The top tier car racing sport has jumped the gun by adding green stripes to plain ol’ Bridgestone tires for their upcoming race.

Formula One racing announced that cars in the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix will have green striping on their tires to represent “going green.” Currently, there is nothing green about the hyper-horsepower vehicles nor the tires themselves, but the cars do have a remodel coming in the near-future.

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In a wide-ranging session on Tuesday dealing with global biofuel, food security and poverty issues, there was plenty for the presenters to disagree about — but the one thing they could all concur on was that the biofuel genie is out of the bottle and he’s here to stay.

Several times during the session the presenters highlighted the fact that biofuels have finally brought an inherent value to agriculture that was previously missing. This, more than anything else, is why biofuels are not going to go away. Up to now, the lack of agricultural value has caused a deep deficiency in the level of funding and investment that governments worldwide have provided for their agricultural security and infrastructure.

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Finally, scientists have come up with a way to combine my two favorite things: music and sugar. Japanese researchers report in the latest issue of Energy and Environmental Science that they have created a biofuel cell that uses enzymes to break down sugars. Four of the cells combined produce 100 milliwatts of power— enough to run an MP3 player with speakers or a remote-controlled car.

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The excitement in the air was running high, even though we all stood squished up against each other for a few hours beforehand. It felt a lot like being in a mosh pit at a concert, actually. And after listening to a few boring stump speeches from Democratic candidates running for the MSU Board of Trustees (seriously, we came to see Barack) and the most political prayer I’ve ever heard from a priest, the man appeared at the podium.

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Jatropha has the potential to produce 4 times the amount of biodiesel as soybeans and 1.5 times the amount of even a dedicated oil crop such as canola. This alone has been enough to make people sit up and take notice, but jatropha’s true beauty lies in the fact that it can be grown on literal wasteland — land that has been left for dead with little rainfall, poor soils, and a harsh climate.

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In so doing, they will be working with the best scientific minds to grow the seaweed in plastic tubes of seawater that will be fed with carbon dioxide captured from thermal power stations in a project called Mambo spearheaded by Italy’s Union of Biodiesel Producers.

A plant will be built at a coastal location in southern Italy in as little as two years and should be producing biodiesel from seaweed five years from now.

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The production and consumption of biodiesel, having grown on average by more than 50% per year for the last five years, also saw triple-digit growth rates in 2006.

Germany currently holds top honors for biodiesel consumption, using 30% of the worlds market, but with the growing need for alternative fuels, and other countries coming on line, this is diminishing.

One thing needs to be kept in mind though, production costs of biodiesel are currently higher than those of conventional diesel, meaning that biodiesel is not currently competitive without political support and tax exemptions. As a consequence, the biodiesel industry is largely driven by government legislation and regulation.

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Prices for regular diesel have been historically high nationwide, and all over the U.S. people are turning to backyard biodiesel as a way to make cheap fuel — a fairly straightforward process that can be accomplished for less than $1/gal.

One of the most copious sources of inedible oil to make biodiesel is the nasty, used fryer grease leftover from commercial kitchens — and what cheaper way to obtain it than stealing?

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A developer, Waste Recycling Group, hopes to construct two 18-foot-deep lagoons near landfills to produce fertilizer from the leachate that oozes from the trash piles. The substance will be pumped from the dump into the lagoons where bacteria will eat away at the contaminants. The developer then hopes to use the fertilizer to grow willow coppices at the landfill for use as biofuel.

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A group of British, German and Danish researchers has found that the biodiversity of oil palm plantations is far lower than that of tropical rainforests and that no amount of plantation management changes could ever possibly make them come close to replicating rainforest diversity.

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Leaders in the aviation industry join together, committing to bring sustainable practices into their fuel supply chain.

For those of us who have taken a flight recently,  it’s obvious that the airlines are in trouble.  Who ever would have thought that we’d be paying extra for a pillow?  Or an aisle seat?  With the rise in oil prices, many airlines are seeking out creative ways to stay afloat.  Some of these companies are going straight to the heart of the issue, and beginning to investigate a more sustainable fuel supply.

