U.S., Brazil plan ethanol partnership

Maybe Brazil can teach us how to be independent of foreign oil like they are...

3/1/2007 — U.S. and Brazilian officials are negotiating details of an ethanol partnership in advance of President Bush's scheduled visit to Brazil next week.

"We are interested in forming a global ethanol market" with the United States, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said this week. If completed, the planned deal would help increase both nations' production of ethanol, creating significant economic as well as political implications.

First, expanding world ethanol markets would help the USA and other nations reduce their dependence on foreign oil. Also, reduced demand for oil might reduce the clout of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has tried to use his nation's oil reserves to undercut U.S. policies in the region. The USA and Brazil produce more than 70% of the world's ethanol; the U.S. supply comes mainly from corn, while Brazil taps its abundant sugarcane crop.

Today, officials from the United States, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and the European Commission will announce the creation of the International Biofuels Forum. The group, affiliated with the United Nations, will work to create worldwide ethanol standards. White House press secretary Tony Snow declined to comment on ongoing negotiations.

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The Big 3 jumpin' on the ethanol bandwagon...

Ethanol 'the answer,' auto execs tell Bush
March 26, 2007 • Environmentalists want more fuel-efficient vehicles

President Bush, seeking to rev up support for his energy plan, praised domestic automakers Monday for building more "flexible fuel" vehicles capable of running on ethanol and biodiesel blends. "That's a major technological breakthrough for the country," Bush said. "If you want to reduce gasoline usage like I believe we need to do so for national security reasons as well as for environmental concerns, the consumer has got to be in a position to make a rational choice."

Bush said he appreciated "that American automobile manufacturers recognize the reality of the world in which we live in and are using new technologies to use the consumers different options." Bush met with General Motors Corp. chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Motor Co. chief executive Alan Mulally and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group chief executive Tom LaSorda. They discussed Bush's support for flex-fuel vehicles and his administration's proposal to reduce gas consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.

The three auto executives reiterated their commitment to double their production of flexible fuel vehicles to about 2 million a year by 2010. Automakers said they could make half of their cars and trucks capable of running on alternative fuels by 2012 if there is enough availability and distribution of E85, an ethanol blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. "This makes a big difference," Wagoner said. "There's nothing that can be done that can reduce the curb of growth of imported oil, and actually turn it down, like using E85."

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[DansDarkSide]

I remember watching a show about Oil, and how it is affecting us today about a year or so ago and they said that the future was in Ethanol, and how most of the cars in Brazil were Ethanol cars.

Glut in ethanol market developing...

Industry watchers fear ethanol oversupply
June 13, 2007 - Fast expansion, distribution issues could doom alternative energy boom

In the 2½ years since Gordon Ommen co-founded US BioEnergy Corp., the company has quietly grown into one of the country’s top ethanol producers, with plans to double in size this year and grow its capacity to 1 billion gallons a year by 2009. But Ommen knows there are challenges ahead for both his young company and the rapidly growing ethanol industry. Thanks to that fast expansion and some distribution issues, some Wall Street and university analysts predict the ethanol boom is about to stumble on a supply glut and shrinking profit margins.

“It’s going to be a little bit of a bumpy ride, I think, but in the long run we are bullish on renewable fuels and believe that they are going to be a part of our domestic fuel stream for a long time to come,” said Ommen, chairman, president and CEO of Inver Grove Heights, Minn.-based US BioEnergy. It’s a view shared by Geoff Cooper, who runs ethanol programs for the National Corn Growers Association. He said the industry expects what he called a temporary oversupply for several months, though he hesitated to call it a glut.

Lehman Brothers analysts estimated the surplus at about 1 million gallons per day starting in the second half of 2007. The firm’s report attributed part of that to the ethanol plant construction boom, but said transportation bottlenecks are a bigger problem. Ethanol is produced mainly in the Midwest and has to be moved to coastal markets by train or truck since pipelines don’t exist, said Michael Waldron, a co-author of the report.

“The supply is coming online and there isn’t really an efficient way to get it to the demand centers on the East and West Coasts,” he said. Currently, agribusiness conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland Co., of Decatur, Ill., is easily the country’s largest ethanol producer with annual capacity of 1.1 billion gallons, and has expansion plans that will raise that to 1.6 billion gallons.

More Industry watchers fear ethanol oversupply - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com

Push for ethanol takes a hit...

Study Slams Ethanol, Industry Cries Foul
July 19, 2007 - Ethanol is not the "silver bullet" that will solve America's energy crisis, according to a new report released Wednesday by three liberal environmental groups.

