A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously dismissed arguments by the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association that the court should review EPA’s rules on biodiesel blending.

The groups had challenged the rules on three grounds, maintaining they improperly combined requirements for 2009 and 2010, that they should not have been made retroactive and that they violated requirements for minimum lead times.

The petition argued, in part, that EPA’s own delays in finalizing the rules made it unfair to impose significant blending requirements under the originally described timeline.

The oil industry expressed concern that the rule’s near-term deadlines, especially a requirement for blending twice as much biodiesel this year as in 2009, meant refiners must race to blend enough renewable fuels or face fines of more than $32,000 per day.

The groups made the arguments in two separate challenges filed in March (E&ENews PM, March 30).

Today’s decision was a clear win for EPA in the case, rejecting each of the petitioners’ arguments.

“Under the circumstances of the delayed rulemaking, Congress’ purpose in expanding the renewable fuel program under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act] is better served by EPA’s approach in the final rule than it would be by forgoing” blending requirements for 2009, the court panel said in its decision.

The panel also said EPA had adequately considered alternative approaches and was justified in taking its chosen path, because of factors that include the availability of blending credits in the marketplace and ample notice of the likely need for them.

Under the rules, refiners have until next Feb. 28, 2011, to show they have blended the required amounts of biodiesel into the nation’s diesel fuel supply for 2009 and 2010.

EPA does not comment on lawsuits, but the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), which along with ethanol industry group Growth Energy had joined EPA in arguing the case, welcomed the court’s decision.

“The NBB is obviously pleased with the Court’s unanimous decision,” said Manning Feraci, the group’s vice president of federal affairs, in a statement.

This wholly validates the U.S. biodiesel industry’s legal position and sends a clear, unambiguous signal to the marketplace that the common-sense renewable goals established in the RFS2 program will be met.”

Renewable Energy Group, which describes itself as the leading domestic marketer of biodiesel, said the decision cleared the way for a strong 2011 market.

“This lawsuit was the final piece of uncertainty creating market disruption for the biodiesel industry,” the group said. “With last week’s reinstatement of the biodiesel blenders’ tax credit and today’s announcement by the court, [Renewable Energy Group] is bullish on the 2011 market for biodiesel demand.”GREENWIRE.

 SOURCE: NYTIMES.COM

Moema Par is a holding company that owns one sugarcane mill and has ownership in five others. Together the six mills, known as the Moema Group, have the capacity to crush 15.4 metric tons. This agreement, which is structured as a share exchange worth approximately $896 million, gives Bunge 60 percent effective share of the total capacity.

“This transaction fulfills Bunge’s strategic goal of building a large-scale, fully integrated business in sugar and bioenergy,” stated Alberto Weisser, Chairman and CEO of Bunge Limited. “It adds significant scale to our current milling operations and enables us to vary production among multiple sugar and ethanol products, according to market conditions. The Moema Group cluster is also strategically located near large domestic markets in Brazil and has excellent access to export logistics systems. All of these strengths make it a perfect fit with our global trading and marketing operations.”

The Moema Group cluster is located on the border of São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, the two largest domestic ethanol markets in Brazil. According to Bunge, the mills benefit from cost savings due to their cluster configuration, and have favorable road and rail access to three of Brazil’s largest export ports (Santos, Paranagua and Vitoria). The mills can produce both raw and crystal sugar, as well as hydrous and anhydrous ethanol. In addition, the mills have co-generation facilities, are self-sustaining in terms of energy requirements and sell excess power to the grid. The majority of the cluster’s sugarcane is harvested mechanically, which is now law in São Paulo.

According to Bunge, they may enter into agreements to secure some of all of the remaining interests in the mills that comprise the Moema Group in the next few weeks.

Source: Domestic Fuel

In past days the envelopes with the technical offer of the Official Plan of Renewable Energies (GENREN) bid were opened. The proposing companies are now waiting for the economic offer envelopes.

he Argentine government announced the results of the 1,015 megawatt (MW) renewable energies tender proposed last May. The total offers reached 1,461 MW, a 46% oversubscription. The offers were broken down by technology: 1,203 for wind power; 155.4 MW from biofuels; 54.1 MW from biomass; 14 MW from biogas; 22.5 MW from photovoltaic solar energy; and 12.7 MW from small hydro projects.

