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[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]
Perspective: US Needs to Transition to Hydrous Ethanol as the Primary Renewable Transportation Fuel
August 30, 2009
by Brian J. Donovan, CEO Renergie, Inc.
[This opinion piece originally appeared in the Field-to-Pump blog, published by Renergie, Inc.]
Use of Hydrous Ethanol in Brazil
The oil price shocks of the 1970s led the Brazilian government to address the strain high prices were placing on its fragile economy. Brazil, the largest and most populous country in South America, was importing 80% of its oil and 40% of its foreign exchange was used to pay for that imported oil.
In 1975, General Ernesto Geisel, then-president of Brazil, ordered the country’s gasoline supply mixed with 10% ethanol. The level was raised to 25% over the next five years, which was intended to maintain a constant Brazilian gasoline supply for an ever-increasing demand. The government assisted the shift by giving sugar companies subsidized loans to build ethanol plants, as well as guaranteeing prices for their ethanol products. Already the world’s biggest producer and exporter of sugar, farmers reaped the benefits of this new demand.
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Perspective: A View Into the New GM
by Bill Cooke
| The Saturn version of the two-mode plug-in hybrid at the Milford Proving Grounds. Click to enlarge. |
On 11 August, GM invited approximately 75 journalists and auto analysts to spend a day learning about the new GM. The day was split between a morning session at the GM tech center in Warren and an afternoon session at the GM proving grounds in Milford, MI.
The morning session started out with an hour long press conference, the highlight being the unveiling of the Volt’s 230 mpg preliminary EPA city fuel economy finding (earlier post), as well as a tour showing selected elements from the studios of the four GM North American brands: Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac.
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A Project-Based Perspective: Algae Biofuels Economic Viability
April 21, 2009
Perspective by Jeff H. Hassannia, Vice President, Business Development Diversified Energy Corporation
The commercial viability of algae-based biofuels production is ultimately going to depend on economics. Regardless of whatever advances might come in terms of technological and biological breakthroughs, the fact remains that the commercial marketplace will not have an appetite for funding capital intensive energy projects unless the risk-return ratio is acceptable to debt and equity financiers.
A number of companies and government organizations have previously assessed different production designs and offered estimates of costs for algae systems. The most popular of designs previously analyzed include open ponds, open raceways, and closed photobioreactors. Generally these assessments have taken a first-order look at capital and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. The capital costs are usually broken down into costs associated with algal biomass growth, harvesting (removal of the biomass from the culture), dewatering (getting the algae to an acceptable concentration for further processing), and algal oil extraction systems.
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Perspective: Shoddy Environmental Bookkeeping—Biofuels and Indirect Land Use Change
April 03, 2009
Perspective by Professor Bruce Dale, Michigan State University
Until early last year, it was widely accepted that biofuels such as ethanol significantly reduce total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to gasoline. Then, a high-profile study using indirect land use change (ILUC) analysis suggested biofuels may have worse GHG performance than petroleum-based fuels. An uproar resulted in the related academic and business communities. Today, the issue is still far from resolved.
The basic idea behind ILUC is that biofuels use crops that might otherwise go to traditional uses, such as animal feed. The world agricultural system responds to this “loss” by replacing the production. During this replacement process, new lands might be cleared for agriculture, resulting in very large GHG releases (e.g. from burning tropical forests). This hypothetical GHG release is called the “carbon debt”. This “ah-hah moment” was embraced by critics of biofuels.
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Perspective: Indirect Land Use Change Analysis Is Not Life Cycle Analysis
February 18, 2009
Perspective by Professor Bruce Dale, Michigan State University
I have worked for over 30 years to develop cellulosic biofuels, so I am not particularly interested in corn ethanol. I am, however, very interested in using life cycle analysis (LCA) to show how the environmental performance of biofuels can be improved. Thus a recent life cycle study on corn ethanol plants caught my eye.
Plants built since 2004 reduce ethanol’s life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50-60% compared to gasoline. These plants represent about 75% of current ethanol capacity and stand in stark contrast to older ethanol plants that achieved only about 20% GHG reductions.
