The Big Biofuels Blog

Biofuels from algae, is not new, its an idea which is old enough to have been discontinued and restarted. That is one of the mark of serious idea. I noticed that New Scientist, this week, is running a story about US firms that are using algae to convert the carbon dioxide from power plants into biofuel. What makes me worry…

I saw this on the altEng on blogspot and thought of you...

The complete biogas handbook

Ok, so the phones themselves are not directly biodiesel powered, but...

If its not alge then its bacteria...

Bacteria to run our cars, warm our homes from PhysOrg.com
The United States Department of Energy has devoted $1.6 million to sequencing the DNA of six photosynthetic bacteria that Washington University in St. Louis biologists will examine for their potential as one of the next great sources of biofuel that can run our cars and warm our houses.

[...]

Scientists in Japan have developed the biofuel equivalent of a blindfolded donkey turning grindstones. By harnessing the power of microbes to turn a micro turbine.

Harnessing the microbe, just how big can this get?

One man's meat is another man's poison as the saying goes. And that's fine, but the trouble with biofuels is that very often that one man's biofuel is another man's supper and potentially a third man's chemical feedstock.

Although chemicals use only about 5% to 7% of the world's oil that is currently more than could be substituted with by biosources. Wandering around the archives of ICIS Chemical Business I came across this roundup on biofeedstocks for chemicals and fuels written in 1998.

It has a naturally, chemicals slant but is worth looking at.

UOP, part of the mighty Honeywell empire is close to commercialising a range of technologies to make biodiesel and celluosic biofuels. UOP has been looking at using biofeedstocks in conventional refineries, to speed the way of biofuels to market. It has successfully processed feeds containing 100% biofeedstock and will be trialling the process in a commercial refinery in Asia in the first part of 2007. It plans to license it in the first quarter of 2007

The firm says its biodiesel route uses hydrogen, rather than methanol to produce biodiesel from waste oils, so its not really for home brewers. UOP has also developed a catalyst to convert the glycerol produced as a by-product of biodiesel production into propylene glycol, which is a useful chemical.

The full story is in ICIS Chemical Business, which will be published on Monday 13 November. If you let me know I'll send you a pdf of the article. I work for ICIS.

contact me at simon.robinson@icis.com

Technorati Tags: America, biodiesel, bioethanol, biofuel, Companies

Switchgrass is the great hope for many promoting second generation biofuels. One of the proponents is professor Albert Kausch working at the University of Rhode Island (URI) . In an article on Renewable Energy Access he said

native switchgrass grown commercially today could produce ethanol for approximately $2.70/gallon -- but by genetically improving a number of plant traits the production price could get as low as $1/gallon.

Shimadzu has a biofuels testing white paper which is aimed at the biofuels industries. The firm says it has worked with a range of other companies to develop different methods.

One way to stretch corn a little further is to convert the distillers grains that are left after fermentation as a feedstock for diesel, which is a technology that GS CleanTech offers. That company has recently signed an agreement with Central Indiana Ethanol to extract around 1.5m gallons/year crude corn oil from Central Indiana's distillers dried grains after processing.

Oil giant BP has just donated $500m in research funds for UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois to develop new sources of energy -- primarily biotechnology to produce biofuel crops, according to California Progress Report.

Cellulosic ethanol technology consolidation in the US got underway earlier today with the announcement that Diversa and Celunol are to merge into an integrated company.

In a joint statement the Diversa and Celunol said:

The combined company will be the first within the cellulosic ethanol industry to possess integrated end-to-end capabilities in pre-treatment, novel enzyme development, fermentation, engineering, and project development.

It will seek to build a global enterprise as a leading producer of cellulosic ethanol and as a strategic partner in bio-refineries around the world.

I guess that cellulosic technology takes deep pockets.

Over on the Green Geek, they're taking a look at a plasma process tha converts garbage to energy. Essentially, the process produces glass and a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen which can be used to make biofuels with a bit of chemistry.

The process generates more energy than it uses, according to Joseph Longo, CEO and founder of Startech Environmental Corporation

I guess two plus two equals four. If you say you want more biofuels made with new technology, then you're going to have to employ more people taking that technology to another level. That point is not lost on Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the US Bio Technology Industry Organisaiton.

