It’s a problem Mayor Bobby Irons and Gas and Water/Wastewater manager Mike Doyle like.

“We would like to expand and treat a larger volume during the warmer months,” Doyle said. “These (treatment) units are expandable, and we could double our treatment capacity to 200 gallons at a time real quick by adding another one.”

The city began collecting used cooking oil from residents as part of its curbside recycling program almost two years ago. Residents leave various size bottles to be collected, so it’s hard to estimate exactly how much has been collected, Doyle said.

Irons, in his State of the City address last week, said the city’s conversion had produced almost 2,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel that is blended with regular diesel fuel and burned in city trucks. The cost of generating biodiesel is about $1 per gallon, compared to about $3 a gallon for diesel at the pump, he said.

City trucks burn a blend that is 10-20 percent biodiesel. Doyle said it’s possible to burn pure biodiesel in trucks, but the cost would be higher for several reasons.

“If you run anything more than B-20 (20 percent biodiesel), companies won’t warranty their vehicles,” he said.

Biodiesel is a powerful solvent that burns so cleanly it can clog fuel filters and weaken rubberized fuel lines.

“If you changed out everything on your trucks, you would start defeating the purpose of having this savings,” Doyle said.

Because cooking oil thickens in cool weather, it becomes almost impossible to convert unless the oil is stored in a climate controlled setting. Doyle said the cost of enclosing and heating its storage area would cancel the cost savings to the city. He said converting more cooking oil during warm weather and storing it would be a more cost-effective approach.

Almost all the biodiesel converted by the city is from residential collections. Doyle said a few private companies collect used cooking oil from restaurants and the city does not want to compete with them. “But if restaurants want to leave it with us, that’s fine.”

The Recycling Department provides containers to collect cooking oil. Residents may call 256-760-6466 to obtain a container, or they may use the bottles in which the oil was originally sold, Doyle said.

by robert palmer Times Daily

SOURCE: TIMES DAILY

Production increased from 959 million liters in 2001 to 15,760 million liters in 2009, at a CAGR of 41.9%. Supported by governments to increase energy independence and meet the rising energy demand the biodiesel market is expected to produce 45,291 million liters of biodiesel in 2020, representing a CAGR of 10.1% during 2009 to 2020. Europe is the leading biodiesel market with a production share of 49.8% followed by the Americas with a production share of 32.8% and Asia Pacific with a share of 4.4% in 2009.

European share in the biodiesel production has been declining since 2001 while the share of Americas and Asia Pacific increased. The top five biodiesel producers in the world are the Germany, The US, France, Argentina, and Brazil. All of these countries together produce 68.4% of the world’s total biodiesel. Australia is the largest producer of biodiesel in Asia Pacific followed by China and India. For further details, please click or add the below link to your browser:

http://www.globaldata.com/reportstore/Report.aspx?ID=Glo…

The US is the second largest producer of biodiesel in the world, producing 17.7% of the world’s biodiesel in 2009. The biodiesel market in the US is expected to reach 2,822 million liters in 2010 and 6,453 million liters in 2020. The US Government has been promoting the production and use of biodiesel through various incentives and policy measures. The Renewable Fuel Standard 2 (RFS) program has been formulated to meet the requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA).

The revised RFS requires the use of 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2009 which will continue to increase thereafter to reach 36 billion gallons by 2022. According to RFS 2, biodiesel is categorized in the biomass based diesel category and minimum 1 billion gallons is to be produced by 2012 which is over 50% more than the present levels. The German biodiesel market is facing a bleak outlook due to the impostion of taxes which have made biofuels too expensive for its consumers. Though the country is the largest producer of biodiesel in Europe, the future for the market looks weak.

This is mainly due to the taxes the German government has imposed on green fuels. Another factor that has contributed to the negative outlook of the German biodiesel market is the generous export subsidies received by the US producers. The EU has now imposed an import tariff on US biodiesel imports to protect the European market. The country has reduced the blending target to 6.3% in 2010 from 6.8% as set out previously in the plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions, although the specific blending mandates for biodiesel will remained unchanged until 2014. For further details, please click or add the below link to your browser:

http://www.globaldata.com/reportstore/Report.aspx?ID=Glo…

China has become the world’s largest automotive market in terms of units sold, surpassing the US. This, coupled with the country’s concern for energy security, has led to increased interest from the government in developing the alternative fuel vehicle market in the country. In 2009, the government of China provided a 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) subsidy for three years to automakers who upgrade their technology and develop alternative fuel vehicles. This stimulus package will result in rising activity in the biofuels sector in the country. “Global Biodiesel Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020” is the latest research from GlobalData. This report gives an in-depth analysis of the global biodiesel market and provides forecasts up to 2020.

The research analyzes key trends, major issues and growth opportunities in the global biodiesel market. Market share by production capacity, elaborate profiling of major industry participants and information on major present and upcoming production facilities provide insight into the competitive scenario in the global biodiesel industry. This coupled with information on important news and deals provide a comprehensive understanding of the market. Information on the regulatory framework and key policies governing the industry has also been dealt with in detail.

Source: PRLOG

The use of algae as a source of energy is being researched in different countries across the world and is at an advanced stage in the United States.

But as research has grown so has the realization that converting algae into energy may not be as cost-effective as originally thought possible. As a result, new research and investigation has been two-pronged, both to make optimum use of algae as a source of energy and to do it cheaply.

