Bioenergy review confirms carbon savings doubts

http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/bioenergy-review-confirms-carbon-news-515671

Published 25 October 2012, updated 26 October 2012

 

 A new review of European bioenergy by independent researchers has found “significant risk” that EU renewables policies will increase carbon emissions by 2020 because of a dearth of carbon accounting safeguards. 

 

There is “no basis” for presuming that EU bioenergy use will deliver any emissions savings at all, says the study by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), a not-for-profit research organisation.

The group’s paper comes two days after EurActiv revealed that an unpublished EU paper had arrived at the same conclusion.

“Now that the European Commission has put forward a proposal to clean up the ILUC mess, it can no longer hide from the biomass issue at large,” said Trees Robijns of BirdLife International, a conservation group. ILUC refers to indirect land use change.

“We cannot keep on pushing our planet to produce ever increasing amounts of plant-based materials for energy purposes without understanding the full impact of that increase, both in terms of our environment and our climate,” she added.

Bioenergy, which can be sourced from any organic matter, accounts for the biggest slice of the renewable energy share among EU member states, and this is not expected to change before 2020.
Primary energy production from wood and wood waste grew by 38% between 2003 and 2010, while for biogas it was 225%, the report says.

EU states are obliged to source 20% of their energy mix from renewables by 2020 and to do this, bioenergy is considered ‘carbon neutral’. But an increasing body of environmental scientists say this is mistaken.

Wood biomass

Around one-third of the EU bioenergy share in 2020 is projected to come from wood biomass from forests and woods, according to EU states’ National Renewable Energy Action Plans.

But there is a significant time lag between the carbon debt created when trees are cut down to be burned for energy, and the carbon reductions that fully grown replacement trees will bring.

The IEEP paper cites several studies to show that, boosting bioenergy supplies with increased forest management would only achieve around 20% of the anticipated greenhouse gas savings in a 50-year period.

“The system would work well if you didn’t have tipping points after which you get accelerated climate change,” said Nuša Urbančič, the fuels programme manager for Transport and Environment, a green NGO.

“How much payback time can you allow for biomass so that it still contributes to climate change mitigation is the point of disagreement,” she added.

Cascade approach

Making use of a “cascade” approach that utilises fallen branches, leaves, tree bark and other residues is recognised as a way of avoiding this debt. “All decomposing matter could be used for bioenergy without leading to emissions increases,” one EU expert told EurActiv.

But as yet, there is neither an obligation on EU states to source their biomass this way, nor harmonised rules for how it could be done.

The European Commission had been expected to propose sustainability criteria for biomass by the end of this year. The proposals have been delayed and are now absent from workplan agendas.

Brussels “absolutely wants to avoid another ILUC case” with bioenergy, EU sources said. But regulating for land use change, carbon leakage abroad – in the form of unaccounted imports – economies of scale and practice, and a common carbon accounting methodology are just some of the obstacles they will have to address to do so.

Massachusetts biomass regulation

In August, the American state of Massachusetts implemented a biomass energy regulation, following a ban on the use of woody biomass imposed in December 2009.

Woody biomass there can only now be sourced from residues and thinning trees, taking into account soil productivity and protection of biodiversity and natural habitats.

Biomass units must also show that they emit at least 50% less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, while efficiency requirements, operating certificates, and verification procedures are also imposed.

A Global Warming Solutions Act in Massachusetts requires an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – comparable to the EU’s target – but the state appears ahead of Europe in its biomass standards.

“It is not currently possible to define the emissions profile and savings associated with Europe’s expanding use of biomass for energy, nor is there any policy process currently in place to secure this,” the IEEP report says.

“As a consequence, at present there is only the certainty of commitment to bioenergy use up to 2020, but no associated guarantee of emission reduction.”

Next steps: 

• Dec. 2012/Jan. 2013: European Commission expected to come forward with new sustainability criteria proposal for biomass

Arthur Neslen

Forest Sustainability Activists Welcome COP11 Recommendation on Biofuels

http://www.justmeans.com/Forest-Sustainability-Activists-Welcome-COP11-Recommendation-on-Biofuels/56576.html

 Antonio Pasolini
Oct 26, 2012 9:18 AM EDT

 Biofuels and their impact on biodiversity was on the table during the recent Conference of the Parties of the Biodiversity Convention (COP11), which took place in Hyderabad in India between October 08-19. One of the outcomes of the meeting was a recommendation regarding their production, which was met with cautious approval by a leading forest preservation organization.

The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) said in a statement that it welcomed the recommendation on biofuels. The text said subsidy policies and incentives should be reviewed and, in some cases, reversed, especially when they cause harm to biodiversity.

The Conference also adopted a decision on incentive measures in general. It stressed that there should be no delay on policy action when candidates for elimination, phase out or reform are already known. It encouraged parties to take appropriate action in such cases, taking into account national socio-economic conditions.

"These recommendations by the world's leading intergovernmental body in the field of biodiversity are very timely now that the European Commission just this week launched proposals for a review of EU biofuel policies," said Dr. Rachel Smolker of Biofuelwatch, the European focal point to the Global Forest Coalition.

The recommendations on biofuels and other issues are weaker than the organization expected, said Simone Lovera, GFC's executive, but she admitted that they show that governments are genuinely concerned about the impacts of the so-called bioeconomy, and associated new technologies like synthetic biology, and that many southern governments, in particular, insist on a strict precautionary approach to avoid the potentially devastating risks of with these new and unproven technologies.

Elsewhere, Helena Paul of Econexus, added that the "EC proposals are only a first step towards recognizing that all incentive measures that promote biofuel production should be abolished in clear evidence of their devastating direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity, and on the indigenous peoples, local communities and women. We hope these recommendations of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention will encourage the EU to abolish support for large-scale industrial bioenergy altogether, and that they will not allow threats of legal action from the biofuel industry to deter them."

BP pulls out of US advanced biofuels plant

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2220161/bp-pulls-out-of-us-advanced-biofuels-plant

Plans for 36 million gallon Florida facility abandoned as oil giant focuses on R&D and licensing technology

 

By BusinessGreen staff

26 Oct 2012 

BP has pulled out of plans to build a $300m plant in Florida that would have been capable of producing biofuel from hard to break down crops, dealing a major blow to US efforts to deliver so-called "second generation" biofuels.

The company announced in a statement yesterday that it would not be proceeding with the cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County, which was expected to be capable of producing 36 million gallons (136 million litres) of the fuel each year.

Instead, BP said it would refocus its US biofuels strategy on research and development as well as licensing its technology.

"Given the large and growing portfolio of investment opportunities available to BP globally, we believe it is in the best interest of our shareholders to redeploy the considerable capital required to build this facility into other more attractive projects," said Geoff Morrell, BP vice president of communications.

The move follows Shell's decision to back out of a similar commercial-scale plant in Canada intended to make ethanol from straw and plant waste. It also further shrinks BP's alternative energy business to just two main operations focused on US wind power and ethanol made from Brazilian sugar cane.

However, BP is also still working on plans to develop a plant in Hull, North-East England, capable of processing local feed wheat into 420 million litres of bioethanol, and a biobutanol plant on the same site in partnership with DuPont.

The decision to nix the Highlands plant is another blow to the Obama administration, which sees advanced biofuels as a way of weaning the country off expensive oil imports.

This year it has been forced to slash its mandate for second generation biofuels from 500 million gallons (1.9 billion litres) to just 8.65 million gallons (33 million litres) as manufacturers struggle to produce sufficient volumes. Republicans are campaigning to have the mandate abolished entirely.

Second generation biofuels are seen as a more sustainable way of cutting emissions from transport fuels, as unlike conventional biofuels they use feedstocks that do not compete for land with food crops, such as sorghum, agricultural residues, and other waste products.

