Envirofuel - Promoting sustainable mobility

Today is a sad day. After more than a year of running Envirofuel I have decided that I will no longer be updating the site.The reason for this is my desire to make use of my studies in science and technology commercialisation. From now on I’m going to focus on developing my knowledge in commercialisation and technology transfer through the development of a new web site. The decision to leave Envirofuel is not an easy one but I simply will not have time to maintain two web sites in my spare time.

Envirofuel remains relevant and should continue. Instead of letting Envirofuel slowly fade into Internet history I’m looking for someone to take over editorial responsibility. If you, or someone you know, are interested in taking up the cause please contact me.

I am more than willing to help the new editor set up the automated searches I use to gather information (free other than the cost of electricity and an Internet connection) and provide any tuition required on the use of WordPress (no technical knowledge needed). The costs are minimal, the cause is worthy and it is a very rewarding experience.

Thank you to all those who read and supported Envirofuel over the last year. With a little luck we’ll be resuming normal service soon.

Thanks and regards,

Luke

The ASPO Australia web site has a transcript of an address given on 04 Mar 08 to the Brisbane Institute by the Honourable Andrew McNamara, Queensland Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation. In his presentation entitled “Highway of Diamonds” the Minister talks about sustainability in terms of climate change, peak oil and population density. The transcript is well worth a read.

The most interesting thing I took away from it was his reference to papers written in the 40’s and 70’s that show we’ve known for over 50 years that our world would not be able to support ever increasing numbers of humans with ever increasing appetites for consumption, yet we’ve turned a blind eye in the name of progress.

Strangely this press release didn’t appear to get much coverage in Australia or many other countries for that matter. What’s it all about?  Shell and Virent have been collaborating for a year on technology that can convert plant sugars directly into petrol and petrol blend components, rather than ethanol.

Virent’s BioForming™ platform technology uses catalysts to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at a petroleum refinery.  Traditionally, sugars have been fermented into ethanol and distilled.  These new ‘biogasoline’ molecules have higher energy content than ethanol (or butanol) and deliver better fuel efficiency.  They can be blended seamlessly to make conventional gasoline or combined with gasoline containing ethanol.

The BioForming™ page on Virents web site says that their technology produces gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels with twice the net energy yield per acre as traditional ethanol processes and that gasoline made via the BioForming™ process will enjoy a 20% to 30% per BTU cost advantage over ethanol.

The companies have so far collaborated for one year on the research.  The BioForming™ technology has advanced rapidly, exceeding milestones for yield, product composition, and cost.

Future efforts will focus on further improving the technology and scaling it up for larger volume commercial production.

Dr. Graeme Sweeney, Shell Executive Vice President Future Fuels and C02 said

New fuels on the horizon, such as Virent’s, with characteristics similar or even superior to gasoline and diesel, are very exciting.

Dr. Randy Cortright, Virent CTO, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President said:

Virent has proven that sugars can be converted into the same hydrocarbon mixtures of today’s gasoline blends.  Our products match petroleum gasoline in functionality and performance. Virent’s unique catalytic process uses a variety of biomass-derived feedstocks to generate biogasoline at competitive costs.  Our results to date fully justify accelerating commercialization of this technology.

While this technology faces the same fuel for food issues any plant sugar based fuel technology faces I would have thought that turning plants directly into a gasoline substitute would be big news.

Source: Shell

With the news that Google Transit is coming to Australia starting in Perth now seems like a good time to list the on-line public transport planning tools already available in Australia. All these tools allow you to plan a door-to-door trip using public transport in our capital cities.

Adelaide - Adelaide Metro Trip Planner (not quite door-to-door)

Brisbane - TransLink Journey Planner

Melbourne - MetLink Journey Planner

Perth - Transperth Journey Planner

Sydney - Greater Sydney Transport Trip Planner

If the public transport organisation in your city or town provides a similar service let me know via the comments and I’ll add it to the list.

Source: Gizmodo

Hythane Company LLC, the wholly-owned US subsidiary of Eden Energy, has announced it has received a US patent for its cryogenic storage vessels for liquid hydrogen. The new technology will advance the practicality of hydrogen cars by optimizing energy storage, reducing or eliminating the need for bulky lithium ion batteries.

The main use for this technology, called Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES), will be in the automotive industry where it will reduce or eliminate the need for bulky lithium ion batteries. Whether used for traditional hybrids, electric cars, or hydrogen combustion engines, SMES will capture and use energy from the vehicle braking system to reduce or eliminate the use of large, expensive batteries. By combining fuel storage and the battery into a single unit, the range and efficiency of alternative fuel vehicles will be increased, and fuel can be stored in a much smaller space.

Greg Egan, Chief Technology Officer at the Hythane Company and inventor of the SMES system said:

This technology addresses many of the barriers to popular use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen. By increasing the range and efficiency of hybrid, electric, and hydrogen powered vehicles, SMES has immediate uses today. It also brings us a big step closer to the practical use of pure hydrogen.

The innovation of SMES is that the vehicle fuel tank becomes a storage device to capture electrical energy from a regenerative braking system or other engine generation system, reducing or eliminating the need for on-board batteries. Integrating the SMES system with a liquid cryogenic fuel tank enables superconductivity, providing frictionless energy storage.