He says

We can achieve the President's ambitious alternative fuel standard by using industrial biotechnology to both increase current ethanol production efficiency and make even more ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as corn stover, fast growing trees and wood chips, and dedicated energy crops, including switchgrass.

We all win

I guess two plus two equals four. If you say you want more biofuels made with new technology, then you're going to have to employ more people taking that technology to another level. That point is not lost on Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the US Bio Technology Industry Organisaiton.

He says

We can achieve the President's ambitious alternative fuel standard by using industrial biotechnology to both increase current ethanol production efficiency and make even more ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks such as corn stover, fast growing trees and wood chips, and dedicated energy crops, including switchgrass.

We all win

The US Department of Energy is putting $385m into cellulosic ethanol and will fund six cellulosic ethanol plants across the US in an bid to drive the technology forward. The goal is to fund plants and technology to produce around 130m gallons (522m litres) of ethanol/year. The story was reported on ICIS news by my good friend Joe Kamalick.

(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS)

U.S. Department of Energy  Secretary Samuel Bodman said

"These biorefineries will play a critical role in helping to bring cellulosic ethanol to market, and teaching us how we can produce it in a more cost effective manner"

The lucky companies are

Abengoa

Alico

Blue Fire

Broin

Iogen

Range

The DOE is to be commended for spreading its technology bets widely with technologies ranging from wood or citrus peel gasification to more currently talked about corn stover getting backing. Big chemicals/biotech hittersDuPontt and Novozymes have are partners in theBroin project and Shell is tied up with Iogen. It will be fascinating to see which technology route works best. Which do you think is the most likely to succeed?

In any case, it Looks like I'll have to bring my mental start date for cellulosic ethanol forward by a couple of years.

There's a useful piece by my friend, Clay Boswell, in this week's issue of ICIS Chemical Business about the way that paper mills could be chipping into success by becoming, in essence, biorefineries in the future with only modest modifications.

(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS.)

BioAmber has a process that may may help make ethanol production greener at a new plant that will take carbon dioxide from ethanol production and make a bio substitute for oil in petrochemicals.

BioAmber, is  a joint venture between Diversified Natural Products (DNP), a U.S. based biotechnology company, and French based Agro Industries Recherche et Development (ARD)) announced plans Thursday for a new facility to produce a green, bio-based replacement for oil in the chemical market.

BioAmber says it

will make succinic acid which can be used to make biodegradable chemicals using the CO2 from a newly constructed ethanol facility located on the same premises. The plant will be able to generate green chemicals, ethanol, bio-diesel, and combination products of succinic acid and ethanol, all in one location.

Now that looks, to me, like a good way of reducing the carbon footprint of ethanol production further... I wonder if they're going to be using crops to make the ethanol...

The press release follows

Neste Oil and Stora Enso agreed on 16 March to develop a technology producing biofuels from wood residues and invest €14m ($18.4m) in a pilot plant, according to ICIS news.

(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS)

Stora Enso, an integrated paper, packaging, and forest products company, will supply wood biomass while Neste Oil will market the biofuels. The process will involve using the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert syngas to fuel.

I wonder if they're talking to the chaps at Purdue University who are into hydrogenating biomass to fuel about optimising the process...

Over on Climate Policy you can find Daniel Kammen, a professor at Berkeley -- which recently won a $500m donation from BP to look at alternatives to traditional gasoline --  make a number of very sensible biofuel points...

He outlines exactly the kind of green fuel we don't want...

Ethanol, made from corn and refined to ethanol in a plant run on coal can be worse for the environment than using regular gasoline,

the kind of green fuel we do want...

Cellulosic materials turned into ethanol in a plant run by natural gas, or far better wind power or the plant's own waste energy and heat, is far, far better than gasoline.

How we could get there

What is needed next are a series of regional or national efforts to examine what the lowest carbon fuels are for different regions: plug in hybrid vehicles running off a clean grid; clean biofuels; high efficiency vehicle standards, and so forth.

It will be interesting to see how BP manages to take the last point on board in the future, given that the business of gasoline is to ship as much of a commodity, undifferentiated product as cheaply as possible around the globe. We'd have to see a significant change to the firm's business model. What do you think Lord Brown?

US Chemicals giant Huntsman thinks it has found another use for glycerine, making propylene glycol which is used to de-ice aircraft and make other chemicals.