The opening of the sealed envelopes was done at a ceremony at the presidential mansion known as la Casa Rosada, which included words from Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as well as from the Federal Planning Minister, Julio de Vido.

According to a recent study by the Argentine Renewable Energy Chamber (CADER), nearly 70% of Argentina’s territory is covered with winds whose annual average speed, measured at 50 meters above ground level, surpasses 6 m/s. In Central and Southern Patagonia the speeds can reach on average 9 m/s and up to 12 m/s. Most areas in the vast Patagonia region experience annual average capacity factors above 45%. The provinces of Córdoba, part of San Luis, La Pampa, San Juan, La Rioja and the central and southwestern regions of the province of Buenos Aires yield capacity factors between 35% and 40%.

But despite such massive potential, the 30 MW of wind generation that has been installed to date comes mainly from projects completed between the mid-1990s and early 2000s that were developed by small cooperatives in the Patagonian region.

The tender had been launched by the government last May to assist in the requirements under Renewable Energies Law 26.190 from 2006 that requires that by the year 2016, fully 8% of the country’s energy matrix must be derived from renewable sources. Once all offers have been reviewed, the government must evaluate each one objectively – prices offered and the companies’ technical and financial capacity, among others. According to calculations by the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber, if all 1,462 MW are accepted it will result in investments in excess of US$2 billion and the creation of approximately 1000 new jobs.

After the public announcement, the President of the chamber, Carlos St. James, exchanged thoughts about the next steps with President Fernandez, expressing optimism about the future of the industry. “These offers, considering the quality and prestige of the multinational companies making them, leaves no doubt that Argentina is on its way to developing a full-fledged renewable energies industry. This is a clear demonstration of what can be achieved when a fluid communication is established between the public and private sectors.”

As the chamber had indicated in its recent State of the Argentine Wind Industry study published last May, Argentina has unequaled potential to develop wind energy, as seen by the dominance of wind projects in the tender totaling 1,203 MW, more than 80% of the total offerings. According to Mauro Soares, President of the Wind Energy Committee of the Chamber, “This tender generated unparalleled activity and interest from our sector; the number of proposals focused on wind was very gratifying. Now we will finally see this energy become part of our country’s energy matrix. We welcome this launch of the industry in Argentina, and I congratulate all those that worked towards making it possible.” Also, Sebastian Kind, co-author of the study and board member of the chamber, stated, “Today we saw a high degree of confidence of the sector’s potential; the 1461 MW offered represent solid foundations for a prosperous renewable industry. Argentina has a unique opportunity to generate new skills and develop technology while providing clean and competitive energy for our future.”

According to a recent study published by New Energy Finance, based in London, the global renewable energies industry invested US$155 billion in 2008, with a compound annual growth rate of 45%. Latin America captured US$12 billion of this total, but it is growing at a CAGR of 145%.

The Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber (Cámara Argentina de Energías Renovables, or CADER) is a non-profit industry trade association dedicated to the sustainable development of renewable energies in Argentina. It seeks to play a vital role in the establishment of a solid and vibrant industry, one which is respected globally for its standards and practices.

The Chamber counts among its members companies that believe these principles and work towards developing the local solar, wind and biomass sectors. Its great diversity in members creates one of the Chamber’s greatest strengths, since it is the only organization that represents the entire spectrum of this nascent industry’s value chain.

In past days the envelopes with the technical offer of the Official Plan of Renewable Energies (GENREN) bid were opened. The proposing companies are now waiting for the economic offer envelopes, which will be handed once the technical analysis is concluded. The complete list of proposing companies follows.

