Camelina: A Biodiesel Feedstock

MONTANA, Aug 29 2008 (Neo Natura) - The National Biodiesel Board has a feedstock development program in place to help diversify feedstocks available to make biodiesel through geographic diversity, using non-edible product and increasing oil yield in current feedstocks. One up-and-coming feedstock of interest, camelina, is a newcomer to the United States, but has worked well in Europe.

Camelina may look and act like a weed, but those characteristics help make it a viable oil crop for biodiesel. It can be grown in arid conditions and does not require significant amounts of fertilizer. The best part is the oil content. Some varieties are 38 percent to 40 percent oil. The leftover meal could be used in animal feed or human consumption, but neither usage has yet been approved in the United States. However, a camelina production guide published by Montana State University suggests that camelina meal has the potential to enhance the food quality of fish, meat, poultry and dairy products.

Camelina is a member of the mustard family and is also known as false flax, gold of pleasure and leindotter in Germany. According to Montana State University, camelina is a short season (85 to 100 days) annual or winter annual crop. It performs well under drought stress and can yield up to 2,200 pounds per acre in areas with less than 16 inches of annual rainfall. It can be planted on marginally productive cropland from eastern Washington to North Dakota. Camelina production increased nearly 200 percent in Montana to 20,400 acres in 2007.

Fed Picks MT For School Wind Program

MONTANA, Aug 29 2008 (Neo Natura) - The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has selected Montana as one of six states to participate in the inaugural year of the Wind for Schools Program.

“This important program will not only provide wind energy for rural Montana schools, but will also educate tomorrow’s leaders on the value and importance of this renewable energy source," said Governor Brian Schweitzer. "In addition, wind energy is American energy, produced by American workers. It decreases our dependence on foreign energy supplies and provides jobs here at home."

The goal of Wind for Schools is to engage rural communities in a discussion of wind energy while encouraging a knowledge and skill base for the industry. The program will serve as a platform for teaching renewable energy principles and opportunities by providing schools with educational curriculum and access to state-of-the-art technology. Other states selected to participate in the program are Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

DOE also funded the recent creation of the Wind Applications Center (WAC) at MSU-Bozeman to support Wind for Schools activities and to develop related coursework for engineering students considering a wind industry career. The MSU-WAC is expected to become a regional center for wind energy training, expertise, and outreach.

“I’m proud that our state is one of only six to be chosen for this program," commented Governor Brian Schweitzer. "It just goes to show that Montana is leading the nation in all types of wind energy development from community projects like this to industrial generation facilities.”

To supplement limited federal funding, NorthWestern Energy recently awarded a substantial grant to enable program activities in Cascade, Fairfield, Livingston, and Stanford school districts. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has allotted funds from Montana-Dakota Utilities Co.’ Universal Systems Benefits Fund to help support the new Wind Applications Center at MSU-Bozeman.

Public support is now being actively sought to allow additional school districts to participate in the Wind for Schools program. Broadview, Joliet, and Glasgow have already been selected to become Host Schools, and other school districts will be able to join as funding allows. Besides financial contributions, in-kind support including electricians' labor, excavator time, concrete, and materials such as electrical wire and equipment are also needed. All donations are tax-deductible, and will earn recognition in regional media and on a permanent plaque to be placed at each Host School.

With consistent 25-30% annual growth over the last five years, wind energy may provide 20% of the country’s electricity by 2030. The DOE predicts Montana’s wind industry alone could grow from its current 166 MW to 10,000 MW of installed capacity in the next 25 years. Among its benefits, increasing use of wind energy is widely regarded as a way to create jobs and economic growth in rural communities.

Western Community Energy (WCE) of Bozeman has been contracted by the DOE to serve as State Facilitator for Wind for Schools Montana. "Montana is rich with virtually untapped wind and human resources," comments Sean Micken, WCE's Host School Coordinator. "The DOE selected our state to participate in Wind for Schools because it sees the need and opportunity for Montana to become one of the nation's wind energy leaders. Only by directly engaging rural communities and young people can we hope to meet this challenge."

