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."

Developing a direct injected turbo ethanol engine

This article does a good job of explaining how an engine can be designed to take advantage of ethanol's properties to wipe out the usual fuel economy penalty. This kind of technology could be revolutionary.

AutoSpeed - Going Direct Injected Turbo Ethanol!: "When operated on ethanol blends such as E85, current flex-fuel engines pay a fuel economy penalty of about 30 per cent compared to gasoline. The EBDI engine substantially improves ethanol's efficiency, and performs at a level comparable to a diesel engine."

Combining biogas, ethanol, and livestock production

This has been tried before. Hopefully thay've got it right this time. This combination should produce greater efficiency and preserve nutrients better. The material left after biogas production could be a valuable fertilizer.
Green Car Congress: Profile: Farmers EthanolFocusing on Sustainable Corn Ethanol Production and a Triple Bottom Line

Air-fueled Battery Being Developed

The article says this is at least 5 years from being available, but it could be big for electric cars, laptops, and other devices with batteries. I could also be used for storing wind energy.
Air-fueled Battery Could Last Up to 10 Times Longer - Renewable Energy World: "A new type of air-fueled battery could give up to ten times the energy storage of designs currently available."

Sewage could help solve coming phosphate fertilizer shortage

According to the article linked below, "peak phosphate" may be a more urgent issue for our world than "peak oil." Rock phosphate mined from a few dwindling reserves is vital in world food production. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a method for extracting nutrients from municipal sewage in a form that is useable on farms. It could also provide a valuable revenue source for municiple sewage plants around the world.
globeandmail.com: The sewage plant carries the sweet smell of valuable phosphorus: "'Phosphate production is going to peak around 2035 and then tail off,' Dr. Ashley said. 'If we don't do something we are looking at mass starvation.'"

Plans for cellulosic ethanol in Missouri

This biorefinery would turn a wide variety of waste products and energy crop feedstocks into cellulosic ethanol and other valuable chemicals. Production of ethanol would start out at 10 million gallons per year, with the potential of expanding to 40 million gallons.
Marshall Democrat-News: Story: Company CEO explains details of biorefinery processes, products: "Irshad Ahmed, president and CEO of Pure Energy Inc. the company that is spearheading the effort to build a biorefinery complex in Saline County, spoke on the specifics of operations at the complex during the Saline Green Project town hall meeting, including how to involve local farmers."

USDA studies Watermelons for Ethanol

USDA researchers are looking for a way to use blemished watermelons ususally left in the field. They estimate 20% of the total crop goes unharvested. They are also looking at other crops with simple sugars--such as sweet sorghum--that could be rotated with watermelons to supply biorefineries more consistently. This would be a vital part of making the plan work. Another important aspect is that valuable neutraceuticals could be extracted from the watermelons in addition to the sugars for ethanol. This would prabably provide the primary revenue stream.
Watermelons Tapped for Ethanol / May 20, 2009 / News from the USDA Agricultural Research Service: "On average, a 20-pound watermelon will yield about 1.4 pounds of sugar from the flesh and rind, from which about seven-tenths of a pound of ethanol can be derived."

Company plans to make biobutanol from dairy and wood waste

They plan to use gasification and then convert the gas to biobutanol. They say this will be more profitable than fermentation, even with a relatively small biorefinery. Biobutanol is easier to ship by pipeline than ethanol and has a higher energy density. The leftover material can be used as a fertilizer.
Company trying to turn waste into biofuel StatesmanJournal.com Statesman Journal: "Salem businessmen to turn dairy dung into butanol for vehicles"

Bioelectricity and liquid biofuels can work together

This study discussed at the link below finds it more efficient to generate transportation electricity from biomass rather than making the biomass into liquid biofuels for transpotation use. I don't doubt this, but I would suggest a combination is still the best in the form of a flex-fuel plug in hybrid. Without a huge an expensive battery array, a purely electric car simply does not have the range to satisfy most consumers. A small biofuel-powered engine running at a constant speed could extend the range quite efficiently. It would also allow quick refueling at fuel stations on long trips.
Also, I doubt the study considered direct injection of high octane biofuels. In this way, a small amount of ethanol or biobutanol can be leveraged to increase fuel economy tremendously. It only requires a small second fuel tank that would be filled infrequently. I suspect it would rival the efficiency of biomass electricity. It would be interesting to see that comparison.
Bioelectricity More Efficient than Ethanol for Transportation, Study Shows : Gas 2.0

Ford E85 Direct Injection Boosting Study

Keep an eye on this one. Direct injection ethanol boosting could revolutionize driving and the ethanol industry.
Green Car Congress: Ford E85 Direct Injection Boosting Study: A Less Expensive Alternative to Diesel: "Improved engine efficiency leverages the effect of the limited supply of E85, compared to simply displacing gasoline as in an FFV [flexible fuel vehicle]...this leveraging can be very substantial, and has the effect of dramatically improving the net energy balance of ethanol, and therefore its beneficial impact on reducing petroleum consumption.
—Stein et. al. (2009)"

Institute researches Jerusalem Artichokes for ethanol

Jerusalem artichoke stems contain lots of simple sugars. Also, it is a perennial, so it would not need to be planted every year as with corn. Researhcers are working on Jerusalem Artichokes at the Institute for Advenced Learning.
Institute the backbone of regional efforts to go green | GoDanRiver: "“Jerusalem artichoke is a really cool plant,” said John Kennedy, director of research and innovation. “It has a lot of soluble sugar in it, and you need sugar to make ethanol.”"