News
In Canada, Air Canada just revealed its participation in the Civil Aviation Alternate Fuel Contrail and Emissions Research project, a research project led by the National Research Council of Canada to test the environmental benefits of biofuel use on contrails.
A reduction in the thickness and coverage of contrails produced by the jet engines of aircraft could reduce aviation’s impact on the environment, an important beneficial effect of sustainable biofuel usage in aviation.
Finland passed in 2014 a visioning document that sets carbon-neutrality as a goal by 2050. The Nordic country is well on its way. Approximately 24% of all energy consumed in Finland is from alternative or nuclear sources, one of the largest shares of any country and not far from the nation’s goal of 38% by 2020. Clean energy has a positive effect on both the health of the planet and its citizens. An estimated 3.5 billion people worldwide are exposed to unsafe air quality, which was responsible for one in every 10 global deaths in 2013. In Finland, just 0.1% of the population is exposed to unsafe air pollution annually, nearly the least of any country world-wide.
Envergent Technologies, a UOP joint venture with Ensyn, offers a practical and commercially proven path to green energy. RTP™, or rapid thermal processing technology, is a fast thermal conversion process used to convert cellulosic biomass feedstock, usually forestry or agricultural residuals, into RTP green fuel—a light, pourable, clean-burning liquid biofuel.
This fuel provides a sustainable, cost-effective and virtually carbon-neutral alternative for heat, power generation and, with further refining, transportation fuels.
March 19, 2017 - In Louisiana, the Diamond Green Diesel facility in Norco will expand its annual production capacity of renewable diesel from 10,000 barrels per day to 18,000 bpd (275 million gallons per year), using Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining process technology.
March 22, 2017 - US imports of biomass-based diesel, which include biodiesel and renewable diesel, increased by 65% in 2016 to reach a record level of 916 million gallons, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Increasing Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) targets and the recently expired biodiesel blender’s tax credit were strong drivers of biomass-based diesel demand in 2016, incentivising increased levels of imports of both biodiesel and renewable diesel.
March 20, 2017 - Petrochemical specialist Honeywell UOP announced that the Diamond Green Diesel facility in Norco, Louisiana, US, will expand its annual production capacity of renewable diesel from 10,000 barrels per day to 18,000 bpd, using Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining process technology.
Diamond Green Diesel, which is owned by Valero Energy Corp. and Darling Ingredients., is the largest commercial advanced biofuel facility in the US, according to Honeywell. The company plans to complete the expansion in the second quarter of 2018.
“The expansion of the Diamond Green Diesel facility is a testament to the viability and growth potential of renewable fuels,” said Dave Cepla, senior director of Honeywell UOP’s Renewable Energy and Chemicals business.
Good-bye ARPA-E, DOE, Loan Guarantee program, Energy Star, OPIC, USTDA, NEA, and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program. Even Big Bird gets the guillotine.
In Washington, the White House released its budget requests for 2018, a high-level, 62-page overview of President Trump’s strategy for “Making America Great Again”.
March 6, 2017 - Iowa Governor Terry Branstad said Monday he is aware of reports of a backroom deal in the Washington, D.C., that would hurt Iowa's renewable fuels industry, but has been assured President Donald Trump's administration will support producers of ethanol and biodiesel fuels.
...the selling came ahead of a firm finish to the week for agricultural commodities, spurred largely by talk that Mr Trump was to introduce US biofuels reforms likely to spur demand for both ethanol, processed largely from corn, and biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oils such as soyoil.
The sun was out in full force the fall morning I arrived at Caltech to visit Professor Nate Lewis’s research laboratory. Temperatures in southern California had soared to 20 degrees above normal, prompting the National Weather Service to issue warnings for extreme fire danger and heat-related illnesses.
The weather was a fitting introduction to what I had come to see inside Nate’s lab—how we might be able to tap the sun’s tremendous energy to make fuels to power cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes.
California, the world’s seventh-largest economy, de facto air quality rulemaking body inciting automakers to make electric cars just for it is smiling on a fuel called Diesel HPR.