DOE Investing $90m in Geothermal Research

MONTANA, Aug 28 2008 (Neo Natura) - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $90 million over four years to advance the research, development and demonstration of next-generation geothermal energy technology which will harness the earth's interior heat extracted from hot water or rocks. Currently, DOE has up to $10.5 million available for immediate award under this FOA, with the remainder subject to change and to Congressional appropriations. The FOA addresses the need for additional technical understanding of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to accelerate the technology to a state of commercial readiness.

"Geothermal energy is a clean, reliable, scalable, renewable energy source and these geothermal projects will help the U.S. tap domestic heat sources that were previously out of reach," Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner said. "Increasing the use of traditional hydrothermal and geothermal base load resources is an important component of the Administration's efforts to diversify our nation's energy sources in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security."

EGS are systems of engineered reservoirs created by drilling deep wells into hot rock, fracturing the rock, and circulating a fluid through the wells to extract heat. According to a recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entitled, The Future of Geothermal Energy, EGS represents a large, indigenous resource that, with a reasonable investment in research and development (R&D), could provide the U.S. with 100,000 megawatts of cost-competitive electricity, generating capacity by 2050, or 20 percent of current electricity generation.

While EGS reservoirs have been designed, built, and tested in various locations throughout the world, a number of technical hurdles remain before EGS production facilities will reach commercial production rates and life spans. Through this FOA, DOE will concentrate on issues related to EGS reservoir creation, operation, and management. In the long-term, the work aims to create, sustain, replicate and commercialize EGS technologies, while in the short-term these projects will develop and demonstrate technologies that are useful to both hydrothermal and EGS geothermal projects.

Recycling Carbon-Dioxide From Coal

MONTANA, Aug 27 2008 (Neo Natura) - With oil prices seemingly entrenched above long-term averages, Perth businessman Allan Blood has struck a deal with Montana's Crow tribe to look at building a $US7 billion ($8 billion) plant to turn their stranded coal reserves into diesel and jet fuel.

In a twist to local greenhouse gas capture schemes, Mr Blood plans to limit emissions from the project by selling carbon dioxide to Montana oil projects to inject into their fields and improve oil recovery.

If all goes to plan, the project will be profitable at oil prices above $US60 a barrel and could be producing 50,000 barrels daily by 2016.

Mr Blood also has plans to develop a coal-to-urea plant in Victoria's La Trobe Valley.

The deal inked last week, calls for the Crow Nation to provide coal and water, and Mr Blood's unlisted Australian American Energy Co will provide funding and project management.

The coal will be mined above ground and converted to diesel using processes similar to those of South African synthetic fuels company Sasol.

Sasol's process produces more than twice the greenhouse emissions of a normal oil refinery, but the Montana project, known as Many Stars, will minimise these by either storing CO2 or selling it to nearby oil producers.

"We're hoping to sell all the CO2 that gets trapped, as a by-product," he said. There were more than 8000km of dedicated CO2 pipeline in the US, he said.

Both the Crow Nation and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer gave the project a glowing appraisal.

"The Many Stars project will be a significant contributor to our nation's need for energy security and has the potential for providing superior military fuels to nearby bases," said Mr Schweitzer, who introduced Mr Blood to Crow Nation members after meeting him at a New York conference in 2007.

Crow chairman Carl Venne said the project would help his tribe become self-sufficient and would provide employment opportunities. Mr Blood sold a coal-to-liquids project in Victoria to miner Anglo American for an undisclosed sum earlier this decade.

The project, known as Monash Energy, is being jointly developed with Shell and could cost $6 billion. It is expected to be atleast 10 years before the operation will be in production.

New Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant

MONTANA, Aug 18 2008 (Neo Natura) - Last year AE Biofuels Inc. acquired enzyme technology from Renewable Technology Corporation and formed its ethanol technology subsidiary, Energy Enzymes. The company's enzyme technology is designed to reduce operating and capital costs for both cellulosic ethanol and starch ethanol plants and provides a platform to integrate the two processes. AE Biofuels utilizes patent-pending ambient temperature enzymes to eliminate the up-front "cooking" process that occurs in traditional starch ethanol production. Eliminating the initial cooking and cooling process significantly reduces energy and water consumption.

