Miscanthus Grass: Huge Potential for Ethanol and Electricity Production

EV World: The World of Electric, Plug-in Hybrid, Fuel Cell and Alternative Fuel Vehicles:
Oct 4, 2005
"The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been conducting field trials. Based on their findings, they are convinced that Miscanthus shows great promise. They calculated, based on projected average yields, that if only 20 percent of Illinois' 11 million acres under cultivation were used to produce Miscanthus, the crops would provide 145 Terra watt hours (Twh) of electricity, exceeding the total amount of electricity (137 TWh) consumed by the entire state, including the city of Chicago.
UIUC also did some number crunching to see if Miscanthus cultivation would be profitable for the agriculture community. Calculated on a per hectare basis, after ten years, a conventional rotation of corn and soybeans showed a $903 loss while Miscanthus demonstrated a $2,900 profit. "

xperts paint troubled picture for future of world oil supply

The Seattle Times: Experts paint troubled picture for future of world oil supply:
by Nicholas K. Geranois, Associated Press -- Oct. 6, 2005
"Roger Bezdek, a consultant for the U.S. Department of Energy, told the Global Oil Depletion conference that it will take more than a decade to find alternative sources of energy if oil production reaches a peak, which may be imminent.
'No one knows when oil will peak,' Bezdek said. 'But if we wait until the peak, we will be in deep economic troubles for decades.'
The conference was presented by the Thomas S. Foley Institute at Washington State University and painted a gloomy picture of a future in which there is increased competition for diminishing resources."

A wine of character served up at the gas pump - Europe - International Herald Tribune

A wine of character served up at the gas pump - Europe - International Herald Tribune:
by Craig S. Smith, The New York Times -- Oct 6, 2005
"France has periodically turned oceans of lowly table wines into vinegar and ethanol. But bottles of quality French wine have been piling up on supermarket shelves and in vineyard cellars across the country, to the point that some of it is now cheaper than bottled water."

Trees for Ethanol Project Well Advanced

Newstalk ZB:
May 10, 2005
Auckland -- "Mr. Delany says trees will mature in two to three years, but until then LTDC will look to secure funds to progress a pilot biorefinery."

Forecasting Peak Oil

Those with eyes could see it coming - ASPO Ireland (Peak Oil):
by Matt Simmons -- Oct 2005
"Subsequent actual production statistics show that the UK reached a secondary peak in 1997/98 at just above 2.6 Mb/d and now struggles to stay above 1.6 Mb/d. All the optimists about the role of technology were totally wrong. But the same folks still believe the same hype. They have merely moved the goal posts. I wonder how long it will take mainstream energy thinkers to awake to the threat that the world is approaching peak oil output and might have already passed this crucial global milestone.
Will Katrina perhaps serve as a genuine wake-up? Time will tell but I sense we are now in a very crucial sea change of energy thinking."

Sugar Prices May Rise From Seven-Year High on Ethanol Demand

Bloomberg.com: News & Commentary:
Oct. 4, 2005
"(Bloomberg) -- Sugar prices, which reached the highest in more than seven years in New York yesterday, may rise further as record oil prices prompt cane growers to use more of the crop to produce ethanol, said investor Michael Coleman.
Raw sugar for March delivery rose 2.7 percent to 11.53 cents a pound on the New York Board of Trade yesterday. That's the highest closing price for a most active futures contract since Jan. 14, 1998. The futures have risen 26 percent this year."

emulsions of hydrated ethanol in gasoline and diesel

Hydrated ethanol is less expensive and takes less energy to make than anhydrous ethanol, in addition to the emmissions advantages listed below. If the emulsion technology would allow Hydrated ethanol to be mixed with gasoline and diesel without too much added cost for the emulsifiers, it could be a significant development in the cost and net energy balance of ethanol. This product might also be shipped more easily by pipelines if phase separation is reduced.
emulsions of hydrated ethanol...:
"The hydrated ethanol/petrol emulsion researched in this project directly addresses issues relating to the use of ethanol/petrol blend in unmodified vehicles. Such an emulsion has a lower vapour pressure, greater water tolerance and, potentially, reduced NOx emission on combustion compared to the 10% anhydrous ethanol/petrol solution currently used internationally. If these advantageous physicochemical properties are confirmed there is potential to replace the use of anhydrous ethanol/petrol solution internationally."

Common Thread to Ethanol Debate: Reducing Petroleum Dependence

Green Car Congress: Common Thread to Ethanol Debate: Reducing Petroleum Dependence:
Aug 23, 2005

There was one point of agreement among the four scientists presenting their opposing positions in a debate on the net energy balance of ethanol: the US needs a replacement for its petroleum-based fuels. They just don't agree on how to do that.

Dr. Dale, a supporter of ethanol, would rather see the entire net energy balance issue go away. He commented that the concept of net energy is "dangerous...a convenient fiction, an academic toy."
"[The net energy balance] treats all energy as equal. That's simply not true. It ignores energy quality and deals only with quantity."
Using Pimentel's and Patzek's method, Dale calculated the net energy value of other fuels. By his calculations, ethanol, with an energy balance of -29%, is better than converting crude oil to gasoline at -39% and coal to electricity at -235%
"Are we going to stop burning coal for Electricity or refining crude for gas because they have negative energy balances? Of course not. But that is the direction the net energy argument takes us."
Dale's point is essentially a pragmatic one--he'd rather see the discussion focus on petroleum displacement than net energy balance.

