Human food to Machine.
The hunt low and high ,processing,production and commercialization of renewable energy has one frightening knowledge. The fact is that, the cheap traditional fuel that has supported the world for past 200 plus years is almost ending. The days are numbered. The effort world wide is to develop alternative means of energy whether be blended with the traditional or used pure is to maintain the equilibrium of supply and demand steadily.
Whatever the source maybe,the main agenda of concern is supply and price. America for instance has relied too much on foriegn oil,even bend laws to fed its increasing fuel demands,while fighting terrorism and paying off with oil money that even arm the terrorist..who may know?
Pouring more carbon dioxide into the air from fossil fuel stored away in the earth crust is also causing dramatic ecological changes,increasing ocean pH due to carbon acid formation by dissolving carbon dioxide. Such may result in changes in biological systems,extinction of sea creatures,changes in food chain and energy transfer.
Today in Biofuel development highlights the following:
Merrill Lynch has projected that the US ethanol market is bottoming out, and projects an increase in ethanol prices as "mandated targets will continue to push up consumption against a constrained supply environment," the brokerage wrote in a recent report. The firm reduced its 2009 projections for ethanol production by 200,000 barrels per day to 1.9 million, or 29.17 billion gallons.
In Mississippi, PetroSun is reporting data on its proposed business model of converting catfish ponds to algae fuel production. The company is offering catfish farmers in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama an oil lease-like system including a $50 per acre one-time signup payment, and advance payments of $100 per acre per year with a potential income for farmers of $1000 to $1200 per acre.
In Iowa, researchers from Iowa State University and the University of Tennessee are reporting that direct-to-processor corn sales, bypassing the grain elevator middleman, has sharply increased. Their study, "Impact of Biofuel Industry Expansion on Grain Utilization and Distribution: Preliminary Results of Iowa Grain and Biofuel Survey," reports that 27 percent of corn is now sold directly to processors, up from 13 percent in 1999.
From Seeking Alpha: "Good: The 9 billion gallons of ethanol that Americans used last year helped drive down oil prices...Bad: Over one billion people are hungry or starving..Ugly: It's a tough time to make money with ethanol...Beautiful: the transition to electric drive systems and the development of next generation biofuels.
In Brazil, Uniduto said that it will commence construction of a new major ethanol pipeline from the sugarcane production areas in Sao Paulo state to Santos. The first phase budget is $759 million, and will result in 375 miles of pipeline that will be in operation by the 2011-12 cane season. Cosan, Copersucar, Sao Martinho and Crystalsev are participating in the venture.
The BNDES state development bank said that it will advance $1.05 billion to ethanol producers to provide funding for ethanol reserves, to ward off the potential of falling ethanol prices from dumping excess production on a weak fuel market. The Agriculture ministry said that up to 870 million gallons will be placed into reserve.
The Petrobras Biocombustível announced that it will invest $2.8 billion in its biodiesel and ethanol business between 2009 to 2013, an 87 percent increase from its previous plan. The company aid that, as part of the total investment, it would channel $400 million for infrastructure and $520 million for R&D. 80 percent of the funds will be invested in ethanol, with the remaining 20 percent invested in biodiesel.
In India, Hindustan Petroleum said that it will invest $116 million to re-start sugarcane mills it has acquired in Bihar. The plants will produce sugar, ethanol and 100 MW of power from sugarcane bagasse. Ethanol capacity at each mill will be 12 Mgy, based on a mill crushing capacity of 3500 metric tons per day.
In Washington, USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack indicated that he would support a move towards 12 or 13 percent ethanol blending, following the submission of a formal request to the EPA to move to E15 submitted by trade group Growth Energy. "We'd love to see 15 percent. Right now my focus is on 12, 13 percent because I think it is doable more quickly," Vilsack told Reuters.
The ethanol trade group Growth Energy said that 136,000 jobs would be created along with $24 billion increase in economic activity if E15 blending is allowed by the EPA, increasing the market for domestically produced fuel. A North Dakota State University study found that US ethanol consumption could rise to 20.4 billion gallons of ethanol per year based on E15 and a domestic market of 136 billion gallons of ethanol.
In Kentucky, Kreido Biofuels announced the sale of all its material assets to Four Rivers BioEnergy, which thereby acquires Kreido's spinning tube-in-tube STT reactors, and modular biodiesel production plant equipment. The purchase price for the assets was $2.8 million in cash, 1,200,000 shares of Four Rivers BioEnergy common stock, warrants, and the assumption of certain purchase obligations.
In Ohio, AlgaeVenture Systems will announce a new major algae dewatering system that lowers the cost of drying algae by 99 percent compared to centrifuge, or flocculation. breakthrough later this morning in a webinar for investors. "Our system currently provides a ton of dry mass at $1.72 ($1.90 metric ton) from a solution concentration of 3g/l microalgae," said AlgaeVenture Systems CEO Ross Youngs.
