DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) anticipates making between 80 and 120 awards in several categories including renewable power that may vary between $250,000 and $10m each. An announcement detailing application requirements is expected 2 March.

…Another sub-category is for developers of concepts and technologies that improve biomass characteristics such as yield and sustainability, and decrease production cost and/or water use.  READ MORE

The committee debated the merits of the bill and a pair of amendments for about 45 minutes before passing the bill by a vote of 19-7. If passed into law, Sensenbrenner’s bill would delay the implementation of E15 by at least 18 months while the NAS conducts its testing. The bill allows for up to $900,000 of the U.S. EPA’s research and development funds to be used to finance the testing.

…Opponents, however, claim that Sensenbrenner’s proposal is little more than an effort to disrupt the EPA’s regulatory abilities and expressed confidence that the bill will not be passed into law.

… “Those of us in California and around the country do have concerns about corn-based ethanol,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said. “It’s a complex and important issue…but we should not stop the EPA from conducting its required activities under the Clean Air Act. To do so would weaken and undermine our environmental laws and procedures.”  READ MORE and MORE (DomesticFuel.com)

An independent peer review meeting is scheduled for March 14, 2011 in Arlington, VA. [Federal Register Jan 28, 2011] READ MORE  Download Report

This webinar will summarize findings from 16 breakout sessions held over the two day span (link to background material, presentations and the conference agenda here: http://sentech.srahosting.com/CTAB/). Subject matter experts who chaired the sessions will weigh-in on how the DOE Biomass Program can most effectively guide R&D in the future to help advance the commercial biofuels industry.  READ MORE

The US Navy intends to have a fleet of warships known as the “Great Green Fleet” running on biofuels by 2016, and by 2020 it plans to run half of its entire fleet on alternative fuels.

“The US Navy is meeting institutions in Queensland involved in research and development which could deliver the technology that could be passed on to industry partners, who would ultimately be the suppliers of these fuels on a commercial scale,” QUT’s Professor Sagadevan Mundree said.

Professor Mundree and Dr Ian O’Hara from QUT met with Chris Tindal, the US Navy’s director for operational energy, yesterday afternoon (February 6) in Brisbane to explain the capabilities of QUT’s Mackay Renewable Biocommodities Pilot Plant.  READ MORE

…Mabus pointed out that the oil shocks cost the US Navy in terms of readiness and operation. “The only place we’ve got to go get that money is operations or training, so our ships steam less, our planes fly less, we train our sailors and Marines less.”

His focus, he insists, is not on the adoption of renewable energy for reasons of reducing carbon emissions, but US naval preparedness. “We’re moving away from it for one reason, that is it makes us better war fighters. We would never give these countries the opportunities to build our ships, our aircraft, our ground vehicles, but we give them a vote in whether those ships sail and whether those aircraft fly or those ground vehicles operate when we allow them to set the price and the supply of our energy and we’ve just got to move away from it.”

…”In the 1850s, we went from sail to coal. In the early part of the 20th century, we went from coal to oil. In the 50s, we pioneered nuclear. We were the first service, first people to ever use nuclear power for transportation. And now, we’re changing it again. And every single time, from the 1850s to today, you’ve got nay sayers, they say you’re trading one form of energy that you know about, that’s predictable, that’s affordable for another that’s not and you just shouldn’t do it. And every single time, they’ve been wrong and I’m absolutely confident they’re going to be wrong again.

…(C)ould airlines, that are urgently seeking affordable aviation biofuels, provide the financing, in the form of advanced payments for aviation biofuel orders?

Here’s how such a scheme might work. (In our example, we are using a $400 million, 38 million gallon plant producing in-spec aviation biofuels at $4 per gallon. Actual project capital requirements may vary.)

Step 1. A consortium of 10 airlines each provide $30 million, which will ultimately pay for 7.5 million gallon initial orders at $4 per gallon, for each airline. …

Step 2. Working with the USDA, the project secures a 15-year, affordable feedstock supply; the airlines provide 15-year off take contracts, with the US Navy providing a backup off take guarantee on the full faith and credit of the United States.

Step 3. A 38 million-gallon advanced aviation biofuel facility is constructed using the airline financing and project equity.

Step 4. Following completion, start-up and demonstration of the facility – essentially, taking out the technology risk – the project is refinanced at commercially-viable rates using the traditional project lending sources, or the bond market.

Step 5. The airline’s debt portion is converted to pre-paid orders, and the 38 million gallon facility delivers 75 million gallons of fuel to the airline buyers over a two-year period.