Meanwhile, doubts have this week been cast over another feted potential second generation biofuel feedstock, algae, which the US National Research Council said on Wednesday needs unsustainable amounts of energy, water and fertiliser to produce fuel on a large scale.

Jennie Hunter-Cevera, a microbial physiologist who headed the research committee, told news agency Reuters the finding was not a definitive rejection of algae-derived fuels, but a reminder the technology is not yet ready to support commercial levels of production.

"Faced with today's technology, to scale up any more is going to put really big demands on ... not only energy input, but water, land and the nutrients you need, like carbon dioxide, nitrate and phosphate," she said. "Algal biofuels is still a teenager that needs to be developed and nurtured."

Will EPA weed out Chemtex International's plan for biofuel plant in NC?

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/print-edition/2012/10/26/will-epa-weed-out-biofuel-plant-in-nc.html?page=all

Oct 26, 2012, 6:00am EDT
 
Susan Stabley: Staff Writer- Charlotte Business Journal

North Carolina scientists and conservation groups are trying to block use of an experimental plant for biofuel here because of concerns its growth could sweep the state as an invasive species akin to kudzu.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in the final stages of approving a rule change that clears the way for using arundo donax — also known as giant reed or giant cane — as a feedstock for the production of ethanol. That sparked a petition signed by organizations nationwide that included 15 groups in North Carolina against the use of the plant because of its proclivity to reproduce quickly and easily.

“We have a tiny window left to try and influence them,” says Aislinn Maestas, a spokeswoman with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington. “We want to encourage renewable fuels but also make sure they don’t do more harm than good.”

But this rule change is also key for a pending project by Chemtex International Inc., an Italian company that has its North American headquarters in Wilmington. In August, Chemtex won a guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cover 80% of a $99 million loan for the construction of cellulosic ethanol refinery. “Project Alpha” has been proposed for a site in Sampson County, with hog lagoon sprayfields eyed for crop locations. Startup is scheduled for 2014.

Chemtex plans to create 65 full-time positions with an estimated average annual salary of more than $48,000 plus another 250 indirect jobs tied to feedstock supply, maintenance and transportation, the company says.

The refinery is expected to produce 20 million gallons of ethanol per year. Chemtex says it will work with farmers to grow about 30,000 acres of grasses, including miscanthus and panicum virgatum, better known as switchgrass. But its plans to also use arundo donax worry national organizations as well as groups in Gaston County and the Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake areas.

“Buyer beware,” says Tim Gestwicki, chief executive of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, who works from an office in Charlotte. “Why would we not want to err on the side of caution when the plant is known to be invasive?”

Separately, six groups — American Rivers, the Environment Defense Fund, N.C. Coastal Land Trust, N.C. Conservation Network, N.C. Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy — called on the state in June to list arundo donax as a noxious weed. Cited in that request was a USDA study, also released in June, that found the plant has a 98.8% probability of being invasive in North Carolina.

California has spent more than $70 million in the past 20 years to control the spread of arundo donax. According to a report from the California Invasive Plant Council in Berkeley, the costs of eradicating arundo donax in that state range from $5,000 to $17,000 per acre. And some estimates run as high as $25,000 per acre.

“The risk is too high,” says Aviva Glaser, the National Wildlife Federation’s legislative representative on agricultural policy. “We shouldn’t even be looking at it at this point.”

But Delane Richardson, Chemtex vice president of business development, says there is commercial history of growing arundo donax in Italy “where it was eradicated without issue.” Richardson says it can cost as little as $100 an acre using the herbicide Roundup.

“We will be using best practices that will prevent arundo being planted in areas where it can spread,” Richardson says. She notes arundo donax has been deemed the most promising biomass feedstock by the European Union. “It is already growing throughout North Carolina with no issues. We have multiple U.S. universities and officials from other countries that agree these practices are sufficient to prevent spreading.”

Richardson says arundo donax requires less land to supply the proposed refinery.

“We can feed the plant with 17,000 acres, not the 30,000 or 35,000 acres needed for switchgrass,” she says. “The farmer will make half as much with switchgrass compared to arundo.”

Chemtex must glean the ethanol feedstock within 50 miles for the refinery, she adds. “Finding 17,000 acres within 50 miles is reasonable; 30,000 is getting very tough.”

BP Cancels Florida Ethanol Plant, Extends Renewable Exit

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-25/bp-cancels-plans-to-build-florida-cellulosic-ethanol-plant

By Christopher Martin and Mario Parker on October 25, 2012

 BP Plc (BP/), Europe’s second-biggest oil producer, is abandoning a cellulosic ethanol project in the U.S., its second move in a year to scale back in renewable energy. 

The company canceled plans to build a $300 million cellulosic ethanol plant in Highlands County, Florida, to focus on “more attractive” projects, according to a statement on its website today.

BP doesn’t plan to build any commercial cellulosic ethanol facilities on its own, and will now focus its U.S. biofuel efforts on research and development and licensing its technology, Matt Hartwig, a spokesman, said today in an interview. The company decided in December to wind down its solar business, which had become unprofitable after prices plunged.

“Ethanol is not something a lot of people are interested in investing money in,” Mark Schultz, an analyst at Northstar Commodity Investment Co. in Minneapolis, said in an interview today.

“Corn-based ethanol hasn’t been profitable for about a year,” he said. BP is “seeing that this isn’t the right street to go down anymore.”

Cellulosic ethanol is a renewable fuel produced from inedible feedstocks such as waste and switchgrass. U.S. government mandates require that refiners blend 36 billion gallons (136 billion liters) of biofuels into their products annually by 2022. The Environmental Protection Agency has had to slash the targets for cellulosic ethanol because it isn’t yet commercially available.

Verenium Venture 

BP announced plans in 2008 to build the plant, which would have produced 36 million gallons of fuel a year. It formed a venture with biofuels company Verenium Corp. (VRNM) in 2009 to jointly build the plant in south-central Florida and each invested $22.5 million in the project. BP bought Verenium’s biofuels business for $98.3 million in September 2010.

“We believe it is in the best interest of our shareholders to redeploy the considerable capital required to build this facility,” Geoff Morrell, a BP spokesman, said in the statement.

BP continues to work with other renewable-fuel developers including its Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC joint venture with DuPont Co., Hartwig said. It will continue to operate a cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in Louisiana and a research facility in San Diego, he said.

BP last year began exiting the global solar-energy industry after 40 years. Competition from Chinese manufacturers created a glut of panels, helping drive down prices 48 percent last year.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) is Europe’s biggest crude producer.

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net; Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net

Coskata: Biofuels Digest’s 5-Minute Guide

http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/10/23/coskata-biofuels-digests-5-minute-guide/

Jim Lane | October 23, 2012

Address:
4575 Weaver Parkway, Suite 100, Warrenville, Illinois 60555

Year Founded:
2006

Company description:

Coskata is a technology leader in the production of alternative fuels and chemicals. Our proprietary process has been demonstrated at significant scale and offers:

• High yields
• Low costs
• Feedstock flexibility

While the technology platform is capable of producing multiple fuels and chemicals from a diverse array of feedstocks, they are initially focused on commercializing our natural gas conversion process.

Natural gas is an attractive feedstock due to its abundant supply and low cost, and they expect to achieve production costs that are significantly lower than competitive approaches to fuels and chemicals production.

Major Investors 
General Motors, Total, Khosla Ventures, Blackstone Group, Advanced Technology Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, Coghill Capital Management, TriplePoint Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, Arancia Industrial, Sumitomo.

3 Top Milestones for 2009‐12

1. In the summer of 2012, Coskata announced its plans to switch its feedstock focus to natural gas at its first commercial facility. “We achieve two major benefits from our move to natural gas: 1) we can achieve superior economics due to natural gas’ abundant supply and historically low price leading not only to favorable economics for the company, but also for consumers; and 2) the capital requirements for a natural gas commercial-scale facility will be significantly less since we do not have to budget for biomass handling or gasification.”

