E85Forum.com Fueling the E85 community    FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  Ethanol in the news Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6  Next          E85Forum.com Forum Index -> open forum on E85 ethanol fuel View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message cessna Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 52 Location: Iowa Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 9:01 pm    Post subject: Grassley Demands Answers on Ethanol From Oil Execs By Jeremy Jacobs The Hill Friday 04 May 2007 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded Friday that Big Oil executives explain why their companies' testimony on ethanol in a committee hearing last year contradicts the practices revealed in a recent article. In four similar letters to the chief executives of ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Chevron and Conoco Phillips, Grassley says an April 2 Wall Street Journal article revealed ethanol policies that gainsay the protocols the companies discussed under oath in a March 14, 2006 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "Your testimony before the committee clearly stated that ExxonMobil was perfectly willing to allow the sale of alternative fuels at ExxonMobil stations," Grassley wrote ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson. "However, a recent Wall Street Journal article … detailed many of the obstacles your company and other major integrated oil companies apparently use to effectively prohibit or strongly discourage the sale of alternative fuels." The senator also noted some of the specific practices oil companies have engaged in to deter the sale of ethanol. "Chevron's agreement with franchises discourages selling E-85 [ethanol] under the main canopy and includes policies that are claimed to prevent franchises from deceiving customers as to the source of the product," he said in his letter to Chevron chief executive David O'Reilly. Grassley, a staunch supporter of developing E-85 ethanol as an alternative to gasoline, said the article shows the companies are "a key obstacle to expanding the availability of alternative fuels" and asked each executive to reconcile their companies' testimony with the findings of the article by May 25. "Renewable fuels are a key factor in our energy future," Grassley said in a statement Friday. "And it appears Big Oil is throwing up roadblocks every chance they get." Back to top Revision Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 6:28 am    Post subject: GM Wants Nascar to start using Ethanol http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/05/19/news/business/doc464e09a86ce78396169041.txt Quote: GM asking NASCAR to join other leagues, switch to ethanol By LISA ZAGAROLI/McClatchy Newspapers Saturday, May 19, 2007 - 11:24:18 pm CDT One of NASCAR’s top sponsors plans to file a formal petition asking that it join other racing leagues and begin using ethanol to power its race cars. The recommendation by General Motors Corp., planned for later this year, comes as NASCAR adjusts to using unleaded gasoline, decades behind the commercial marketplace. GM sponsors 22 NASCAR vehicles under its Chevrolet nameplate, about half the vehicles that start any given race. It’s been promoting more environmentally friendly fuel for months, and now it plans to proceed with an official presentation to NASCAR ownership. “We do have the technical know-how,” said Brent Dewar, the vice president of GM North America sales, service and marketing. “It’s something we would have to work in conjunction with NASCAR on. NASCAR would have to encourage other manufacturers to do it as well.” NASCAR’s other manufacturers are Ford, Toyota and Dodge. Spokesman Andrew Giangola said NASCAR is always open to new ideas, but he withheld judgment on GM’s plan until it’s submitted. The issue is emerging for NASCAR as others in the racing industry embrace the emissions benefits of alternative fuels without sacrificing performance. Onetime Indianapolis 500 winner and team owner Bobby Rahal was at the National Press Club recently to tout the “greening of racing,” in particular the Indy Racing League’s conversion to ethanol this year. Indy cars long have used methanol as fuel. He noted that the American Le Mans Series was running on E10, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline, with a cleaner blend slated for next year. Back to top specialgreen Site Admin Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 259 Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 11:43 am    Post subject: This past week, I heard a radio piece on Minnesota Public Radio detailing how ethanol use has raised the price for milk at the grocery store. A related article is: http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/02/news/economy/corn_milkprices/index.htm That article also attributes the price change to global factors. This kind of press is potentially damaging, as there have always been objections to using "food" to make "fuel". Not to minimize the impact of the cost of food on families, but everybody also pays for fuel (even if you ride the bus or train). Most people pay more for gasoline than they pay for milk, and putting a lid on energy prices will help everyone. Back to top Revision Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 6:28 pm    Post subject: Its really a bit of spin doctoring on the part of big oil. The real reason the price of food is going up is because the consumer now has to pay for the increased cost of fuel. This has been a big topic in the past, but now for some reason the fuel costs have been buried in the Ethanol/corn hype. You'd think all the cows in dairy land are fed a diet of corn only. Most cows eat grass. Its what their digestion