University of Minnesota Scientists and Master Gardeners Analyze Biofuel Feedstock Production and Potential to Improve Land Use | BioFuels Journal

A process called pyrolysis makes bio-oil and biochar from biomass such as perennial grasses. The bio-oil may be refined into various biofuels, while the biochar may be used as a fertilizer. If this fertilizer proves useful, it could be an important part of making the pyrolysis process profitable and sustainable.
University of Minnesota Scientists and Master Gardeners Analyze Biofuel Feedstock Production and Potential to Improve Land Use BioFuels Journal: “What is so exciting about this project is that it has the potential to improve soil fertility of large agricultural fields as well as small gardens,” said Jason Hill, assistant professor in the U's bioproducts and biosystems engineering department and one of the project’s lead investigators.

Joule Ethanol Production from Sunlight and CO2

Sources of waste CO2 are widely available, including corn-fed ethanol biorefineries. Therefor this ethanol production process could be a game changer if it is scalable and perfected as this company expects. They plan to begin commercial production in 2012. They say they have engineered microorganisms capable of continuous ethanol production using sunlight and CO2 as the inputs.
Joule Awarded Patents for High-Volume Ethanol Production from Sunlight and CO2: "These innovations, together with Joule's advances in bioprocessing and solar capture and conversion, will help Joule achieve an ultimate target of 25,000 gallons per acre annually – a rate that is 10X greater than that of cellulosic ethanol and 100X greater than corn ethanol – while requiring no depletion of food crops, agricultural land or fresh water. In addition, by eliminating the need for biomass, Joule avoids the burden of fluctuating feedstock cost and supply, as well as the energy-intensive, multi-step conversion of biomass to product. At full-scale commercial production Joule expects to produce ethanol for as little as $0.60/gallon."

Pelletizing biomass for cellulosic ethanol feedstock?

Delivery and handling of bulky feedstock is one of the big barriers to commercial scale cellulosic ethanol production. Pelletizing might solve some of these problems, since the pellets could be handled much the way grain is currently handled. It remains to be seen whether the technology will turn out these pellets at a cost low enough to compete with corn kernels, especially since the biomass would need to be moved twice--first to the pelletizing plant, and then to the biofuel refinery. Pellets might also be useful for co-firing with coal at power plants, reducing output of pollutants.
Ethanol Producer Magazine | EthanolProducer.com: "The pellets can be used to co-fire industrial boilers, but they can also be used as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production, according to Russ Zeeck, chief operating officer of Pellet Technology."

Iowa State engineer working with fungus for new ethanol food coproduct

I'm not sure most people know that corn ethanol production also results in DDGS animal feed. This article discusses a new food coproduct using a fungus feeding on leftover thin stillage. The result is more food for animals and possibly even people.
Iowa State engineer scales up process that could improve economics of ethanol production | www.news.iastate.edu: "What van Leeuwen and a team of Iowa State researchers are producing is a fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus, that makes a high-quality, high-protein animal feed from the leftovers of ethanol production. The process of growing the fungus also cleans water from ethanol production so that it can be recycled back into fuel production. And the process, called MycoMeal, could one day produce a low-cost nutritional supplement for people."

POET producing high quality Corn Oil coproduct along with ethanol

This kind of value-added coproduct will increase the efficiency of ethanol and biodiesel production processes. Ethanol biorefineries have always produced more than just ethanol from the corn kernel. Now those coproducts can be higher in value.
POET Corn Oil to Supply Up to 60 MMGY Biodiesel Production | BioFuels Journal: "When corn oil is captured on the back-end of that process following BPX, it is a higher-quality product with a lower amount of free fatty acids.

'The corn kernel is an amazing thing,' POET CEO Jeff Broin said.

'As we continue research into more and more co-products, our ability to displace foreign oil continues to grow."

USDA Program to Fund Ethanol Blender Pump Installation

Blender pumps can dispense fuel with various percentages of ethanol. This might be the best way for fuel vendors to offer E15 (15% ethanol) after the recent approval for newer cars. They will be able to also dispense E85 for flex fuel vehicle owners from the same pumps.
USDA Announces Program to Fund Blender Pump Installation | BioFuels Journal: "The Obama administration has set a goal of installing 10,000 flexible fuel pumps nationwide within 5 years."