In addition, the cellulose enzyme technology has proven successful in converting multiple lignocellulosic feedstocks, such as switch grass, wheat grass, corn, and corn stover, the remaining corn "stalks" that are not currently being utilized as biomass, to ethanol. These low-cost, multi-activity enzymes are expected to reduce capital and operating expenditures for cellulose ethanol production. The company has three patents pending covering the enzymes and process for integrating cellulose and starch.

The company celebrated the grand opening of its integrated cellulosic ethanol commercial demonstration facility in Butte, Montana on August 11th. One of the first such cellulosic demonstration plants in the United States, and the first to integrate the use of both cellulose and starch based feedstocks, the 9,000 square foot demonstration facility is now operational. The $1.5 million facility is capable of producing 150,000 gallons of ethanol per year and will be used to perfect the company’s integrated cellulosic ethanol production process.

The plant uses proven, patent-pending Ambient Temperature Enzymes for converting cellulose and starch to fermentable sugars to optimize process conditions for multiple feedstocks. Non-food ethanol feedstocks used at the facility include switch grass, grass seed straw, small grain straw, sugarcane bagasse, and corn stalks either alone or in combination with a variety of traditional starch and sugar sources such as corn, wheat, barley, and sugarcane. By utilizing multiple feedstocks, AE Biofuels can produce ethanol through a cellulose only or cellulose / starch combination, thus reducing the risk of commodity availability and pricing uncertainty.

U.S. Senator Max Baucus of Montana attended the opening ceremony and noted, "One of my top priorities is to help boost domestic energy production here in Montana so we can lessen our dependence on foreign oil and energy sources. This cellulosic biofuels plant is a step in the right direction toward energy independence and will also help create good-paying jobs. I'm especially proud that Montana can help pave the way and be a leader in boosting domestic energy production."

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who also attended the opening ceremony said, "Montana is a true leader for new energy solutions. We're proud that AE Biofuels' groundbreaking technology was developed here in Montana. It is exciting to see this company working on a way to reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies - American energy produced by Montana workers."

"The Department of Energy is committed to developing clean, renewable, and sustainable biofuels that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase America's energy security. We must have a broad range of technologies, including cellulosic biofuels that use non-food based feedstocks, to address our energy challenges," said Paul Dickerson, Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy who attended the opening.

"If the agricultural community can sell their stock, corn stalk and other cellulose fiber materials and get some money that's an additional cash flow onto them," said Jim Smitham, Butte Local Development Corporation Executive.

The company said the technology was invented in Montana and Smitham adds the new plant is an example of the cutting-edge research that is being done in the Mining City.

"It brings new recognition of the types of technology that Butte's involved with. It puts us on the map in a whole different industry sector, a whole different area as far as research and development in agricultural areas and energy areas," Smitham said.

Solar Hydrogen Production

MONTANA, Aug 18 2008 (Neo Natura) - Normally I try to keep all posts in some relation to Montana, but the following article from the Monash University in Australia gives an interesting enough introduction to synthetic hydrolysis (also known as "Solar Thermochemical" hydrogen production). Currently the most economical method for creating hydrogen is eletrolysis and methane steam reforming.

An international team of researchers led by Monash University has used chemicals found in plants to replicate a key process in photosynthesis paving the way to a new approach that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The breakthrough could revolutionise the renewable energy industry by making hydrogen – touted as the clean, green fuel of the future – cheaper and easier to produce on a commercial scale.

Professor Leone Spiccia, Mr Robin Brimblecombe and Dr Annette Koo from Monash University teamed with Dr Gerhard Swiegers at the CSIRO and Professor Charles Dismukes at Princeton University to develop a system comprising a coating that can be impregnated with a form of manganese, a chemical essential to sustaining photosynthesis in plant life.

"We have copied nature, taking the elements and mechanisms found in plant life that have evolved over 3 billion years and recreated one of those processes in the laboratory," Professor Spiccia said.