2. In October 2011, Coskata announced that it had demonstrated two years of successful operation at its Semi-Commercial Facility, producing ethanol from both biomass feedstocks and natural gas.

3. In August 2011, Coskata completed its first close of Series D financing, with all major investors from previous rounds participating.

3 Major Milestone Goals for 2013‐15

1. Complete financing for first commercial facility.
2. Broker feedstock and offtake partnerships for commercial facility.
3. Complete construction of first commercial scale natural gas-to-ethanol facility

Business Model:
Owner-operator and technology licensor

Competitive Edge(s):

Coskata’s technology platform offers industry-leading feedstock flexibility, allowing the company to utilize the most cost advantaged domestic feedstock available today, natural gas. Virtually any carbon-containing input materials can be converted to syngas, including natural gas, wood, municipal solid waste, agriculture residues, coal and industrial gases.

“With natural gas prices of $4/mmBtu, we expect to achieve unsubsidized production costs well below that of current transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel and corn-based ethanol. In fact, even if natural gas prices were to increase to 4 times today’s levels, we would still be competitive with current corn ethanol production costs.

“By utilizing natural gas as a feedstock, not only can we produce transportation fuels at a price that creates value for consumers, we can also build much larger plants, because we will not be limited by availability of biomass within a specific radius. By producing at industrial scale, we can have a material impact on transportation fuel supply in this country.”

Research, or Manufacturing Partnerships or Alliances.
Coskata is a member of the Renewable Fuels Association, the Advanced Ethanol Council, the Advanced Biofuels Association, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Stage: 
Coskata unveiled its demonstration scale, integrated biorefinery facility in 2009, and is currently focused on financing and constructing a full-scale, natural gas to ethanol commercial facility.

Company Website

Chief Executive Officer:
William Roe

Business development or sales contact:
Rich Troyer, Chief Business Officer

Project information

Location: 
Madison, Pennsylvania

Materials or products produced
Ethanol

Year, month in service
Operation began in October of 2009.

Status:
Operated from October 2009 until the Fall of 2011 (over 15,000 operating hours)

Feedstock:
Natural gas, wood chips, and simulated waste materials

Processing technology
Syngas fermentation (involving syngas production, fermentation and separation)

Sundrop Fuels plant said to be on track in Rapides Parish

http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20121022/NEWS01/210220312

7:30 AM, Oct 22, 2012

Sundrop Fuels Inc. has hired some plant managers and has started preliminary site work north of Alexandria, where construction on the company's $450 million synthetic gasoline plant is to begin early next year with completion in 2014.

The Colorado company, which chose Central Louisiana for its first commercial plant, continues financing negotiations with lenders. They're getting ready for robust activity on land the company bought near Cowboy Town, a closed entertainment venue in Rapides Station.

"2013 is going to be very busy," company spokesman Steven Silvers said.

Silvers said training for entry-level and other positions, to be done through the Louisiana Workforce Commission, should begin in late 2013. He said the training depends on the progress of construction.

Not quite one year ago, Louisiana Economic Development chief Stephen Moret and local economic development officials announced that Sundrop Fuels would locate its biofuels plant at a site off Interstate 49 north of Alexandria.

The company plans to use natural gas from a pipeline not far away, the woody biomass that is in abundance in Central Louisiana, and a whole lot of technology using heat and chemical interaction to produce car-ready synthetic gasoline.

The project is proceeding on schedule, Silver said.

To lure Sundrop, Louisiana offered incentives based on the jobs created:

Performance-based grants of $14 million over 10 years for building and financing costs.

$4.5 million for relocation costs of research and development operations and personnel to Louisiana.

Tax breaks.

Access to private activity bonds, which is a federal government program that allows companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.
To get the incentives, Sundrop agreed to locate in Rapides Parish, create 75 jobs before the end of 2013, and 150 by the end of 2014, according to information provided by LED last week.

The company also has until the end of 2014 to complete its investment of $450 million.

Some managers have been hired, including some who now live in or near Alexandria, Silvers said.

The company is advertising several high-level positions on its website at www.sundropfuels.com including site supervisor and plant managers.

State training for ground-level plant jobs could begin in late 2013.

"LED FastStart will be engaged with the Sundrop Fuels team to help recruit, train and certify a qualified workforce to staff the company's state-of-the-art biofuels refinery," said Jeff Lynn, executive director of workforce development at LED.

"As the ramp-up date for hiring approaches, we'll provide more information to the public about recruitment, and training will be available at a later date," Lynn said.

Sundrop's partner, Chesapeake Energy, has pledged to pay $155 million for a 50 percent equity stake in Sundrop. Chesapeake said in its latest quarterly report that so far it had paid $65 million of the total, which it is giving to Sundrop in "tranches."

Chesapeake Energy has had cash and governance troubles, and its CEO Aubrey McClendon has been on the ropes. Activist investors are seeking more influence in the company, which is second only to ExxonMobil in production of natural gas.

Silvers said Chesapeake remains committed to Sundrop, and it'll be Chesapeake's natural gas that provides the fuel for heat needed to produce synthetic gasoline.

Silvers said the price Sundrop will pay for natural gas, a regional commodity that has fetched low prices the last year, will be a product of negotiations between the two partners.

"Those are things that are still being worked out," he said. "They are a partner with a vested interest in seeing Sundrop Fuel succeed as an alternative fuels company."

 

 

Concerns raised over port project

http://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/news/article_080504cc-1a01-11e2-b009-001a4bcf887a.html

Posted: Friday, October 19, 2012 12:00 pm
 

MARK HIBBS 

 

MOREHEAD CITY — Opposition is organizing against a state plan to develop a wood pellet export facility at the state port here.

Environmental groups announced Thursday their concerns about the proposed project, which is also the topic of a planned Oct. 30 joint meeting between county commissioners and the Morehead City Council.

Details of the meeting had not been formally announced in a public notice by either the county or the city as of presstime for this edition.

The pellets would be made from forests in Eastern North Carolina and shipped to Morehead City by rail. Supporters say the commodity is a renewable resource that is good for the environment. But others are concerned about the impact here.

The N.C. Coastal Federation, based in Ocean, and the Clean County Coalition that was formed in 2011 to fight the then-proposed sulfur melting and handling facility at the N.C. Port of Morehead City, said Thursday they have asked the State Ports Authority and other state agencies to adhere to state law and assess the potential environmental effects of state plans to store and ship wood pellets at the port.

The Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill sent a letter Tuesday on behalf of the federation and the Clean County Coalition asking for the review. The letter was sent to Thomas Bradshaw, executive director of the Ports Authority; N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Eugene Conti, and N.C. Railroad Co. President Scott Saylor.

The groups said using forests in Eastern North Carolina as Europe’s fuel source could have “severe environmental implications for the region’s woodlands,” according to their letter. Also, the increased train and truck traffic through Morehead City could be unsafe, create problems with noise and dust and affect the town’s tourist-based economy, they write.

“This proposed project has the potential to cause significant adverse impacts to Morehead City, including its residents, visitors, local businesses and environment,” the letter states. “It also has the potential to cause significant adverse impacts to North Carolina forests from accelerated harvesting to meet the demand for wood pellet export.”

European countries eager to reduce their carbon footprint are increasingly turning to wood as a biofuel alternative to coal because it is thought to release less carbon dioxide. The environmental groups said several recent studies have questioned that claim.

More than 1.5 million tons of pellets, mostly from Southern trees, were shipped from the United States to Europe last year, according to the groups. That number is expected to reach 5.7 million tons in three years.