Olives for Biodiesel, Ethanol

The waste product left over from making olive oil might be valuable for making biofuels.
Olives: A Feedstock for Food, Biodiesel, Ethanol and Medicine : Greentech Media: "Pomace also contains chemicals that are toxic to soil: The Israeli government has begun to regulate how it can be disposed.
Approximately 5 percent to 7 percent of the total olive mass, however, can be converted to biodiesel. The olive stone can also be converted into cellulosic ethanol. In other words, two fuels can be made from one feedstock."

Hybrid Biofuel plants for greater efficiency

A yet to be built biorefinery in South Dakota is being re-designed to produce both conventional corn kernel ethanol and cellulosic ethanol. It will also take advantage of a combined heat and power installation.
Plans for ethanol plant near Jamestown changed - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks: "The hybrid approach provides better economies of scale – reducing both capital and feedstock costs – and makes a stronger overall project."

Giant King Grass as Feedstock for biofuels

Higher tonnage per acre will help advance cellulosic biofuels. But there will still be the challenge of transporting and processing the incredible volume of material because of low energy density in these materials. On-farm processing such as anaerobic digestion might be an answer for the transportation dilemma.
VIASPACE Reports Independent Test Results for Giant King Grass as Feedstock for... -- IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Agave as a biofuel source

Agave is a drought-tolerant crop suitable for semi-arid regions. The biomass potential is quite large.
Agave seen as excellent biofuel source - UPI.com: "'We need bioenergy crops that have a low risk of unintended land use change,' bioenergy analyst Sarah Davis said. 'Biomass from Agave can be harvested as a co-product of tequila production without additional land demands.'"

Co-locating Ethanol biorefineries and coal-fired power plants

The cellulose and hemicellulose from plant material can be an ethanol feedstock, while the lignin is great for buring in a power plant. Excess steam and heat from the power plant can be used in producing ethanol.
Cellulosic Ethanol and Power Plant Co-Location: Savings in Synergy - Ethanol Producer Magazine: "Our process modeling showed that in situations where a green electricity premium of $30 per MWh is charged, an ethanol price of approximately $2.10 per gallon (before any ethanol subsidies) is the break-even point for a co-location producer. Ethanol prices above this amount will allow the producer to make more money producing ethanol from just the cellulose and hemicellulose (and burning the lignin separately for power) than by burning the whole biomass feedstock."

CRP Croplands could yield ethanol fuel while maintaining ecological benefits

CRP is the Conservation Reserve Program. The government pays farmers to maintain certain fields in grasses or trees. Often, this is land that is too steep for row cropping without extensive erosion. At first glance, you would think that removing biomass from these fields every year would reduce soil fertility. Actually, this is not necessarily so. Some plants, including most grasses, are stimulated to grow more strongly by mowing or grazing. This greater biological activity leads to tapping more nutrient reserves from deep in the earth and from the air. Bacteria and fungi work in symbiosis with plant roots to extract nitrogen from the air and from certain soil particles. These nutrients are translated into plant mass and greater organic matter in the soil.
Estimating Ethanol Yields from CRP Croplands / March 19, 2010 / Newsfrom the USDA Agricultural Research Service: "This extensive study also shows that CRP lands in the northeastern United States with a high proportion of tall native prairie grasses have the potential to produce more than 600 gallons of ethanol per acre. This energy can be produced while maintaining the ecological benefits of CRP grasslands."

Ethanol-Optimized Engine getting closer

The octane and oxygen advantages of ethanol can overcome the fuel economy deficit. But it requires an engine designed to take advantage of these factors. Such an engine would be a game-changer in the automotive and energy world. The CEO of Growth Energy talks about their prototype engine:
Ethanol-Optimized Engine A Major Breakthrough for Producers - Ethanol Producer Magazine: "And, at blends of E40 to E50, the EBDI engine improves on the fuel economy of regular gasoline engines by as much as 10 percent. Think about that: One of the biggest criticisms of ethanol is that engines lose mileage when burning ethanol. But this engine proves that the problem isn’t the fuel—it’s the engine."