Electicity Generating 'Turbocharger' Could Boost Fuel Efficiency

Motoring - Power generation of another stripe:
Sept 21, 2005
"London, England - A group of engineers in the UK have hooked the equivalent of a turbocharger to an exhaust pipe to generate electricity instead of pressurising the fuel supply.
Now, they say, they have a simple but revolutionary (well, it is a turbine) way to recover energy that would normally be blasted out of the exhaust pipe at 200km/h which, we're told, is how fast exhaust gases can travel."

Ethanol Plant Could Produce Byproduct Edible by Humans

LimaOhio.com:
by Jim Sabin -- Oct 2, 2005
"...And Ohio's first ethanol plant, being built by Greater Ohio Ethanol on Hanthorn Road, could be the first in the country to also produce a grain byproduct edible by humans."

Ethanol cuts oil dependence

Kansas City Star | Ethanol cuts oil dependence:
by Bob Dineen -- Oct 2, 2005
"As part of a broad strategy to shift to renewable fuels, expanding the production of domestically produced ethanol has numerous local, regional and national benefits. As a high-quality, high-octane fuel, gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol reduces the need for imported oil. Burning ethanol produces fewer pollutants, including toxins and carbon dioxide. And in some areas, particularly with the high price of gasoline, sales of lower-priced E-85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, cannot keep up with demand.
It may surprise some that ethanol plants are not only operating, but new ones are being built, outside of the traditional Midwestern corn belt. There are plants in Tennessee, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, Wyoming and Washington. And efforts are under way to build facilities in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey"

High Oil Prices Prompt New Look at Shale

High Oil Prices Prompt New Look at Shale - Yahoo! News:
by Sandy Shore, AP Business Writer -- Oct 3, 2005
"Companies have spent years researching how to melt oil out of rock, but it could be 2010 before any decide whether shale mining is commercially and environmentally feasible. It takes a large amount of water to recover the oil and the process can take months."

All's not well when the oil runs dry

All's not well when the oil runs dry - theage.com.au:
by Claire Miller -- Oct 2, 2005
"Significantly, Colin Campbell, a former oil industry executive, has calculated that 'conventional' oil -- the sweet stuff that is easy to extract and cheap to refine -- peaked 18 months ago. That means increasingly relying on low-quality, heavy oils and oil sands to maintain supply levels. These sources are more expensive to extract and process, which means even higher prices at the bowser, not to mention higher greenhouse emissions from the heavier fuels."

E85 Fuel Available in Moberly, Missouri

The Moberly Monitor-Index Online:
by Connie Duvall -- Oct 1, 2005
"People gathered at the MFA Oil Company Petro-Card E85 Pump located east of Moberly on Highway 24 to hear about the introduction of the all new E85 fuel option. This is the 10th E85 site owned by MFA Oil and the 25th public facility available in the state."

Direct Injection Ethanol Boosted Gasoline Engines: Biofuel Leveraging For Cost Effective Reduction of Oil Dependence and CO2 Emissions

Direct Injection Ethanol Boosted Gasoline Engines: Biofuel Leveraging For Cost Effective Reduction of Oil Dependence and CO2 Emissions:
by D.R. Cohn, L. Bromberg, J.B. Heywood -- MIT
"This ethanol boosted engine concept uses a small amount ethanol to increase the efficiency of use of a much larger amount of gasoline by approximately 30%. Gasoline consumption and the corresponding CO2 emissions would thereby be reduced by approximately 25%. In combination with the additional reduction that results from the substitution of ethanol for gasoline as a fuel, the overall reduction in gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions is greater than 30%. The concept uses appropriately controlled direct injection of ethanol into the engine cylinders. The direct injection provides suppression of engine knock at high pressure. This allows high pressure operation of a much smaller, highly turbocharged engine with the same performance as a larger engine. The engine can also use a higher compression ratio. "

Ethanol From Cheese Factory Waste

RTE News - Ford, Maxol launch green fuel initiative:
Sept 27, 2005
"Irish motorists will be able to buy an environmentally friendly Ford Focus car from November. The car runs on bio-ethanol, a green fuel that will be available at Maxol stations.
Ford claims that the bio-ethanol fuel, a by-product from cheese making, produces 70% less carbon dioxide than petrol."