State Environmental Policy Act requires the potential adverse effects to be studied before the project moves forward. And any project on public land or that involves public money requires a state action, such as a permit, and a review of the potential environmental effects. The proposed wood pellet facility meets all three requirements of the law, the groups said in their letter.

“The law is meant to reduce surprises, to study all the possible effects before public money is spent or a shovel of dirt is turned,” said Todd Miller, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation. “This is a state project, using taxpayer-owned land. These state agencies need to adhere to the law.”

Mr. Miller said the state should have followed the law several years ago when the SPA paid $30 million for 600 acres near Southport for its planned international shipping terminal. The plan has since lost political support.

“If the law had been followed in that instance, public opposition would have surfaced during the review process, as would the land’s true value,” Mr. Miller said. “It would have led to more prudent decisions.”

Clean County Coalition President Dick Bierly said not much is known about the wood pellet project or how it or the increased train volumes might affect Morehead City.

“How much noise will that create? What will it do to traffic? How would tourists react?” Mr. Bierly said. “Those are the types of questions we need answered before we can adequately assess this project. The review that the law requires would begin to provide those answers. It seems to me that asking these state agencies to follow the law is not an unreasonable request. “

The groups seek, under the state’s public records law, for all written and electronic records regarding the project.

“This is exactly the type of project that the law is designed for,” said Geoff Gisler, staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “A public entity using public money to build a public project that will have long-term impacts on the environment demands an opportunity for public input, state law requires it.”

Contact Mark Hibbs at 252-726-7081, ext. 229; email mark@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @markhibbs.

Vilsack: Strengthening homegrown energy

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Vilsack-Strengthening-homegrown-energy-174966171.html?ref=171

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack   |   Updated: October 19, 2012 


As the drought continues today, USDA and other Federal agencies are doing all we can to help farmers, ranchers and communities who have been impacted.

Unfortunately, our tools are limited. Due to inaction by Congress, many parts of the 2008 Farm Bill expired October 1, and other aspects of the law will expire in the coming months.

This brings tremendous uncertainty for rural families – particularly livestock producers who have lost access to disaster programs, and dairy producers who no longer have access to dairy support programs.

The lack of a Food, Farm and Jobs Bill also limits USDA from continuing our record investments in homegrown American energy. Since 2009 USDA has worked hard to ensure that rural America plays a key role in our nation’s energy strategy.

For example, we’ve invested in more than 330 bioenergy projects, strengthening biofuels production across America. Ethanol alone supports nearly 400,000 American jobs, while reducing the price of gas by more than one dollar per gallon for American families.

We’ve helped grow America’s capacity for creating advanced biofuels from non-food, non-feed sources. Since 2009 USDA has invested in historic efforts to create nine new, advanced biofuels refineries. Meanwhile, we have added new income sources for farmers – providing incentives to grow advanced feedstocks on nearly 60,000 acres.

Finally, USDA has undertaken groundbreaking research that’s necessary to expand our homegrown energy capacity.

Last year we established five research centers across America to enhance research and coordination in the development of new biofuels technologies. Just last week, USDA announced a sixth such effort, providing support for researchers across the northeast United States to undertake additional biofuels research.

USDA has invested more than $320 million to accelerate research into the new technologies associated with advanced biofuels. And in partnership with the U.S. Navy and the Department of Energy, we are making an historic investment of more than $510 million to develop advanced biofuels for military ships and aircraft. In fact, just recently, ships and aircraft of the Navy’s “Great Green Fleet” conducted operations off the coast of Hawaii using advanced marine and aviation biofuels.

We’re proud of where we stand today. In 2011 America imported about 45 percent of our oil from foreign countries – down from more than 60 percent in 2005. Our nation’s growing biofuels industry played a key role in that progress.

But there’s much left to be done. I know that given the tools to succeed, USDA can continue to bring down gas prices for families. We can further strengthen America’s energy security. And we can support more good jobs in our small towns and rural communities.

The US surpassed Canada as the largest wood pellet exporter in the world

http://www.teatronaturale.com/article/3908.html

by S. C.

Pellet exports from the two primary pellet-producing regions on the North American continent, the U.S. South and British Columbia, have continued to grow, reaching a new record high of 760,000 tons in the 2Q/12, according to data from the pellet industry and customs statistics complied by the North American Wood Fiber Review.

Total Canadian exports to Europe in the 2Q rose 14 percent from the 1Q/12, with reports of BC pellet plants running at full capacity thanks to European demand. Pellet plants in Eastern Canada also continued small but frequent shipments over the Atlantic.

In the U.S. South, pellet export volumes rose 13 percent in the 2Q/12 from the previous quarter, in spite of some temporary slowdowns at Green Circle Bio Energy in Florida and Georgia Biomass, Georgia due to fires at a US port and at a pellet consumer in the United Kingdom. Shipments from Enviva’s new port facility in Virginia, additional volume from Fram Renewables, and new volumes from Low Country Biomass in South Carolina have all contributed to the growth in exports over the past 15 months, so that the US has now surpassed Canada to become the world’s largest exporter in 2012.

Three companies announced plans for constructing pellet plants in the state of Georgia in the 3Q/12. With six other pellet export plants already under construction and scheduled to begin operating in regions as widespread as Virginia to Texas, it is possible an additional 4.2 million tons of wood pellets will be crossing to Europe in 2015. This can be compared to an estimated 1.5 million tons likely to be exported from this region in 2012 as reported by the North American Wood Fiber Review.

Exports from both Eastern and Western Canada are also on schedule to grow, though not at the explosive rate being witnessed in the U.S. South. Several new Canadian pellet facilities, such as Holbrook Forest Products in Roddickton, Newfoundland, have expressed their intentions to export pellets, but have yet to do so for various reasons, including inadequate export dock facilities.

by S. C.

16 October 2012 Teatro Naturale International n. 10 Year 4

Petronas and LanzaTech to Recycle CO2 into Sustainable Chemicals

http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/10/14/4336054/petronas-and-lanzatech-to-recycle.html

Published: October 14, 2012

ROSELLE, Ill. & KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — LanzaTech, a producer of low-carbon fuels and chemicals from waste gases, and PETRONAS, the national oil company of Malaysia will work together to accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies to produce sustainable chemicals from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and natural gas.

The agreement blends Petronas' deep experience and assets in the petroleum industry with LanzaTech's gas fermentation technology to create an economical and sustainable source of high value chemicals.

LanzaTech's proprietary fermentation process converts carbon monoxide (CO) in industrial waste gases, reformed natural gas and gas derived from any biomass source, into low carbon fuels and chemicals.

LanzaTech and PETRONAS will work together to extend this technology to include carbon dioxide (CO₂) containing gases from a variety of sources including refinery off gases and natural gas wells to produce acetic acid, a high value chemical with applications in the polymers and plastics markets.

"PETRONAS and LanzaTech have the ability to significantly impact the future of carbon capture by fundamentally changing the way we deal with waste CO₂," said LanzaTech CEO, Jennifer Holmgren.

"Rather than trying to sequester carbon deep into the earth, we will 'bury' it in a chemical. In this way, companies can not only comply with emissions reduction requirements, but also generate revenue along the way."

The joint development agreement (JDA) builds on the relationship between the two companies established earlier this year when PETRONAS Technology Ventures SdnBhd (PTVSB), the venture arm of PETRONAS, invested in LanzaTech's Series C round.

"We invested in LanzaTech because we saw an opportunity for PETRONAS to benefit from the integration of LanzaTech's technology in multiple areas of our business," said Haida Shenny Hazri, CEO of PTVSB. "This is a natural extension of LanzaTech's core gas fermentation technology and it is a natural fit with Petronas' commitment to achieving a sustainable future for all."

