DOE sends mixed signals
December 07, 2009
Last week was a big week for the ethanol industry. The federal government agencies charged with supporting and regulating the use of ethanol in the U.S., namely the U.S. DOE, the USDA and the U.S. EPA, made separate announcements which appear to be continuing their on-again, off-again relationship with ethanol, leaving producers to wonder what level of support they should anticipate in 2010.
Shipping Biomass on Fossil Fuel-Free-Ships
By Rona Johnson
December 04, 2009
In reading all the stories about the massive biomass-powered plant projects in the U.K., I often wondered how they were going to keep their carbon footprint to a minimum while receiving huge shipments of wood chips from across the ocean.
Giving Thanks for Unusually Warm Weather
By Rona Johnson
November 27, 2009
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you didn't have to come back to work on Friday like I did.
My four-year-old son got to ride in a combine to harvest corn…two days before Thanksgiving. He was thrilled and spent the remainder of the day telling everyone that he is going to be a farmer when he grows up so that he can harvest corn on Thanksgiving. Cute, but let's all hope this childhood fantasy never comes true. I'm sure that the farmers who have had to deal with the horrible planting and harvest conditions in 2009, particularly those located in southeastern North Dakota, hope this never becomes the norm.
Working for the greater good
November 23, 2009
Denmark celebrated an ethanol milestone last week when Inbicon and its parent company, Dong Energy, celebrated the grand opening of its demonstration-scale, wheat straw-to-ethanol production facility in Kalundborg. The 1.4 MMgy facility will process 30,000 metric tons of straw annually, 110 tons per day, and will produce 11,100 tons of C5 molasses for animal feed and 10,500 tons of lignin fuel pellets as byproducts of the ethanol process.
The End of an Era
By Rona Johnson
November 20, 2009
J.C. Penney has announced that it will no longer produce its twice yearly catalog the "Big Book" to save money, and because more people are ordering online. That's probably true, but it's a blow to some of us who grew up going poring through the J.C. Penney catalogs.
Big Oil takes a hit
November 16, 2009
Last week, the International Energy Agency released World Energy Outlook 2009, but not before The Guardian, the United Kingdom's renowned newspaper, published comments it had received from an agency "whistleblower" who stated that the IEA has inflated its reports of oil reserves for fear that the truth would shock world markets into a reactionary panic. According to the Guardian's high-level IEA source, the agency's prediction that global oil production can be raised from its current level of 83 million barrels per day to 105 million barrels per day is unrealistic. The source said many IEA officials believe even 90 million barrels per day is unreachable, but the agency will not lower its forecast because it fears panic could spread through financial markets and that U.S.' power over access to oil resources would be threatened.
Small Versus Large
By Rona Johnson
November 13, 2009
I read a news item the other day about a company called Invicta Capital that is proposing to build in nine biomass power plants in Scotland that will produce 10 megawatts (MW) of electricity each. The story brought up the whole issue of what's more efficient several small plants or one big plant.
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