Big Auto Makers Want Bush to Act on Energy

Planet Ark : Big Auto Makers Want Bush to Act on Energy - WSJ:
Sept 27, 2005
"As Hurricane Rita bore down last week on US Gulf Coast oil refineries, Ford Chairman and Chief Executive William Clay Ford Jr. sent a letter to President George W. Bush asking for an energy summit involving auto makers, suppliers, fuel providers, consumers and government officials"

Cheap As Chips: the Other Oil

RedNova News - Science - Cheap As Chips: the Other Oil:
Sept 26, 2005
"DAVID RENWICK is a man who can grin about the price of fuel. While the rest of New Zealand sweats about the cost of filling cars, Mr Renwick is offering diesel at 49 cents a litre, with no likelihood of an increase.
That's because his company, Envirocar, is making and selling biodiesel, a natural alternative to ordinary diesel.
Biodiesel is one of the organic alternatives to mineral-based fuel. These have long been possible but are gaining momentum for economic and environmental reasons. "

Where filling up an SUV costs $3

USATODAY.com - Where filling up an SUV costs $3:
by Mike Caesar -- Sept 27, 2005
"But critics say Venezuela's highly subsidized gasoline, which retails for between 10 and 15 cents per gallon, and 7 cents for a gallon of diesel, is bad for the country.
Besides feeding perpetual traffic jams and worsening air pollution, they say the subsidy is a multibillion-dollar drain on the national budget, sapping money that could help schools, hospitals, or public transit, and transferring it to the wealthier classes, who own the cars. And they wonder how long leftist President Hugo Chavez can defy economic gravity."

French Grain, Beet Areas for Ethanol Seen Surging

Planet Ark : French Grain, Beet Areas for Ethanol Seen Surging:
Sept 26, 2005
"PARIS - Grain and sugar beet areas used for ethanol production in France will surge this decade as biofuel demand grows in line with ambitious new government targets, analysts said. "

Shallow heated Rock: The power beneath our feet

The power beneath our feet - smh.com.au:
by Tim Flannery -- Sept 26, 2005
"The heat had been generated by the natural radioactivity of the granite, which had been kept in place by a blanket of sediment nearly four kilometres thick. What really excited the geologists was that the granite was not in a region where the Earth's crust was being torn apart, but where it was being compressed. This led to horizontal, rather than vertical, fracturing of the rock. Even better, the rocks are bathed in superheated water under great pressure, and the horizontal fracturing meant that it could be readily recycled.
This one rock body in South Australia is estimated to contain enough heat to supply all Australia's power needs for 75 years, at a cost equivalent to that of brown coal, without the carbon dioxide emissions. So vast is the resource that distance to market is no object, for power can be pumped down the power line in such volume as to overcome any transmission losses."

Fertilizer costs soar; farmers face tough decisions

FarmWeek:
Sept 23, 2005
"Farmers this fall will have to scrutinize their fertilizer purchases like never before due to recent price hikes that have pushed the cost of anhydrous ammonia to new highs.
Illinois Farm Bureau senior economist Mike Doherty said the cost of anhydrous ammonia already had increased by an estimated 25 percent this year. And that was prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."

China Looks to Biomass Ethanol for Food Security

Planet Ark : Food Security Worries Could Limit China Biofuels:
Sept 26, 2005
"China's scientists hope that farming by-products like straw and corn stalks, or even forest residues, could offer a longer-term solution.
These are usually burnt, but contain cellulose that can be broken down into ethanol -- although currently it is too expensive to be commercially viable.
'Cellulose provides a renewable fuel option without concerns about food safety and land requirements,' said Li Shizhong, Professor at the Biomass Engineering Centre at the China Agricultural University."

Ethanol as much as Half the Cost of Gasoline in Brazil

Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Sweet taste of success for sugar-fuelled cars:
by Andrew Downie -- Sept 25, 2005
"Rio De Janeiro -- The success is down to many factors, the principal one of which is price, experts said. Although the Flex engines use 25% more ethanol per mile than petrol, ethanol usually sells at between a third and half the price of petrol.
The ethanol is made from cane sugar and even motorists who were previously reluctant to take the plunge and buy a Flex say they have been won over by the savings. "

Rolling Out The Blobject

Peak Energy: Rolling Out The Blobject:
Sept 22, 2005
"Some reports have noted that diesel cars can be more efficient than hybrids, but this does ignore the longer term view - hybrids will eventually be able to be charged by electricity from mostly (or all) renewable sources and use a minimal amont of liquid fuel - whereas diesel engines will always run on diesel. In the meantime diesel hybrids would seem to be the best bet."

Biofuels Take Root in Big Oil Country

Soya & Oilseed Industry News:
Sept 9, 2005
"So why is The Panda Group of Dallas breaking ground this summer on a 100-million gallon ethanol plant in Hereford, where unit rail cars by the hundreds haul in millions of bushels of corn to service feedyards and a new influx of dairies? One reason is the use of technology to take advantage of a continuous supply of cattle manure and cotton gin waste to fire the plant instead of high-priced natural gas.

And Panda will have an instant market for wet distillers' grain, which will be sold to area feedyards for blending into their fed-cattle ration."

Ethanol Energy Debate Continues

The Energy Blog: Ethanol Energy Debate Continues:
Sept 1, 2005
"The major parties in the continuing debate as to whether ethanol's energy efficiency is better than that of other fuels has completed its most recent round of arguments with Michael Wang's presentation. He concludes that ethanol is better because it uses less fossil fuel in its production than gasoline does."