No major oil outlets have fully embraced biofuels, although British Petroleum has just announced that it may begin commercial production of ethanol starting in 2010.

BP has partnered with Verenium to bring a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility online next year to start bringing alternative fuels to a gas pump near you.

BP has big plans for biofuels and seems to be marching towards an alternative fuel future faster than many of its competitors. Verenium already has a demonstration plant in Louisiana capable of producing over a million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually, and BP hopes to ramp production up. The Verenium process uses proprietary enzymes to break down grass feedstock and convert it to ethanol more efficiently.

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My previous post retraced the precipitous decline in the reputation of biofuels that occurred between 2006 and today.  In this post I’m going to talk about just a few of the activities going on for “second generation” biofuels (beyond corn, soy and palm oil, wheat…).  One of the key features of these initiatives is that they reduce the competition with food crops - something which will only become a more significant issue in the future.  I’ll be talking about several Universities and companies who have hung in there through the ups and downs of oil prices and the “trendiness” and “rejection” of biofuels.  I think that these folks are going to make significant long-term contributions. If you have been soured in the past on the biofuel concept, please consider these alternatives.

Algae

There was a recent Wall Street Journal article about “5 Technologies that could change everything.”  One they included was biofuels from Algae.  People have been working on this for a long time including a very long government effort.  The great thing about algae is that you can grow it in places and with water sources that are completely unsuitable for farming.  Algae can be extremely productive.  The problem is that the low capital investment systems are less productive and the highly productive, “bio-reactor” approach has a huge capital cost.  The good news is that there are enough companies working away on this that sooner or later there might be a break-through.  I won’t pretend to be an expert on how this is going, but I have a hunch it will eventually become significant.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/05/rehabilitating-bio-fuels-part-2-interesting-second-generation-options/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/04/rehabilitating-the-concept-of-bio-fuels-part-one/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/04/rehabilitating-the-concept-of-bio-fuels-part-one/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:49:48 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/04/rehabilitating-the-concept-of-bio-fuels-part-one/

In 2006 I attended a BIO meeting in Toronto focused on the new bio-based economy.  Oil had just risen to $70/barrel and it was a time when environmental NGOs, biotech companies and even oil companies seemed to be on the “same page” in terms of their enthusiasm for moving to plant-based feedstocks as the perfect alternative to oil dependency.  With the very obvious international security costs of the oil economy, and what were then thought to be unimaginable energy costs, it was a remarkable sort of celebration event for all the alternative energy and materials folks who has suffered under the decades of cheap oil.  As much as I was happy to see such “multi-stakeholder” agreement, I was sad because anyone with an agricultural perspective could see a train-wreck coming.

People were making presentations about cool second generation innovations like “Cellulosic” ethanol from sources like switchgrass or Miscanthus and also about ethanol alternatives like butanol.  People were talking about bio-materials for even things like the auto industry.  However; the side conversations were about the huge boom underway in the corn ethanol industry.  Orders for stainless steel tanks were back-logged two years.  What had started as a local, farmer-cooperative funded industry had become a venture capital frenzy.  I could see that long before the promise of “second generation” biofuels could be realized, corn ethanol would get to be big enough that it would end up fracturing the amazing consensus about the bio-economy that was functioning at that conference. 

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/04/rehabilitating-the-concept-of-bio-fuels-part-one/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/10/30/bioengineers-speed-up-evolution-to-make-better-bacteria/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/10/30/bioengineers-speed-up-evolution-to-make-better-bacteria/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:33:29 +0000 Michael Ricciardi http://ecoworldly.com/2009/10/30/bioengineers-speed-up-evolution-to-make-better-bacteria/

Bacterial evolution can be accelerated with the MAGE technique to produce large numbers of  favorable mutations (micrograph image of E. coli bacteria magnified 10, 000 times)

Bacteria are prolific replicators, and some species can replicate into the millions in just a few hours. Bacteria, in the functioning of their cellular and biochemical machinery, also just happen to manufacture some very useful chemicals and bio-active molecules. The microbe populations also exhibit high rates of random mutation, which can confer adaptive traits, over time, onto the newer, variant population.

