E85Forum.com

specialgreen · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:53 pm Post subject: Ethanol in the news

Here's a sticky post for people to call attention to news stories, blogs, etc., regarding E-85... or regarding ethanol fuel, on slow news days with no E-85 news. Or maybe even a general biofuel story link now and then Wink

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I'll try to link to notable news stories from this website's "front page" portal, http://e85forum.com , which is what some visitors see first.

specialgreen

Full article at
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30715F735540C748CDDA80894DE404482
(subscribers only), or Google on "Danny Hakim ethanol". The article gives a terse overview of Pataki's plans to bring E-85 to New York State:

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

Thanks SG. Smile

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-10-algae-powerplants_x.htm

I'd like to see someone design an Ethanol/Biodiesel plant with this little feature built in to the smoke stacks.

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/01/16/story3.html?from_rss=1

I see a growing trend to use cellulose ethanol plants where corn is not readily grown. They are opening a cellulose based ethanol plant in California and New York is trying to attract their own ethanol plant (probably cellulose based) as well. There was a news article that Texas wanted to use the cellulose conversion method to convert their piles of manure into ethanol (but I can't find it now).

specialgreen · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:39 pm Post subject:

I've also seen a report regarding a New York effort to produce ethanol as a byproduct of waste water treatment. Now that's thinking!

mtbottle · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 46 Location: West Virgnia

So much for the Pimetel study! I get tired of hearing about that joker. That study is years old and the ethanol industry has made many improvements over the years. It is amazing that all of the good news coming out of major research centers concerning ethanol is being pooh-pooded by the Pimetel study. Actually what we are talking about is the Big Oil Study.

If Brazil can do it, so can we. No one said that corn was the only answer, it is just a start.
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Duane Combs

mtbottle · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 46 Location: West Virgnia

So much for the recent study!
Who is David Pimentel?
Pimentel’s educational background is in the study of insects. A professor of insect ecology at Cornell University since 1955, Pimentel has published four studies dating back to 1991 that claim ethanol is a net energy loser. Each of his studies has been thoroughly discredited by government and university researchers. Pimentel also produced a study in 2000 that claimed milkweed leaves dusted with heavy concentrations of Bt corn pollen are toxic to Monarch butterfly larvae, a notion that was disproved and soundly rejected by the scientific community.

Additionally, according to MSNBC, Pimentel publicly encouraged the Sierra Club to call for restrictions on U.S. immigration, saying the nation’s growing population and its consumption of natural resources are the greatest threat to the environment. Sierra Club leaders warned that anti-immigration forces (spearheaded by Pimentel) were trying to take over the organization and its $100 million annual budget, according to MSNBC. Pimentel also sits on the board of directors for the “Carrying Capacity Network,” an anti-immigration activist group. The April 22, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle quoted Pimentel as saying, “I have said I support reducing the U.S. population…”
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Duane Combs

mtbottle · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 46 Location: West Virgnia

Hmmm, sounds like big oil to me.

Who is Tad Patzek?
Patzek, who is an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, was employed by Shell Oil Western E&P, Inc., and Shell Oil Development from 1983 to 1990. He has served as a consultant and expert witness for both Shell Oil Company and Chevron Oil Company. He established the UC Oil Consortium in 1994. Chevron and Phillips Petroleum are current members of the consortium, while BP, Mobil USA, Statoil, Shell Development, Shell Western E&P and Unocal have been participants in the group. Consortium members pay an annual membership fee of $60,000 per year. Patzek is also a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Some of Patzek’s ethanol research is based on information gained from his U.C. Berkeley freshman seminar class in the spring of 2003. In his own words, Patzek is “definitely not an agricultural expert,” leading critics of his work to question the accuracy of his crop input data. Patzek has also publicly admitted that “Pimentel (2003) seems to overestimate…the energy cost of irrigation” in his energy balance studies. He also assumes ethanol plants convert one bushel of corn into 2.3 gallons of ethanol, when the industry average today is much closer to 3 gallons per bushel.
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Duane Combs

mtbottle · Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 46 Location: West Virgnia

Has anyone heard the latest on the two ethanol plants planned for New York? Both are huge plants and I believe that one is to be a converted Miller High Lite Brewing Co.
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Duane Combs

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060126/20060126005499.html?.v=1

Article shows off new technique to convert animal wastes into biodiesel. Basically the water used to clean meats and chicken durring processing for consumer use contains lots of animal fats. This technique removes the animal fats from the water and then the recovered fats can be converted into biodiesel.

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I think that this is an interesting process that can find a market in the US which has a huge meat industry. Its enviromentally friendly and has the potential to make money. But on the flip side. What about those groups that are opposed to animal exploitation? So far everything about biodiesel and ethanol has been about being green and converting over plant matter. Will these groups jump on the anti-biodiesel from animal products bandwagon?

Stay tuned. Wink

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ethanol27jan27,1,4442662.story?coll=la-headlines-business

LaTimes' take on the Berkeley study just released on the energy gain by producing ethanol over petrol.

Pretty much everything that is being preached in the forums.

I like the comment at the end of the article. "Patzek and Pimentel were not available for comment Thursday"

Laughing

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Check out the study:
http://rael.berkeley.edu/EBAMM/

Original news release:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/01/26_ethanol.shtml

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

Here is an interesting article that goes over all the pro's and con's of running E85 from production to vehicles. A must read so that you know some of the arguments and answers for your next ethanol argument with your neighbors.

An interesting quote to note:

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

So who wants to pick appart this recent anti-ethanol article from Bloomberg?

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=aSVm3V6ipm8I

Feel free to send emails to the author. Smile

pwr · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 4 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Here's mine.

Mr Hassett:

I think you'd be well served to examine Messrs Pimental and Patzek a bit more critically before you lend too much credence to their theories. This is some pretty old data, and highly suspect at that. Some of their cost components are patently absurd. Not only do they fail to account for the value of the additional byproducts of ethanol production--in fact, ethanol can itself be considered a byproduct of corn processing--but they've also got some pretty prominent axes to grind. It doesn't require much digging to find them.

Ethanol production is a moving target in terms of costs, which seem to be trending downward in spite of climbing fossil fuel costs. Subsidies can't account for all of that. And it's about time some of the traditionally externalized costs of petroleum production and processing are taken into account in a similar model. Should we examine the costs of internalizing our Middle East policy? Those are getting pretty difficult to ignore.

Phil Ross
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Revision · Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Carol Stream, IL

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185023,00.html

EPA has eliminated a mandate from the 1990 Clean Air Act that gasoline used in metropolitan areas with the worst smog contain 2 percent oxygen by weight.

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This means that no more MTBE or Ethanol is required on the Federal level.
States with local level oxygenate mandates are California, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

My concern was that the nationwide mandate would raise the cost of ethanol as gasoline refiners bought it in quantity since MTBE has been classified hazardous.

See: USA Today article: Cost of E85 higher than Gasoline

I'm predicting this will affect E85 prices by making them lower, because most refineries will stop buying ethanol to mix with gasoline in places where it is not mandated.

edit: looks like this will take affect in May.