About PETRONAS

PETRONAS is the national oil and gas company of Malaysia and is wholly-owned by the Government of Malaysia. Together with its subsidiaries and associated companies, PETRONAS, a FORTUNE Global 500® company, has fully integrated oil and gas operations in a broad spectrum of the oil and gas value-chain. Its business activities include (i) the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas in Malaysia and overseas; (ii) the liquefaction, sale and transportation of LNG; (iii) the processing and transmission of natural gas and the sale of natural gas products; (iv) the refining and marketing of petroleum products; (v) the manufacture and sale of petrochemical products; (vi) the trading of crude oil, petroleum products and petrochemical products; and (vii) shipping and logistics relating to LNG, crude oil and petroleum products. More information is available at: http://www.petronas.com.my.

About LanzaTech

LanzaTech is a leader in gas fermentation technology. It provides novel and economic routes to fuels and high value chemicals from waste gas streams. LanzaTech's unique process provides a sustainable pathway to produce platform chemicals that serve as building blocks to products that have become indispensable in our lives such as rubber, plastics, synthetic fibers and fuels.

LanzaTech's technology solutions mitigate carbon emissions from industry without impacting adversely food or land security.

Currently operating a pre-commercial facility in China using steel mill off gases for ethanol production, LanzaTech, a company founded in New Zealand is now a global organization with full commercial operation targeted for 2013.

More information is available at www.lanzatech.com

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/10/14/4336054/petronas-and-lanzatech-to-recycle.html#storylink=cpy

Burning Man, Burning Microbe: Biofuels beyond biomass

http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/10/12/burning-man-burning-microbe-biofuels-beyond-biomass/

Jim Lane | October 12, 2012 

 Can you have a biofuel without processing an intermediate biomass?
 

Can post-biomass technologies revolutionize fuel and chemical production?

 

Fuels and chemicals can make people mighty uneasy, when you think about them.

With fossil fuels, the issues include the uneven distribution of resources and wealth, national security, price and price volatility, and carbon emissions. So along came first-generation biofuels.

Then, along came second-generation biofuels. Using new technologies, non-traditional crops and forest, animal, crop or municipal residues, using land that had fallen out of traditional production – or, in the case of residues, using no additional net land at all.

But there were still issues of an uneven distribution of resources and wealth (e.g. land-grabbing in the hot bioenergy zones), and issues of price and price volatility. Above all, price – the technologies have struggled to beat fossil fuels, or first-gen biofuels, on price.

Which brings us to third-generation biofuels. They are, as a class, post-biomass – and their basis as a biofuel lies not in processing an organic substrate but in the fact that the processing mechanism itself is an organism.

Are they biofuels? We think so – even if they are post-biomass. They do what organisms have done for eons to make biomass in the first place: convert lifeless CO2, sunlight and water and nutrients into a new material.

Today, there are four classes of technologies that directly create a fuel without first making a biomass.

Post-biomass sugar fermentation

 

In this class of technologies, the organism directly produces a fuel from a sugar and, if the sugar is made via synthetic biology rather than extracted from biomass, it is a post-biomass path. The key step is the creation of a post-biomass sugar – from there, a host of fermentation technologies can make a fuel or chemical. Though some of them, like the technology at Amyris, Solazyme and LS9 is highly versatile and, to an extent, programmable for a wide variety of target fuels, chemicals and biobased products and intermediates.

Post-biomass sugar, that’s what Proterro is working on. Proterro’s microorganism synthesizes sucrose from sunlight, CO2, nutrients and water. They are in the process of training the microorganism to make it fast enough to be a viable technology at industrial scale. If it works – that a post-biomass substrate from which other magic bugs can produce a huge array of fuels and chemicals. Without digging them up from the ground, or using land or sea to grow biomass.

Gas fermentation

 

In this class of technologies, the microorganism ferments synthesis gas – or syngas, a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide – into an alcohol. The syngas can be made by gasifying biomass – but it can also be made directly from, say, methane emissions or natural gas.

There are five technologies that, broadly speaking, have this capability today. Coskata, INEOS Bio, LanzaTech, Siluria and, as a part of its hybrid liquid-gas fermentation process, Zeachem. In the case of Coskata, they are proposing to ferment, primarily, natgas for some time to come, while INEOS Bio has gone the route of gasifying second-gen feedstocks such as MSW and yard waste. LanzaTech has gone the route of acquiring its gases from partnerships with steel companies – that are, in turn, seeking to reduce the blast furnace’s carbon footprint as well as monetize a stream of waste gases.

With Siluria’s biocatalysts, metals and metal oxide crystals are grown on biological templates in a technique developed in Angela Belcher’s lab at MIT -allowing unique ways to manipulate the surface of catalysts as they enable the chemical reaction necessary to transform methane.

Solar fuels

 

In this class of technologies, the microorganism directly produces a target alcohol or alkane – using sunlight, CO2, water and nutrients – and then secretes it into a chamber from which it can be extracted from the liquid medium in which the microorganism lives.

There are two technologies around today that have this broad capability. There’s Algenol and there’s Joule. In Algenol’s case, the microorganism is a strain of algae and it secretes ethanol, which is separated via evaporation from the medium and then collected and purified. In the case of Joule, the microorganism secretes either alcohol, diesel fuel, or other target chemicals inside a capsule unit.

In the case of solar fuels, the yields per acre can be exotic and transformative. Whereas first-gen fuels yield somewhere between 50 and 600 gallons of fuel per acre, Algenol is reaching 7,000 gallons of ethanol per acre in real-world trials, while Joule is reporting ethanol yields as high as 15,000 gallons per acre per year.

Plus, they use saline or brackish water instead of depleting fresh-water.

Electrofuels

 

In this class of technologies, they are not only post-biomass, they are post-sunlight. Generally speaking, they operate much the same as the solar fuels – excepting that the microorganisms draw energy from electricity instead of from sunlight. The underlying current can, of course, be supplied by a variety of post-biomass sources, including hydro, wind, solar or even natural gas.

This is an experimental class of technologies, for which R&D is being supported by ARPA-E in a multi-year research program that originated in 2010.

Most recently in electrofuels, a team of researchers at U-Wisconsin-Madison demonstrated they can use a electricity-and-water based fuel cell to convert acetone into isopropanol, a chemical compound with a wide variety of pharmaceutical and industrial applications, including as a gasoline additive.

The bottom line

 

Biofuels do not have to be made from biomass, or use arable land, or fresh water. People who cling to those dogmas in their critique of biofuels are just poorly informed, or have an axe to grind.

The extent to which these technologies will dominate, or be viable, in the future is uncertain – they have their own journeys towards commercialization and scale, just as second-gen technologies do. But that is a function of cost, and to some extent is a function of oil prices and the appetite of a given society to accelerate its weaning off the oil dope.

But consider the comparative footprint of, say, corn ethanol vs solar ethanol. Today, the US produces around 13 billion gallons of ethanol from around 24 million (effective) acres. The same land footprint (but, using non-arable land and saline water) could yield up to 360 billion gallons of solar ethanol, using the Joule data that we have – or, around 190 billion gallons of drop-in diesel fuel.

Or, to put it another way, you could produce 240 billion gallons of solar ethanol or 125 billion gallons of solar diesel using the land footprint of the Mojave Desert. That’s twice what the US consumes in diesel fuel – using captured CO2, non-potable water and some nutrients.

Burning Man or Burning Microbe?

 

Or, in a frenzy of radical self-reliance, you could produce massive amounts of fuel in the Nevada’s Black Rock Desert – which would provide a whole new spin on the Burning Man festival held each year in the Black Rock. Though, in this case, it would probably be Burning Microbe.

That’s apt, for mankind has to kill biomass to make energy for our bodies – while plants can synthesize energy out of lifeless materiel. What could be more biobased than something that makes life from lifelessness, instead of the other way around?