1. Emgasud Renovables: 4 wind farms (3 of 50 MW and one of 30 MW, two in Madryn and one in Rawson)

2. Patagonia Wind Energy: one 50 MW wind park, in Madryn.

3. Energías Sustentables SA: one 20 MW wind farm, in West Madryn.

4. International New Energy: one 50 MW wind park, in North Madryn.

5. Sogesic SA: 2 wind parks, of 50 MW, in Tres picos.

6. Unitec Energy – San Jose Argentina – INVAP (UTE): 2 wind parks, of 50 MW.

7. Isolux Ingenieria – Gas y Petróleo de Neuquén – Ingenieria Sima SA, (UTE): one 50 MW wind park.

8. Isolux Ingenieria: 4 wind parks of 50 MW in Loma Blanca 1.2.3 and 4.

9. Impsa Wind SA: 10 wind parks. Kaluel Kayke I (50MW), II (25MW), Malaspina I (50 MW), II (30MW), Condor Cliff La Barrancosa (50MW), Piedra Buena I (50MW), II (30MW), Las Heras (50 MW), Tornquist (50MW).

10. Pan American Fueguinas SA: 28 MW wind park in Cerro Dragon.

Patagonia in Argentina has some of the best conditions in the world for wind power generation. Not only are the winds strong in Patagonia, but they are also fierce in the south of Buenos Aires province and interior provinces such as Córdoba. Blessed with such potential, Argentina should be a world leader in wind energy.

Source: evwind

In justifying its stance the EBB explained that Argentine exports to EU had increased dramatically from less than 5,000 tons in July 2008 to almost 100,000 tons per month in July 2009, a twenty-fold increase. For the whole of 2009, Argentine exports are expected to exceed the 1 million metric tons threshold, as compared to only 70 000 tons the previous year.

This surge in Argentine biodiesel exports to EU is, claims the EBB, driven by a regime of differentiated export taxes (known as DETs). A system which, it says, creates a clear distortion, in the market, and one which needs rebalancing.

The differential between the 32% export tax on soybean oil and the 20% export tax on biodiesel creates a clear financial incentive to process soybean oil into biodiesel rather than exporting it, argues the EBB. This incentive is already substantial on paper, but is even higher in practice. The EBB says it has received indications that the tax differential between soybean oil and biodiesel is in reality in the range of 20% due to a number of ad hoc implementing rules. This information proved difficult to obtain despite EBB repeated contacts with Argentinean authorities and stakeholders.

The EBB is keen to stress that it has always been in favour of an open EU biodiesel market considering the EU’s objective of 10% renewable energy in transport by 2020. However, it is also keen to highlight the discrepancy in the market where Argentine biodiesel enjoys duty-free access to the EU biodiesel market, whereas Argentina levies a 14% customs duty on biodiesel from Europe and other countries.

The EBB is clear that it has to oppose any trade practices that distort competition between European and foreign producers. “EBB takes very seriously the challenge of Argentine biodiesel exports to EU. We stand ready to defend our interests, as we already did successfully against subsidised imports from the United States”, said Raffaello Garofalo, EBB Secretary-General.

In the view of EBB, it would be appropriate for Argentinean authorities to withdraw at the earliest opportunity the DETs regime currently applied on soybean products and biodiesel. The continuation of this trade distorting measure would call for an appropriate reaction from EU biodiesel producers.

Written by Giles Clark, London

Source: Biofuel Review

A sustainable energy initiative that will start with a huge solar project in the Sahara desert has been announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses.

The Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to supply Europe with 15% of its energy needs by 2050.

Companies who signed up to the $400bn (£240bn) venture include Deutsche Bank, Siemens and the energy provider E.On.

The consortium, which will be based in Munich, hopes to start supplying Europe with electricity by 2015.

Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to produce solar-generated electricity with a vast network of power plants and transmission grids across North Africa and the Middle East.

“The time has come to turn this vision into reality,” said the company’s chief executive, Paul van Son.

“That implies intensive co-operation with many parties and cultures, to create a sound basis for feasible investments into renewable energy technologies and interconnected grids.”

The first stage will be to build massive solar energy fields across North Africa’s Sahara desert, utilising concentrated solar power technology (CPS), which uses parabolic mirrors to focus the Sun’s rays on containers of water.

‘Pivotal initiative’

The super-heated water will power steam turbines to generate electricity 24 hours a day, 52 weeks of the year.

The electricity will then be transported great distances to Europe, using hi-tech cables that suffer little conductive loss of power.