Syngas from waste being delivered to cellulosic ethanol biorefinery

Through a plasma gasification process this facility is able to provide syngas with the right composition for conversion to ethanol. The feedstock can vary in composition, and this syngas could be tailored for other uses such as generating electricity. If plasma gasification proves viable on a large scale, it could provide the flexibility needed for large-scale utilization of waste products on a commercially viable basis.
ALTER NRG CORP. Alter NRG Corp. announces the Westinghouse Plasma Centre is delivering clean syngas to Coskata's ethanol facility: "Coskata's proprietary process was analyzed by Argonne National Laboratory, who found that every unit of fossil energy used, in turn generated up to 7.7 times the amount of energy which is significantly better than the current ethanol industry. It was also found that it reduces CO(2) emissions by up to 96 percent compared with a well-to-wheel analysis of gasoline. The feedstock-flexible process utilizes non- food biomass, thereby providing an opportunity to produce fuel-grade ethanol in greater quantities and at a lower cost point than that produced from food-based sources (corn, sugar, etc.)."

Efficient new process uses CO2 in gasification

his new method of gasification could iincrease the efficiency and lower the cost of syngas prodtion from biomass. It makes direct uof CO2 -- a greenhouse gas. Syngas can then be made into many types of liquid fuels such as ethanol, or be upgraded for use as a natural gas substitute in cars, heating, generation of electricity, or other uses.
Columbia researchers explore new process to create greener fuels: "While a typical gasification process uses only steam to convert biomass into syngas, synthetic gas containing a mixture carbon monoxide and hydrogen, Castaldi’s new method replaces 30 percent of the water with carbon dioxide. Researchers believe that these findings carry exciting potential and hope the process will be able to improve the overall efficiency of fuel production when used on a large scale. Syngas can be converted into a variety of different chemicals and fuels, including diesel products."

Switchgrass Uses Nitrogen Efficiently

Part of the reason Switchgrass is so efficient is the microorganisms that reside with the roots in a synergistic relationship. This USDOE study looks at biomass production from a profit potential perspective. This is important because the profit motive is still the most important consideration for farmers. They need to make a living. So we must take input expenses into account, such as fertilization.
Switchgrass Produces Biomass Efficiently - Renewable Energy World: "Biomass feedstock nitrogen study compares four grasses and finds that switchgrass is most efficient."

Cassava Ethanol to replace Kerosene as cooking fuel in Africa

Here's the kind of smart production and use of ethanol that I like to promote. Production will be small-scale and close to the cassava fields, reducing the energy and money spent on feedstock transportation. On the use side, ethanol becomes a much cleaner alternative to kerosene as a cooking fuel. I also suspect that there will be valuable coproducts left over from processing the cassava. I would like t find some more details.
allAfrica.com: Nigeria: NCGA Signs N56 Billion Contract For Cassava Kerosene (Page 1 of 1): "The Cassakero project is targeting the installation of 10,000 small scale bio ethanol refineries in the 36 states of the federation including the FCT, over the next four years to produce daily ethanol cooking fuel requirement for 4 million families."

Investment in Ethanol from Sweet Soghum

DPG Investments LLC plans to invest in ethanol from Sweet Sorghum. This is a promising development becasue of the efficiency and simplicity of converting sorghum sugars into ethanol as opposed to starch from grain. Starch must be broken down into simple sugars. The drawback is spoilage of simple sugars and transportation costs for the raw feedstock.. Various approaches have been investigated for meeting these challenges such as making silage or on-farm pre-processing of sorghum cane. DPG's appeoach will to install small ethanol biorefineries on the farms where the sorghum is grown, integrating them with farming operations. This will drastically the cost of moving feedstock.
New Venture to Finance Sorghum-to-Ethanol Projects - Domestic Fuel: "A new venture could provide up to $376 million for projects that will turn sweet sorghum into ethanol"

Flexible feedstock ethanol getting closer

Plasma gasification is one route to ethanol production. It can utilize just abot any carbon-based feedstock, includung municipal solid waste. Coskata is getting close to going full scale with this technology.
Coskata's new Lighthouse cellulosic ethanol plant, in depth — Autoblog Green: "Flex ethanol is the term Coskata is using for ethanol that can be made with almost any feedstock, i.e., ethanol made using the Coskata process."

Iowa Ethanol producer deploys algae production

A Shenadoah, Iowa ethanol biorefinery is using waste heat and C02 to nourish algae production. In the future, algae could be used for feed, food, or fuel. The unveiling will be October 14, 2009.
BioFuels Journal - News & Information for the Ethanol and BioDiesel Industries: "Omaha, NE—Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRE) announces the unveiling of BioProcessAlgae, LLC’s Phase I photobioreactor pilot project."