system is designed to do. That's the reason why cattle farmers need all that land. Now if we suddenly started up cellulose ethanol and there was a shortage of grass, then I can see the argument that ethanol is responsible for the price of milk. Back to top Alcohol Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 634 Location: Central Wisconsin Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 9:20 pm    Post subject: Dairy rations typically contain alfalfa, corn, distillers grain, soymeal to name some of the major inputs. In the midwest Dairies grow their own corn rather than purchase it- thus they are insulated from the variations in corn prices. California and New Mexico Dairies may be hit harder if they have to buy corn (my opinion for what it is worth is these operations may be questionable anyway as they operate in a water short area). Both dairy and beef get benefit from the ethanol by-product distillers grain or corn gluten feed/ corn gluten meal. All animal production benefits from soy diesel also as the by-product is soymeal. New distiller products are starting to be produced that will be usable in poultry and swine diets. Only poultry and swine are totally dependent on corn and have gotten away from the farmer raising his own corn for feed- today these are mega-corporation contract operations such as Tyson- they will make it work. Someone has already said it- energy costs are impacting production/ packaging/ cooling/ transportation and selling costs far more than the speculative drive on corn prices has. Back to top Revision Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:31 am    Post subject: Pimentel gets another kick in the pants by new MIT study http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/06/mit_ethanol_lif.html#more Best part quoted: Quote: Results reported by Shapouri, Wang, and Farrell are within one standard deviation of the Monte Carlo models results, indicating that they are all roughly equivalent given the range of variation in key inputs. However, Pimentel’s reported value [-3.2 MJ/L] is more than three standard deviations below the mean Monte Carlo NEV value, making it less than 1% probable. This is primarily a result of Pimentel’s use of older information. Back to top Revision Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:28 pm    Post subject: Membrane Ethanol > Distilled Ethanol http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=140730 Quote: 6/27/2007 8:07:00 AM New Technology Could Lead To More Energy-Efficient Ethanol Production Ethanol to fuel cars, trucks and other vehicles might tomorrow take less energy to produce, thanks to a device invented by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in California. Chemical engineers Richard D. Offeman and George H. Robertson at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., think it may be possible to cut energy costs by using a series of specially designed permeable plastic sheets, or membranes, to produce ethanol from fermented broths of corn, or straw and other kinds of biomass feedstocks. The technology will help to address the serious concern regarding the energy efficiency of bioethanol production, according to Robert L. Fireovid, ARS national program leader for process engineering and chemistry, Beltsville, Md. The researchers' invention, called a spiral-wound liquid membrane module, could potentially replace the widely used process of distilling ethanol from fermentation broths. The module offers ethanol producers the important advantage of combining two separation processes, extraction and membrane permeation, in one piece of equipment. With further research and development, the module would require less energy than distillation. Today, energy costs are ethanol producers' second largest expense; feedstocks are first. In brief, the fermentation broth—typically containing about five to 12 percent ethanol—would travel through a sandwich-like configuration of membranes and mesh sheets, called spacers, that keep the membranes separate from each other. One membrane has a solvent in its pores that extracts the ethanol from the broth. A second membrane, with the help of a vacuum, pulls the ethanol out of the solvent. The ethanol-and-water vapor that results is then, in other equipment, condensed into an ethanol-rich liquid. The scientists have applied for a patent. They now plan to build and fine-tune a prototype, then turn it over to a membrane manufacturer for further development before commercialization. Already, some ethanol producers have expressed interest in the invention. The device has other potential uses, such as cleaning up wastewater or treating natural gas for home use. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. Back to top Revision Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:51 pm    Post subject: I think I posted somewhere that the Ethanol industry was starting to convert some of the corn oil from distillers grain into biodiesel. Now we have Biodiesel producers converting some of their "waste" products into ethanol.. Link to news article: http://www.grainnet.com/articles/Rice_Scientists_Use_Bacteria_to_Get_Ethanol_from_Byproduct_Glycerin-45541.html Quote: Date Posted: Jun. 28 2007 Rice Scientists Use Bacteria to Get Ethanol from Byproduct Glycerin By Frank Zaworski, Grainnet Editor Researchers at Rice University in Houston, TX announced June 25 that they have developed a technological process that convert's waste glycerin from biodiesel plants into ethanol. As the major byproduct of biodiesel production, glycerin has uses in several industries such as the soap market. Finding other uses for this waste material is a high priority for the biodiesel industry. A group of scientists at Rice believe they may have an answer. Chemical