biofuels

Soy moves from tofu to electrical transformers

The lowly soybean has found a calling higher than tofu and tamari sauce. It's being used to insulate equipment bringing electricity to millions of homes.

More than 100 utilities are using soy-based oil as a safer, eco-friendly alternative to petroleum coolants in electrical transformers, which convert high-voltage power from a plant to a lower voltage for consumers.

Fires occur nearly every day around the country due to problems with transformers, say proponents of soy oil. On May 2, flames leapt 15 feet above street level through a manhole in Cambridge, Mass, temporarily shutting down Harvard Square.

Soy oil is … Read more

Biofuel gets lift from Honeywell, Airbus, JetBlue

Algae may someday become a part of the jet set.

The pond plant is getting a boost from a joint biofuel effort announced Thursday that involves some marquee names in the aviation industry--Airbus and JetBlue Airways--along with International Aero Engines, Honeywell Aerospace, and a second Honeywell company called UOP. The group plans to study ways to make commercial aviation fuels out of so-called second-generation feedstocks such as algae.

Success with algae would be a salve for biofuel boosters who are feeling the sting of a backlash against early hype. Hailed just a few years ago as a potentially quick … Read more

Trash-to-ethanol firms get digging

The trash-powered car may someday see the light of day.

CleanTech Biofuels is developing a multistep process designed to take municipal solid waste from a transfer station and turn out ethanol on the other side.

The company recently purchased the equipment and found a site in Golden, Colo., to test it using trash, as well other agricultural and forest wastes, to make ethanol. On Tuesday, it said that it trying to identify a site near landfills and garbage haulers to construct a commercial plant.

Within two years, the company expects to move from a proof-of-concept plant to a commercial plant, … Read more

Red tape, costs entangle fans of 'green' fuel

It's not uncommon on California roadways to spot diesel cars with bumper stickers that boast of biofuels in the engine, using slogans such as "Fuel for the revolution."

"This is the largest underground movement in the United States since the Civil War and the underground railroad," said Michael Wittman, an environmental activist and biodiesel user in Los Angeles.

But many drivers who began using biofuels to reduce their carbon emissions and save money fear that little-known government regulations are nipping the adoption of homegrown, "green" fuels in the bud.

In California, it's … Read more

For $9,995, your car could run on sugar and tequila

NEW YORK--"Henry Ford had it right all along," E-Fuel founder and CEO Thomas Quinn declared, referring to the fact that many original Model T Ford automobiles ran on the ethanol, not gasoline. But that was before the era of Prohibition, which banned production of the biofuel along with other forms of alcohol.

Now, he hopes ethanol can have a real revival.

In a press event at Revel, a Meatpacking District restaurant that features a greenhouse-like roof and trees growing inside, Quinn and his fellow executives unveiled the EFuel100 MicroFueler. It looks like a cross between a gas … Read more

Wagoner: GM is not California's enemy

SAN FRANCISCO--General Motors' CEO Rick Wagoner braved protesters in San Francisco Thursday at an event designed to lay out GM's strategy for addressing global warming and energy security. During the event, entitled "Can GM really be Green Motors", Wagoner discussed the various alternative-fuel and advanced drive-train products that GM is working on including hybrids, ethanol-powered cars, fuel-cell vehicles, and plug-in electric vehicles including much-hyped Chevy Volt plug-in vehicle. Wagoner also defended GM's opposition to California's proposal for stricter emissions standards (which include a 30 percent reduction in tailpipe emissions by 2016), but stated that "… Read more

Biodiesel plants idled by rising soybean prices

The rising price of soybeans is putting the squeeze on biodiesel producers, leading some to close down operations.

The prices of soybeans and soybean oil have more than doubled in the last two years, according to the National Biodiesel Board.

For producers, that sharp uptick in price is forcing them to either close down or go to different sources of oil, such as animal fats or fry grease from restaurants.

Most biodiesel in the United States is made from soy. Soybean oil is around 60 cents a pound, while at the beginning of 2007 it was under 30 cents a … Read more

Update: Biofuels CEO taking new job

I'm very sorry, Larry Gross.

I posted an earlier story on Larry Gross no longer serving as CEO on AltraBiofuels. It was based on a report on Earth2Tech.

The story seemed to fit into a thread of stories of former dot.com era tech CEOs stepping down from energy companies. Some are doing well, but others have moved on.

Gross is no longer CEO of Altra, but he's not down and out. It turns out Gross will head up a company called Edeniq, a cellulosic biofuels firm that is being spun out of AltraBiofuels, according to a follow-up story from Earth2Tech. … Read more

Report: Another biofuels company loses its CEO

It looks good on paper. Combine the managerial expertise of the computer world's start-ups with the growing market for green energy.

But, as Larry Gross as discovered, it doesn't always work. Gross, brother of Bill Gross and a former entrepreneur at Idealabs, is no longer the CEO of AltraBiofuels, according to Katie Fehrenbacher at Earth2Tech. The 4-year-old AltraBiofuels has pulled in millions in venture funds.

So far, there's no explanation for the departure.

Gross, though, isn't the only former IT exec to also be a former energy exec. Late last year, Martin Tobias, a software VC … Read more

Is ethanol's carbon footprint bad? It depends.

In the cleantech and carbon worlds, the carbon footprint of ethanol, whether from corn or sugar feedstocks and fermentation processes, or enzymatic or thermochemical cellulosic sources, is always good fodder (or perhaps, "fuel") for debate.

And depending on which process and which study you personally ascribe to, the answer on how "carbon clean" ethanol looks depends. In most debates centering on corn fermentation, for example, the studies cite a range from say, 20 to 30% less carbon intensive than gasoline, to 20 or 30% more. This begs one very big question in my mind, what's … Read more