LanzaTech claims to have a technology to convert carbon monoxide in industrial waste gases to ethanol. Looks promising, if the concentration of carbon monoxide is high enough. The trouble is carbon monoxide is pretty toxic so flue gas concentrations will tend to be pretty low...

Cargill and Ashland will announce later today at the Bio conference in Boston that they plan to form a 50:50 joint venture to produce chemicals from biofuels waste. In a joint press statement (which is not yet on either firm's website) they say:

The venture's first product will be propylene glycol (PG). Using both licensed and proprietary technology, the joint venture will produce high-grade propylene glycol from glycerin, an abundant co-product of biodiesel production. The joint venture expects to provide global manufacturing and marketing of bio-based PG, starting with a 65,000 metric ton-per-year plant at a yet-to-be-finalized location in Europe.

The venture anticipates a combined initial capital investment in the range of $80 million to $100 million. Details on the name, leadership and development plans are expected to be announced later in 2007.

Why now?  one answer would be that there's going to be a lot of glycerin about in a couple of years, there's about 1.4m tonnes of the stuff being produced at the moment and the market is growing at between 3% to 7%/year.  If biodiesel really takes off, and it would be a pity to miss the boat... or as they put it.

"We believe the chemical market has reached a tipping point where bio-based and petroleum-based options are both desired by the market and practical to produce. To be in a position where Ashland can offer bio-based specialty chemical products in the future, we need to help foster the creation of bio-based basic chemicals now," said Walter Solomon, vice president and chief growth officer, Ashland Inc. "We are creating our future and we've found a terrific partner in Cargill to do so."

And we're seeing some integration along the chain, which I think could help them in the future:

"Cargill's expertise in converting vegetable-based oils is world-class, its global reach is unmatched and its glycerin supply chain expertise will promote a quick market rollout. All this will provide a competitive advantage over other manufacturers attempting to produce any product derived from vegetable oils," said Dave Jones, director of bio-products, Ashland Inc.

It never occurred to me, until I was scratching about after a lead, that there's an entire group of people who don't want to worry about ethanol. They just burn the corn for heating. Not the straw, but the corn. I just burn corn, there's even a blog.

Although somehow that feels viscerally wrong to burn food like that it is going to extract the energy in the corn more efficiently than the whole rigmarole of fermentation distillation and transportation. Its certainly an honest use of the grain.

According to Fordaq news researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to pyrolise wood to give them biofuels. The work was quoted in the on-line edition of Energy and Fuels from the American Chemistry Society (ACS).

I'm not sure how this differs from other approaches using pyrolysis, but the ACS, is pretty hot on new chemistry...

Europe's first biodiesel train was launched by Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson and the UK's prime minister-elect Gordon Brown at London's Euston station on Thursday, according to a story on ICIS News.

(Disclosure: I work for ICIS: About ICIS)

I know very little about diesel locomotive engines, but it seems to me that larger engines are more tolerant of biodiesel than smaller ones. Can anyone help me out, am I right?

Just how much modification do trains need to run biodiesel? I asked the question over on the US Biodiesel and SVO forum yesterday in the light of the new Virgin 20% Biodiesel powered train.....

Suzy suggests:

I'd hazard a guess that it's just cleaning the fuel tanks to remove the crud and replacing the fuel lines and seals with biodiesel tolerant ones.

There's got to be more to it than that surely?

The only fuel spec I've been able to find on the web relates to a US standard for diesel loco fiuel. I can't find one for UK railway engines.

A bit more rooting about reveals that the British Rail Class 220/221 trains (to give them the name beloved by Anoracks the UK over) are fitted with four Cummins QSK19 diesel engines. I've put a call into Cummins...

There's more on modifying locomotive diesel engines for biofuels from Steve, the PR man at Cummins in the UK. He says:

It is true, the engines used in the Virgin Voyagers are Cummins QSK19 750hp engines. Their horizontal configuration is designed specifically for use in high speed rail car applications. There were two minor modifications made to the engines to use B20 biodiesel. 1) Additional fuel filtration was added to protect the engine from any contaminents 2) The fuel feed and return hoses were replaced for a compatible spec. The original ones were made from nitrile, which like other natural rubber products can deteriorate with long term contact with biodiesel.

