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ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2008) — Say the word “biofuels” and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there’s another, older technology called gasification that’s getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University.
By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.
Gasification is a process that turns carbon-based feedstocks under high temperature and pressure in an oxygen-controlled atmosphere into synthesis gas, or syngas. Syngas is made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Recent Posts, Science on August 15, 2008 - י"ד אב תשס"ח at 8:32 am
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ScienceDaily (July 11, 2008) — Microorganisms once reigned supreme on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. Now, this ability of microorganisms to grow from an almost infinite variety of food sources may play a significant role in bailing out society from its current energy crisis, according to the Biodesign Institute’s Bruce Rittmann, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, and Rolf Halden.
In a new issue on “microbial ecology and sustainable energy” in the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology, the Biodesign researchers outline paths where bacteria are the best hope in producing renewable energy in large quantities without damaging the environment or competing with our food supply.
Two distinct, but complementary approaches will be needed. The first is to use microbes to convert biomass to useful energy. Different microorganisms can grow without oxygen to take this abundant organic matter and convert it to useful forms of energy such as methane, hydrogen, or even electricity. The second uses bacteria or algae that can capture sunlight to produce new biomass that can be turned into liquid fuels, like biodiesel, or converted by other microorganisms to useful energy. Both approaches currently are intensive areas of biofuel research at the Biodesign Institute, which has a joint project with petroleum giant BP to harvest photosynthetic bacteria to produce renewable liquid fuels, such as biodiesel.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Recent Posts, Science on July 12, 2008 - ט' תמוז תשס"ח at 11:30 pm
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John McCain, June 23, 2008
Fresno State University
Fresno, California
Thank you all very much. I appreciate the kind introduction from Jim Woolsey, and the warm welcome to Fresno State. I’m here to listen about energy issues as well as to talk. So let me just offer a few ideas before we begin our discussion.
All across this state and nation, people are hurting because the price of gasoline is higher than it should be, and more than many folks can afford. Because of far-off events in the world oil market, a barrel of oil has more than doubled in a year. And the bad effects of that are spreading across our economy. The cost of business is rising, the cost of food and other essentials is rising, the whole cost of living is rising. What isn’t rising is the value of your paychecks and the rate of America’s economic growth. Back in the 1970’s, they used to call this “stagflation.” And it feels the same today, because the unwise policies of our government have left America’s energy future in the control of others.
America imports about one third of its oil from Canada and Mexico and no one need worry about a reliance on friendly, stable neighbors, and partners in NAFTA. The Middle East and Venezuela are a different story. We import roughly a quarter of our oil from them, and they have a disproportionate impact on world prices. When we buy foreign oil from these and other sources, there are many consequences — all of them far-reaching and none of them good. Worst of all, by relying on foreign oil, we enrich bad actors in the world, some of whom finance terrorists.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Recent Posts on June 24, 2008 - כ"א סיון תשס"ח at 11:01 pm
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By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent, May 20, 2008
Photosynthesis is nearly the sole source of energy for the creatures inhabiting our planet, include the two-legged variety. For billions of years, since the appearance of the first vegetable cell, plants and bacteria have converted sunlight into energy-rich compounds. That is how all petroleum and coal reserves were created. Unfortunately, about 200 years of post-Industrial Revolution activity has wiped out most of these, and today’s vegetation cannot take up the slack.
Photovoltaic cells made of silicon can convert solar energy to electricity, but due to their extremely high price, it costs four times more to generate power this way than with coal or petroleum. Now, researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) claim to have created a prototype of a photovoltaic cell by genetically engineering proteins that produce energy using photosynthesis. If successful, this would enable energy production on a commercial scale through the construction of “artificial leaves.” The cells would even appear green, because of the wavelength of the light that they collect.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Middle East Report, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on May 20, 2008 - ט"ו אייר תשס"ח at 10:10 pm
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By JOHN LINCOLN, Times Union, May 18, 2008
A trip to the grocery store is becoming as troubling to the gas station. Food prices are rising through the roof. Unfortunately, ethanol has become the scapegoat.
While corn-based ethanol is taking a public relations hit, it’s largely undeserved.
Rising food costs in the United States and overseas are caused by a range of complex factors. Ethanol is only one of many causes — and a small one at that.
Other, bigger factors include the weak dollar and strong export demand connection and commodity speculation by outside investors. Labor costs also account for a staggering 40 percent to 45 percent of the food dollar.
