tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142357252009-12-01T09:12:54.453-08:00The second of four interlinked BIOenergy Blogs, this one covers international issues, process R&D, facility deployments, and new developments. The other three related blogs are the <a href=http://biostock.blogspot.com><b>BIOstock Blog</b></a>, <a href=http://bioconversion.blogspot.com><b>BIOoutput Blog</b></a>, and the <a href=http://biowaste.blogspot.com><b>BIOwaste Blog</b></a>.C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.comBlogger365125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-22849799577193989742009-05-28T18:07:00.000-07:002009-06-06T08:50:49.698-07:00

Photograph by Peter Essick for National Geographic magazine.Once considered too expensive, as well as too damaging to the land, exploitation of Alberta's oil sands is now a gamble worth billions.So intones an article in this month's issue of National Geographic magazine titled "The Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom." Its opening shot shows how arbitrary standards that attribute direct and

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-56176963554187520822009-04-25T07:58:00.000-07:002009-06-14T07:13:16.106-07:00

California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) is a good initiative but it is flawed in its current form. Consider:Ethanol is an alcohol with a fairly simple, universal formula regardless of how it is made. The great thing about all ethanol is that it is miscible in gasoline, oxygenates gasoline so that it burns more cleanly, and it is a renewable fuel whose carbon comes from the atmosphere, not

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-57509617962052236352009-04-14T07:44:00.000-07:002009-04-14T09:22:49.670-07:00

The Biomass Coordinating Council of the American Council of Renewable Energy is an ever-present resource and meeting place for biomass professionals - or anyone who wishes to be engaged in the issues at the heart of emerging biomass renewable energy industries. At the helm of the council is the renowned Bill Holmberg. Below is his recent appeal for members that explains the scope and objectives

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-75734042232259388722009-03-22T19:44:00.000-07:002009-03-22T20:18:15.395-07:00

The impact of biofuel development should be significant to the economy of any nation that successfully deploys it. By becoming more energy self-sufficient, the balance of trade of otherwise energy-dependent nations should improve dramatically - as it has in Brazil.However, the impact on the economy of the region producing the biofuels is even more impressive. Iowa was one of the most energy

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-50370969033536363012009-03-16T18:04:00.000-07:002009-03-17T02:41:46.322-07:00

It is a sad day when even the Wall Street Journal takes a page from the petroleum industry playbook and chop blocks the only national defense that makes a dent in their monopoly on supplying fuel to Americans (accounting for less than 5% of transportation fuels sold here). Offensive foul - intentional roughing.The cheapest shot is the indiscriminant use of the term "ethanol." Ethanol, while

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-77907326337459757242009-02-16T10:28:00.000-08:002009-02-20T11:55:28.340-08:00

In January 2008, Josh Tickell screened his new documentary “Fields of Fuel” at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews (see trailer here). It won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. After a full year of more development, it has recently been released to a few theaters in the L.A. I was invited to attend a pre-premiere green carpet party at one of only two gas stations in Los Angeles that

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-51653545587225173012009-02-12T15:27:00.000-08:002009-02-20T11:47:56.248-08:00

"Fuel" is a film for our time - and also winner of the 2008 Sundance Audience Award for Best Documentary (see trailer here). It may help America wake up to the inexorable consequences of its fossil fuel addiction the way that "An Inconvenient Truth" did to global warming."Fuel" is the end product of an eleven year odyssey by Director Josh Tickell in his sunflower festooned, diesel Winnebago

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-91050225770980641832009-01-28T16:32:00.000-08:002009-02-08T14:03:18.024-08:00

This article is a response to a call for comments on Version Zero of the draft Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Biofuels written by the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels after extensive, multi-stakeholder, international collaboration. A running public dialog on these standards is available online at the Bioenergy Wiki.We need change to a renewable fuels paradigm and we need it to be

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-67895000425703821052009-01-06T11:11:00.000-08:002009-01-06T12:36:22.758-08:00

"Who ARE those guys?"The bad news is that the economic crisis threatens to suspend deployment of renewable energy facilities. Coupled with the meteoric drop in fossil fuel prices - one of the key drivers for developing alternative fuels - and it would not be surprising to see a new administration lose focus on renewable energy.The good news is that the incoming Obama administration's choices for

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-91219376337637241282008-12-16T08:02:00.000-08:002008-12-16T11:46:39.711-08:00

On December 5th, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) hosted its annual Phase II meeting in Washington D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives Cannon Caucus Room. Its theme this year was "The Next Presidency and Congress." Distinguished speakers addressed the state of renewable energy policy today, presented a range of policy options, and made recommendations for the new

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-53207826851917871422008-10-26T19:43:00.000-07:002008-10-26T20:04:53.920-07:00

An article giving an overview of Canada's bioenergy potential has been published on the Renewable Energy World.com website. The author, Douglas Bradley, is president of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO) a national, industry-driven, non-profit organization supporting promotion and use of bioenergy.If possessing sustainable quantities of biomass alone is the measure of bioenergy potential

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-4291620824873753092008-09-23T09:55:00.000-07:002008-09-23T11:13:01.768-07:00