Hydrated Ethanol can increase diesel engine efficiency

CleanFlex Power Systems is retrofitting diesel engines to run on hydrated ethanol combined with diesel. The ethanol is a mixture of 40% water and 60% ethanol, dubbed EM60. Two separate tanks are used. the hydrated ethanol and diesel come together at the last second during combustion. The result is less emmissions and more horsepower. I consider this to be a high-efficiency use of ethanol. Click the link for an article with more details.
Precision Pays

Biogas from waste comes to Flint

Let's hope this project works well, as it could then be replicated at many more waste treatment plants, reducing cost and producing renewable energy from a waste product. Biogas can be upgraded to use like natural gas, including as a fuel for converted vehicles or vehicles built to tun on natural gas.
Swedish Biogas Starts Construction Of New Biogas Plant In Flint City, Michigan, US - Energy Business Review: "The $8-million- to $10-million plant will be built on city's wastewater treatment plant. The project is expected to be operational by next fall. Human waste treated at the wastewater treatment plant will be used to create biogas."

Distributed pre-processing for cellulosic ethanol

One of the biggest limitations for cellulosic ethanol is the need to transport huge quantities of bulky biomass. If this biomass can be easily processed to increase energy density near where it is harvested, this would decrease transportation cost. Pyrolysis is one such method. The result of pre-processing is then pyrolysis oil which could be shipped by pipeline or tanker. The article linked below hints at another possiblity--cellulosic sugar. This dry substance could be stored and shipped like grain.
BioFuels Journal - News & Information for the Ethanol and BioDiesel Industries: "Comet Biorefining has demonstrated this unique technology at pilot scale and estimates that cellulosic sugar can be produced for as low as 7 cents per pound based on laboratory testing."

Fertilizer from corncobs

Nitrogen fertilizer is usually made from natural gas. Now bioammonia will be made from Iowa corncobs.
SynGest, Heartland plan to make bioammonia DesMoinesRegister.com The Des Moines Register: "SynGest Inc. has signed a letter of intent with Heartland Co-op of West Des Moines to explore a partnership to make and sell ammonia from corncobs."

TX facility produces High-Octane Green Gasoline

BioFuels Journal - News & Information for the Ethanol and BioDiesel Industries: "The gasoline was produced using Terrabon's licensed MixAlco™ technology to pre-treat and ferment biomass at the Company's advanced biofuels research facility, Energy Independence I, located in Bryan, Texas.
This process yielded organic salts, which were converted to ketones and then to high-octane gasoline."

Synergy between ethanol, CHP, and electric cars

I agree with the linked article that we chould make more use of combined heat and power (chp) production and natural gas, but I do not agree with pitting these technologies against ethanol. CHP can be combined with ethanol production for greater production efficiency. On the use side, most people are going to want liquid fueled engines in combination with plug-in electric in order to extend the range. Ethanol or other high octane biofuels could be the perfect fuel for this application. A small engine running at a consant speed just for battery recharging can be optimized to make the best possible use of ethanol, thereby increasing efficiency of the system. There would be little or no fuel economy deficit when using ethanol in an optimized engine. 

CHP Electricity Powers Cars 22 Times Farther Than Ethanol! - Renewable Energy World

Innovative New Yeasts Could Help Cellulosic Ethanol Production

ARS researchers have been thinking outside the box. Rather than focusing only on the difficult task of converting xylose into ethanol, they developed yeasts that can use xylose for energy and thereby convert more of the glucose in the feedstock into ethanol. Xylose is a type of sugar that is found in cellulosic biomass. But many cellulosic type materials also contain glucose. Jerusalem artichoke stems and sweet sorghum stems might be good candidates.

New Yeasts Could Help Fast-Track Biofuel Production / July 28, 2009 / News from the USDA Agricultural Research Service: "The new yeast doesn’t directly convert large quantities of xylose into ethanol. Instead, xylose provides energy the yeast needs to grow and reproduce without oxygen. This means that the glucose that might have been used by the yeast to grow and reproduce is now available for fermentation, and the rate of ethanol conversion increases."