As a former polymer technologist (everyone's got to study something) I should know what the alternative synthetic rubber is.... but it was a long time a go. Steve adds

Cummins has recently announced that our high volume Industrial products are now compatible with B20 biodiesel.

We are currently evaluating biodiesel blends beyond B20 and will communicate more details as they become available.

Biodiesel has been trialled in an aeroplane engine in France, and reported on the Green Car Congress, CFM a joint venture between Snecma and General Electric, carried out the test on one of its CFM56-7B engine using an ester-type biofuel at Snecma's Villaroche facility near Paris.

CFM said:

The biofuel used for this test is 30 percent vegetable oil methyl ester blended with 70 percent conventional Jet-A1 fuel. This test was designed to check the operation of a jet engine using a fuel made from biomass, without making any technical changes to the engine. With this type of biofuel, the target is a net reduction of 20 percent in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared with current fuels.

No comments about adding filters or changing fuel lines here, you'll notice. But being a Derby boy and living within earshot of Wilmore Road, where Rolls Royce tests its engines, for my formative years I can tell you it takes many hours/consecutive days of testing before they're satisfied that an engine is OK.

Mitusi has a new molecular sieve to remove water from ethanol. That's got to be useful if you've got a new ethanol plant on the drawing board.Here's some details of a Mitusi zeolite molecular sieve Hat tip to Green Car Congress.

Elephant grass is to be used to generate electrical power in Bahia at a plant built by a company called Dendi, in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. according to the Temas blog.
There is something clear and obvious about what you are doing if you grow a crop to burn it and generate electricity. I would be interested if anyone has figures on the efficiency of the different ways of producing biofuels to deliver 1kW power at a distance of 50km from the site of generation.

I've taken this out of a comment posted by Mark C, who I think has hit on an idea. Shorthand for biofuels

Here are his suggestions:

I wonder if we should start refering to:

Corn Ethanol as Ethanol-1

Sugar Ethanol as Ethanol-2

Cellulosic Ethanol (and those derived from marginal land or fast growing plants such as switch grass etc) as Ethanol-3

Each number going with the generation of the technology also....

I mean people know and use the term E85 (Ethanol 85% blend fuel) or B20 (biodiesel 20% blend fuel) reguarly now... like the old "Four star" leaded petrol here in the UK.... people use shortened language as it's easier....

Will this make life easier, can you suggest any more?

LS9 is putting the bio into biogasoline by using modified bacteria to directly produce hydrocarbons instead of ethanol or other intermediates, according to the BioConversion Blog, quoting Technology Review. LS9 has a number of big backers and is part funded by Vindod Khosla , the firm plans to build a trial plant in California to test the process.
I like the comment by Jim McMillan, principal biochemical engineer in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Bioenergy Center, based in Golden, CO he spoke to Technology Review and said: .

"I don't doubt that [making hydrocarbon fuel from microbes] can be done; the question is how quickly and at what cost."

Conoco-Phillips is helping fund University research into converting coal into ethanol, according to two posts conveniently pulled together on Doug Williams' blog No 1203: Biofuels, ethanol, biodiesel, clean energy.

Green car Congress talks about DOE and Conoco-Phillips Funding Research on Conversion of Coal-Derived Syngas to Ethanol

Lousiana Sate University, will be carrying out the work to improve the efficiency of ethanol fuel.

There is an awful lot of coal under the US, and if you're more concerned with fuel security rather than the energetic cost of producing fuel then it may be a good place to start looking. It is interesting that they are looking to make ethanol from syngas, when with a bit of fiddling you could make hydrocarbons... ConocoPhilllips has the infrastructure in place to handle those.

Canada's Shane and Evan Chrapko who made a packet in dot.coms and got out while the getting was good, have followed Vindod Kohlsa another web entrepeneur into biofuels, using a surprisingly similar approach.
According to Blognation's the two are bankrolling a technology to digest farm waste an turn it into methane, fertiliser and clean water

Hattip to Adders

Wood processing waste is a biofuel source, accordding to the Energy blog which says

Adding a little coal and processing the papermaking industry's black liquor waste into synthesis gas is a better choice than burning it for heat, improves the carbon footprint of coal-to-liquid processes, and can produce a fuel versatile enough to run a cooking stove or a truck, according to a team of Penn state engineers.

That's got to be one of the better ideas for biofuels, taking a waste product and doing something useful with it, even if in volume terms it is limited, compared to oil.

Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, will announce prior to the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit the first available biomass enzyme product developed specifically for second generation biorefineries and the cellulosic ethanol market. This is the first of a series of products which the company is developing to move the biorefinery industry towards full deployment. Commercial interest in second generation biorefineries, driven in part by government policies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and increase energy security, has accelerated over the past two years in the United States and around the world on Monday, October 15, 2007 10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. at the The Almas Temple Club
Meeting Room 2, Level P1
1315 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005

You'll need an invitation to go... and as its in Washington, I won't be there, which is a pity, because it looks like it might be interesting...

Genencor has given more details of its enzyme package for second generation biofuels at a press conference in New York today.

Dashing out the door last night, I noticed that one of my colleagues in New York had emailed me a press release from Genencor about its second generation cellulosic enzyme technology, which I posted.
I arrive back in the office, refreshed and alert after a good night's sleep (and a train commute to remember) to find two e-mails, one from Doris who sent the release on to me (and is planning her own blog later in the year) and one from Joe, who went to the press conference. The feeling is there may have been a little over selling in the press release. I'd say that's pretty normal.

In Joe's story we get to hear form Jack Huttner, head of biorefinery business development for Genencor, who injects a note of reality into the proceedings. Quoting from Joe's article:

He said the product, called Accellerase, will help biorefiners learn how to integrate commercial enzymes in their production units and will accelerate and improve ethanol yield.

The Genencor enzyme works on feedstocks such as sugar cane bagasse (cane stalk remnants from sugar production), soft wood chips and paper pulp. He said Genencor focused on enzyme development that could take advantage of the most readily available feedstocks.

He noted that cellulosic ethanol production still faces commercial and business obstacles as well as technical challenges, “but these things are all starting to come together”.

The telling numbers are at the end of the piece:

He said continued government support for cellulosic development is necessary because of ongoing research needs and the higher capital costs of cellulosic production. Capital investment for corn-based ethanol typically is $1 for every gallon of capacity production while cellulosic production requires as much as $3.50 of capital per gallon of capacity.

BioMCN won the innovation award at the World Refining Association's Bio-fuels 2007 conference in Vienna Austria from 29-31 October. The award was for finding a way to convert glycerol from biodiesel production into bio methanol.

Shell is taking a seat on Codexis' board and making a capital investment into the biofuels technology company as the firms announced their research collaboration is being extended by five years, according to a report on ICIS news.

(Disclosure I work for ICIS: About ICIS)

At the end of that time the firms hope to have developed a process to generate biofuels from cellulosic or other non-food sources, but Shell warned that it could be five to 10 years before they are available in commercial quantities.

We know that Shell is interested in biofuels, they also have a tie up with Iogen, which received part of a US Department of energy grant of $385m into cellulose ethanol earlier in the year. I had a day out with Shell which outlined some of its biofuel bets last November. At that time Shell didn't feel able to talk about the Codexis association, which was initially agreed close to the meeting.

That aside, one of the key messages from that for me came from Paul Snaith, vice president downstream marketing, Shell Global Solutions. He says biofuel should only be used if they

1 Make Economic sense

2 Are socially and ecologically sustainable

3 Are technologically sound.

Shell also has a policy of making capital investments into companies when they have at least two directors who understand the technology...

mmm Peaches. Peaches could be a source of hydrogen fuel, according to Greenbang. Better, I suppose, than baked beans.

Scientists at MIT are using e. coli to make iso-butanol. It will be interesting to see how its technology differs from the DuPont/BP process for biobutanol. Gevo, partly funded by Koshla ventures has an exclusive licence for the MIT technology.
Hattip to Biggav

I say, I say, I say, what have cellulosic ethanol and lead got in common?
They're both hard to get off the ground. Thank you I'm here all week.

Bad joke that, but over on Gristmill, there's an interesting comment about House Agriculture Committee chairman, Colin Peterson speaking at a Reuter's conference said;

"I really think the more I look at this whole cellulosic issue, there is a lot bigger problem to overcome here than people realize in terms of the feedstocks. We have a lot of work to do in that regard," he said. "I'm not sure cellulosic ethanol will ever get off the ground."

He's missing a trick, if you use pyrolysis to generate gas from biological feestocks then you can use cellulose as the starting material.