These attributes of bacterial life forms have been exploited in the biology lab (and in other industries) for some time, but generating genomic diversity in the lab has been challenging; inserting genes or entire genetic sequences into a cell’s nucleus (and DNA) can be done readily, but controlling or directing how exactly these hybrids mutate, is quite another thing. Further, new phenotypes (the main physical traits or properties) don’t usually happen fast or frequently enough for practical uses. But with a new technique called MAGE (Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering), bacteria are now being engineered (and “directed”) to perform these functions much faster and much more efficiently.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/10/30/bioengineers-speed-up-evolution-to-make-better-bacteria/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/28/is-global-scale-biofuels-production-good-or-bad-for-climate-change/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/28/is-global-scale-biofuels-production-good-or-bad-for-climate-change/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:07:24 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/28/is-global-scale-biofuels-production-good-or-bad-for-climate-change/
There has been a lot of discussion over the last few years about biofuels and whether or not they are actually green, especially when produced on a large, global level.

A new study led by Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) senior scientist Jerry Melillo says no, they aren’t green (when it comes to climate change). However, there are still many important factors to keep in mind before claiming this is the end of a long and complicated discussion.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/28/is-global-scale-biofuels-production-good-or-bad-for-climate-change/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/10/16/us-navy-to-cut-ghg-emissions-50-as-soon-as-2015/ http://gas2.org/2009/10/16/us-navy-to-cut-ghg-emissions-50-as-soon-as-2015/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:46:19 +0000 Susan Kraemer http://gas2.org/2009/10/16/us-navy-to-cut-ghg-emissions-50-as-soon-as-2015/

After the new Executive Order last week requiring every Federal Agency to accurately account for their greenhouse gas emissions—and then sharply reduce them 30% by 2020 [previous story]—the Navy has doubled down in their response.

Already the Navy uses 17% renewable energy (about like Iowa and even better than California), but they plan on achieving a faster reduction and a much tougher goal that that decreed by the president: fifty percent—some of which will be achieved by 2015. Or as US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus put it: “Our Navy and Marine Corps has never backed away from a challenge.” [ed. note: THAT makes me so damn patriotic I have no words. Anybody who says greenies aren't patriotic can go suck it.]

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/10/16/us-navy-to-cut-ghg-emissions-50-as-soon-as-2015/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/10/13/report-energy-secretary-chu-thinks-every-cent-should-go-to-electric-cars/ http://gas2.org/2009/10/13/report-energy-secretary-chu-thinks-every-cent-should-go-to-electric-cars/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:27:27 +0000 Nick Chambers http://gas2.org/2009/10/13/report-energy-secretary-chu-thinks-every-cent-should-go-to-electric-cars/ Attendees at a recent alternative fuels gathering in Washington are reporting that US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu remarked, “If it were up to me, I would put every cent into electric cars,” when referring to the way stimulus dollars should be distributed. With a focus on alternative and renewable fuels, the group was obviously shocked at the concept.

If this statement is being represented accurately, it would not only put Chu directly at odds with Obama administration policy, it would mean that he doesn’t really believe in how his department is distributing their $36.7 billion dollar slice of stimulus funds. The statement would also contradict Chu’s previous stances on biofuels development. Comment from DOE was not immediately available, but I’ve got a request in to confirm or deny the statement as accurate. I’ll update as soon as I hear word.

Update 8:00 PM Pacific Time 10/13/2009: DOE’s Director of Public Affairs, Dan Leistikow, responded to my request from earlier today in an email, saying “I can’t verify the quote the blogger is using from an undisclosed source at an undisclosed meeting, which is at best wildly out of context.” He also added, “Anyone who has spent five minutes listening to Secretary Chu also knows he is one of the country’s staunchest advocates for pursuing a broad portfolio of clean energy research, and has warned against investing all our resources in a single technology to the exclusion of all others.”

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/10/13/report-energy-secretary-chu-thinks-every-cent-should-go-to-electric-cars/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/30/update-breakthrough-biodiesel-process-now-running-at-commercial-scale/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/30/update-breakthrough-biodiesel-process-now-running-at-commercial-scale/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:09:26 +0000 Nick Chambers http://gas2.org/2009/09/30/update-breakthrough-biodiesel-process-now-running-at-commercial-scale/

Just about this time last year I reported on the very promising and innovative Mcgyan® biodiesel process. It was one of the most popular stories gas 2.0 ran that year, and rightly so: the breakthrough seemed to deliver the possibility of making biodiesel in mere seconds from start to finish, reducing costs by half the price of other biodiesel, producing no waste, using no chemical reactants, and using any animal fat or vegetable oil as a feedstock.