The move was “pivotal” in the transition of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East to sustainable energy supplies, said Mr Van Son.

Currently there are some small initiatives across Spain and parts of North Africa, but the scale of the Desertec initiative will surpass any other comparable projects.

Strong desire

The initiative has gained the support of the German government of Angela Merkel, who has already expressed a desire to offset a dependence on Russian gas supplies.

A number of North African countries have also expressed a strong desire to join the project, the company says, utilising their main sustainable natural resource – the Sun.

Some of the power generated by the Sahara solar energy fields will also be used by domestic African consumers, Desertec is keen to stress. North Africa has a small population relative to the size of its desert terrain, it says.

The concept was first announced in 2007 by the Desertec Foundation, with small pilot projects based in North Africa. Prince Hassan of Jordan has previously been mentioned as a big supporter.

Companies signed up to the consortium include ABB, Abengoa Solar, Cevital, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE and Schott Solar.

Source: BBC World

OLD TOWN, Maine (Reuters) – From the outside, the rustic red-brick mill on a bend in Maine’s Penobscot River resembles any other struggling American pulp and paper mill.

But along with its usual business of pulp-making, the century-old mill is doing something unprecedented: Developing technology to produce bio-butanol, a jet fuel, from parts of trees that would otherwise go to waste, one of the world’s first to do so.

Production is still two years away, but the reinvention of Maine’s Old Town Fuel & Fiber mill is already drawing interest as a potential model for a new wave of biofuel companies that could slash dependence on oil, create jobs and reduce the emissions that lead to global warming.

Loggers, a fading way of life in rugged northern United States and Canada, see the mill as a lifeline for their crippled industry. Environmentalists see it as a test of the Obama administration’s push for a big expansion in biofuels.

And chemical and oil companies are waiting to see if the mill can do what none has done before by extracting sugars from wood chips into a biofuel that many regard as more efficient than corn-based ethanol as a possible substitute for gasoline.

“There has been a lot of interested parties in what we are doing here,” said Old Town’s president, Dick Arnold. “There have been several oil companies that have been interested in our extract and production of biofuels. There has been a number of chemical companies that have expressed the same desire.”

Like its once-mighty peers, Old Maine’s mill has suffered in recent years from declining pulp prices and loss of market share to Chinese and Latin American rivals. Georgia-Pacific Llc, the maker of Quilted Northern bathroom tissue, shut it in May 2006, laying off all 400 workers. A group of investors known as Red Shield bought it a few months later.

Red Shield won a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to work with the nearby University of Maine on a pilot ethanol production plant, but they ran out of cash and filed for bankruptcy last year, shutting the plant again.

Enter Lynn Tilton, a New York venture capitalist who owns one of the nation’s largest helicopter makers. Tilton’s Patriarch Partners bought the mill in November, invested about $40 million and shifted its focus to cellulosic bio-butanol.

ALTERNATIVE TO ETHANOL

Tilton can use bio-butanol in her own helicopter and aircraft businesses but is eyeing a potentially huge market after Congress decreed that the United States must use 21 billion gallons of “advanced” biofuels such as cellulosic ethanols, bio-butanol and “green gasoline” a year by 2022.

Whether the technology takes off comes down to cost — and to corn. For much of the last decade, federal officials have touted the potential of corn ethanol as the best substitute for gasoline, but critics question that assumption, noting it corrodes pipelines and raises food prices.

Bio-butanol, a relative of ethanol, is less corrosive and easier to mix with gasoline. Unlike ethanol, it can be transported by pipeline. And its energy content is about 30 percent higher than ethanol’s. If regulations allow, it could be pumped into a fuel tank with no changes to a car engine.

Butanol is also sometimes used as a petrochemical in brake fluids, paint thinners and plastics. Its supporters include chemicals maker DuPont Co and oil giant BP Plc, which have formed a joint venture to make bio-butanol.

“It’s really comparable to gasoline,” said Mark Bunger, a biofuels analyst at Lux Research, a Boston consulting firm specializing in emerging technologies. “The issue has been that ethanol is easier to make, it’s just not easier to use. Butanol doesn’t have those same restrictions.