The process begins when the cane is ground up and cooked under high pressure with a mild acid to hydrolyze the hemicellulose and separate it from the cellulose. The five-carbon sugars in hemicellulose are then fermented using genetically modified E. coli. The cellulose is broken down with enzymes and fermented with another type of bacteria called Klebsiella oxytoca. This bacteria does double duty, since it also produces enzymes that break down cellulose, reducing the amount of enzymes from outside sources by 50 percent. The dilute ethanol produced from fermentation of both types of sugar is then distilled to make fuel.

The Catalyst Group Resources (TCGR) has identified a number of attractive avenues worthy of further consideration.  Developed for members of its Catalytic Advances Program (CAP) and entitled Catalysis in Biofuels Applications, the study addresses three (3) principal routes for pursuit, broken out by area of bio-based source as follows:          

Liquid Biofuels from Oils and Fats:

 

- New heterogeneous catalyst technology is needed to allow the transesterification reaction to be conducted at lower temperatures with strong resistance to contaminants.  This should reduce the cost of production and could allow additional decentralization of production, which reduces transportations costs. 

 

- Adding value to the co-products derived from processing oils and fats into fuels can be pursued via the integrated bio-refinery concept, which can then be extended to incorporate ethanol production from corn or cellulosic feedstocks and methanol production from the biogas produced by anaerobic digesters utilizing agricultural waste.

 

Liquid Biofuels Made by Direct Liquefaction of Biomass:

- Catalytic primary liquefaction is still in the embryonic stage of development. Cheap, robust catalysts are needed that can withstand severe fouling and poisoning conditions. Attention should be focused on oxygen removal and control of the molecular weight (MW) of the oil product.  Improvements in simplification and robustness should allow operation in remote/rural areas on a small-to-medium scale.

- For upgrading primary bioliquids (e.g., pyrolysis oil) via deoxygenation, strategies for implementation in existing refineries need to be developed. The optimal combinations of the primary liquid fractions and requisite upgrading technologies merit further investigation. 

- Catalysts for deoxygenation that combine decarboxylation (DCO) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) conversions with minimal hydrogen consumption are needed.

Liquid Biofuels Made by Catalytic Gasification of Biomass and Syngas Conversion:

- The design, development and selection of improved catalysts for solid biomass gasifiers should focus on mechanical strength and attrition resistance.

- Bioliquids gasification should enter the process development stage now. Autothermal operation and long-term stability of catalysts are needed. Lowering the operating temperature would allow heat integration with exothermic reaction heat from synthesis reactions such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.

- Co-reforming of bioliquids and natural gas or naphtha would facilitate fast introduction of large amounts of renewable hydrogen or synthesis gas. In addition, integration of catalytic gasification and gas cleaning (e.g., S, Cl, tar) in a single process is possible but has hardly been explored.

 

In this detailed and comprehensive 115-page report which summarizes recent progress on catalysis in biofuels applications, members of The Catalyst Group Resources' (TCGR's) Catalytic Advances Program (CAP) have exclusive access to a state of the art report. The study not only provides a comprehensive treatment of new science and technology with an extensive review of the literature, but also puts recent developments in perspective relative to existing technology.  The most recent advances and most commercially promising technologies are assessed in detail.  The report is authored by leading industrial and academic experts and is peer reviewed. 

 

Additional technical reports issued on a members-only basis in 2008 include: "Direct Conversion of Methane, Ethane and Carbon Dioxide to Fuels and Chemicals" and "Catalytic Conversion of Syngas to Chemical Products".

 

To view the report's complete Table of Contents, List of Figures and List of Tables, please visit http://www.catalystgrp.com/capprogram.html.  For further information on these reports and the membership-driven Catalytic Advances Program (CAP), please contact Mr. John J. Murphy (John.J.Murphy@catalystgrp.com) or call 215-628-4447.

HONEYWELL'S UOP GREEN FUEL TECHNOLOGY TO POWER
BIOFUEL DEMONSTRATION FLIGHT FOR AIR NEW ZEALAND

UOP process technology produced green jet fuel from jatropha that will power an
Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400

DES PLAINES, Ill., Nov. 11, 2008 - UOP LLC, a Honeywell (NYSE: HON) company, announced today that its process technology was used to convert second-generation, renewable feedstocks to green jet fuel that will be used on a demonstration flight by Air New Zealand.