At the time the company in charge of the project, Ever Cat fuels, had only succeeded at making a small-scale pilot operation of 50,000 gallons per year. But, as of 2 days ago, the process has been completely commercialized.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/09/30/update-breakthrough-biodiesel-process-now-running-at-commercial-scale/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/25/south-african-company-to-import-waste-vegetable-oil-to-produce-biodiesel/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/25/south-african-company-to-import-waste-vegetable-oil-to-produce-biodiesel/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:40:20 +0000 Dave Harcourt http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/25/south-african-company-to-import-waste-vegetable-oil-to-produce-biodiesel/

Another renewable energy business that could get South Africa moving towards its goals is taking shape in Richards Bay in KwaZulu Natal.

The History

After South Africa speedily set up a renewable energy strategy the focus moved to ethanol and biodiesel with the involvement of large companies including SASOL.

First to falter was ethanol, where Ethanol Africa had actually started site works for its plant in Bothaville, when government got cold feet about using maize, the staple food of the poor of South Africa, to power cars.

Later the world food crisis lead to the Food for Fuel debate and an effective halt to the promotion of biofuels from agricultural production. There were also other smaller and less legitimate operations such as a franchise scheme based on low cost imported palm oil and even algal processing that turned out to have been “demonstrated” using scum from the farm dam!

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/09/25/south-african-company-to-import-waste-vegetable-oil-to-produce-biodiesel/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/15/iraq-approves-plan-to-make-ethanol-from-rotten-surplus-dates/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/15/iraq-approves-plan-to-make-ethanol-from-rotten-surplus-dates/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:52:42 +0000 Nick Chambers http://gas2.org/2009/09/15/iraq-approves-plan-to-make-ethanol-from-rotten-surplus-dates/

You might wonder why Iraq, one of the most oil-rich countries in the world, would want to invest in building up its biofuels sector. At first blush it seems like a stretch of resources for a country trying to recover after years of war.

However, In Iraq the agricultural sector has long been the dominant source of jobs. In fact, much of modern agriculture was developed in the Iraqi area over 7,000 years ago. With the recent devastation caused by the instability of war coupled with an extended drought, those jobs have disappeared. So, although Iraq does have the third largest oil reserves in the world, its agricultural sector is in many ways more important to its economic recovery.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/09/15/iraq-approves-plan-to-make-ethanol-from-rotten-surplus-dates/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/13/us-navy-super-hornet-has-camelina-biofuel-in-its-sights/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/13/us-navy-super-hornet-has-camelina-biofuel-in-its-sights/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:47:54 +0000 Tina Casey http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/13/us-navy-super-hornet-has-camelina-biofuel-in-its-sights/

The modern U.S. Navy may be about to put a 3,000-year-old weedlike biofuel crop in its tank.  Camelina, the “new darling” of next-generation biofuels, is among a small group of biofuels under consideration for testing  this year by the U.S. Navy.  One of the aircraft to be tested is the F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter, the latest incarnation of the battle-proven Hornet.  Sustainable Oils of Montana has just won a contract to provide 40,000 gallons of camelina-based jet fuel to the Navy, so the chances look good for putting the ancient crop to a new use.

The Naval Air Systems Command fuels team will start with a lab analysis of the new fuels, then move on to charting their performance on a bench-mounted Super Hornet F414 engine before moving on to the big one, an in-flight test.  Some time in 2010, the Navy could be flying high on a more sustainable fuel.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/13/us-navy-super-hornet-has-camelina-biofuel-in-its-sights/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/10/optimism-in-the-biofuels-industry-dynamic-fuels-opens-commercial-scale-biodiesel-plant/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/10/optimism-in-the-biofuels-industry-dynamic-fuels-opens-commercial-scale-biodiesel-plant/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:31:15 +0000 Tom Schueneman http://gas2.org/2009/09/10/optimism-in-the-biofuels-industry-dynamic-fuels-opens-commercial-scale-biodiesel-plant/

Syntroleum Corporation and Tyson Foods have partnered in a 50/50 venture called Dynamic Fuels to produce a new high-grade renewable diesel fuel. Using a proprietary Bio-Synfining process and a feedstock of animal fats, greases, and vegetable oils supplied from Tyson, Dynamic Fuels will produce diesel fuel with the lowest greenhouse gas emission levels of any transportation fuel available today.