And, in Joule’s case, they say they can produce it for 40 percent less than the cost of a barrel of oil, today, from which refiners have to add cost to make fossil-based diesel fuels. Again, it is early days for the technology – so we are still in the “if, then” phase of analysis. It’s not quite yet time to break out the bubbly.

But, what an “if, then”.

LanzaTech secures $15 million debt financing

http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/9206/lanzatech-secures-15-million-debt-financing

By Susanne Retka Schill | October 12, 2012

 

LanzaTech recently closed on $15 million in debt financing from Western Technology Investment. Earlier this year, LanzaTech closed a $55.8 million Series C funding round led by Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, bringing the total capital raised to date to more than $100 million.

LanzaTech has developed a novel biological process of carbon capture involving proprietary biological microbes that can use a variety of waste gases as a nutrient source—including waste gases from industry, which would otherwise be flared as carbon dioxide. The process can also use syngas generated from any biomass resource, including municipal, organic industrial and agricultural wastes, as well as reformed natural gas.

The company has a 100,000 gallon-per-year demonstration facility operating in China using steel mill off gases for ethanol production. Full commercial operation is targeted for 2013. “The ethanol produced at the China steel mill has been tested and approved as fuel grade ethanol and we are currently preparing samples for additional testing,” CEO Jennifer Holmgren told Ethanol Producer Magazine. “The focus of the pre-commercial facility has been to run the process at scale and it has successfully demonstrated this to date.”

The company continues work at its Freedom Pines facility in Soperton, Ga., the former Range Fuels facility purchased at a January foreclosure sale. “We have increased our team on site and are accelerating the shakedown of the gasifier,” Holmgren said. Range Fuels was developing a cellulosic ethanol process based on Fischer-Tropsch technology and had been commissioning the facility when it ceased operations. 

The new financing for LanzaTech comes from WTI, a private investment firm based in Silicon Valley, that has provided more than $3 billion of debt and equity capital to technology and life science companies ranging from early-stage private companies to publicly-traded companies, including Facebook, Google and Juniper Networks. Their investments range from $250,000 to $30 million and are structured as fully usable, unrestricted growth capital.

"LanzaTech's team has developed an innovative approach to carbon capture and reuse that is already operating at scale," said David Wanek of WTI. "Their unique technology has the potential to have a real and significant impact on the global fuels and chemicals market. WTI is excited to be joining LanzaTech on its journey to commercialization and we look forward to great things from them."

"We are delighted to partner with WTI to accelerate our growth," Holmgren said. "WTI has an outstanding reputation and this venture debt completes our current fundraising. We will continue to invest our capital in LanzaTech's research and development program and to accelerate the commercialization of our integrated fuels and chemicals platform."

Local firms, leaders are clean-tech finalists

http://www.bcbr.com/article/20121012/NEWS/121019952

By Doug Storum October 12, 2012

DENVER - Three companies and three executives in the Boulder Valley are finalists in the Colorado Cleantech Association's annual awards program.

Boulder-based Albeo Technologies Inc. and Longmont-based Sundrop Fuels Inc. are the finalists in the High Impact Cleantech Company category, while Boulder-based Boulder Wind Power Inc. is a finalist in the Breakout Cleantech Company category.

Boulder Wind's co-founder and chief technology officer Sandy Butterfield is a finalist for Colorado Cleantech Entrepreneur of the Year, and Mark Verheyen, president and CEO of Longmont-based TerraLux Inc., is a finalist for Cleantech Executive of the Year. Robert Fenwick-Smith, founder and senior managing director of Aravaipa Ventures in Boulder, is a finalist for the Governor's Award for Excellence in Cleantech Leadership.

Company finalists were selected based on their ability to impact the marketplace with innovative clean technologies, and recognizes successful fundraising efforts, ability to scale their technology, and the company's statewide job creation success.

Individuals were selected for their commitment to expanding Colorado's clean-tech ecosystem and their devotion to the growth of their respective organizations. Finalists were selected by a group of industry peers consisting of entrepreneurial leaders, clean-tech CEOs and former award recipients.

The 2012 Colorado Cleantech Award Celebration will be held from 5 to 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 22, at the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel.

The 2012 finalists are:

National Cleantech Leadership Award
Center for the New Energy Economy, Fort Collins
http://cnee.colostate.edu/index.html
Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, Golden
http://www.coloradocollaboratory.org/
Ecotech Institute, Aurora
http://www.ecotechinstitute.com/

Governor's Award for Excellence in Cleantech Leadership
Robert Fenwick-Smith, Aravaipa Ventures, Boulder
http://www.aravaipaventures.com/
Doug Schatz, Ampt LLC, Fort Collins
http://www.ampt.com/

Cleantech Corporate Champion
Wells Fargo Bank
https://www.wellsfargo.com/

Cleantech Investor of the Year
9th Street Investments, Golden
http://9thstreetinvestments.com/
Access Venture Partners, Westminster
http://www.accessventurepartners.com/content/
Braemar Energy Ventures, New York, Boston, London
http://www.braemarenergy.com/
New Enterprise Associates, Menlo Park, California
http://www.nea.com/

High Impact Cleantech Company
Albeo Technologies Inc., Boulder
http://www.albeotech.com/
Sundrop Fuels Inc., Longmont
http://www.sundropfuels.com/

Breakout Cleantech Company
Boulder Wind Power Inc., Boulder
http://www.boulderwindpower.com/
ZeaChem Inc., Lakewood
http://www.zeachem.com/

Emerging Cleantech Company
Silver Bullet Water Treatment, Denver
http://silverbulletcorp.com/
SkyFuel Inc., Arvada
http://www.skyfuel.com/

Colorado Cleantech Entrepreneur of the Year
Sandy Butterfield, co-founder, CTO
Boulder Wind Power Inc., Boulder
http://www.boulderwindpower.com/
Hans Mueller, founder, vice president engineering
EcoVapor Recovery Systems LLC, Centennial
http://www.cleanlaunch.com/

Cleantech Executive of the Year
Joel Butler, CEO
Solix BioSystems Inc., Fort Collins
http://www.solixbiofuels.com/
Mark Verheyen, president, CEO
TerraLux Inc., Longmont
http://www.terralux.com/

Legislator of the Year
Colo. Rep. Brian Delgrosso, (R-Loveland)
http://www.briandelgrosso.com/

Sundrop Fuels plans to hire locally as much as possible for Alexandria-area plant

http://www.englandairpark.org/articles/2012/01/sundrop-fuels-plans-hire-locally-much-possible-alexandria-area-plant

Date: (?) 2012

Story Courtesy of The Town Talk
Written by Jeff Matthews

Officials from Sundrop Fuels Inc. as well as local and state government and business leaders agree wholeheartedly on this -- they would love to fill as many of the 150 jobs as possible at the company's planned biofuels plant near Alexandria with Louisiana natives.

"I'm tired of seeing our bright young people come home twice a year -- at Thanksgiving and Christmas -- before going back to Atlanta or Denver," Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a familiar refrain. "These are the kind of good-paying jobs that will keep Louisianians at home."

"We would be happy to find some good Louisiana graduates wasting time in Houston or Dallas who want to come back," said Sundrop Fuels Chief Executive Officer Wayne Simmons.

Sundrop Fuels announced in November it will build its first production facility off Interstate 49 in the Rapides Station area, north of Alexandria. The company is banking its future on the plant and its unique conversion process that turns biomass and natural gas into ready-to-use transportation fuel.

The plant is expected to employ approximately 150 people, with an average yearly salary of $58,000 a year. Economic development professionals have predicted it will create more than 1,000 other indirect jobs.

Sundrop is expected to break ground on the facility early this year.

"We're excited about the early impact, which is the construction impact," said Jim Clinton, president of Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance. "We should do very well with that. You're talking about a $450 million project that local companies will be involved in. So just at the first cut, it's a really big hit up front. Then, of course, we're very pleased with the 150 jobs, and all the indirect jobs."

