Recently in Reports Category

The National Renewable Energy Lab has released a technical report entitled, E85 Retail Business Case: When and Why to Sell E85. According to NREL,

The document identifies seven variables that can make E85 profitable and weighs their influence using a model NREL created based on a discounted cash flow analysis. These variables are:

• E85 equipment configuration
• E85 throughput
• Equipment costs
• Return on investment
• Maintenance and operation costs
• Base taxable income
• Annual throughput of mid-grade and premium

Knowing the relative influence of these variables helps retailers assess whether they are good candidates for an E85 project. The model also helps them estimate the minimum margin that they would need to make on each gallon of E85 in order to make their investment profitable.

Southern Company has released a report detailing a series of tests conducted on co-firing green wood chips from whole and from approximately needle free pine trees. The purpose of the project was to "determine what level of processing of whole trees is required to successfully co-fire the chips in a boiler, and to evaluate the benefits and costs of wood processing compared with the effect of the fuel on the power plant." The tests were performed at Plant Gadsden in Gadsden, Alabama. From the report, summary results are as follows:

• Green wood chips were successfully co-fired in blends with coal between 8% and 15%
  wood by weight. Of the input fuel energy, 2.8% and 5.5% was from wood, and represented about 2.0 MW to 3.8 MW biomass power.
  
• Sulfur emissions were reduced, and particulates were no higher with co-firing. At normal operating condition, carbon monoxide emissions were unchanged. The measured impact on NOx emissions was small.
  
• With 10% co-firing, boiler efficiency was about the same as coal alone, while there was a slight reduction in efficiency with 15% wood.
  
• Higher moisture losses due to high wood moisture were offset or nearly offset by reduced dry gas losses up the stack.
  
• High moisture of the wood coal mixtures resulted in low mill temperatures and high mill bowl under pressures. This caused a 5% load derate when co-firing 15%.
  
• The coal-wood mixtures had much lower fuel energy to volume ratio than the baseline coal. The issues appear to have been related to the installation of new automatic controls. Stability issues were corrected in subsequent tests by tuning the fuel-steam pressure automatic controls.

The project was initiated by Southern Company & Alabama Power, USDA Forest Service, Forest Based Economic Development Services, University of Alabama, and Auburn University.

The full report can be found here.

The Energy Information Administration has released the International Energy Outlook 2008. The Outlook projects 50 percent growth in energy use between 2003 and 2030. It also projects a 50 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions during the same period with current policy regulations. The EIA attributes this growth to "robust economic growth and expanding populations in the world's developing countries." While the report does project a 2 percent increase in hydroelectricity and renewable energy use, coal and natural gas consumption also increase by 2 and 1.7 percent. To learn more, read the press release and the full report.

Texas A&M's Agricultural and Food Policy Center analyzed the effect of ethanol on Texas food and feed in April 2008. The report found that "the underlying force driving changes in the agricultural industry ... is overall higher energy costs, evidenced by $100 per barrel oil." Oil prices have gone from $35 per barrel in 2005 to over $100 per barrel in 2008. Other findings include:

• Rising energy costs has led to higher costs of production for corn producers, resulting in fewer corn acres planted.
  
• Food items like bread, eggs, and milk have higher prices unrelated to ethanol or corn prices, but are a result of higher world demands.
• The livestock industry has borne the cost of higher corn prices for feed and have yet to be able to pass those costs on due to the structure of the industry.

The full report can be found here.

Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman and Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer teamed up to respond to Senator John Bingaman's questions regarding ethanol's impact on food prices and gasoline prices. The letter can be found here and a DOE fact sheet showing how biofuels has helped keep gas prices lower can be found here. 

A new report, Global Agricultural Supply and Demand: Factors Contributing to the Recent Increase in Food Commodity Prices, describes the numerous factors that have affected the price of global food commodities. The report, from USDA's Economic Research Service, provides a clear picture of both the long-term and short-term trends that are affecting food prices. Long-term trends include the combination of slower growth in production and rapid growth in demand that has decreased world grain and oilseed stocks. Short-term trends include:

• Adverse weather conditions in some major grain- and oilseed-producing countries
• Rising energy prices
• Increased global demand for biofuel feedstocks
• Declining value of the dollar
• Increasing agricultural costs of production
• Growing foreign exchange holding by major food-importing countries
• Policy decisions by some exporting and importing countries to mitigate food price inflation
• Entrance of hedge fund managers into commodity markets

The full report can be read here.

A working paper from the Center for Agricultural & Rural Development suggests that "growth in ethanol production has caused retail gasoline prices to be $0.29 to $.40 per gallon lower than would otherwise be the case." "The results suggest that this reduction in gasoline prices came at the expense of refiners' profits," the authors said. They also explain that "the availability of ethanol essentially increased the 'capacity' of the US refinery industry and in so doing prevented some of the dramatic price increases often associated with an industry operating at close to capacity." The paper is being presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association in July 2008. The full paper can be found here. 

The expected dramatic increased in ethanol production has brought questions concerning the transportation infrastructure that will move ethanol from the plant to the consumer. A report by the Agricultural Marketing Service of USDA has provided a background document looking at this issue. Ethanol Transportation Backgrounder: Expansion of U.S. Corn-Based Ethanol from the the Agricultural Transportation Perspective looks at the current and potential use of rail, truck, barge, and pipeline by the ethanol industry. The document also highlights current and potential transportation issues such as use of unit trains, the backlog in production of rail tank cars to meet demand, and transportation of co-products, such as distillers grains. The full report can be found here.

In October 2007, the Biomass Research and Development Initiative released its report Roadmap for Bioenergy and Biobased Products in the United States. The Roadmap "identifies measures needed to advance biomass technologies and enable an economically viable, sustainable and economically desirable biobased industry." The report outlines recommendations for regions, feedstocks, processing & conversion, infrastructure, end-use markets, and non-R&D measures. Key recommendations include:

• Create policies to support the scale-up of the first 2 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol
• Develop the future workforce including technical training programs for associate degree students who will operate biorefineries
• Develop dedicated bioliquid pipelines from the Midwest to East Coast, Florida, and West Coast product terminals
• Fund a comprehensive study on the impact of E12, E15, and E20 blends on the US car fleet
  

A study from the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota found that higher ethanol blends resulted in better fuel economy than unleaded gasoline. The study tested eight different ethanol blends on a Ford Fusion, a Toyota Camry, a non-flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala, and a flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala. At the E30 level, the Toyota Camry and the Ford Fusion ran more miles per gallon than unleaded gasoline. The non-flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala ran more miles per gallon at E40 and at E20 on the flex-fuel vehicle.

In addition to fuel economy, the study also tested emissions and found that exhaust emission values for nonmethane organic gases, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide met EPA standards for all vehicles tested except the flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala which exceed the nonmethane organic gases standard on E20 and regular gasoline.

The full report can be found here.