Posts Tagged by biofuels
From Guest-Blogger Joshua Okomo: Fuel Farming Is a Global Reality
| February 5, 2012 | Posted by okomo under Biomass |
Farming energy is a global reality. While biomass fuel wood is still the energy of peasants, used by nearly 2 billion people living on the planet earth, biological fuel is rapidly becoming popular in the developed countries. Modern agriculture is for food, industrial raw materials for manufacturing consumer goods, biological fuel feed stock and biomass for cogeneration. Read More
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We Hail from a Long Line of Alternative Fueled Vehicles
| November 28, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
A quick reminder that we come from a long line of alternative fueled vehicles: It’s the 116th anniversary of the first automobile race in the United States. 89 had entered, but only six actually started, of which half were electric cars. And, as noted in the biofuels section of our History of Renewables piece, Henry Ford built the Model T to run on ethanol.
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Arundo Donax – One of the Diverse Feedstocks Used To Create Biofuels
| November 7, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
A reader wrote in with a question about his plans to get in the ethanol business, using a certain feedstock in which he’s an expert. Indeed, one of the most interesting things about biofuels is the enormous diversity of feedstocks.
The plant pictured here, Arundo donax, a type of cane that is highly prized for its growth rate, and the diversity of soils and climates in which it grows. But the energy density of all terrestrial plants is at least 30 times less than algae, which is the main reason for the interest in the latter.
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Looking for a Pragmatic Discussion of Biofuels? Check Out the BioEnergy Deployment Consortium
| October 21, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
Ben Thorp is one of the true gentlemen in the biofuels industry, humbly but energetically chairing the non-profit BioEnergy Deployment Consortium. Retired from business after an enviable lifetime of successful engagements, he’s dedicated himself to the proposition that biomass needs to be a) understood, and then b) implemented on a pragmatic basis. Yet this represents a considerable challenge.
“There are 11 definitions of the term ‘biomass’”, he told me. “What fits for a business plan to a VC firm might fail completely in an application for a loan guarantee or a permit application. And how about this: is MSW (municipal solid waste) really ‘renewable energy?’ In some places it’s regarded as such, but not in others.” Read More
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No Romance in Renewables
| August 1, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
I just spoke with Sean O’Hanlon, leader of the American Biofuels Council, a national institute for biofuel research, analysis, development, and education in the United States. Sean impressed me as a doer rather than a talker; the emphasis of his organization is moving biofuels out of the classroom and laboratory and into the world of day-to-day commerce.
But he made a pithy remark that I immediately jotted down with the smile that comes over me when I encounter something that’s truly well said: “There is no romance in renewables.” There are so many flavors of biofuels that simply do not compete well in the overall market. Sean told me, “Do not expect to enter a market with a low-grade product, or one that’s more expensive than a fossil fuel competitor, on the basis that there is ‘romance” to renewable energy. It doesn’t exist.”
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BioFuels Offer Great Promise, Vicious Complexity
| August 1, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
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I just had a fascinating call with Jim Lane, editor and publisher of Miami, FL-based BioFuelsDigest.com, a group that provides information products and a series of top-flight industry conferences to more than 14,000 organizations worldwide.
When I happened to mention that I run across plenty of crackpots and charlatans in my day-to-day dealings with cleantech entrepreneurs, it was instantly apparent that Jim’s had the same experience. And the more I learn about biofuels, the more I can understand how easily this may be the case. There is so much complexity; there are so many different combinations of feedstocks and technologies, it’s really impossible for anyone to keep track of all of them. One hopes for peer-reviewed analysis, but that’s not always possible; one can understand that certain of these businesses need to protect their IP very carefully.
This is further complicated by the fact that many biomass technologies work to some degree – just not at a commercially viable level. It’s not like somebody who claims to have built a car that runs on seawater.
Take waste-tire-to-biofuels, for instance. I happen to believe that the version of pyrolysis that my associates at Southeastern Biomass bring to the table will work as advertised. But I’m certainly skeptical; I think anyone needs to be. Pyrolysis has been around for a century, and dozens (hundreds?) of people have tried to make the waste-tire dream come true.
At the end of the day, some of these folks are showmen. And, while every business needs a convincing front-man, there is a line between enthusiastic promotion and fraud.
Just ask the U.S. District Judge who, last week, handed down a summary judgment against John Rivera, bombastic leader U.S. Sustainable Energy Corp, affirming charges levied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which had alleged that Rivera used false press releases and other false public statements to drive up interest — and stock price — reaping huge profits in what turned out to be a virtually worthless company. Looks like Rivera’s headed for the slammer, which sounds about right to me.
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Can Algae Move the Needle in Biofuels?
| July 18, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
When I was lucky enough to meet the eminent Bulgarian scientist Dr. Boris Monahov at the Energy Storage conference last week, we spoke about the advanced battery solutions he and his team are developing. But Dr. Monahov is also a proponent of algal biofuels, and sent me the article linked here.
I remain skeptical. Algae, while it works fine in the laboratory, has presented one problem after another in the real world. And this article suggests that algae can replace 17% of US purchases of foreign oil. In my estimation, that’s good, but not good enough.
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GreenTechMedia's Michael Kanellos — Celebrating Gevo's IPO
| February 12, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
When I was in San Francisco last week I dropped by to see GreenTechMedia’s Michael Kanellos, one of my favorite personalities in cleantech. Michael always seems to have a reason to smile, even when the rest of the world (me included) seems to hang its head and say “These Earthlings just don’t get it.”
That day, Michael’s cause for celebration was Gevo, the biotech darling of Khosla Ventures and the Virgin Green Fund. Gevo’s unique technology causes microbes to secrete a form of isobutanol, but the company currently garners most of its revenue from corn ethanol. Read More
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[The Vector] Biogas that Doesn’t Compete with Food Crops
| August 12, 2010 | Posted by Aedan-Kernan under Biomass |
Households may not be paying attention to a looming free energy source. Source: Daniel Ullrich, Threedots
Growing crops to create biogas has become a controversial renewable energy source because it creates competition for land for food crops. But there is another major source of biogas that doesn’t compete with food crops. In fact, exploiting it would considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK government has plans to generate hundreds of thousands of megawatt hours of electricity from food waste. Food waste is just as much a problem for the United States. According to a 2004 study by the University of Arizona reducing US food waste by half could reduce adverse environmental impacts by 25 per cent through reduced landfill use, soil depletion and applications of fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.
Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at UA spent 10 years measuring food loss, and here is what he found: Read More
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About Greg Mitchell, Contributor to “Renewable Energy Facts and Fantasies” – Scripps Institution, Algae
| August 1, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
Dr. Mitchell contibuted to the book’s chapter on algae as biofuel.
Fundamentally, the photosynthetic process reduces inorganic compounds like carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, and phosphorous, and builds these biochemicals. Initially sugar, and then the sugar’s burned to build all sorts of other things, and nutrients are brought in and you build membranes with phosphorous and you build proteins with nitrogen and so forth. It is all ultimately derived out of the sunlight.