In the 77-page report, the groups allege that ethanol production will, in many cases, contribute to significant problems in the United States and the developing world. But Doug Durante, executive director of Ethanol Across America -- an industry advocacy group -- said the criticisms levied in the report were unfair. He said the industry has never tried to be the answer to every problem associated with fossil fuels and transportation.

"Look at the numbers: Americans use 150 billion gallons of gasoline [a year] ... we make six billion gallons of ethanol," said Durante. "What rational person could say that next 144 billion gallons is no problem for us? Nobody is saying that." The report, which cites dozens of studies by scientists and government researchers, looks at several different aspects of the ethanol debate. It alleges the production of ethanol will contribute to additional air and water pollution, even with modern environmental controls. It also alleges that the heavily subsidized industry will help corporate farms at the expense of rural communities.

Wenonah Hauer, executive director of Food and Water Watch, said: "We're already seeing the effects of the hype about ethanol. Ninety-three million acres of corn were planted -- and that's the largest amount of corn to be grown since 1944 -- but that's not enough corn to make America energy independent." "The push to make corn ethanol in mega-refineries is likely to contribute to the over-consolidation of the grain sector," Hauer said. "It won't benefit the smaller farmers and farm cooperatives in the long term." Hauer argued that only large-scale factory-style farms will be able to profit from ethanol production, which she said would accelerate the loss of family farms .

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More on the ethanol backlash...

Why There's an Ethanol Backlash
July 20, 2007: The Ethanol Backlash; A substitute for gasoline, this grain-derived fuel has generated enthusiasm and resistance in equal amounts.

Ethanol, the substitute for gasoline that in the United States is largely derived from corn, is hot. Statistics from the Renewable Fuels Association show that production doubled between 2002 and 2006, from 2.1 billion to 4.9 billion gallons, allowing the United States to surpass Brazil as the Saudi Arabia of ethanol. When the 86 plants under construction today are completed, American production capacity will top 13 billion gallons per year. In his most recent State of the Union address, President Bush called for the United States to produce 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2017.

Any rapidly growing, paradigm-shifting industry is bound to engender both enthusiasm and resistance in roughly equal amounts. And the prospect of using grains, which have generally been cheap in this country, as a replacement for fossil fuels, was bound to excite hope and ruffle feathers. After all, while farmers and ethanol-plant investors will profit, companies and industries that rely on cheap grains, or that produce and distribute fossil fuels, face serious disruption. And so, before it has even emerged as anything more than a marginal contributor to supply—ethanol accounted for about 1.25 percent of gasoline use last year—a full-fledged ethanol backlash is underway. The squawks of protest arise not just from oil companies. They're coming from economists, environmentalists, poverty fighters, and science nerds. Meet the ethanol-skeptics.

Inflation hawks. Economists and analysts have been quick to note (subscription required) that using corn to make gasoline is contributing to the greatest macroeconomic evil: inflation. Indeed, energy and food now constitute a positive feedback loop. The high and rising energy prices—according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, energy prices rose in the first half of this year at a 27.8 percent annual rate—contribute to high food prices in two ways. It makes farming, food production, and food distribution more expensive, and it encourages more people to use grains like corn to make ethanol, which also drives up corn prices. (Here's a chart of corn futures and a chart of wheat futures.) As the consumer price index shows, in the first half of 2007, food costs rose at a 6.2 percent annual rate.

More Gross: Why There's an Ethanol Backlash - Newsweek Dan Gross - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

New way to produce ethanol...

Ethanol makers pursuing avenue 'Q'
September 4 2007: A new microbe being used by biofuel leaders has the chance to change the way ethanol is produced.
12:36 PM EDT

Figuring out a way to turn wood pulp, sugar cane, wheat straw and other biomass products into ethanol is the easy part. Figuring out a way to do it economically and efficiently is where it gets tricky. Biofuel labs across the country have been busy experimenting with various enzymes that can extract sugar from feedstocks which then can be converted into ethanol. But many of the processes are labor and power intensive because of the need to create special enzymes, leaving American producers to continue to rely on corn until cheaper cellulosic methods are perfected.

One of the more recent entrants into the ethanol enzyme race, though, could be one of the most interesting, particularly in terms of the attention it's attracted. The enigmatically named Q Microbe, under development by SunEthanol Inc., has attracted the attention of major ethanol producer VeraSun Energy, putting it at the forefront of technology for co-called cellulosic ethanol, which is expected to replace corn as the main source of alternative fuel in the United States. The enzyme's allure lies in how it is found in nature and does not need to go through the costly process of being manufactured in a lab to be effective, as well as its efficiency with a variety of biomass products.