Simmons said hiring at the top level will start first, so those employees can work with the engineering and design team. From there, he said, it will be "a gradual ramp-up" to filling all the jobs.

"So if we hire at the senior level around mid-year, the end of the year would be the next tier," Simmons said. "The largest part of the hiring would be in 2013 with an eye to being completely staffed by early 2014."

Simmons said he expects the large part of the plant's work force to be from the area and the state.
"A couple of people will move down," he said. "But it's largely going to be indigenous."

"We shouldn't have any problems filling those jobs," Clinton said.

Simmons said about 90 of the facilities jobs will be operator jobs, with the rest broken down fairly evenly among engineering and supervisory/management.

"One of the challenges is this plant has a lot of different unit operators," he said. "It's a complex plant."

Simmons said a lot of training will be required. The state will be heavily involved through its FastStart workers training program.

Clinton welcomes the challenge of training workers for the plant.

He's particularly enthused about getting local educational entities involved and improving their capabilities to train skilled workers in the future. State education officials gave the go-ahead last year for Central Louisiana Technical College to expand into more of a full-service community and technical college to meet such challenges.

"Every time you do one of these things, you're building capacity for the next one," Clinton said.
Clinton, long a proponent of raising the knowledge base of the area work force, is also pleased at the large percentage of highly skilled jobs the plant will provide.

"These are significant jobs," Clinton said. "Engineering, chemical, technical-intensive jobs. That's a good thing. That's what you want in your work force."

Company could build $100 million plant on Wilkinson-Jones border Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2012/10/12/2211109/company-could-build-100-million.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.macon.com/2012/10/12/2211109/company-could-build-100-million.html

Published: October 12, 2012 

By MIKE STUCKA — mstucka@macon.com

 

A site along the border of Wilkinson and Jones counties could become home to a wood pellet plant valued at $100 million.

Enova Energy Corp. wants to build the plant on Nitrogen Road outside Gordon. A related company, Enova Energy Group LLC, announced last month that it planned to build three wood pellet plants in Georgia and South Carolina, which were expected to cost $330 million.

On Friday, the Middle Georgia Regional Commission decided the project was a “development of regional impact,” meaning it could affect other communities. Neighbors, adjacent communities and government agencies now have 30 days to comment on the proposal.

Enova officials did not return phone calls Friday. The company said in a release last month that it expected each of its three proposed plants would have 150 temporary construction jobs and 70 permanent jobs.

Jonathan Jackson, executive director of the Development Authority of Wilkinson County, said it’s “very, very early” in the process, and no commitment has been made to bring the plant here. Jackson filed an application on behalf of Enova.

“It’s just a fairly routine filing, and it tends to be one of those projects that we have high hopes for, but at the same time, we kind of do this every day,” Jackson said Friday. “We’re not really sure what to expect.”

On Sept. 18, the company filed a similar application for a location near Warrenton, outside Augusta.

That application was terminated earlier this month, but it described a plant worth $140 million.

Warren County Commission Chairman John Graham didn’t specifically say whether he was still working with Enova, but he said there hasn’t been an agreement.

“We’ve been working with several companies,” Graham said Friday.

In September, The Augusta Chronicle reported that Enova is planning a $110 million wood pellet plant near Trenton, S.C., and planned two more facilities in Georgia, including one near Augusta. Those locations were not discussed.

The company’s news release said it expected that each plant would export 450,000 metric tons through Savannah. The wood pellets would go to the European Union to public and private utilities.

In a filing Friday, the company said it expected about 100 trucks per day out of the development. It also said it expected to have to improve the intersection of Ga. 18 and Nitrogen Road with acceleration and deceleration lanes.

In last month’s company statement, Enova CEO Zach Steele spoke of the business prospects for wood pellets.

“As demand for biomass has grown in Europe, Enova is ideally situated to take advantage of the vast resources of sustainable forests being grown throughout the Piedmont Region of the southeastern U.S. to help Europe meet its demand to reduce its carbon footprint,” Steele said.

To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2012/10/12/2211109/company-could-build-100-million.html#storylink=cpy

Ethanol industry supports more than 1,000 jobs in Ga.

http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/9194/ethanol-industry-supports-more-than-1-000-jobs-in-ga

By Erin Voegele | October 09, 2012

 

The 2012 Georgia Life Sciences Industry Analysis was released at Georgia Bio’s annual Georgia Life Sciences Summit in October. The analysis, titled “Shaping Infinity,” shows that one out of every 40 jobs in Georgia is tied to the life sciences industry, which includes the biofuel sector. The report, which was produced by the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, found that the number of workers employed in Georgia’s life sciences industry increased by 1.5 percent from 2007-’10, while statewide employment dropped by 7.9 percent during the same period. Wages paid by companies in this sector also increased at a faster rate than wages paid by other companies within the state. The relative wage increases were 4.4 percent and 4.2 percent.

“The analysis shows that sustained efforts to grow and foster the development of Georgia’s life sciences provided their worth during the Great Recession and during the sub-par economic recovery that has persisted in its wake,” said the authors in the report. “Recent developments indicate that the prospects for Georgia’s life sciences cluster are improving.”

The report defines the life sciences industry as including biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, as well as the agricultural, biofuels and bioenergy sectors. The report identified a total of eight biofuel companies active within Georgia. The report notes that six of these companies have been in business for 10 years or less. The vast majority, seven of the eight companies employ between one and 10 workers, while one employs a staff of 51 to 100.

Under the category of agricultural life sciences, ethanol production was found to support 206 direct jobs within Georgia, with a total employment impact of 1,026 jobs. The total impact of ethanol production on state gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to be $105.32 million, with a total labor income impact of $63.90 million.

Biofuel companies included in the survey include Agri Biofuels Inc., Algae Bioenergy Solutions, Bio-Plus Inc., Brettech Alternative Fuel Inc., C2 Biofuels Inc., First United Ethanol, Freedom Pines Biorefinery/LanzaTech, Georgia Alternative Fuels LLC, Georgia Biomass/RWE Innology, Middle Georgia Biofuels Inc., and Peat Fuel Company.

Milestones Reached

http://www.ethanolproducer.com/articles/9175/milestones-reached

Cellulosic ethanol is arriving, with commissioning under way and more than 100 MMgy under construction.

 

By Susanne Retka Schill | October 05, 2012

• 
  Abengoa Bioenergy’s 25 MMgy cellulosic ethanol plant at Hugoton, Kan., is beginning to take shape.
  PHOTO: ABENGOA BIOENERGY

The next five years—the often scoffed mantra of cellulosic ethanol developers—is getting whittled down to the next year or two. A milestone was reached this year when Blue Sugars Corp. got the first cellulosic renewable identification number (RIN) issued by the U.S. EPA. Another notable event happened in June, when Ineos Bio began commissioning its plant in Florida. Construction continues on several plants, while other projects are closing in on financing and new ones continue to be announced. For example, Chemtex International Inc. announced a new 20 MMgy project in North Carolina, even as it is commissioning its first, similarly sized plant in Crescentino, Italy.

The Ethanol Producer Magazine fall plant map, mailed with this issue, shows 6.25 MMgy of cellulosic capacity in the U.S. and Canada at nine demonstration plants and more than 104 MMgy under construction, coming online next year and in 2014. The industry knows only too well, though, that commissioning plants that are first-of-their-kind is fraught with uncertainty. Range Fuels was fast out of the gate, building a plant at Soperton, Ga., which it completed in late 2010. Based on well-known Fischer-Tropsch technology, an industry insider said the company thought it could skip from lab-scale to commercial-scale. They couldn’t. The company did succeed in producing methanol, but failed to successfully produce ethanol and ultimately defaulted on its loan. The plant was picked up at the foreclosure sale by New Zealand-based LanzaTech, which continues to evaluate the facility for use with its gas-to-fuels and chemicals process.