Not to be confused with biodiesel which Propel also sells, Diesel HPR is the first highly concentrated North American offering of a Finnish-originated product called NExBTL.
The non-petroleum-derived fuel works in all modern diesel engines, works better in fact, and is cost competitive within the span of higher-priced biodiesel and lower-priced regular ultra low sulfur diesel.
March 1, 2017 - SynSel Energy, Inc. has announced that they have executed an Advisor Agreement with the Peakstone Group to source Good Faith Account (GFA) funding. The Advisor Agreement matches the scope of the executed Term Sheet and Commitment Letter that SynSel received from a private lender on February 1, 2017 to fund SynSel’s 2 initial US biorefineries. One plant will be in Ontonagon, Michigan and one plant in Lumberton, Mississippi. A $75M GFA is required for each $300M plant. The $300M loans close 60 days after the GFA is established. SynSel CEO Tim Tawoda stated “Peakstone understands that the private lender has voiced an interest in funding multiple SynSel plants across the US, and they intend to ride the wave of this historic and transformational syn-fuel initiative."
The GFA is brilliant in that a funded GFA validates SynSel’s business proposition to the private lender and isolates the GFA owner from all developer, technology, commodity and incentive risk. It is extremely challenging to fund a first-of-kind biofuels plant since the $300M private lender is taking on all the risk. In the end, SynSel’s private lender reconciled the upside as a partner splitting profits. The private lender weighed the SynSel’s business model, world-class stakeholder team and, Impact Investing benefits with the perceived risks – and they are totally committed. They have the financial capabilities to fund all 100 plants – SynSel’s target in the USA over 8 years.
SynSel's CEO, Tim Tawoda further stated, "SynSel is excited to have a financial advisor as prestigious as the Peakstone Group out in the market place to establish GFA sponsors. I know of no other tool than the GFA that has the ability to open up Impact Investing on scale to pension funds, endowments, debt lenders and private equity while isolating the GFA owner from all risks."
February 26, 2017 - In Washington, a diverse group of more than 35 organizations and companies representing downstream blenders, fuel retailers, marketers and end users at the federal and state levels expressed support to keep the current compliance structure under the RFS.
February 7, 2017 - Velocys enables modular gas-to-liquids and biomass-to-liquids plants to convert unconventional, remote and problem gas and waste biomass into valuable, drop-in liquid fuels.
After 15 years and some $300 million in investment, Velocys technology is headed for scale.The ENVIA project is now producing fuels in Oklahoma, and the Red Rock project in Oregon will be up next.
This presentation from Neville Hargreaves is fascinating — it’s got the low-down on the numbers.
NOTE: Velocys CAPEX is $250M to produce 45,000 gallons per day. This is basically the same CAPEX as SynSel with 50% less production.
January 19, 2017 - In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency has written a letter to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers denying the group’s request for a waiver on the cellulosic biofuel-blending mandate for 2016 of 230 million gallons. Though data through November shows that less fuel was produced than mandated in 2016 as the AFPM argues, the EPA said that there was enough roll over stocks of RINs from previous years in addition to the 2016 production to achieve compliance.
In Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Amherst plant geneticist Sam Hazen partnered with Genoverde Biosciences, Inc. to test the commercial viability of Hazen’s gene trait approach to bioengineering loblolly pine for high wood density by modifying secondary cell wall gene regulation.
The U.S. Department of Energy and the Sun Grant Initiative established the Regional Feedstock Partnership to address information gaps associated with enabling the vision of a sustainable, reliable, billion-ton U.S. bioenergy industry by the year 2030.
In Canada, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna announced that Canada will adopt a national clean fuels standard, as an important step for climate action and the growth of Canada’s cleantech economy and green jobs.
Donald Trump’s election victory has Washington insiders closely watching the incoming administration’s cabinet selections and personnel appointments for clues to the direction that federal policy will take.
As a result of major transformations in the global energy system that take place over the next decades, renewables and natural gas are the big winners in the race to meet energy demand growth until 2040.
