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Is there something fishy about algae? Is it the revolutionary new fuel source opportunity the Obama administration represents it to be? Last February, in a University of Miami campaign speech intended to pacify prospective pump price-panicked patrons, the president said: "We're making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that's actually made from a plant-like substance, algae...You've got a lot of algae out there, right? If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we'll be doing all right. Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17% of the oil...

NASA is clearly looking far into the future for a way to handle both human waste and a need for fuel on either long space flights or when attempting to colonize another planet. To that end, they’ve assigned life support engineer Jonathan Trent the task of coming up with a way to use algae to solve both problems at once. His solution is to use plastic bags floating in seawater as small bioreactors, containing wastewater, sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow algae that can be used as a means to create biofuel. The whole thing is called Offshore Membrane Enclosures...

Copper -- the stuff of pennies and tea kettles -- is also one of the few metals that can turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels with relatively little energy. When fashioned into an electrode and stimulated with voltage, copper acts as a strong catalyst, setting off an electrochemical reaction with carbon dioxide that reduces the greenhouse gas to methane or methanol. Various researchers around the world have studied copper’s potential as an energy-efficient means of recycling carbon dioxide emissions in powerplants: Instead of being released into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide would be circulated through a copper catalyst and turned into...

As the U.S. transitions out of a petroleum economy, oil-rich Texas is emerging as something of a surprise leader in biofuel research. If the country’s quintessential oil state sees promise in biofuels, that stands as a powerful indicator that the national market is ready, too, even in the case of algae biofuel, which has been greeted with derision in some circles. One main driver of Texas’s vanguard position in the biofuel field has been Texas A&M University, the premier public education and research institution. The school’s AgriLife department has firmly established itself in the forefront of algae biofuel development despite...

Greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels such as palm oil, soybean and rapeseed are higher than those for fossil fuels when the effects of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) are counted, according to leaked EU data seen by EurActiv. The default values assigned to the biofuels compare to those from Canada’s oil sands—also known as tar sands—according to the figures, which should be released along with long-awaited legislative proposals on biofuels in the spring. A spokesperson for the European Commission said she could “not comment on leaked documents, such as impact assessments, which have not been published.” But industry and civil...

It may be slimy, slippery and rather unpleasant, but seaweed actually has a surprisingly wide range of uses, being a common source of food, chemicals, medicines and cosmetics. It may soon also be a source of biofuel, thanks to an engineered microbe able to transform seaweed directly into ethanol. Seaweed has a number of important advantages over other biofuel feedstocks. Unlike maize and sugarcane, it isn't grown on fields that otherwise would be producing food and unlike wood and energy crops, such as switchgrass, it doesn't contain any lignin, which makes the sugar molecules in it much easier to release.  As a...

Gosh, it’s tough to figure out why that recovery is stalled. The Orwellian nightmare of running a business in the shadow of the Obama Administration is nicely captured in this story from the New York Times, which explains why motor fuel companies are about to be fined $6.8 million for failure to use a biofuel that does not exist: In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and...

A major part of the United States' misguided policy on ethanol usage came to an end as the $6 billion-a-year ethanol subsidy dies America's corn farmers have been benefiting from annual federal subsidies of around $6 billion in recent years, all in the name of ethanol used as an additive for the nation's vehicles. That ends on Jan. 1, when the companies making ethanol will lose a tax credit of 46 cents per gallon, and even the ethanol industry is OK with it -- thanks in part to high oil prices that make ethanol competitive. Subsidized since 1979 as a...

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist. In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required...

USDA-backed biofuels plant in Soperton, Georgia has lost taxpayers nearly $60 millionWASHINGTON D.C.—Upon reports Tuesday that a USDA-backed biofuels plant in Soperton, Georgia has lost taxpayers nearly $60 million, IER President Tom Pyleissued the following statement:“Apparently U.S. taxpayers have yet to discover life after Solyndra. Today’s announcement that a USDA-backed biofuels plant has been sold for pennies on the dollar—at a loss of nearly $60 million to U.S. taxpayers —further underscores the point that the federal government should not be in the venture capital business.The Bush administration secured the Range Fuels loan, and the Obama administration doubled down on the...

Navy jet takes off from U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. (U.S. Navy photo) (CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration’s deal to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel for Navy jets comes at a cost of up to nine times higher than regular fuel, a spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, coming at a time when the U.S. military is already facing deep budget cuts. Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has supported biofuel projects in the past, but has problems with a program the U.S. Department of Agriculture...