Thomas Friedman has a terrific platform from which to interview energy experts globally, write opinion pieces that are distributed through the New York Times, and participate in the production of cable television documentaries. Occasionally he pumps out a book that coalesces all of his research and synthesizes his prescriptions for solving the energy, environment, and global warming challenges

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-12707342223926306702008-08-12T16:49:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:26.677-08:00

One prominent feature of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) is its renewable fuel standard that sets the trajectory for satisfying America's newfound thirst for alternative fuels. 36 billion gallons per year production by the year 2022. Considering that the U.S.' current annual production of biofuels is about 8 billion gallons that is a considerable amount of growth being

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-41360526770835165802008-07-30T17:38:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:26.747-08:00

I am frequently asked why we should pursue the production of biofuels and biopower when we could substitute other seemingly simpler and "cleaner" alternatives - like wind and solar - that don't require such complicated biomass logistics. A recent article I found on the European-based Biopact Blog supplies a partial answer. Americans should heed the experience of the Europeans because they have

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-54140779779276351742008-07-24T14:00:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:26.995-08:00

BlueFire Ethanol Fuels Inc. received a conditional use permit from the County of Los Angeles, Department of Regional Planning, for the operation of a new biorefinery it will build on a 10 acre lot near a Lancaster, CA landfill. For anyone aware of the slow rate of permitting new facilities for waste conversion in the region, that is a major achievement.This is NOT the commercial-scale project for

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-18141807283349155722008-07-22T20:37:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:27.452-08:00

INEOS Group Holdings PLC, one of the three largest chemical conglomerates in the world, has announced the July 1, 2008 formation of a new company, INEOS Bio, whose initial focus will be the commercialization of what they call "the World’s leading second generation bioethanol technology process" to serve the global renewable transport fuels market. The technology has been in development by

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-82157899544134598282008-07-17T15:45:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:27.667-08:00

Last night it was my privilege to attend a tribute to a decorated Marine who is an officer, a gentleman, and a war hero. He is also a towering luminary of the Biomass Conversion industry - who just happens to have reached the tender age of eighty. Bill Holmberg is the Chairman of the Biomass Coordinating Council (BCC) of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). ACORE, co-host with the

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-28908265600223204502008-07-06T09:30:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:28.212-08:00

At last year's Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioenergy I met Dr. Larry Walker for the first time. I had heard of him because one of his responsibilities is managing the prestigious Sun Grant Initiative budget for the Northeast Region at Cornell University. It wasn't until I had seen him at a couple of other events that I realized that he was also Co-editor in chief of the

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-37468016828300346342008-07-05T12:10:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:28.544-08:00

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has just released its Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan in accord with its responsibilities for implementing AB32 - the Global Warming Solutions Act. Its objective is to lay the foundation for an enforceable approach to reduce California's anticipated greenhouse gas emissions for the year 2020 by 30% (estimated to be equivalent to California's GHG levels

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-17776678011737553692008-07-04T06:51:00.000-07:002008-07-04T09:39:35.688-07:00

This is one of a series of comments submitted to the California Air Resources Board for their draft version of the California Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan. Other BIOenergy BlogRing comments are linked here: • Challenge the Status Quo • Recycling and Waste • Sustainable Forests----------------Achieving the goals of this Climate Change Scoping Plan (an ambitious 30% reduction of

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-76409633600926021712008-06-30T07:34:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:29.008-08:00

Solena Group - an innovative international company whose mission is "committed to combating climate change by promoting renewable bio-energy to replace fossil fuel" - has projects deployed or under development for using plasma arc technology to cleanly gasify feedstock into syngas. Teamed with Rentech Technologies, they can convert the syngas into bio jet fuel. Otherwise they can use the syngas

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-28982678745279592712008-06-02T08:31:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:29.181-08:00

A number of announcements have been made in the within the last month involving two of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) EPAct 932 grant winners.First, on May 8th, Iogen announced that it was not going to build its first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Idaho after all - foregoing the US$80 million grant offered by the U.S. Department of Energy. Their press release is titled

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-20249527977157872392008-05-31T18:21:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:29.421-08:00

Sustainability: The New Frontier of Renewable EnergyTo shift the energy paradigm from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy will require changes that will impact every tier of society and every acre of the environment. It is clear that skeptics from a broad array of stakeholders will earnestly try to evaluate each new development for its environmental sustainability with Life Cycle

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-32787169681605899502008-04-25T07:41:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:29.807-08:00

Coskata announced today that they are building a demonstration-sized (40,000 gallon per year) cellulosic ethanol plant. This is significant because it could represent the first scale-up of a syngas-fermentation (SF) pilot technology in the world.The other possible scale-up of this advanced technology is the BRI process that is a party to the ALICO project - a DOE EPAact grant winner of last year

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14235725.post-8091067100240023062008-04-02T17:59:00.000-07:002008-12-11T10:39:30.185-08:00

The April 7th issue of Time Magazine features a cover story that attacks the biofuels industry in general and corn ethanol in particular. I have written about irresponsible media attacks before (i.e., Rolling Stone Magazine's The Ethanol Scam) and when the Science magazine "Land Use Change" research article started being trumpeted in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal I even organized two

C. Scott Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04752517798894140353miller@performancegraphics.com3