Mitch Mandrich about the first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant going forward. The planned plant being backed by Kholsa Ventures and billed at 100 million gallons a year at completion with a initial volume of 20 million gallons.



Its always fun to read first hand accounts and opinions from those pushing the initial biofuels business model boulder up that steep hill of cutting edge business attempts. I especially love reading the thoughts of those I.T. and Dot.Com refugees who are making a go in biofuels.

The interview is worth the read. Several mentions of note from the interview:

Range Fuels technology is modular (hence the initial 20 million gallon number with a permitted target of 100 million gallons).

Ultimate goal for Range Fuels would be "a billion gallons really as fast as [they] can."

They want to deploy their modular technology throughout the world (hence its a fairly large scale distributive technology).

Range Fuels technology is multi-feedstock and Mandrich makes mention of it's potential for municipal solid waste.

Range Fuels' funding situation is "fine" according to Mandrich. I guess $50 million in seed funding from the US DOE goes along way.

Plastics back to Petroleum - Plas2Fuel

Want to see something cool? Plas2Fuel out of Kelso, Washington.

They have a technology currently demonstrated that takes any type of plastics (type 1 through 7) and can turn it back into a crude petroleum state. Once liquid this recycled plastic product is ready to be refined into any number of higher value petroleum products.

I was lucky enough to take a tour of their facility and even have a sample of their product sitting on my desk. What makes their process exciting is that most plastics have a chlorine in their make up. This chlorine then becoming problematic any time you burn or attempt to melt plastic in a recycling process (chlorine corrodes most processes). Making the end product of any plastic to petroleum process acidic. They have overcome this.

As they explain their process it seemed pretty simple in concept and complex in application. I may be wrong but I believe Plas2Fuel is using a process similar to "Thermal Depolymerization."

They essentially fill a cartridge container with a mix of any type of plastic. This cartridge is then loaded into their demonstration plant which starts heating up. The process vessel is then turned into an oxygen depleted environment which causes the plastic to return to a crude petroleum state ready for refining into other products.

They get a two grade product out of the process. A thicker crude and a product that looks like petroleum distallate (but they tell me is closer to a gasoline product).

Its always exciting to see technologies like this in my own backyard. Its even better having an inventor living within a phone call to ask questions as well.

Also worth mentioning, a little known fact. The plastics we pay good money to sort out at solid waste transfer stations are typically shipped to Asia. From what I've been told by several reliable sources we pay brokers to move it over seas where our sorted plastic waste is recycled into heat (i.e burned as cheap and dirty fuel).

Question to those reading the blog. If you had a small, low sulfur, high grade feedstock as described above. What would be the highest and best use for the product? Where do you think market development should be.

Motorhead Messiah - Super Diesel Hacker

In that fine tradition of American inventor he hacks, mods, and wholesale upgrades huge monster vehicles into 100+ mpg technical wonders. In this month's Fastcompany they showcase H2's with aftermarket hybrids, turbine jet power trains, and hydrogen horse power.

In short. Just the idea that this guy exists is exciting to any energy geek.

The article leaves me with many questions and of course a few doubts but I'm captivated. For an eternity I have heard stories of the 100 mpg mods that never made it into the mainstream. The stories of high school science teachers who have invented super engines purchased and buried by GM and Ford. Those American super geniuses kept from their well deserved spoils of ingenuity.

This is the first time I have ever seen an actual face and name. More to the point, this is the first time I have ever seen a real person presented to back up the claim. Just makes you want to take a vacation to Missouri.

Tidal Power in the Mainstream News

NBC did an in depth report on Tidal Power. Well done, in depth, and cool graphics.


This type of renewable low-carbon energy holds a huge potential here in Oregon.

Range Fuels Moves Forward with Commercial Scale Cellulosic Ethanol

Saw it at Forbes.com.

Range Fuels is moving forward with the world's first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant. Range is being backed by Khosla Ventures with an undisclosed sum of funding.

How does their process work you ask?

Add $76 million from the US Department of Energy, millions of tons of wood waste from a nearby Georgia timber farming industry, mix wood chips with heat, pressure and steam for 15 minutes, and then turn a syngas into ethanol with a proprietary catalyst which throws off ethanol. Poof, American made cellulosic ethanol (see a nifty interactive diagram of their process here).

The only catch at that point in the process. How much ethanol does the process throw off by volume?

The big issue, as with all energy technologies, isn't if we can do it. It's what cost can we do "it" at. "It" being any technology from hydrogen, to nuke, to cellulosic ethanol.

From what I've been told by more than one company with a "proprietary" cellulosic ethanol concept is that they can make ethanol. Its easy. The issue isn't cellulosic ethanol. Its the volume of alcohol in the beer product produced. "Beer" being the first round of alcohol production which turns fructose into alcohol via yeast.

The production of alcohol prior to distillation into road grade ethanol from cellulose is roughly half of what corn ethanol gets per batch. Additionally there are more steps involved in the process of making cellulosic ethanol over corn/sugar based product. And then there is the productivity of the yeast in a cellulosic plant. Cellulosic ethanol processes get around 3% - 8% alcohol by volume as opposed to the low teens for corn based ethanol.

This lower volume or lower productivity of alcohol raises the energy needs of any plant and slow down the productivity. Even if the feedstock is free the cost of several other steps to get the wood product into a usable form, the lower productivity of the yeast making alcohol, and the additional distillation rounds to get cellulosic ethanol to a 200 proof break the bank.

Good luck to Range Fuels and Vinod Khosla. It's exciting to see this project go forward.

Fw: Biojet

Jet flies on fast-food oil

By AOPA ePublishing staff The day may come when the private and commercial jets crisscrossing our skies run, at least in part, on plant-based fuels that don't contribute to global warming or resource depletion.

That's the goal of pilot and entrepreneur Douglas Rodante who, on Oct. 1, made the first jet flight fueled by 100-percent biodiesel. Rodante and Chief Pilot Carol Sugars first flew a Czechoslovakian-built L-29 aircraft around the pattern before making a 37-minute test-flight at altitudes up to 17,000 feet the following day. The aircraft, which is rated to run on a variety of fuels, including heating oil, required no modifications to run on biodiesel.

This proves that we can implement bio-fuels into our existing air and ground transportation system, Rodante said of the first flights.

Rodante plans to make a cross-country flight from Nevada to Florida at the end of November, as soon as he and his team have satisfied several FAA testing and safety requirements. And they hope to modify a Learjet to make a high-altitude round-the-world flight next year. The test program is being conducted by Green Flight International and Biodiesel Solutions.

So just what was in the biodiesel used in the test flights? Recycled vegetable oil from restaurants that has been treated with an additive to remove the carbon chains. For the longer cross-country flight, the team plans to use canola oil that has been similarly treated, but these aren't the only possible sources of biodiesel.

It's important for people to understand that we can use a lot of different crops to make biodiesel, many of which do not compete with our food crops. There are plants you can actually grow in the desert that would work, Rodante explained.

Even with the promise shown by these initial flights, don't expect to board a commercial airliner running on biodiesel anytime soon. The fuel does have a tendency to gel at cold temperatures and its solvent properties can cause short-term fuel system clogs in vehicles that have previously been used with traditional fossil fuels. But scientists and amateur enthusiasts alike are working to resolve these problems and expect that some mixture of biodiesel and traditional fuel will make its way into the mainstream in coming years.

You don't have to use 100-percent biodiesel, said Rodante. We're doing it to make a point. But if we can implement even a small percentage of bio-fuel into commercial aviation and land transportation, the reduction in carbon emissions would be significant and contribute to alleviating our global warming problems.

October 30, 2007