Source: Eden Energy

A decision-support tool developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been designed to help ensure that countries can enter the rapidly growing field of bioenergy industry to produce benefits for the poor without jeopardizing their food security.

The analytical framework allows governments interested in entering the bioenergy sector to calculate the effect of their policy decisions on the food security of their populations. Bioenergy can affect food prices and rural incomes and thus has important implications – both positive and negative — for food security.

A prerequisite for running the framework is the establishment of a bioenergy development scenario, a process in which FAO helps government clearly define their bioenergy policy options and the various possible strategies to achieve those options.

The analytical framework then makes it possible, through five steps, to assess: technical biomass potential; biomass production costs; the economic bioenergy potential; macro-economic consequences; national and household-level impact and consequences on food security.

Analysis of the results will make it possible to determine actual bioenergy potential and which households are most vulnerable and thus at risk of food insecurity.

The framework , designed by a team of economists from FAO, Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute and Darmstadt’s Oeko-Institut, will be field-tested in Peru, Thailand and Tanzania before it is made available to the international community.

Source: FAO via Biofuels Digest

Now that the MV Beluga SkySails has completed her maiden voyage of 11,952 nautical miles (I was a little bit premature with my previous post) SkySails are talking of fitting kite double the size of the existing 160 square metre item. They are also planning on fitting kites with a sail surface of up to 600 square metres will be used on two larger Beluga P-Series carriers. Currently under construction, these vessels will each have 20,000 tons deadweight.

On numerous days during the maiden voyage the system was put in action for periods of between a few minutes and eight hours. During that time the SkySail provided the ship with about 20% of the engine propulsion when it was flown in force 5 winds. When the kite can be flown 24 hours a day in those conditions it will save the MV Beluga SkySails about 2.5 tons of fuel, or more than $1,000, a day.

Captain Lutz Heldt returned from the two month maiden voyage to say:

We can once again actually ‘sail’ with cargo ships, thus opening a new chapter in the history of commercial shipping.

With the maiden voyage MV Beluga SkySails has commenced a 12 month pilot testing phase. The first six months will be spent calibrating and stabilising the kite system. The second half of the pilot phase will focus on extending the flight times and improving performance.

Source: SkySails

Jatoil’s first shareholder newsletter indicates they are making progress with their plans to become a major jatropha oil producer.

Jatoil’s first major transaction post-IPO was to acquire a controlling interest in PT Biodiesel Austindo. PT Biodiesel Austindo have started planting in Indonesia and should have their first agri-station (small planting that establishes the nursery and oil extraction facilities) by May this year. By the June 2008 PT Biodiesel Austindo anticipate they will have land use agreements for 120,000 hectares.

Photo: Jatoil shareholder newsletter

Jatoil and Green Energy Vietnam are setting up a joint venture under the Jatoil Group with the aim of establishing 5,000 hectares of jatropha plantations in Vietnam. Jatoil are also looking at similar arrangements across Asia and Sri Lanka.

The high price of palm oil (previous post) is pushing jatropha oil prices up. According to Jatoil the price of crude jatropha oil has increased from USD320 per tonne to USD500 per tonne in the last 30 months. Given biodiesel usage in the US and Europe doesn’t look like decreasing any time soon it appears the future is looking good for Jatoil. All they need to do now is get through the next couple of years until they can start large scale production and hope the market is still good when they get there.

Source: Jatoil Newsletter March 08 (thanks for the tip Sreenivas)

The Sydney Chamber of Commerce has called on the NSW Government to conduct a
feasibility study into the proposal to provide free train travel before 7am.

Patricia Forsythe, Executive Director of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce encourages greater use of the existing rail system in Sydney:

Extending the peak period for train travel is an option that should be considered. Stretching the peak period for trains would have a flow-on effect throughout the transport network and may help in managing the demand for services.

There has been a significant increase in demand for public transport and we’ve seen patronage levels increase across the board. While this is a positive development, it also adds pressure to existing infrastructure.

Mrs Forsythe said that free train travel prior to 7am could result in savings of up to almost $2,000 for commuters traveling to the city:

I agree with Mrs Forsythe when she says that when it comes to addressing congestion, the ultimate goal must be to deliver Euro-style metrorail. The higher fuel prices get the more people will need to use public transport. If we don’t start developing the infrastructure now in all our major cities and larger towns it will be all too late.

Update: The Sydney Morning Herald ran this article the same day.

Source: Sydney Chamber of Commerce

Great news for Greenfleet. They’ve become the first not-for-profit carbon offset provider to be approved by the Australian Government as Greenhouse Friendly™.

In the coming months Greenfleet’s customers will have the option of offsetting their emissions with Greenhouse Friendly™ approved offsets.

Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, had the following to say:

Greenfleet’s biodiversity forest projects will not only result in a reduction of greenhouse gases, they will also provide valuable habitat for native fauna and assist in the regeneration of the Australian landscape.

Greenhouse Friendly™ creates an opportunity for Australian companies to work with Government to reduce the environmental impact of their products or services. Now that Greenfleet is an approved offset provider they will be able to help, by providing high quality offsets to companies who wish to reduce their carbon footprint.

Source: Greenfleet via Yahoo 7 Finance