When we hear the words “jet fuel,” we tend to think in terms of exotic, volatile mixtures, something akin to that which sends top fuel dragsters roaring down a quarter-mile track. In reality, jet propulsion fuel is pretty ordinary stuff. Depending on the type, it can be nothing more than the same kerosene we used to put in lanterns. So when I heard that the Navy was now paying as much as $16 a gallon for some of its jet fuel, every alarm on my internal radar sounded off in a deafening squeal. My first call naturally went to my...

<p>Now we find the Navy partnering with the Agriculture Department to purchase hundreds of thousands of gallons of alternative biofuel in place of standard JP-5 fuel for Navy aircraft � the biggest federal purchase of biofuel ever.</p> <p>A look at the lucky seller of this environmentalist version of the proverbial $600 Pentagon toilet seat indicates that the move is not just wasteful, but ethically suspect.</p>

The $15 a gallon price is 4 times the world market price of conventional jet fuel. The U.S. has plenty of oil and natural gas if the Obama administration would only permit expanded exploration and development. The announcement is part of President Obama’s goal of advancing a domestic biofuels industry capable of powering vehicles that now use diesel and jet fuel. It’s also part of the administration’s ongoing effort to try to advance parts of its energy agenda that don’t require congressional approval. Another case in point was Obama’s announcement on Friday of new energy-efficient building initiatives. “We can’t wait...

Teaming up with the Department of Agriculture (which has a cheery Rotary Club ring to it), the Navy has purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuel for about $16 a gallon, or about 4 times the price of its standard marine fuel, JP-5, which has been going for under $4 a gallon. You won’t be surprised to learn that a member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a “strategic advisor” at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked – shock, shock – on the energy-sector portion of the 2009...

Another Failed Energy LoanTaxpayers are being stuck with the losses. The biofuels bust continues. The latest failure: Range Fuels.Last week, the company defaulted on a government-guaranteed $80 million loan that it had used to build an ethanol plant in Georgia. AgSouth Farm Credit, the servicer of the loan, will begin a foreclosure sale on the plant in January. The foreclosure provides yet another indictment of the Obama administration’s energy policies.Twenty-one months ago, the Department of Agriculture trumpeted its $80 million loan guarantee to Range — which claimed it could produce millions of gallons of ethanol from wood chips — by...

There is a growing movement to end all federal subsidies for energy as the country’s national debt nears $15 trillion. One report released by a coalition of free-market analysts estimated there was $380 billion in government subsidies for energy in 2011. The Green Scissors 2011 report estimated that $53 billion was lost in oil and gas revenues from royalty-free leases in federal waters and another $6 billion a year in ethanol tax credits. Americans for Prosperity came to Michigan this Saturday as part of its Energy for America Tour. The tour continues Monday with stops in Portage at noon and...

On Thursday the U.S. Navy completed the first leg of its largest alternative fuel test onboard a destroyer along the California coast. Twenty-thousand gallons of algae-based fuel was pumped into the retired destroyer, PAUL H. FOSTER, for the 20 hour trip that began Wednesday. The successful overnight trip is a big step in paving the way for a plan to unveil a small carrier strike group of destroyers, cruisers, aircraft, submarines and a carrier to run on alternative fuels and nuclear power next year. The Navy has been investing millions into alternative energies, in an effort to cut its dependence...

Mexican Trucks Are On Our Roads by Phyllis Schlafly November 9, 2011 Phyllis Schlafly After years of negative votes in Congress and the opposition of the American people, on October 21 Barack Obama allowed the first Mexican truck to cross the border at Laredo, Texas and head north to deliver door-to-door service of its load of industrial equipment. This implemented an agreement quietly signed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in Mexico City on July 6 with Mexico's secretary of Communications and Transportation. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) calls this deal a major anti-jobs program, saying: "We're literally taking good jobs here...

A recent study, released on 11 October, “Biofuel Markets and Technologies” released by Pike Research states that the global biofuel market will double within the next decade to $183.3 billion from its current level of $82.7 billion, with ethanol production accounting for $78 billion of future worldwide biofuel production, while predicting that biodiesel production will reach $25.5 billion. Perhaps not surprisingly, Pike Research predicts that the US will become the world’s leading biofuel producer, accounting for 71 percent of alternative fuel by 2021. Colorado-based Pike Research on its website defines itself as “a market research and consulting firm that provides...