"A manganese cluster is central to a plant's ability to use water, carbon dioxide and sunlight to make carbohydrates and oxygen. Man-made mimics of this cluster were developed by Professor Charles Dismukes some time ago, and we've taken it a step further, harnessing the ability of these molecules to convert water into its component elements, oxygen and hydrogen," Professor Spiccia said.

"The breakthrough came when we coated a proton conductor, called Nafion, onto an anode to form a polymer membrane just a few micrometres thick, which acts as a host for the manganese clusters."

"Normally insoluble in water, when we bound the catalyst within the pores of the Nafion membrane, it was stabilised against decomposition and, importantly, water could reach the catalyst where it was oxidised on exposure to light."

This process of "oxidizing" water generates protons and electrons, which can be converted into hydrogen gas instead of carbohydrates as in plants.

"Whilst man has been able to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for years, we have been able to do the same thing for the first time using just sunlight, an electrical potential of 1.2 volts and the very chemical that nature has selected for this purpose," Professor Spiccia said

Testing revealed the catalyst assembly was still active after three days of continuous use, producing oxygen and hydrogen gas in the presence of water, an electrical potential and visible light.

Professor Spiccia said the efficiency of the system needed to be improved, but this breakthrough had huge potential. "We need to continue to learn from nature so that we can better master this process."

"Hydrogen has long been considered the ideal clean green fuel, energy-rich and carbon-neutral. The production of hydrogen using nothing but water and sunlight offers the possibility of an abundant, renewable, green source of energy for the future for communities across the world."

Liquid Coal - An Oil Solution?

MONTANA, Aug 11 2008 (Neo Natura) - The liquefaction of oil, process transforming coal from a solid state into a liquid fuel, goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. However, low prices and abundance of crude oil and natural gas reserves marginalized its application. Only some countries, among which Germany during the Second World War and South Africa since the Sixties, have massively liquefied coal.

Theoretically, hydrogenating coal is the only requirement to get oil products. Two processes coming from Germany exist: addition of hydrogen can either be made directly on coal (direct liquefaction) or on the gases issued from gasification (indirect liquefaction). The products obtained thanks to the first method are of very great quality - in particular the diesel from which sulfur and aromatic compounds are eliminated - and energy efficiency is nearly equal to 50%, against more than 60% for the indirect but with a much lower quality.

Today, 96% of the energy consumed in transport comes from oil products. Its substitution by different alternative energies is justified by the reduction of the dependency with respect to oil.

Until 2003, with a price of the barrel of crude oil around $25, the CTL at $45 did not present any economical advantage. Today, coal is becoming the best option in order to guarantee the energy security of a country and to get away from high oil prices.

Being the two biggest oil consumers in the word, the United States and China are particularly vulnerable to the big rises of the crude and invest thus massively in this technology.

With oil prices at historic highs, Pike County, where coal trucks rumble at all hours and miners blast away at black seams, is moving ahead with a controversial project to turn its vast coal reserves into barrels of liquid fuel. Indeed, the county plans to develop a $4 billion coal-to-liquid plant that would produce 50,000 barrels of liquid coal a day. Pike County joins a growing number of communities across the United States considering such facilities (Alaska, Montana, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Whitley, McCracken). Such efforts could help wean the nation from its reliance on foreign oil for transportation. The technology would strengthen national security and be cheaper than petroleum.

Over the last 20 years, the price of coal remained stable ($35 to $50 / ton) contrary to the price of oil which passed from $10 to more than $120 by barrel. In a world where everything depends on economy and where energy is essential for it, this aspect is far to be negligible and still promises great days for coal. Worldwide liquid coal production should rise from less than 200.000 barrels a day today to reach 1.800.000 Barrels daily in 2030.

Solar Powering Rural Montana

MONTANA, Aug 07 2008 (Neo Natura) - Custer's sagebrush- covered plains is one of the places where modern electricity never caught on in Montana.

George Larsen's rance, a 20,000-acre property, turns to gravel and the power lines do not follow. Larsen's parents, turn-of-the-century-sodbusters, harnessed the wind and power from a secondhand, 32 -volt generator bought from a country school to electrify their place. The power generated from those two sources charged a system so eccentric that headlights served as indoor lighting in some buildings. And that's the way it was right up until recently, when George decided to go solar.

