Researchers Help Take Natural Gas Out Of Ethanol Production

Biomass could replace Natural gas as the fuel for operating ethanol refineries -- Jeff
ScienceDaily: Researchers Help Take Natural Gas Out Of Ethanol Production
Sept. 27, 2006

Engineers Devise Process To Improve Energy Efficiency of Ethanol Production

Jan. 26: Engineers Devise Process To Improve Energy Efficiency of Ethanol Production - Carnegie Mellon University:
Jan. 26, 2007
"Carnegie Mellon researchers have used advanced process-design methods combined with mathematical-optimization techniques to reduce the operating costs of corn-based bio-ethanol plants by more than 60 percent."

Manure for Fuel

Farmers will give this Herford, Texas ethanol refinery their cattle manure. Then the refinery will use the manure for power. Sounds like a good model for reducing costs while helping farmers and the environment. -- Jeff
Biomass Energy: Manure for Fuel: "Local farmers have contracted with Panda to supply the manure free of charge just to get rid of the mounds of waste rather than paying to have it carted away."

HBS BioEnergy Forms Joint Venture With Dairy Development Group to Convert Waste to Power in Proposed Ethanol Plant

This sounds similar to the project in Meade, Nebraska, but it will use manure from multiple farms for ethanol process fuel rather than incorporating its own feedlot. Let's hope this model works and is implimented wherever enough feedlots are operating. -- Jeff
PRESS RELEASE HBS BioEnergy Forms Joint Venture With Dairy Development Group to Convert Waste to Power in Proposed Ethanol Plant:
Press Release -- Feb. 12, 2007
"The Energy Park will utilize waste from surrounding dairies to provide the power needed to fuel a proposed ethanol plant to be located on site."

butanol may soon be the biofuel of choice

British Scientists are getting into the biofuels game with research on a better way to make butanol for fuel. -- Jeffrey
Green Fuel Plan Nets Cash (from Oxford Mail):
by Maggie Hartford
"We believe butanol will replace ethanol and biodiesel as the bio-fuel of choice within 10 years."

Diversa and Celunol Merge to Create Cellulosic Ethanol Technology

Looks like commercial production of cellulosic ethanol is getting close. -- JeffreyDiversa and Celunol Merge to Create Cellulosic Ethanol Technology:
Feb. 12, 2006
"Celunol has recently commenced operations of the nation's first cellulosic ethanol pilot facility in Jennings, LA and expects to complete a 1.4 million gallons-per-year, demonstration-scale facility to produce cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane bagasse and specially-bred energy cane by the end of 2007."

What Chance for Bio-Butanol?

A British take on Biobutanol. -- Jeff
Energy Balance:
February 9, 2007
"Much discussion on biofuels circles around bioethanol, as I mentioned most recntly in the posting 'U.S. May Need to Import Corn', since this is provides a better crop-fuel yield than say, biodiesel and ceratainly biohydrogen. However, there is a new kid on the block and that is biobutanol. "

Range Fuels to Build First Wood Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Georgia

Range Fuels to Build First Wood Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Georgia: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance:
Feb. 7, 2007
"Potential to Produce Over 1 Billion Gallons a Year "

Algae Biofuels Reaches Final Stage

PetroSun: Algae Biofuels Reaches Final Stage
Feb. 2, 2007

Key Questions on Energy Options

A discussion of whether ethanol and biodiesel are sustainable with various feedstocks. Talks about solar and wind as well. -- Jeffrey
The Oil Drum | Key Questions on Energy Options

Ethanol production must adhere to state's water rules

Wichita Eagle | 02/01/2007 | Ethanol production must adhere to state's water rules

Could DDG power ethanol biorefineries?

If they can make this work it might bode well for ethanol's energy balance since natural gas is one of the largest fossil fuel inputs currently. -- Jeffrey
DesMoinesRegister.com:
"An engineer looks at refining a byproduct into methane, and using that gas to power the plant."

Sunopta updates current cellulosic ethanol projects

News Release:
News Release
"TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2007--SunOpta Inc. (NASDAQ:STKL) (TSX:SOY) today provided an update on the four cellulosic ethanol projects which are or will be operational using SunOpta's patented technology and equipment to produce ethanol from cellulosic biomass including woodchips, corn stover, sugar cane bagasse, and wheat straw."

DuPont's Cellulosic Butanol Technology Can Help Farmers Meet President Bush's Renewable Energy Challenge

DuPont's Technology Can Help Farmers Meet President Bush's Renewable Energy Challenge:
Jan. 26, 2006
"The first product will be biobutanol. Biobutanol has low vapor pressure and tolerance to water contamination in gasoline blends, facilitating its use in existing gasoline supply and distribution channels."