UOP collaborated with Air New Zealand, Boeing and Rolls-Royce to produce and test renewable jet fuel made from the oil of jatropha plants. The flight, slated for Dec. 3 in Auckland, New Zealand, will be the first ever of a commercial airliner powered by sustainable, second-generation renewable resources. The green jet fuel will be mixed 50/50 with Jet A1 and will power one of the Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400's Rolls-Royce engines RB211 engines.

"We must diversify our fuel supply to meet the rapid growth in energy demand while effectively balancing social and environmental needs," said Jennifer Holmgren, general manager of UOP's Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit. "This team has stepped up to do something about the rapidly evolving energy landscape, and as a result, we could see viable commercial-scale production and usage of biofuels in the aviation industry in a matter of just a few years."

Jatropha, an inedible plant can grow in conditions where other food crops cannot, is considered a sustainable, second-generation resource because its cultivation and harvesting do not tax valuable food, land or water resources, and can provide socioeconomic benefit to the regions where it is grown. 

UOP, a recognized global leader in process technology to convert petroleum feedstocks to fuels and chemicals, is developing a range of processes to produce green fuels from natural feedstocks. UOP's green jet fuel process technology is based on the hydroprocessing technology commonly used in today's refineries to produce transportation fuels.

In this process, hydrogen is added to remove oxygen from the biological feedstock such as oil from jatropha plants or algae. The result is a bio-derived jet fuel that acts as a drop-in replacement for petroleum-based jet fuel and meets all of the critical specifications for flight. 

Fuel produced for the sample flight was tested by aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and has successfully proven to meet all critical jet fuel specifications for flight, including a freeze point at  -47 degrees Celsius and a flash point at 38 degrees Celsius.

"Laboratory testing showed the final blend had excellent properties meeting and, in many cases, exceeding the stringent technical requirements for fuels used in civil and defense aircraft," said Company Specialist for Fuels at Rolls-Royce Chris Lewis. "The blended fuel therefore meets the essential requirement of being a 'drop-in' fuel, meaning its properties will be virtually indistinguishable from conventional fuel, Jet A1, which is used in commercial aviation today."            

Boeing Commercial Airplane's Managing Director of Environmental Strategy Billy Glover said, "The processing technology exists today and based on results we've seen it's highly encouraging that this fuel not only met, but exceeded three key criteria for the next generation of jet fuel - higher-than expected jet fuel yields, very low freeze point and good energy density - that tell us we're on the right path to certification and commercial availability."

"This flight strongly supports our efforts to be the world's most environmentally responsible airline," said Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Rob Fyfe. "We recently demonstrated the fuel and environmental gains that can be achieved through advanced operational procedures using Boeing 777s. We're also modernizing our fleet as we await our Trent 1000-powered 787-9 Dreamliners that will burn 20 percent less fuel than the planes they replace. Introducing a new generation of sustainable fuels is the next logical step in our efforts to further save fuel and reduce aircraft emissions."

UOP's Renewable Energy & Chemicals business, which was formed in late 2006, has already commercialized the UOP/Eni Ecofining™ process to produce green diesel fuel from biological feedstocks. UOP has ongoing research efforts in biofuels, with specific focus on second-generation feedstocks working with organizations like the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE's National Renewable Energy Lab and Pacific Northwest National Lab. Its process technology to convert natural oils and greases to jet fuel was originally developed as part of a project funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

UOP, Boeing and Air New Zealand, along with Air France, ANA (All Nippon Airways), Cargolux, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS and Virgin Atlantic Airways, joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuel User's Group to accelerate the development and commercialization of sustainable new aviation fuels.

Honeywell International is a $38 billion diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; turbochargers; and specialty materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell's shares are traded on the New York, London and Chicago Stock Exchanges. For additional information, please visit www.honeywell.com.

UOP LLC, headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA, is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, process plants, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. UOP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. and is part of Honeywell's Specialty Materials strategic business group. For more information, go to www.uop.com.

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DYNAMOTIVE ENERGY SYSTEMS CORPORATION            News Release: December 1, 2008

Dynamotive Signs Agreement for Development of Plant in China

Vancouver, B.C. - Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (OTCBB:DYMTF) announced today that it had entered into a commercial agreement to support the development of a pyrolysis plant in China based on its proprietary technology.

