Posts Tagged by biofuels
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
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.”
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.
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.
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
[The Vector] Biogas that Doesn’t Compete with Food Crops
| August 12, 2010 | Posted by Aedan-Kernan under Biomass |
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
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.
Biofuels, Sustainability and the Amazon Rain Forest
| June 21, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Biomass |
I know I’m not alone in my mistrust of the media. Yet I have to think that Time Magazine nailed the biofuels issue in their 2008 article on sustainability and the Amazon rain forest. Particularly telling is the revolting political behavior that forms the basic motivation to create huge biofuels programs – even those that represent a net negative effect on our fragile ecosystem. Once dominant forces become involved and the money to be made passes a critical mass, there is really no power on Earth that can re-insert a bit of reason into the process. Is this really a good idea? Are we causing more problems than we’re solving? No one dares to ask.
According to my understanding, the Chinese have seen through some of the fallacies that can be associated with sustainability — and this is one of them. In China, it’s a felony to convert land that can be used to grow food into space for biofuels. The Chinese want clean energy, and they’re investing heavily to get there, but apparently they’ve thought through some of the consequences of their actions, and they’re not moved by irrational herd-mentality, laissez-faire economics, and American-style back-office corruption that would rape their land and take us all a step further backwards.
A Disappointing List of Alternative Energy Projects
| October 27, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I must say that I’m disappointed in this list of clean energy projects that the Obama Administration is funding with its stimulus money under ARPA-E. I use the word disappointed, a considerable understatement, insofar as I promised some of my colleagues that I wouldn’t make a big scene on this issue.
The list seems to contain very little that we were hoping for, and were told that it would feature, i.e., transformative technologies in replacing fossil fuels that would offer near-term results in the real world.
What we see in huge supply are:
Biofuels. This is a poor idea that doesn’t scale well. Even if it were a good way to go, there is no way to create biofuels in sufficient volume to make a meaningful difference in replacing oil. And, as I’ve often asked, why continue to burn hydrocarbons? If we’re going to clean up our processes of generating and consuming energy, why not choose processes that don’t release CO2 and other noxious compounds?
Clean Coal. The processes of sequestering the offending outputs of burning coal are expensive, and riddled with technical issues. Can’t someone stand up to the coal industry and say no to this incredible waste of money and time?
Projects given to government laboratories and universities. Both are known for glacier-like progress through intractable bureaucracies.
What we see little of are the technologies that actually replace fossil fuels and offer the promise of clean energy, like hydrokinetics, solar thermal, geothermal, etc. As I point out in my upcoming book on renewables, there are many fantastic ideas that are already proven within these arenas, the progress of which could be greatly accelerated with funding.
Those of you with naughty kids know what I mean with the term disappointed. Sometimes the best response to misbehavior is not anger; it’s an appeal to a sense of shame. Of course, that implies the possibility of a sense of shame; there are those who say that the corruption in the process is so complete that the perpetrators are incapable of that emotion. I won’t take a stand on that; I simply repeat: Guys, I’m really disappointed in you.