Scientists on Sunday said they had gained insights into a remarkable bacterium that lives without oxygen and transforms ammonium, the ingredient of urine, into hydrazine, a rocket fuel. So-called anammox -- for anaerobic ammonium oxidation -- germs caused a sensation when they were first identified in the 1990s, but uncovering their secrets is taking time. In a letter published by the British science journal Nature, researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands reported they had identified the molecular mechanism by which the bugs do their fuel-trick. "Proving this was quite a feat," said Mike Jetten, professor of microbiology at...

China’s omnivorous global appetite for energy resources is well known. While biofuel production is one of the rising energy stars of the 21st century, it is unlikely to become a significant source for China in the near future, as the country’s arable land is devoted first and foremost to feeding the country’s massive population 1.3 billion citizens, unless a feedstock can be found that grows well on marginal land. But the issue of food may yet prove to contribute to the country’s energy output by recycling a traditional component of Chinese cuisine – used cooking oil. According to a recent...

Imagine a cheaper gasoline that can be produced domestically and is environmentally friendly. A pipe dream?Maybe not if a Pasadena-based company’s business plan pans out.KiOR, (pronounced KEY-ORE) has spent the last three years perfecting a technology that enables the company to convert low cost biomass like wood chips or algae into hydrocarbon-based renewable crude oil that is then refined into gasoline or diesel.“Kior was built on the vision that we can reduce our dependence on petroleum by harnessing alternative sources of fuel without having to rebuild the nation’s fuel infrastructure,” Fred Cannon, KiOR’s President and CEO says in a statement...

Blending of fossil diesel with biodiesel is an important climate change mitigation strategy across the world. In 2003 the Planning Commission of India decided to introduce mandatory blending over increasingly larger parts of the country and reach countrywide 30% blending status by the year 2020 and opted for nonedible oilseed species of Jatropha curcus raised over lands unsuited to agriculture as it was considered to be high in oil content, early yielding, nonbrowsable and requiring little irrigation and even less management. In a massive planting program of unprecedented scale millions of marginal farmers and landless people were encouraged to plant...

Genetically modified blue and green algae could be the answer to the world's fuel problems. Bioengineers have already developed algae that produce ethanol, oil and even diesel -- and the only things the organisms need are sunlight, CO2 and seawater. Biochemist Dan Robertson's living gas stations have the dark-green shimmer of oak leaves and are as tiny as E. coli bacteria. Their genetic material has been fine-tuned by human hands. When light passes through their outer layer, they excrete droplets of fuel. "We had to fool the organism into doing what I wanted it to do," says Robertson, the head...

Agave a better biofuel than sugar cane Agave produces a highly-efficient intoxicant, as anyone who’s woken up “Wasting Away in Margaritaville” can attest. According to a joint Sydney University / Oxford University study, the plant could also be a highly-efficient feedstock for biofuels... [Agave is] an arid plant, which means it’s suitable for regions where food crops are at best marginal... By moving ethanol feedstock away from high-quality farmland, agave-driven ethanol production would therefore solve one of the conundrums of biofuels: the accusation that corn- or sugar-based ethanol production displaces food production... Study of a trial plantation near the regional...

In an effort to combat soaring fuel prices and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the aviation industry is racing toward the use of biofuels. In 2008, Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial airline to fly a plane on a blend of biofuel and petroleum. Since then, Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways and Continental Airlines, among others, have flown biofuel test flights, and Lufthansa is racing to be the first carrier to run daily flights on a biofuel blend. However, researchers at MIT say the industry may want to make sure it has examined biofuels' complete carbon footprint before making an all-out...

Unless you haven’t eaten in the past several months, or you already grow all of your own produce, you’ve probably noticed that food prices have been rising dramatically. According to the USDA, the average cost to the U.S. consumer of Lettuce is up 4.5%, and fresh Tomatoes are up 4.7% from the same time last year. The recently released U.S. Labor Department consumer price index survey reports that the price of grains such as corn, wheat and soybeans has roughly doubled since last summer...

Each year, an ever larger portion of the world’s [food] crops ... is being diverted for biofuels as developed countries pass laws mandating greater use of nonfossil fuels ... But with food prices rising sharply in recent months, many experts are calling on countries to scale back their headlong rush into green fuel development ...

The French Development Agency (AFD) has granted Malian firm Jatropha-Mali Initiative (JMI) 170.5 million FCFA (260,000 euro) to promote the growth of the plant, sources at the Malian Agriculture Ministry told PANA. The seed of Jatropha can be used to produce biofuel, as well as oil comparable to diesel. More than 3,250 hectares have already been planted by 3,500 farmers, under 24 cooperatives, from the circle (prefecture) of Kita. Some 12,000 more hectares are to be planted in the next few years. JMI is a subsidiary of the French group Eco-Carbone set up in 2007. Its objective is to sustainably...