In Canada, HyPower Fuel said that it would file for patent protection in North America and multiple countries in Asia for its "next generation" biodiesel technology. The HyPower process uses essentially no catalysts or water to produce biodiesel. All inputs are recovered or converted to saleable products, according to the firm.
KL Energy Corporation and Prairie Green Renewable Energy announced their intention to construct a 5 Mgy wood-waste cellulosic ethanol plant near Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan. The Northeast Saskatchewan Renewable Energy Facility will utilize KL Energy's cellulosic ethanol technology.
Garbrook Knowledge Resources is presenting a comprehensive, in depth view of Algae as a biofuels feedstock, the current state of the industry, ongoing research and development activities, as well as science and technology progress and challenges, in a webinar Wednesday at 11:00-12:30pm EDT. Cost of the webinar is $149, which is based on the Garbrook Advanced Biofuels Resource (ABR),which comprises over 5,000 Digital Pages that contain over 370,000 industry facts and reference over 50,000 sources.
In Ghana, Galten Global Alternative Energy has commenced a jatropha trial on 99 acres, and said that it would expand cultivation up to 25,000 acres and produce 4 Mgy of jatropha oil per year if the trial is successful. The Israeli start up joins companies such as Gold Star Biofuels and Scanfuel, which are both planting jatropha on 5 million and 22,000 acres, respectively.
In New Zealand, Pete Bethune, skipper of the round-the-world speedboat Earthrace, said that "It is ironic that a Kiwi beat a world record using a bio-fuelled boat, but we can't get biofuels in our own country. I am embarrassed that the world thinks of New Zealand as a leader in biofuels because of the success of Earthrace, when we are actually behind everyone else.
Biodiesel New Zealand reconsiders expansion
Solid Energy's subsidiary Biodiesel New Zealand is proceeding with its development plans, increasing capacity at its existing Christchurch facility to 4 million litres a year, but reconsidering stage two of its plans.
In Indonesia, Mother Earth Plantations announced that it will invest $100 million over four year for the first large-scale jatropha project in Indonesia., The project will be located in West Timor, on 1 million hectares of land, and will have a capacity of 8.8 Mgy of jatropha oil by 2013, increasing to $29 Mgy in future years.
In Japan, Japan Bio Energy Development Corp announced that it will form a joint venture in Myanmar, Japan-Myanmar Green Energy, and will export 5,000 tons of seeds in 2009. The company said it will commence operation in 2010 of a jatropha oil mill. Myanmar has two million hectares of jatropha under cultivation, or as much as 90% of global jatropha acreage.
In the UK, the 2009 World Touring Car Championship announced that it will convert to B10 biodiesel and E10 ethanol supplied by the Italian petrochemical firm Panta. The WTCC said that it would use ethanol made from industrial waste rather than food crops.
UK launches biogas task force
According to The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK produces more than 100 million tonnes of organic material per year that could be used to produce biogas.
Energy company BP and cellulosic ethanol developer Verenium have announced the formation of a 50-50 joint venture to develop and commercialise cellulosic ethanol from non-food feedstocks.
The companies have agreed to commit $45 million (€35.7 million) in funding and assets to the joint venture company.
BP and Verenium form cellulosic ethanol partnership:
The joint venture company will initially focus on developing and securing financing for a first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Highlands County, Florida, and expects to break ground on that site in 2010.
BioGasol secures second generation ethanol funding
Denmark-based renewable energy company BioGasol has received €10.4 million to help finance its 5 million litre (1.3 mgy) BornBioFuel cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant project in Bornholm, Denmark.
Biopetrol undergoes restructuring
Switzerland-headquartered biodiesel producer Biopetrol has announced a major corporate restructuring, but will continue output at both its major German biodiesel plants on a short-time working basis.
German collaboration announces biogas plants
RWE Innogy and the Westphalia-Lippe Agricultural Association (WLV) have announced plans to construct and operate biogas plants run almost entirely on liquid manure.
Praj cellulosic ethanol plant proves success
Praj Industries’ cellulosic ethanol pilot plant at Praj Matrix in India has successfully demonstrated production of ethanol from corn cobs and sugarcane bagasse under varying operating conditions.
Sudan to launch first ethanol plant,Sudan's first ethanol plant, state-owned Kenana Sugar Co.'s (KSC), is due to begin operations at the end of March.
Earth Biofuels to upgrade biodiesel facility
Texas-based Earth Biofuels has finalised funds for upgrades to its 10 mgy Oklahoma biodiesel production facility.
Vattenfall to run power plants on biomass
Swedish power utility Vattenfall plans to convert its power plant facilities in Denmark to use large quantities of biomass fuel instead of coal.
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