Colorado Company Pursues Low-Cost, Low-Impact Technology to Develop Nation's Oil Shale Resources

This technology could make shale oil mining more feasible, but it would still require considerable power input for heating the rock. It would be interesting to see how much energy this will require -- Jeffrey
NETL: News Release - Colorado Company Pursues Low-Cost, Low-Impact Technology to Develop Nation's Oil Shale Resources:
News Release -- Jan. 10, 2007
"Composite Technology Development Inc. (CTD), Lafayette, Colo., is developing a technology that can heat the oil shale in situ, several thousand feet below the surface, separating the kerogen without mining the oil shale rock. If proven viable, the process could extract the petroleum-like liquid and render it mobile enough to be pumped to the surface."

Ethanol Plants May Increasingly Use Methane for Power

Some ethanol biorefinereies will soon be powered by methane from cattle manure or landfills, improving profits and energy balance. -- Jeffrey
Cattle Network - Connecting The Beef Industry Worldwide
Mead, Ne. (AP)-- 1/22/2007

Bush calls for 7 times more ethanol use by 2017

DesMoinesRegister.com
by Philip Brasher -- Jan 23, 2006

MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels including ethanol

This latest ethanol life cycle analysis of ethanol is by an MIT graduate student. It looks at ethanol from corn kernels, corn fodder, and switchgrass. The good thing about this attempt is that she looks at a range of variables and comes up with probabilities for various outcomes. This approach is necessary because of the many uncertain variables in these calculations. -- Jeffrey
MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels - MIT News Office: "Regardless of the energy balance, replacing gasoline with corn-based ethanol does significantly reduce oil consumption because the biomass production and conversion process requires little petroleum. And further MIT analyses show that making ethanol from cellulosic sources such as switchgrass has far greater potential to reduce fossil energy use and greenhouse gas emissions."

MIT-led panel backs 'heat mining' as key U.S. energy source

MIT-led panel backs 'heat mining' as key U.S. energy source - MIT News Office:
Jan 22, 2007
"A comprehensive new MIT-led study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States has found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact."

MIT: Hot Rocks could provide significant power source

This technique of fracturing hot rocks, injecting water, and extracting that water after it is heated is not limited to areas with natural geothermal activity at the surface. Hot rocks could be tapped close to where the power is needed. -- Jeffrey
Technology Review: Abundant Power from Universal Geothermal Energy:
by Kevin Bullis -- August 1, 2006
"An MIT chemical engineer explains why new technologies could finally make 'heat mining' practical nearly anywhere on earth."

Vinod Khosla responds to Terry Tamminen on ethanol

What I like about Khosla's approach is that he does not let the mirage of some unachieveable perfect answer stop him from pursuing answers that are imperfect. Rather, he works to improve the imperfect solutions including cellulosic ethanol. -- Jeffrey
Vinod Khosla responds to Terry Tamminen on ethanol | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Florida Firm to Build Ethanol Plants that Use Yard & Ag Waste

Wisconsin Ag Connection - National/World News - Florida Firm to Build Ethanol Plants that Use Yard & Ag Waste: "USAgNet - 01/17/2007"

U of N. Dakota Developing Biomass Technologies to Advance Ethanol

EERC Developing Biomass Technologies to Advance Ethanol
Renewable Energy Access -- January 15, 2007

Iowa to Combine Wind Energy & Compressed Air Storage Technology

Iowa to Combine Wind Energy & CAES Technology:
Renewable Energy Access -- Jan 12, 2007
"75-150 megawatt wind farm with Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) technology."

Cheverolet Volt Electric Plug-in Concept Could burn Ethanol

GM Media Online:
January 1, 2007
"In addition, the Chevrolet Volt is designed to run on E85, a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Using E85, fuel economy of 150 mpg would translate into more than 525 miles per petroleum gallon."

Gentlemen, Start Your Plug-Ins

Gentlemen, Start Your Plug-Ins: Electric Plug-in Hybrid | Committee for the Present Danger | R. James Woolsey:
By R. James Woolsey, Jan. 2, 2007
"Electricity is about to become a major partner with alternative liquid fuels in replacing oil."

Renewable Energy Roadmap: Rural America Can Prosper

Renewable Energy Roadmap: Rural America Can Prosper:
Dec. 28, 2006
"Report from the University of Tennessee finds the 25x25 goal will boost farm income and create millions of jobs. "