Biofuel

Military Leaders See Energy Diversity Protecting US National Security

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EA-6B Prowler from the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 flies September 16, 2011 over Southern Maryland. The plane uses a biofuel blend of JP-5 aviation fuel and camelina oil.

Growing demand in huge emerging economies like China and India will drive up world oil prices no matter what the US does, so it’s crucial for the US to develop energy alternatives that will keep it from being hurt by those nations’ successes, says Adm. (Ret.) Dennis Blair, former director of national intelligence. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 11, 2012 at 8:30 AM

API Attacks Rewnewable Fuel Standard after EPA Denies Waiver

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The American Petroleum Institute recently renewed its attack on the US government’s Renewable Fuels Standard after the Environmental Protection Agency said it would not waive the requirement that uses some 40 percent of the US corn crop to make ethanol.

The main oil and gas trade association said the RFS, which is designed to blend increasing amounts of ethanol with gasoline, is “increasingly unrealistic and unworkable” because it has been adopted without regard for its compatibility with some vehicles, and if fully implemented would exceed what API says is the maximum safe limit of 10 percent in gasoline. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 20, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Optimistic Realism in Commercializing Biofuels

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The theme of this year’s recent Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference was “Go Big, Stay Strong,” an allusion to the move of biofuels out of the lab and into commercialization.

But the theme emerging from the remarks of the more than 100 biofuel executives who spoke at the conference was that biofuel companies should execute this “go big” strategy in carefully considered steps rather than in giant leaps and that the key to staying strong is to hedge their bets at every opportunity, including by increasing the range of feedstock, product and financing options. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 3, 2012 at 11:30 AM

‘The American Economy Does Not Have an Oil Addiction’

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It’s the 1 million barrel per day question.

By 2035, US petroleum imports could drop as low as one in every four barrels consumed, but achieving that much import reduction depends heavily on raising vehicle mileage standards. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Biofuels: Better for Airplanes, Too?

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Biofuels could be a “game changer” for both military and commercial aviation, says Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Terry Yonkers, because they’re proving to have advantages over petroleum-based jet fuels that go beyond the environment.

Biofuels are produced from plant feedstocks or organic wastes. Public and private research has been focusing on production from non-food sources like algae, camelina, and jatropha, and on sustainable and economic ways to cultivate them. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 13, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Biofuels Producer Launching Ethanol Replacement

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In the race to commercialize the next generation of advanced biofuels created from inedible plant material, 50/50 BP – Dupont joint venture Butamax is pushing to make biobutanol the next big thing. The company is moving toward the commercial phase of its program to make biobutanol the US fuel blend of choice.

“We are very excited about this product – biobutanol is the highest value biofuel that can be made,” Butamax CEO Paul Beckwith recently told Breaking Energy. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 1, 2012 at 8:00 AM

Electricity From Liquid Fuel? UCLA Researchers Say Yes

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Researchers at UCLA say they have come up with a method for converting electrical energy into a liquid fuel, in a development that could lead to regular petrol cars being powered by electricity.

The process, which uses carbon dioxide (CO2) as a bi-product, was recently discovered by James Liao of UCLA’s Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 18, 2012 at 12:35 PM
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