Researchers at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a way to produce normal butanol -- often proposed as a "greener" fuel alternative to diesel and gasoline -- from bacteria at rates significantly higher than those achieved using current production methods. The findings, reported online in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, mark an important advance in the production of normal butanol, or n-butanol, a four-carbon chain alcohol that has been shown to work well with existing energy infrastructure, including in vehicles designed for gasoline, without modifications that would be required with other biofuels. The UCLA...

Global review: A new global food crisis looms BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Soaring food prices, which the World Bank says have hit "dangerous levels," have thrust the issue of food security sharply into the global spotlight over the past week. From Asia to the Middle East and to Latin America, the trends of food prices have aroused widespread public concerns globally and in the developing world in particular. World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick warned on Tuesday: "Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world." Rising food...

Well, several years after the Air Force certified the C-17 to fly on coal-based synthetic jet fuel, it’s gone and certified the cargo hauler to fly on biofuel. In fact, the Globemaster III is the first Air Force plane to be cleared to fly using “hydroprocessed blended biofuels known as hydrotreated renewable jet fuels” mixed with standard JP-8 jet gas. This comes just under a year after the Navy cleared the F/A-18EF Super Hornet to fly using biofuel. This certification is part of an effort to find an alternative fuel source for all Air Force planes that emits fewer greenhouse...

Rick Santorum's nascent presidential campaign has died with a whimper fueled by a pander. And no matter whether it was born out of ignorance, political expediency or both, there's no excuse. Mr. Santorum, the former U.S. senator and representative of Pennsylvania, spoke to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Tuesday last in Des Moines. All U.S. vehicles should be required to burn ethanol and other biofuels in addition to gasoline, he said. "This is purely and simply a national security issue," said Santorum, a one-time opponent of taxpayer subsidies for alternative fuels, noting that some oil-producing countries are hostile to the...

If the U.S. military increases its use of alternative fuels, there will be no direct benefit to the nation's armed forces, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Any benefits from investment in alternative fuels by the U.S. Department of Defense will accrue to the nation as a whole rather than to mission-specific needs of the military, researchers found. The study is based on an examination of alternative jet and naval fuels that can be produced from coal or various renewable resources, including seed oils, waste oils and algae. In response to a congressional directive for a study on alternative...

Chinese researchers have developed a magnetic solid acid catalyst that raises the prospect of efficiently converting biomass cellulose into useful chemicals, such as sugars for biofuel production.According to the researchers, the catalyst is better than conventional equivalents because it shows good hydrothermal stability and can be recycled - magnetic nanoparticles pull the acid away from the substrate when a magnetic field is applied.Using biomass as a source of renewable fuel has attracted interest in recent years in response to global climate change and the search for alternatives to fossil fuels. The main component of biomass is cellulose - a polymer comprising many...

The spectre of inflation loomed over agricultural markets after the US slashed key crop forecasts and warned of shortfalls in grains. The agriculture department on Tuesday cut estimates of US corn yields for a third successive month, forecast record soyabean exports to China and warned of the slimmest cotton stocks since 1925.

Plans to make European motorists use more biofuels could take an area the size of Ireland out of food production by 2020 and accelerate climate change, a study has found. The report by the independent Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) is based on plans that countries have submitted to the EU detailing how they intend to meet their legal requirement to include 10% of renewable energy in all transport fuels by 2020. IEEP calculations suggest that the indirect effect of the switch will be to take between 4.1m and 6.9m hectares out of food production. In addition, say the...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European plans to promote biofuels will drive farmers to convert 69,000 square km of wild land into fields and plantations, depriving the poor of food and accelerating climate change, a report warned on Monday.

A biotech company plans to announce Tuesday that it has won a patent on a genetically altered bacterium that converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into ingredients of diesel fuel, a step that could provide a new pathway for making ethanol or a diesel replacement that skips several cumbersome and expensive steps in existing methods. The bacterium’s product, which it secretes like sweat, is a class of hydrocarbon molecules called alkanes that are chemically indistinguishable from the ones made in oil refineries. The organism can grow in bodies of water unfit for drinking or on land that is useless for farming,...

Edinburgh Napier University has developed a new biofuel made from whisky by-products.It is the result of two years work by the universities biofuel research centre. The £260,000 project was funded by Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept programme. It has been welcomed by WWF Scotland's director Dr Richard Dixon who said it would help a "clean environment" industry to reduce transport emissions. As part of the research, the centre was provided with samples of whisky distilling by-products from Diageo's Glenkinchie Distillery in Edinburgh. The team focused on the whisky industry to develop biobutanol, the next generation of biofuel which gives 30%...