Try and guess the biggest factor.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Recent Posts on May 18, 2008 - י"ג אייר תשס"ח at 5:31 am
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SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/353318_weyer01.html
Companies form joint venture called Catchlight
By BILL VIRGIN, P-I REPORTER
Weyerhaeuser Co. and Chevron Corp. said Friday that they’ve formed a joint venture to commercialize the technology of making transportation fuel out of plants, trees and recycled paper.
The forest products and oil giants announced last April an affiliation to study production of cellulosic ethanol. Since then they’ve been working out such issues as how the joint venture would be structured and how intellectual property would be shared.
The end result is Catchlight Energy LLC, which will have offices at Weyerhaeuser’s Federal Way facilities and at Chevron’s San Ramon, Calif., headquarters, as well as research facilities elsewhere. Catchlight will have 30 to 40 employees initially; the companies didn’t disclose how much each is investing in the venture.
The announcement of Catchlight’s formation emphasized several times that it will be developing biofuels from nonfood sources.
That’s an increasingly important point as the debate intensifies over the environmental benefits of ethanol derived from corn and other food sources, as well as the impact of increased demand for those crops on food prices.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Business and Commerce on March 1, 2008 - כ"ד אדר א' תשס"ח at 8:03 pm
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Joint effort to identify and develop algae strains for feedstock in next-generation biofuels
Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced today that they have entered into a collaborative research and development agreement to study and advance technology to produce liquid transportation fuels using algae.
Chevron and NREL scientists will collaborate to identify and develop algae strains that can be economically harvested and processed into finished transportation fuels such as jet fuel. Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., will fund the initiative.
The research project announced today is the second under a five-year strategic biofuels research alliance between Chevron and NREL announced in October 2006. The first involves bio-oil reforming, a process by which bio-oils derived from the decomposition of biological feedstocks are then converted into hydrogen and biofuels.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels on November 1, 2007 - כ' חשון תשס"ח at 10:17 am
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Alana Herro, Worldwatch Institute, August 10, 2007
Africa has vast resources for developing biofuels from sugar cane and other crops.
Africa can use the biofuels boom to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and fight poverty, said participants at Africa’s first high-level biofuels seminar in Ethiopia last month, the African Press Agency reported. The MDGs are a set of eight goals—ranging from stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS to providing universal primary education—agreed upon by UN member countries to meet the needs of the world’s poorest people by 2015.
“Promotion of bio-fuels industry in developing countries has the capacity to propel such countries to achieve the MDGs through poverty reduction (especially job creation and economic enhancement), health impact and climate change,” experts at the three-day forum held at the African Union Conference Hall in Addis Ababa concluded. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Science on August 13, 2007 - כ"ט אב תשס"ז at 11:40 am
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by Ezra HaLevi, Israel National News, August 8, 2007
(IsraelNN.com) A new power plant in the Hefer Valley has begun to produce electricity from manure and other organic waste.
According to Globes, the power plant will generate 2-2.4 megawatt/hour (MW/h) by the end of the year. Its initial output is 1.6 MW/h, of which 1.3 MW/h is delivered to the national grid and 300 KW/h is used to operate the facility itself.
The Tambour Hefer Ecology plant is located near Hadera. The Hefer Valley Cooperative Society is accomplishing two goals through the plant. It was ordered to reduce pollutants generated by the communities’ 12,000 dairy cows and is also using the 600 tons of manure generated daily to produce electricity. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Business and Commerce, Climate Change, Middle East Report, Recent Posts on August 8, 2007 - כ"ד אב תשס"ז at 8:54 pm
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By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C, June 20, 2007
Daryl Hannah rides around in her 1983 El Camino making it sexy; Willie Nelson sings about it and brews his own recipe; Woody Harrelson says he is addicted to it: Biodiesel - the hip, new and responsible car fuel of the 21st century and one of today’s hottest biotechnology products that environmentalists can’t enthuse enough about.
The Israeli alternative and renewable energy company, Ormat, is poised to accelerate the biodiesel market and take the use of biodiesel out of the realm of celebrity and environmentalism and into the mainstream. Ormat recently unveiled a new biodiesel formulation that overcomes all current limitations of the fuel. The company expects its biodiesel will be in gas stations within the next two years. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Recent Posts on June 20, 2007 - ד' תמוז תשס"ז at 2:29 pm
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