Enzymes are introduced to cellulosic products like woodchips and switchgrass to extract sugar, which is then fermented to produce ethanol. Enzymatic hydrolysis is considered to be the most cost-effective way to make the biofuel, and the Q Microbe is expected to be cheaper to use than other enzymes because it can do its work naturally in one step, whereas other enzymes need multiple steps in a laboratory to extract the sugar. Moreover, the Q Microbe so far has been effective with almost all biomass, while other enzymes only work on particular substances. University of Massachusetts biology professor Susan Leschine discovered the microbe in the soil of New England and she is working with technicians at SunEthanol to incorporate its use in the production process. Those involved expect a test plant to open by 2009 with commercial production coming once the facility has shown it is viable.

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[waltky]

Cornell U. working hard in the lab...

New technology for faster biodiesel production
Sept 5, 2007 : Cornell University researchers claim to have developed a way of making bio-diesel continuously, without the need to fill and empty batch reactors.

Making biodiesel involves a reaction called transesterification in which the triglycerides and free fatty acids in oils from plants such as corn or linseed react with methanol to form methyl esters of 16-18 carbon atoms in length. Purified methyl esters can then be used in place of diesel fuel.

However, transesterification is a slow process and currently the only way to speed it up is to cook chemicals in batch reactors at high temperatures and pressures. But having to produce fuel in batches also limits the rate at which biodiesel can be made.

Now, Christian Fleisher and his colleagues have developed a process to produce the transesterification reaction as the necessary chemicals mix and flow through a pipe. According to New Scientist, the result is a system - known as a "plug flow" reactor - in which plant oil and methanol is added continuously at one end, while biodiesel flows out of the other.

Fleisher says it is possible to achieve this speed increase by using a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide. So, instead of taking hours, the transesterification reaction takes place in under three minutes. Fleisher has now set up a company called Biodiesel Technologies to commercialise the idea.

New technology for faster biodiesel production

[waltky]

Big difference between ethanol mixes...

Corn Ethanol: Biofuel or Biofraud?
September 24, 2007

Here’s an interesting bit of scientific research, courtesy of a recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based global economic think tank, on the difference in greenhouse gas emissions from cars burning gasoline-only fuel and fuels made from various forms of ethanol:

Corn ethanol: 0-3 percent greenhouse gas emission reduction.

Sugar cane ethanol: 50-70 percent reduction.

Cellulosic ethanol: 90-plus percent.

But wait, there’s more:

Which form of ethanol production is the United States government (and its taxpayers) subsidizing? Corn, of course. Which form of ethanol production does the United States government levy a 53-cents-a-gallon import tariff on? Sugar cane, naturally. And which form of ethanol production is under-funded, under-researched, and furthest from commercial production? The cleanest choice, obviously. Do you see a pattern here?

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[waltky]

Thought Brazil had all that ethanol???

Brazil plans oil search in remote Amazon
Monday, October 22, 2007 - Plans to search for oil and natural gas in Brazil's remote western Amazon have raised concerns that one of the last untouched areas of the world's largest wilderness will be spoiled.

The National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, plans to invest US$36 million (euro25 million) to look for oil and gas in Acre, an Amazon state bordering Bolivia, the government news agency Agencia Brasil said Saturday. ANP director Getulio Silveira Leite told a congressional committee that the work in Acre is part a broader push to find oil in the Amazon, according to Agencia Brasil. "We must increase research in the region to discover the petroleum potential of the nine Amazon states," Silveira Leite said.

But environmental officials said no study had been done to assess how the search will affect the Amazon. The region covers some 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) but its natural resources are under constant pressure loggers, miners and farmers. "It's necessary to examine how this will be done, on what scale and in what areas," said Joao Paulo Capobianco, the Environment Ministry's executive secretary. "In theory, there are methodologies and technologies that allow this activity without environmental damage."

The Acre state Federation of Industries has endorsed the project, but some in the region question whether the government will take care to preserve the environment. "Development brings damage," Acre congressman Marcelo Serafim said. "It destroyed the Atlantic forest, it ruined much of the Pantanal (wetlands), and that's not what we want or defend."

But Serafim added: "If the Brazilian government and the world want the Amazon preserved, the world has to give us conditions to preserve the Amazon. And it hasn't." The government-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA now produces oil and gas in the Amazon city of Coari. The federal government is also building a pipeline through the rainforest to carry the gas to the Amazonas state capital of Manaus, a city of 1.5 million.

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