Fuel change breakthrough: biodiesel-powered speedboat Earthrace, around world in 60 days, beats record set in 1998 by 14 days

Team Earthrace, led by New Zealand Skipper Pete Bethune, has smashed the world circumnavigation record for a speedboat by almost 14 days. Almost five years of preparation, planning and two record attempts have paid off leaving the bio-diesel powered Earthrace team to claim the round the world speedboat record.

Possibly the coolest powerboat on the planet, the space age, wave piercing trimaran Earthrace took bio-fuel into history as the 78 foot, (24 metre) boat crossed the 'Round the World' finish line in Sagunto, Spain. In just 60 days Earthrace has powered almost 24,000 nautical miles around the world. Earthrace left Spain on Sunday April 27th at 14:35 local time (1325 GMT) and headed west on the long voyage around the world. The previous record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe was 74 days 20 hours 58 minutes 30 seconds, set by the UK boat ‘Cable & Wireless Adventurer’ in 1998.

Flying both the New Zealand and Spanish flags Earthrace thundered across the finish line, powered by her twin 540 horse powered Cummins-Mercruiser engines, in front of a large spectator fleet and awaiting media at 14.24 CET (13.24 GMT). The finish in Spain by Earthrace was monitored by D. Jaime Pérez López, Presidente de la Federación Territorial Motonaútica de la Comunidad Valenciana.The new record is 13 days, 21 hours and 9 minutes inside the old one.

For the visionary skipper behind the Earthrace campaigns the last sixty days is just one step in a journey that has, so far, taken five years. In 2003 living in Sydney Australia, Aucklander Pete Bethune was working on his MBA when he wrote a 20,000 word paper on the use of renewable energy for road transport. Convinced by his research, he set out to prove that sustainable bio-fuels were a practical step in the replacement of hydrocarbon fuels.

‘Sustainability is the key. We cannot cut down rainforests to plant palm trees for palm oil that is not renewable at all. We will need new technology and ideas, such as using marine algae to convert the suns energy into bio-fuel, while making sure we use animal fats more efficiently. We need to grow plants like Jatropha in marginal agricultural areas, where they can be used for animal fodder, as well as having bio-fuel value.’

The determination and grit of the Earthrace team is ultimately what led to the taking of the round the world speedboat record. Skipper Pete Bethune was unwilling to hear the words 'delay' or 'precaution'. Bethune's tenacity to take the record infected the crew with a scene of 'must do, can do, and will do.’ It is this determination that drove the ground team to sleep two out of every twenty-four hours and remain focused during the delays, and lack of resources. Determination is direction to a point. In this case the point was completing the world's longest race. But was that the 'point' of Earthrace? Simply taking a record. A name, typed in small print, on page 74 of a yearly publication.

I have to ask myself what is the point? My wife and I donated almost a year of our life to the last race attempt and have steadily consulted through this attempt. We are just two of the many team members. Why the commitment of time and energy by such a wide array of marine technicians from around the world? What is the point?

The point is change. The Earthrace boat grabs one's attention, and the crew are treated as B grade celebrities. Being a minor grade celebrity has the advantage that people around the world are willing to listen to what we have to say, if only for a minute. Allow me to present a few examples.

Last year when Earthrace arrived in one Pacific island, we found a ship exporting 240 tons of coconut oil while a small tanker sat at the dock offloading fuel. In our couple of minutes of 'B grade' celebrity status the team was able to meet with the coconut exporter and ask 'Why not change that coconut oil into diesel fuel and sell it on the island?' This year when Earthrace returned that same island was using locally grown coconuts to power vehicles. A small change, but one that would not have happened if the Earthrace team had not been given the right ear, if only for a minute.

On another island an official explained how they were considering a new electrical generation plant. In our two minutes of fame the team was able to quote the advantages of wind, solar and minimizing consumption. We heard later that a wind plant was in the consideration phase. One Earthrace engineer was able to use his 'two minutes of fame' to make a presentation on a Caribbean island. That presentation has brought three businesses together who are preparing to collect forty thousand gallons a month of used deep fry oil to process into bio-diesel.

To me that was always the point of Earthrace - the ability to effect change. The ability to take a small stand to prevent forty thousand gallons of month of toxic waste from entering a land fill in exchange for producing forty thousand gallons a month more income to an island nation.