“For a lot of chemical reasons, it’s a good alternative. If you’re a venture capital company and you said you are going to be making ethanol, I would say, ‘Do you have another idea?’. But if they are really focusing on butanol, that is a smart move.”

He cautioned, however, that it remains unclear if bio-butanol can compete on cost with oil or substitutes like ethanol without government subsidies. “A lot more research and technical development is needed to make it cost competitive.”

OBAMA FACTOR

Other companies are trying, such as startups Tetravitae Bioscience in Chicago and Cobalt Biofuels in Mountain View, California. But Old Town is the first to do so with a fully functioning timber mill that already generates cash flow by selling traditional pulp to paper companies.

Bio-butanol will be derived from wood that would have gone to waste in pulp production, or have been left on the forest floor as unusable by loggers.

“I wouldn’t go deep into a hole without the ability to generate cash flow on what we do now,” Tilton said. “That is the beauty of this. We are not building a start up facility to create ethanol where you are out $300 million before you start creating any kind of cash flow.”

Already the plant has put in place a system for extracting sugars from the wood and expect by year end to start construction of a biorefinery to turn it into butanol. She expects the mill will need another $75 million to meet its target of producing butanol in two years.

“Some of that will come from the Department of Energy and some we will invest. And how that return on investment will be garnered will be deeply dependent on government demands, pricing for the product as well as our ability to take this technology and roll it out across other platforms.”

A big factor, she said, is the Obama administration’s push for renewable energy through tax breaks, loan guarantees and millions of dollars in grants, with more support expected in upcoming energy bills.

“If one believed that ultimately this would peter out and green energy would become less of a focus going forward, this would be a very risky investment because truthfully pricing will be dependent on supply and demand. If it is not forced as a mandate, then I think the pricing won’t be there,” she said.

To that end, the mill is on track, said Arnold. Two towering vessels, each 100-feet (30-metres) high, extract sugar from wood chips that will eventually make butanol, while also maintaining the traditional process of extracting fiber from wood to create sheets of dried pulp to sell.

“That $30 million award from the government will help us finance the building of the balance of the biorefinery,” he said. “We believe that in the next two years we will have an operating biorefinery at the mill.”

Initial volumes will be small, about 1.5 million gallons of bio-butanol a year produced from 80 dry tons of wood. “But we believe this technology can be replicated. And there are a lot of assets out there in terms of pulp and paper mills that are suffering that could be used for expansion,” Arnold said.

Jason Szep

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: Reuters

FORMOSA (From our correspondent). – Directive of the Lloyds Bank and an investor from the United States visited this province recently, interested in acquiring lands to produce jatropha, a pluriannual crop that doesn’t impose the necessity of recurrent replanting.

 It´s a high value input for the biodiesel production. It is known that the most productive species of this plant are from Peru, although they are broadly spread in Brazil and in India.Â

Luis Basterra, the minister of Production explained it this way, who also detailed that the oil obtained from the plant is not eatable, for what it doesn’t compete with those that have nutritious property.

Contrary to the soya or the sunflower, that besides being used for biofuels are also demanded for human consumption, the jatropha only has industrial application and it is destinated only to the energy generation.Â

Previous investigationÂ

The official revealed, also, that the provincial Goverment has interest in promoting the production of this crop in his territory for what help has been requested to the center of validation for agricultural technologies, in which an experimentation program is being developed.Â

The objective of the technical advice is to evaluate the consequences of the introduction of this new species in the province, this is, to know in advance the fitosanitary risk that it can imply.Â

Without this previous investigation, in which can be known, for example, the susceptibility of the jatropha to certain illnesses and the varieties that better adapt to the conditions of the Formosa´s atmosphere, it won’t be able to take advange of the commercial opportunity that the crop represents, given the high biofuels demands in the world, at this moment.Â

As it could be known, the executive of the financial entity that was in Formosa, showed particular interest in acquiring the farm “La Floresta”, one of the oldest of the province, located in the Southwest, with a surface of 80.000 hectares. The establishment is supplemented with another, with equal characteristics, located in the neighboring province of Chaco, on the other side of the Bermejo river.Â

Source: La Nación