Scientists at the National Technological University of Mar del Plata, on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, said they focused on developing techniques that would be both economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

A production module already in place would seek to convert micro-algae into energy with the minimum amount of energy being used in the whole process. The scientists said they would seek to achieve a ratio below 1:5 — to limit consumed energy to below 20 percent of the energy produced.

A fundamental factor in the project is the replacement of high-cost raw materials, such as carbon dioxide and cultivation agents, with “environmental liabilities” like industrial waste and emissions and sewage mud, the university said.

The research work is being conducted with the participation of scientists and technicians with an established knowledge base in aquaculture, biotechnology, environmental engineering and phycology, MercoPress reported.

The production of biofuels, particularly biodiesel from marine micro-algae, has won support from environmentalists and politicians because it doesn’t restrict human food consumption, as is the case with soybean and other agricultural crops, and fresh water is not used. Sea water cools the equipment deployed to convert micro-algae into energy.

Analysts said it was too early to determine if energy produced from micro-algae could be cost-effective on a longer term and if the technology could be used for large volumes of energy.

A hectare of micro-algae yields about 8,000 liters of bio-diesel.

Argentina is reviewing its energy efficiency strategies amid a continuing economic downturn and changing demographics, with forecasts that the upwardly mobile younger generation, although environmentally conscientious, will be consuming more energy in the coming years because of changing lifestyles and improved living conditions.

Argentina began exploring the micro-algae project in 2008. Scientists began the work with micro-algae species carrying high oil content. The micro-algae was cultivated in pools of up to 2,000 liters during the four seasons of the year, then collected in vats before being transported for processing.

 Source: upi

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence. The sequence and its analysis appear in the January 14 edition of the journal Nature.

The research team comprised 18 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Purdue University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The DOE, National Science Foundation, USDA and United Soybean Board supported the research.

“The soybean genome’s billion-plus nucleotides afford us a better understanding of the plant’s capacity to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water, into concentrated energy, protein, and nutrients for human and animal use,” said Anna Palmisano, DOE Associate Director of Science for Biological and Environmental Research. “This opens the door to crop improvements that are sorely needed for energy production, sustainable human and animal food production, and a healthy environmental balance in agriculture worldwide.”

With the soybean genetic code now determined, the research community has access to a key reference for more than 20,000 legume species and can explore the extraordinary evolutionary innovation of nitrogen-fixing symbiosis that is so critically important to successful agricultural crop rotation strategies.

Jeremy Schmutz, the study’s first author and a DOE JGI scientist at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama, said that the soybean sequencing was the largest plant project done to date at the DOE Joint Genome Institute. “It also happens to be the largest plant that’s ever been sequenced by the whole genome shotgun strategy—where we break it apart and reassemble it like a huge puzzle,” he said. Of the more than 20 other plant genomes taken on by the DOE JGI, those already sequenced include the black cottonwood (poplar) tree and the grain sorghum, both targeted because of their promise as biomass feedstocks for biofuels production.

“This is a milestone for soybean research and promises to usher in a new era in soybean agronomic improvement,” said co-author Gary Stacey, Director, Center for Sustainable Energy and Associate Director and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri. “The genome provides a parts list of what it takes to make a soybean plant and, more importantly, helps to identify those genes that are essential for such important agronomic traits as protein and oil content.”

Soybean, one of the most important global sources of protein and oil, is now the first legume species with a published complete draft genome sequence.

From the sequence analysis, Stacey said that he and his colleagues have identified more than 46,000 genes of which 1,110 are involved in lipid metabolism. “These genes and their associated pathways are the building blocks for soybean oil content and represent targets that can be modified to bolster output and lead to the increase of the use of soybean oil for biodiesel production.”

While biodiesel from soybean oil represents a cleaner, renewable alternative to fossil fuels with desirable properties as a liquid transportation fuel, there simply is not enough oil produced by the plant to be a competitive gasoline on a gallons-of-fuel yield per acre. The availability of the soybean genome may provide some key solutions. “We can now zero in on the control points governing carbon flow towards protein and oil,” said Tom Clemente, Professor, Center for Biotechnology, Center for Plant Science Innovation at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. “With the combination of informatics, biochemistry and genetics we can target the development of a soybean with greater than 40 percent oil content.”

The availability of the soybean genome sequence has accelerated other soybean trait discovery efforts as well. For example, researchers have used the sequence to zero in on a mutation that can be used to select for a line that has lower levels of the sugar stachyose, which will improve the ability of animals and humans to digest soybeans.

In another effort, by comparing the genomes of soybean and corn, a single-base pair mutation was found that causes a reduction in phytate production in soybean. Phytate is the form in which phosphorous is stored in plant tissue. Because phytate is not absorbed by the animals that eat the feed, the unabsorbed phytate passes through the gastrointestinal tract, elevating the amount of phosphorus in the manure. Limiting phytate production in the soybean could reduce a major environmental runoff contaminant from swine and poultry waste.

Of additional importance for soybean farmers is that the genome sequence has provided access to the first resistance gene for the devastating disease Asian Soybean Rust (ASR). In countries where ASR is well established, soybean yield losses due to the disease can be as high as 80 percent.

Provided by DOE/Joint Genome Institute

Source: Physorg