Engineer Ramon Gonzalez, an assistant professor at Rice, and several colleagues identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a known strain of E. coli to convert glycerin into ethanol. "It is very efficient," Gonzales said. "We estimate the operational costs to be about 40% less than those of producing ethanol from corn." Gonzales said the biodiesel industry's rapid growth has created a glycerin glut that has forced glycerin producers like Dow Chemical and Proctor & Gamble to shutter plants. Some biodiesel producers, he said, are already unable to sell glycerin and instead must pay to dispose it. One pound of glycerin is produced to for every 10 pounds of biodiesel. In a review article in the June issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Gonzales pointed out that very few microorganisms are capable of digesting glycerin in an oxygen-free environment. This process is known as anaerobic fermentation. "We are confident that our findings will enable the use of E. coli to anaerobically produce ethanol and other products from glycerin with higher yields and lower costs than can be obtained using common sugar-based feedstocks like glucose and xylose," Gonzales said. For more information, call 713-348-6778. Back to top Revision Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:23 am    Post subject: E12 The big news this week is E12. Both the Ethanol industry and Automotive industry are trying to agree on a new higher standard for the amount of ethanol that can be used in current modern engines. The argument is that E20 is too great a concentration and may destroy engines. Congress is getting involved as well and is trying to push the EPA to conduct public hearings before E20 can be approved. But both industries seem to be willing to compromise and that compromise may be E12. See article here: http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/07/08/news/business/doc468e9ea214dd4012346344.txt Back to top hotrod Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 872 Location: Colorado Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:47 pm    Post subject: Interesting CSM article from Aug 2006 Here is an interesting article from CSM from Aug 2006 that has some comparative price info on the various alternate energy sources. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0801/p01s02-usec.html Another comparison http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/RENEW/Biomass/Cost.shtml Here is a follow up article on bio mass ethanol http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/04/30/biotech_firms_sprint_to_cut_ethanols_cost/?page=2 Ethanol cost effect on gasoline as it replace MTBE http://www.ethanolrfa.org/media/press/rfa/2004/view.php?id=312 http://www.ethanolrfa.org/policy/papers/view.php?id=5 http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/uc_berkeley_stu.html Larry Back to top hotrod Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 872 Location: Colorado Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:11 pm    Post subject: New article on ethanol and big oil This is an interesting read. Looks like some of the big business periodicals are beginning to smell a rat on oils resistance to ethanol distribution http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_40/b4052052.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn Larry Back to top 440Jim Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 188 Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:34 am    Post subject: Re: E12 Revision wrote: The big news this week is E12. IMO, they should be putting only enough ethanol in gasoline to get the needed pollution reduction. The rest of the ethanol should be used in high percentage fuels, like E85. I want to see more facilities selling E85 (or higher %), and more vehicles being sold to use it. Since/if ethanol is cheaper than gasoline, this will encourage more E85 users, and bring the station costs, and hopefully the retail price, down even more. Back to top buzzcut Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 29 Location: Northwest Indiana, Chicago 'burb Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:13 pm    Post subject: Thanks for the link, Larry. I'm a regular BusinessWeek reader, and I didn't see it. Well, there's a good way around this: look at what Renew E85 and Utica Energy are doing. Those ethanol co-ops need to own their own retailers. Down my way, there's an independent, Family Express, that is making E85 a cornerstone of their business. I with that they were a little closer to me, they sell E85 for $2.99 a gallon when gas is well over $4. Back to top Milehighxr Joined: 21 Jun 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Mead CO Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:55 pm    Post subject: Old news, Can't believe none of the other locals picked up on it: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/12/growing-biofuel/ Back to top hotrod Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 872 Location: Colorado Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:10 pm    Post subject: Good catch, we have had discussions about algae based biofuels on several occasions. In my opinion that will be one of the major players in biofuels in 10-15 years as we gradually shift away from corn, and soy based biofuels to cellulose and other 3rd 4th generation methods. Larry Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         E85Forum.com Forum Index -> open forum on E85 ethanol fuel All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6  Next Page 5 of 6   Jump to: Select a forum Discussions----------------THIS FORUM IS MOVING TO E85FORUM.NETopen forum on E85 ethanol fuelNuts and Bolts  You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group