SAN DIEGO — In a laboratory where almost all the test tubes look green, the tools of modern biotechnology are being applied to lowly pond scum. Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked. Different strains of algae are pitted against one another in survival-of-the-fittest contests in an effort to accelerate the evolution of fast-growing, hardy strains. The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils that can be sent to a refinery and made into diesel or jet fuel.

An F110 engine that powers the F-16 Fighting Falcon recently began performance testing at Arnold Engineering Development Center using a 50/50 blend of JP-8 conventional aviation fuel and a bio-fuel derived from the oil contained in the seed of the camelina plant, commonly known as false or wild flax. "The testing recently initiated at AEDC will be the first dedicated, uninstalled engine tests conducted by the Air Force [on Hydro-processed Renewable Jet (HRJ) blended fuel]," said Jeff Braun, the Air Force's Alternative Fuels Certification Office director. "These will also be the first engine tests conducted by the Air Force [on...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a more efficient technique for producing biofuels from woody plants that significantly reduces the waste that results from conventional biofuel production techniques. The technique is a significant step toward creating a commercially viable new source of biofuels. “This technique makes the process more efficient and less expensive,” says Dr. Ratna Sharma-Shivappa, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State and co-author of the research. “The technique could open the door to making lignin-rich plant matter a commercially viable feedstock for biofuels, curtailing biofuel’s reliance on staple food crops.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just issued a report detailing the outlook and challenges of next generation biofuels. I provided some input during the drafting of the report, which hopefully was of some use. Here I select five pessimistic projections and five optimistic projections from the report.The report is: Next-Generation Biofuels: Near-Term Challenges and Implications for Agriculture Here are five findings from the report that promise to strongly influence the country’s direction on next generation fuels.1. Production and Capital Costs

A plan to lessen Snohomish County’s dependence on fossil fuels while helping local farmers has fallen well short of expectations. Supporters urge patience. In time, they say, an improved economy will boost demand for locally grown oilseed crops, such as canola, which can be turned into biodiesel. Eventually, they maintain, a $1.2 million investment in a grain dryer and seed crusher at the county’s Cathcart facility south of Snohomish will prove worthwhile. ..snip.. Efforts to wean government vehicle fleets off fossil fuels have lagged. Snohomish County now runs about two-thirds of its diesel fleet on a blend of 20 percent...

Africa: 'Land Rush' as Threats to Food Security Intensify Mae-Wan Ho 14 May 2010 analysis In the past three years, foreign governments and investment companies have been buying or leasing vast tracts of farmland in Africa and elsewhere for producing biofuels or food for their own use.[1] This 'land rush' was triggered by the demand for biofuels, and accelerated [2] with the financial and food crisis of 2007/8 (see [3] Financing World Hunger, SiS 46). Government policies promoting biofuels are based on the mistaken belief that fuels made from plants are 'carbon neutral', in that burning them would simply release...

When the F/A-18 jet called the Green Hornet takes off over the Chesapeake Bay on Earth Day, it will aim to break a barrier that has proven far more durable than the speed of sound. The twin-engine tactical aircraft is prepared on April 22 to make a supersonic flight on biofuel -- its tanks filled 50 percent with oil refined from the crushed seeds of the flowering Camelina sativa plant. The test flight at the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland will be a milestone in the Navy's efforts to reduce its reliance on petroleum, and perhaps, in the...

Maybe there’s hope for Europe yet: the European Union may actually change course on one of its “green” policies, given new evidence that such a target may actually prove harmful. (Isn’t it refreshing when governments acknowledge data when making big decisions?) Specifically, the EU is considering altering its biofuels target in light of a new report. From the EU Observer:The European Commission is under pressure to alter EU-wide agreed targets of replacing 10 percent of fossil fuels with renewable energy by 2020, as its own internal studies have proven that biofuels have a negative impact on the environment and food...

Check this out for a brain-twisting juxtaposition: The U.S. military has successfully tested out a biofuel system for a "Warthog" A10 Thunderbolt II, one of the most feared combat aircraft in the World. Which is now fluffily green. Specifically, the aircraft was an A10C, and the fuel that was pumped through its modified General Electric TF34-GE-100A turbofans was based on Camelina. This plant, also known as false flax, has been trialled on other U.S. military aircraft, and was converted into a 50% biofuel and 50% aviation fuel mix for the A10 experiment. As much as the move sounds like a...