"It costs too much to bring the wire out," said Larsen, who is five months shy of his 90th birthday and lives at least 3 1/2 miles from the nearest power pole. "I'd have to pay for the power line."

That cost of stringing wire several miles to Larsen's place could have easily exceeded $50,000 a mile, which made the often-high cost of solar more attractive to the life-time rancher.

There's no shortage of sun near Custer, where shade is scarce and the sky's bright blue curtain drags uninterrupted along the horizon in every direction. On a day when the forecast is clear and 85 degrees, the sun makes good on its promise and then some.

Larsen wears the uniform of a cowboy working in the sun; long- sleeved shirt with mother of pearl snaps clasped at his wrists and a thin T-shirt underneath. His cowboy hat sports an ever-broadening watermark around its hatband. His sunglass lenses are coal black and wide enough to reach his cheekbones.

Solar experts rate southeast Montana's potential for generating energy to be very good. The number of clear-sky days works in the area's favor, while the amount of the time the sun spends at optimal positions in the sky hurts its rating some. Still, there's ample solar energy to be tapped, said Bruce Burrows, a solar contractor.

"If you can see a shadow on the ground you're good," said Burrows, standing beside a solar-fed stock tank.

Burrows got his start in solar by putting up panels at missile batteries for the U.S. Defense Department. He and partner James Roan have carved out a niche wiring off-the-grid ranches and wells with solar energy systems. The Billings men do business as Ra Solar Inc.

On a hot June day, the rusted windmill blades towering over Larsen's stock tanks were idle, but the solar panels mounted below pulled cool water into the tanks for Larsen's polled Herefords. There's a simple float attached to the tank edge that lowers like the ball in a toilet tank as the thirsty Hereford's drink. After the water level has fallen several inches, the float signals the water pump to fire up again.

The solar conversion - newly drilled well included - costs between $6,000 and $8,000, Roan said. The setup pays for itself in a couple of years, because the stock tanks wired to solar are relatively low maintenance.

Larsen no longer has to send a hired man out to the tank to check on the water supply or refuel the gas generator that used to pump the water whenever the wind died down. He also likes the idea of not having the hot generator running in a dry pasture, potentially causing a fire.

The ranch house solar system will take much longer to pay for itself because of its size and complexity. Twenty-four solar panels mounted to a south-facing frame tilted at 45 degrees gather enough energy not only to do the wash and power the TV but also to electrify a half dozen outbuildings. To keep the juice flowing night and day, Burrows installed a storage bank of 28 batteries, weighing 130 pounds each, in a small outbuilding. The knee-high batteries are made in Billings by Interstate Battery Systems.

"In George's case, he can run off the batteries for about three days," Burrows said.

Batteries have been a key piece of the rural electricity puzzle for a century, Burrows said. Short on power, homesteaders like Larsen's parents used to bring the batteries from their cars inside to power the family radio. That also meant they were using direct current, common in automobiles, rather than alternating current, which is standard in homes.

Unable to convert the current from DC power to AC power, the homesteaders used headlights instead of incandescent bulbs. The power coming from the solar panels has to be converted to AC power as well, which isn't a problem for systems. The conversion is done in the small out-building where the batteries sit.

The upfront cost for a residential system as big as Larsen's can cost $25,000 to $50,000. The sticker shock is enough to give most homeowners pause, but in Larsen's case, the cost of stringing power lines for several miles made going solar seem reasonable.

But for homeowners with utility power at the pole, the cash value of solar can be murky. Using a solar estimator to weigh the average Yellowstone County resident's energy costs against the price of going solar, the break-even point could be 14 to 26 years. That's if the home is a NorthWestern Energy customer with an average monthly energy bill of $73.

There are several solar estimators online to assist home-owners in figuring out whether solar power is right for them. Almost all estimators require the person doing the calculating to name the power provider and give a monthly estimate of power consumption or an average monthly electric bill. The average monthly power consumption for a NorthWestern Energy customer is 750 kilowatt hours a month.

The cost of replacing that NorthWestern Energy service with a solar system turned out to be about $53,000 after rebates and tax incentives.