Step 6. Following completion of step four, the project moves to a “business as usual” relationship with its buyers.   READ MORE and MORE  and MORE (C-SPAN/Q&A.org)

Piedmont Biofuels announced today(February 7, 2012)  that the company has commenced the first commercial scale zero-waste production of biodiesel in the United States using its proprietary approach of enzyme catalysis. Biodiesel is a diesel fuel alternative made from fats and oils, which can be used in diesel engines without modification.

Piedmont has successfully scaled-up an enzyme-based technique to biodiesel production. The traditional biodiesel production method uses chemical catalysts like potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid. These chemicals form soaps or salts which contaminate both the biodiesel and glycerin phases, producing low-grade co-products.  “With the enzyme process, we eliminate the caustic chemicals which allows biodiesel producers to decrease waste and increase yield, with all types of feedstocks,” says Lyle Estill, President of Piedmont Biofuels.

Piedmont Biofuels has been investigating enzyme catalysis for the biodiesel industry for over four years in efforts to find a successful zero-waste output. In 2009, Piedmont began collaborating with global enzyme producer, Novozymes. Their most recent research and development efforts have been supported by an U.S. Department of Energy, Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant in addition to the technology commercialization support. from the Clean Energy Alliance (“CEA”) under the Department of Energy Small Business and Clean Energy Alliance Partnership.

This is the first commercial production of its kind in the United States using enzyme catalysts for biodiesel. “ We are very excited to share our success this year at the National Biodiesel Conference,” states Rachel Burton, Research Director of Piedmont Biofuels, who will be delivering details about the production process at the conference in Orlando, Florida from February 5- 8th. “This milestone brings Piedmont Biofuels one step closer to a zero-waste, sustainable biodiesel process.” READ MORE

“The RFS works,” glowed National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe, in marking the industry’s first billion-gallon production year in 2011, as industry benefitted from a now-expired $1.00 per gallon biodiesel tax credit, and from the billion gallon mandate called for under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

…“It’s a fantasy to think that global energy prices are based on a free market; they are controlled and manipulated by a cartel,” Jobe said.

…Just now, the EPA has thrown out another 48.1 million fake biodiesel credits, this time sold by Absolute Fuels in Texas. It follows on last year’s scandal when Clean Green Fuels of Maryland had 32.3 million credits declared invalid. Neither company had produced biodiesel equivalent to the credits they pretended to have sold.

The refining industry is up in arms. The EPA has demanded that they pay fines for submitting fake RINs, and also buy new, real ones; and, the agency said that the obligated parties would have to recover the money paid out for fraudulent RINs by their own legal action against the sellers.  READ MORE

The EPA discovered that fuel credits, which can be traded, are being fraudulently sold, the committee said in a statement. The EPA’s handling of the fraud — telling buyers of the credits to replace the certificates — has made the situation worse, according to panel chairman Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican.

“The renewable-fuels marketplace is in turmoil,” Upton and Kentucky Republican Ed Whitfield said in a letter to the EPA today which was released by the committee via e-mail. “The costs of this turmoil ultimately will be borne by consumers.”  READ MORE and MORE (House Energy and Commerce Committee)

The new company’s technology and intended products are different, they say, and it is relying on private investment.

Colorado-based Range Fuels had planned to use a catalytic conversion process to make ethanol from wood chips at the Soperton site. When that technology apparently failed to work commercially, Range tried to transfer the plant and a $40 million federal loan guarantee to the newly created LanzaTech Freedom Pines, a subsidiary of New Zealand-based LanzaTech Inc.

However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to transfer the loan, triggering foreclosure on Range Fuels, which ended in LanzaTech Freedom Pines buying the plant on the courthouse steps a month ago for $5.1 million. Company officials have said they hope to add to the existing equipment, hire hundreds of employees and produce a variety of fuels and chemicals.

…Unlike Range Fuels, LanzaTech Freedom Pines has not received any U.S. funding for the Soperton plant. But its parent company has received $560,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, $4 million from the Department of Energy and $3 million from the Federal Aviation Administration, all for research and development related to producing jet fuel from waste gas streams or biomass, said Laurel Harmon, vice president for government relations of LanzaTech Inc.

…Robert Rapier, who vets renewable energy technology and writes a prominent industry blog, predicted that LanzaTech will seek government funding for the Soperton project. “I would ban them from government funding until that Range loan is paid off” because of the overlap between the two companies’ investors, he said. “Anyone involved in the Range Fuels thing shouldn’t be getting more tax money. … A lot of people are angry that LanzaTech, with some of the same people, came in and bought (the plant) for pennies on the dollar.”  READ MORE