Cellulosic ethanol developments are still fluid. Coskata Inc. announced this summer it is refocusing its efforts and turning to natural gas as a feedstock to use with its technology, thus taking it off the list of cellulosic ethanol developers, at least for now. Royal Dutch Shell ended its support of cellulosic project development with its two big partners, Iogen Inc. and Codexis Inc., both of which announced big layoffs. One of the early technology developers, Terrabon Inc., filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August, ending work on its MixAlco technology. Qteros made no announcements and company officials did not respond to repeated attempts for comment, but its website is down, local media reported the research facility was closed and in late September, its equipment was put up for auction. The changing fortunes of early developers and shifting business models is not unexpected, but progress is being made, nonetheless.

International Effort

It is a fitting irony that the first gallons of cellulosic ethanol assigned RINs in the U.S. were shipped to Brazil, as it underscores the internationalization of development efforts. The 20,000-some gallons of cellulosic ethanol was produced at the Upton, Wyo., demonstration plant operated by Blue Sugars Corp. (formerly KL Energy Corp.) The company announced its new name this summer, along with an extension of its development partnership and the first commercial licensing agreement with Brazil’s big oil company, Petrobras SA. Since 2010, the two have been collaborating on Blue Sugar’s technology, using bagasse as the feedstock. Petrobras used the shipment both for testing and to fuel a fleet at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Brazil this summer. At that time, the company announced engineering had begun for the first commercial unit to be co-located at one of its sugarcane mills, with start-up slated for 2015.

“Petrobras has been an outstanding partner,” says CEO Peter Gross. “Petrobras supported us in many ways, not only financially, but also in the areas of R&D, engineering, industrial operations. One interesting example has been Petrobras’ experience from operating nine sugarcane mills in Brazil.
This has helped us in developing a technology designed to the industrial reality and requirements of sugarcane mills.” A large reduction in the use of enzymes was achieved in the most recent iteration of the hydrolysis process, he reports. “A change to multiple sugar streams and the breakdown of the process into several stages allows for great process and operating flexibility.”  Blue Sugars is returning to pine wood—its first feedstock of choice—in a new joint development program with Finland energy company ST1 Group Oy.

Internationalization is apparent in Florida as well, where the 8 MMgy Ineos New Planet BioEnergy LLC plant is being commissioned. The Vero Beach project is a joint venture between a Florida-based developer and Ineos Bio, one of the 15 business units of a company headquartered in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, U.K. Privately held Ineos Group Ltd. is the third largest chemical company globally, comprised of facilities acquired from BP chemicals when the oil company exited the commodity chemicals sector in 2005, along with other acquisitions. Ineos operates 60 chemical production facilities in 13 countries and licenses a large portfolio of chemical intellectual property. It purchased its cellulosic ethanol technology from Bioengineering Resources Inc. in 2008, along with BRI’s research facility in Fayetteville, Ark. More than 40,000 hours of run time have been chalked up in the pilot facility, and, with the company’s expertise in managing chemical facilities, Ineos Bio spokesman Dan Cummings speaks confidently about its ability to succeed. Commissioning, a complex process for a new, integrated process that includes gasification, heat recovery and power generation, began in June, he says. The technology is based on the microbial conversion of syngas into ethanol with separation through distillation, which Cummings adds is a continuous process taking just 10 minutes from when the feedstock enters the gasifier until it exits as ethanol.   

Commissioning of Chemtex’s commercial-scale plant in Italy has also been under way for some time. In early September, the boiler was being started up, says Dennis Leong, executive vice president, marketing and business development for Chemtex Global SA.  “We fully expect to have it producing in the November/December time frame.” Chemtex is the global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) subsidiary of Mossi & Ghisolfi Group, an Italy-based, privately held chemical firm. In August, Chemtex announced it had received a conditional USDA loan guarantee for a 20 MMgy project in Sampson County, N.C., with a 2014 start-up targeted. Earlier, the project received a grant through the USDA Biomass Crop Assistance program to establish 4,000 acres of switchgrass and miscanthus.

Further south, a developer announced a 20 MMgy plant in Lenox, Ga., is under construction. A native of Australia, Scot Corbett, CEO of the World Ethanol Institute LLC, moved to the U.S. in 1993 to continue developing the paulownia tree as part of the World Paulownia Institute. While the company originally targeted its development of the fast-growing tree for forestry, he says it is now focusing on energy, both cellulosic ethanol and fuel pellets. The tree can be harvested on demand, and will regenerate from the stump annually, getting yields of 20 to 30 tons per acre per year.  The company has a patent-pending process called CHIPS, or combined heat, ice, power and steam. The pretreatment is a continuous process using steam explosion and acid hydrolysis, followed by standard fermentation using another technology provider’s modified yeast.  “We’ve done testing with the University of Georgia and reconfirmed with the labs at Golden, Colo.,” he says, “We’re pretty confident.” As a privately funded venture, the project has maintained a low profile, he adds. “We haven’t needed the exposure to get financing.” Other advantages are that the plant is co-located with a sawmill and plywood plant to share infrastructure as well as the fact that Corbett owns related companies to handle engineering, procurement and construction duties. “The building is up,” Corbett says. “The equipment is being ordered and we expect to be completed in late 2013.”

Abengoa BioEnergy is a familiar player in the U.S. ethanol industry, operating six first-generation plants with a total capacity of 374 MMgy. It is a subsidiary of Spain-based Abengoa, a big player in the renewable energy sector with major projects in wind and solar energy around the globe, as well as more conventional large power facilities. Its first cellulosic ethanol facility has been under construction in Hugoton, Kans., for a year. “The ferm tanks are up, the beer well is up, the distillation tower is up, the water treatment facility is done,” says Chris Standlee, executive vice president. “It’s looking like a plant now.” Abengoa has had staff on the ground at Hugoton for three years, he adds, getting feedstock contracts in place. The 25 MMgy plant will tap corn stover and switchgrass as feedstock. Even in a drought year like this one, Standlee says there will be plenty of biomass available. The company expects to require less than 15 percent of the available biomass from a 50-mile radius.

Ground has been broken at BlueFire Renewables Inc.’s 19 MMgy plant in Fulton, Miss., and some site work is ongoing, reports company spokesman Richard Klann.  The bulk of construction activity is on hold, however, awaiting financing.  “Our lender of record for a USDA loan guarantee was not approved,” he explains. “We’re trying a more traditional financing model.” BlueFire is in negotiations with China Huadian Engineering Co., a unit of China Huadian Corp., which is China’s fourth largest utility, to invest in the Fulton facility. Huadian would gain, in return, BlueFire technology. “We can help them with making their power plants more profitable and they’re interested in getting into the U.S.,” Klann says.

The company has also formed a new subsidiary, SucreSource LLC, to market its front-end process for sugar production, a concentrated acid hydrolysis with chromographic separation of acid from the sugars, recycling acid in the process. GS Caltex, a Korean oil and petrochemical company has a professional services agreement with SucreSource for pilot testing of its process for chemical production. “We’re doing the front-end technology to get the sugars and they’ll work on the back end,” Klann says. That plant will be operational by December.

Publically traded companies like BlueFire keep their investors well-informed, with U.S. Securities and Exchange filings available for the public to read. Some companies have been quite aggressive in telling their stories as they seek to attract investors, while others, illustrated by World Ethanol Institute, lie low until concrete progress can be reported. “They’re all in the same place we are,” says Klann, “with a process that hasn’t been proven beyond the pilot or demo.  All work technically, but will they work economically at scale?” We’ll soon know the answer for that. 

Author: Susanne Retka Schill
Contributions Editor, Ethanol Producer Magazine
(701) 738-4922
sretkaschill@bbiinternational.com