In accordance with the agreement, Dynamotive will provide process and engineering support for the development of a plant to be located in the Henan province in the People's Republic of China, being the first Dynamotive plant to be built outside Canada.

The plant will be developed by Hubei Xinda Bio-oil Technology Co., Ltd. (Hubei Xinda) in co-operation with Great China New Energy Technology Services Co. Limited (GCNETS) who is the exclusive licensor for Dynamotive's technology in the People's Republic of China.

Dynamotive under the terms of the agreement will provide technical support for the development. Fees for the technical support have been agreed for at $2,300,000 (two million three hundred thousand USD). Construction will take place in China and will be the responsibility of Hubei Xinda.

Ping Yan, President and General Manager of Hubei Xinda said, "Our company focuses on the development of renewable energy in China. We have been following Dynamotive's technology for eight years."

"We have secured over 900,000 dry tons of corn stover as feedstock for BioOil production which will be sufficient to supply 10 plants in the first stage of development. We have the funds ready to build China's first plant in Henan province, and show the potential of this technology."

"The first project in China marks an important milestone for our company," said Dynamotive's Chairman Richard Lin. "China's economic development is in the world's spotlight, and energy security and environmental protection are two major global concerns. As a leader in the bio-fuel industry, Dynamotive uses its patented technology to convert agricultural residues into valuable and clean renewable energy. The process makes use of non-food resources and creates no competition for land with food crops."

GCNETS, Dynamotive's exclusive licensor in the region was instrumental in the development of this agreement and in the introduction of Dynamotive's technology in China. In particular GCNETS worked co-operatively with National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Dynamotive in regard to vetting the technology (announced December 12, 2006), a critical step in securing this first plant.

The agreement with GCNETS and Hubei Xinda is the first of a number of potential agreements that are expected to be concluded in the region. GCNETS also worked closely with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), after being introduced by the Canadian Embassy in 2006 (see website disclosures October 7, 2008) and has confirmed that negotiations are ongoing.

GCNETS is obligated to develop within five years a minimum of 15 plants in the region. Minimum license fees have been set at $1,000,000 (one million USD) per plant developed. Further, the agreement between GCNETS and Dynamotive provides for up to 20 % ownership of Dynamotive in the venture.

According to NDRC, China produces 900 million tons of agricultural residues each year. Using only one-third for fuel production, it would be sufficient to supply feed for two thousand 200 tpd BioOil plants. This output would help China meet its target to reduce its industrial fuel oil imports by 50%.

I notice that Syngenta and Proteus have formed a joint venture to create enzymes to help make second generation biofuels. This is not Syngenta's first jv in this area. It would be intetresting to know how the different techologies complement each other.

Japanese researchers say they have gone some way to overcomnig the difficulties in using ethanol as a fuel cell material.

Thanks to Hugh Baker

It isn't particularly fast, and there is no detail on the yeild, but Japanese researchers have developed an enzyme-based route to producing ethanol from shredded copy paper. There is no information about whether the ink on the paper makes any difference to the quality of the fuel.

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Thanks to Hugh Baker

It would only take 10% of the surface area of the state of New Mexico to meet the US energy needs if it were devoted to algae production according Val Kurtz, ceo Valcent Products, speaking in this video.

Thanks to Hugh Baker

ST1 has an animation about its plans for decentralised ethanol production integrated with the existing gasoline distribution network. Looks interesting.

Thanks to Hugh Baker

The gist is that...
Researchers at the Ghent, Belgium-based Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) have developed transgenic poplars deficient in the enzyme cinnamoyl-CoA reductase. This reduces the lignin content making them more suitable for bioethanol production, although so far their benefits have only been demonstrated in the lab.

A final decision from the Dutch government is due in spring 2009.

Verenium's outside auditor, Ernst & Young, said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the company's working capital deficit of $23.8 million and accumulated deficit of $622.6 million as of Dec. 31 "raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

While Aventine said it did not have the cash to make a $15 million interest payment due April 1 or the $24.4 million it owes builder Kiewit Energy Co. Kiewit built some ethanol-producing plants for Aventine.

We remain focused on commercializing the technology that we are developing jointly with Verenium and continue to progress development activities with the commercial JV that we announced in February in order to make commercialization possible.