Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Michigan State University gets $2.9 million for biofuel research

April 23, 2011   Karl   No comments

Michigan State University gets $2.9 million for biofuel research

Michigan State University has received $2.9 million in federal grants for biofuel research.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded five-year grants for three projects focusing on various aspects of producing biofuels, which use renewable plant materials instead of petroleum.

“Americans who are now going to the gasoline pumps and dealing with sticker shock know that we need to find other ways of doing things in this country,” said Kathleen Merrigan, U.S. deputy secretary of Agriculture.

Most gasoline blends sold in the United States contain at least 10 percent of the biofuel ethanol. Nine billion gallons of biofuel were blended into transportation fuels in 2008, and the federal government is calling for 36 billion gallons by 2022.

Merrigan visited MSU on Wednesday to talk about the grants and tour research facilities at MBI International. MBI, based in Lansing and part of the MSU Foundation, helps prepare bio-based technologies and innovations for commercial use.

Overall, the USDA awarded $36.3 million in competitive grants to 27 universities, one college and two USDA research arms for sustainable bioenergy research.

It’s a significant win for MSU, which will use the money to pay faculty and student researchers and fund other project costs, said Doug Gage, director of the MSU BioEconomy Network.

“We are very proud that our faculty are competing against the best in the country and wining awards,” he said.

MSU professors will lead the three research projects on campus that look at topics such as greenhouse gas emissions associated with biomass production and ways to use byproducts from the production of biofuel.

Entomology professor Doug Landis is researching pests that affect switch grass, a plant used to produce biofuels.

Biofuel research is moving away from food plants such as corn in favor of non-food crops or plant waste products.

“It would be inappropriate to place a crop into the landscape that would then cause a spillover effect on our current crops,” Landis said.

Landis will work with other MSU professors and students to conduct research on farms throughout southern Michigan.

“MSU is doing cutting-edge research here on biofuels,” Merrigan said. “They’ve made significant investments, they’re bringing together a variety of disciplines in their scientists to come together and sort of really deconstruct problems, figure out answers.”

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USDA Approves Corn Enzyme for Biofuel Production

February 15, 2011   Karl   No comments

USDA Approves Corn Enzyme for Biofuel Production

Syngenta will sell corn seed with plans for large-scale production in 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved a genetically modified trait in corn developed by agrochemicals producer Syngenta that could improve ethanol yields, Syngenta said Feb. 11.

Syngenta will market the modified corn seed under its Enogen brand name. Syngenta refers to the corn seed as a “breakthrough technology” that can easily be integrated into existing infrastructure.

Syngenta has estimated that Enogen can provide ethanol producers a cost advantage between 8 and 15 cents per gallon.

“Enogen corn seed offers growers an opportunity to cultivate a premium specialty crop. It is a breakthrough product that provides U.S. ethanol producers with a proven means to generate more gallons of ethanol from their existing facilities,” said Davor Pisk, Syngenta’s chief operating officer. “Enogen corn also reduces the energy and water consumed in the production process while substantially reducing carbon emissions.”

Enogen corn seed will be available for the coming growing season with large-scale commercial introduction planned for 2012.

Syngenta will manage Enogen corn production using a contracted, closed production system.
The corn amylase trait in Enogen has already been approved for import into Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia and Taiwan and for cultivation in Canada.

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US lacks the infrastructure to consume more bioethanol

January 04, 2011   Karl   No comments
Biofuel pump

Purdue University study shows that the US lacks infrastructure to consume more bioethanol

Purdue University study suggests that the United States doesn’t have the infrastructure to meet the federal mandate for renewable fuel use with bioethanol, howver they could meet the standard with significant increases in  next-generation and cellulosicbiofuels. Their findings were published in the December issue of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

The team used U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency data to determine that the United States is at the “blending wall,” the saturation point for ethanol use. Without new technology or a significant increase in infrastructure,they  predict that the country will not be able to consume more ethanol than is being currently produced.

The federal Renewable Fuel Standard requires an increase of renewable fuel production to 36 billion gallons PA by 2022. 13 billion gallons of renewable fuel was required for 2010, the same amount Tyner predicts is the threshold for U.S. infrastructure and consumption ability.

“There simply aren’t enough flex-fuel vehicles, which use an 85 percent ethanol blend, or E85 stations to distribute more biofuels. According to EPA estimates, flex-fuel vehicles make up 7.3 million of the 240 million vehicles on the nation’s roads. Of those, about 3 million of flex-fuel vehicle owners aren’t even aware they can use E85 fuel.”

There are only about two thousand E85 bioethanol pumps in the US, and it took more than 20 years to install them.

“Even if you could produce a whole bunch of E85, there is no way to distribute it,” Tyner said. “We would need to install about 2,000 pumps per year through 2022 to do it. You’re not going to go from 100 per year to 2,000 per year overnight. It’s just not going to happen.”

And even if the fuel could be distributed, E85 would have to be substantially cheaper than gasoline to entice consumers to use it because E85 gets lower mileage, Tyner said. If gasoline were $3 per gallon, E85 would have to be $2.34 per gallon to break even on mileage.

There is talk of increasing the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline for regular vehicles from 10 percent to 15 percent. But Tyner said that even if the EPA does allow it, the blending wall would be reached again in about four years.

“The advances in the production of thermo-chemical biofuels, which are created by using heat to chemically alter biomass and create fuels, would be necessary to meet the Renewable Fuel Standard. He said those fuels would be similar enough to gasoline to allow unlimited blending and would increase the amount of biofuel that could be used”

“Producing the hydrocarbons directly doesn’t have the infrastructure problems of ethanol, and there is no blend wall because you’re producing gasoline,” Tyner said. “If that comes on and works, then we get there. There is significant potential to produce drop-in hydrocarbons from cellulosic feedstocks.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the research.

Via businessgreen.com

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Hardest part of reaching biofuel goal awaits

October 03, 2010   Karl
biofuel sticker

halfway to achieving its goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuel

The United States is roughly halfway to achieving its goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuel by the year 2022, but the last half likely will be harder, and probably more expensive, than the first.

John Whitaker, Iowa executive director for Farm Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told a symposium last week that as many as 527 new biofuel plants will be needed, in addition to the 171 ethanol plants now working, to meet the mandate.

The cost: $168 billion.

“Corn ethanol has gotten consumers to accept ethanol as a fuel,” Whitaker said. But he noted that the congressionally imposed mandate sets a 16 billion-gallon limit on ethanol’s contribution to biofuels. The rest has to come from other sources such as switchgrass and miscanthus, algae, wood biomass and electrification.

Robert Brown, who directs biofuels research at Iowa State University, observed that Iowa and other corn states contributed to the big surge in ethanol production in the last decade without major technological breakthroughs.

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