Last month Dynamic Fuel chose Emerson Process Management to provide the digital automation and process management systems to help operate a new $138 million renewable diesel facility in Geismar, Louisiana, the largest such plant in North America. Scheduled to begin operation in 2010, the plant will produce 75 million gallons per year of of the fuel.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/09/10/optimism-in-the-biofuels-industry-dynamic-fuels-opens-commercial-scale-biodiesel-plant/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/07/7-odd-food-for-fuel-solutions/ http://gas2.org/2009/09/07/7-odd-food-for-fuel-solutions/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:11:08 +0000 Jerry James Stone http://gas2.org/2009/09/07/7-odd-food-for-fuel-solutions/ Using food as a resource in biofuel production is one of the biggest mistakes our country could make. And while we all shake our heads at the idea of corn ethanol…what about using turkey innards? Or Mountain Dew for that matter.

Shaq Wants Your Leftover Beer and Wine for Making Ethanol

First, who ever has leftover alcohol except maybe these guys? The Shaq-backed MicroFueler is a 250-gallon tank for organic feedstock, such as waste wine and beer, that converts it into pure ethanol. It also doubles as a fuel pump and the only waste product is distilled water.

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In an effort to drum up attention and support for their algae-based biofuel, Sapphire Energy has announced they will conduct a coast-to-coast journey in their “Algaeus” plug-in hybrid. Part electric hybrid, part biofuel vehicle, Sapphire claimes the Algaeus will get 150 miles per gallon from its hybrid/biofuel drivetrain.

The Algaeus will visit 10 cities, starting in San Francisco on September 8th and ending in New York City on the 18th.

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The biggest commodities boom of the 20th century was a bust for water and wastewater utilities, which found themselves locked in a battle with manufacturers for vital water treatment chemicals over the past five years.  Competition for more chemicals to grow biofuel crops didn’t help, either.  Prices for some chemicals almost tripled between 2003 and 2008 as utilities scrambled to find scarce supplies.  Though the global recession helped to ease the price and supply issues, the next boom cycle could bring things to a boiling point.  Fortunately, more sustainable non-chemical water treatment methods are on the horizon and could play a role in stabilizing the situation over the long run.

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The energy giant BP and Martek Biosciences, a Maryland based company that uses micro algae to produce oil-based nutritional and dietary supplements, signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) earlier this month to produce microbial oils for biofuels applications.

Under this agreement, BP will provide the cash — up to $10 million for just the first phase — and Martek will provide the research expertise in algae fermentation technology. The idea is to develop a cost effective method of converting basic sugars derived from biomass into lipids, or microbial oils, with fermentation microorganisms. Chemical and thermocatalytic processes would then convert the oils into various types of biofuels.

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GM’s recent “230″ PR campaign (previously covered HERE and HERE) has certainly caused a lot of controversy, most of it centered on the fact that the EPA initially “backed away” from the automaker’s optimistic (?) Chevy Volt mileage claims.

Despite the fact that the 230 mpg rating will likely stand (once GM gets a final-production Volt into the hands of the EPA, that is), so much attention has been paid to the matter that the good in charge at Progressive’s Automotive X PRIZE decided it was time to chime in, asking “Is MPG still relevant?”

Short answer:  No.

Read the X Prize group’s long(er) answer, and learn about their proposed MPGe rating system, after the jump.

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Today, Rentech, Inc. announced that it will be supplying renewable synthetic fuels to eight airlines for ground service equipment operations at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

This multi-year agreement will supply the airlines with up to 1.5 million gallons per year of renewable RenDiesel. The airline purchasers under the agreement with Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG) include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, UPS Airlines and U.S. Airways. The airlines will begin using the RenDiesel in 2012, when the plant that will produce the fuel is scheduled to go into service.

“This commercial purchase contract among Rentech, ASIG and the airlines validates the growing demand for synthetic fuels produced by the Rentech Process,” said D. Hunt Ramsbottom, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rentech. “The low-emissions profile and near-zero carbon footprint of our renewable RenDiesel will guarantee that LAX ground service vehicles using this fuel will be among the cleanest and greenest of their kind.”

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This post was written by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc. and lecturer on Sustainable Energy at the BC Institute of Technology.
There was much furore recently surrounding the story ‘Joule Biotech comes out of stealth with sun-powered biofuel’.

The premise is that the technology can take solar energy and use it to convert carbon dioxide directly into fuel. A one stop-shop to soak up carbon dioxide and produce a biofuel.

Having dug into it a little, the conclusion I came to is that it’s not as radical as it sounds. It is basically directed photosynthesis: same principle as oil from algae, or biofuels. The overall efficiencies are likely to be 10 times lower than that from solar PV processes, but, in terms of where biofuels are heading, it is on the right track.

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