While Boeing has been researching biofuels in the aviation industry for some time, last week’s formation of a new collaborative group ratchets up their commitment to the issue, and brings some key players to the table.

Boeing joined Virgin Atlantic Airways, along with eight other commercial airlines to establish the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group.  The group is committed to accelerating the development of sustainable biofuels for use in the commercial airline industry.  Honeywell’s UOP, a refining technology developer, is also part of the group.

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On Friday the French government dropped the hammer on companies like Sofiproteol — who owns the country’s largest biodiesel maker, Diester Industries. In a statement the government they said:

“The cost price of biofuels is no longer structurally disconnected from those of standard fuels. Tensions affecting agricultural raw materials have reached levels that no longer justify tax exemptions on the grounds of helping to provide outlets for farm production.”

In other words, the French government thinks that the rising price of oil and corn and grain has made the biofuels industry profitable enough to stop the tax breaks.

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Many different methods have been used to clean up the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site, but I never thought harvesting biomass crops would be one of them. Apparently, the Belarus government believes that harvesting biomass crops repeatedly on the disaster site will eventually remove radionuclides from the soil.

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Yesterday the U.S. Senate voted to renew a one year extension for renewable energy tax credits worth $18 billion dollars. Absent from the package was a tax credit aimed at helping food giant Tyson and oil giant ConocoPhillips turn a profit by converting fats leftover from Tyson’s processing of beef to the so-called “renewable diesel” that ConocoPhillips blends with regular diesel (for a look at what renewable diesel is, check out Jason Burroughs comment below).

The legislation enacts a $1 per gallon credit for biodiesel production, but the “renewable diesel” made from waste fat, or tallow, would only be eligible for a 50 cent per gallon credit. According to Tyson and ConocoPhillips, without the $1 per gallon credit for making “renewable diesel” from tallow, their proposed project is a no go.

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Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, the Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC). EPIC is a nonprofit alliance of ethanol industry leaders who have come together to grow consumer demand for ethanol energy through targeted marketing.

The Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC) is working to get the word out that ethanol is actually helping to keep gas prices lower. The following is from an interview with Toni Nuernberg, executive director of EPIC.

If you’ve been exposed to the media lately you’ve probably heard the phrase “renewable fuels.” What exactly are renewable fuels? According to Wikipedia, “renewable fuels are alternative fuel sources such as biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel -e.g. soy, vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases-) or hydrogen.” Texas Governor Rick Perry recently petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower ethanol mandates, saying that the production of ethanol was causing food and fuel prices to go up. The EPA rejected Gov. Perry’s request in August, saying that the Renewable Fuels Standard “remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.”

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But where will it come from? According to the National Council of Applied Economic Research, a Delhi think-tank, it means setting aside 14m hectares of land, for the growth of jatropha, a key biofuels raw material.

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Last week, Hurricane Ike left many US oil refineries hobbled in its wake — including the nation’s largest biodiesel refinery. As a result, oil production is down.

Demand for ethanol in the US is closely tied to oil production because of the federal ethanol-gasoline blending mandate. So as oil production has fallen, so has ethanol demand.

At the same time as Hurricane Ike was downing oil refineries, corn futures — essentially the betting on whether or not the price of corn will rise or fall in the coming months — have risen dramatically due to the volatile financial markets and a general upward trend.

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Shell revealed that it has partnered with six different academic institutions in order to both research and expand biofuel development. The partnerships are expected to last between two and five years, and will be conducted at the actual institutions. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the participants, along with the University of Campinas (Brazil), and the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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According to a sweeping report released by the Center for American Progress and authored by researchers from the UMass Department of Economics, if the US government were to invest $100 billion dollars over two years in six key areas of green and sustainable development — including advanced biofuels — the result would be the creation of 2 million high-paying jobs across nearly all sectors of employment.

This represents four times the amount of jobs that would be created if that same $100 billion were invested in the oil industry for things like more offshore drilling. It also represents significantly more jobs of much higher diversity, pay, and longevity than were created by the $100 billion spent last April so that all us ‘mericans could all get our $600 tax rebates.

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