Positive change is not often seen on today's new reports. This is change that may not have happened if Skipper Pete Bethune had not laid his future on the line to build the first link of a chain that ends in a web of small events adding up to a slightly better world. This is the real long-term record that can be claimed by the team - the claim to a better future! Congratulations to the Earthrace team and its sponsors.

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Photos courtesy of David Perez, Jim Burkett, Caroline Gautron1, and Earthrace Media

Original Source - Powerboat-World: Earthrace - a vehicle for fuel change andEarthrace - New Record Round the World in 60 days

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Biodiesel Brand Names

Usually drivers don't go out of their way to fill with a particular brand of gasoline—they pull into whatever station is convenient as they start to run low. Subsequently, gasoline and diesel aren't usually marketed from a quality standpoint. There are, however, still lingering consumer concerns about biodiesel so marketers have been designing elaborate branding campaigns, which are relatively unique in the fuel world.

There are many biodiesel brand names in the market today: Archer Daniels Midland Co. markets Connediesel mostly in Europe; Chicago-based Ultra Green Energy Service sells Ultra Green Diesel; there is SoyPower and REG-9000 from Renewable Energy Group Inc.; Northland Choice from FUMPA Biofuels in Redwood Falls, Minn.; and Southern Gold from North Mississippi Biodiesel, to name a few.

"While I mostly agree that brands are not as important in the petroleum industry, we have seen more of that lately with BP kind of taking over the retail market and companies putting names on fuel," says John Campbell of AG Processing Inc. in Omaha, Neb. AGP markets SoyGold, a long established name in the industry. SoyGold biodiesel, made from American grown soybeans, is the country's "most popular renewable fuel," AGP says. "Available year round, SoyGold increases fuel lubricity, boosts cetane values and burns cleaner than traditional diesel fuels."

"Biodiesel" has become a brand in and of itself, but there remains feedstock, quality and price differentials that make companies feel a need to distinguish them from others. "There are production variations in the biodiesel industry and we want to exceed what the consumer expects," says Steve Bond, sales and marketing manager for Blue Sun Biodiesel in Denver, Colo. "So branding is central to how we're doing things."

Blue Sun is a unique case. It markets and distributes Blue Sun Fusion, a B20 blend, and while the company is not currently producing fuel, it works only with a handful of producers who it says can deliver superior quality. The company also has its own additive package, DTX, which enhances certain fuel performance properties and is a major component of the Fusion campaign. Its plant in Clovis, N.M., although currently idle, is buying biodiesel from other producers, blending it with petroleum and selling B20 under the Fusion brand. Blue Sun is trying to create demand and, to do that, has pursued the strategy to brand the fuel.

Rick Geis of Griffin Industries in Cold Springs, Ky., says that most of the branded fuel on the market is a post-blended product. "Some of these folks will switch suppliers based on economics, switch feedstocks, and still market the fuel under the same brand name," he says.

Wholesale and History

Indeed, most producers aren't selling their biodiesel at pumps on the corner, so most branding campaigns aren't meant to expand consumer acceptance. "Branding is more for jobbers and petroleum companies to have some indication of the quality of your product and your company's experience," Campbell says. "It's clearly soy, that's our strong suit, that's what we sell." SoyGold has been around a long time and AGP's view when it launched the brand—and still today—is that biodiesel is not completely commoditized, and it's not homogenized. "So we set out to capitalize on our benefits," Campbell says.

And the brand name has led to some marketing opportunities in end-use markets. "We were putting our fuel on marine docks on the West Coast and selling B100 in a case where we were not going through jobbers," Campbell says. "We were putting SoyGold on fuel tanks and selling the fuel in a niche market, but that's kind of ancient history now, and there are very few of those opportunities today. We did have some efforts in the Midwest where we had pump placards and signatures."

Branding was more important early on, before ASTM specs were strictly adhered to, and it meant something. But now that BQ-9000 has become the brand of the industry, and since the National Biodiesel Board has cautioned users away from fuel that isn't BQ-9000 certified—or at least from fuel that doesn't meet ASTM specifications—logos and brand advertising isn't as important for wholesale fuel marketers. Nevertheless, brands are important to the consumer market, a sector that has eluded biodiesel. BlueSun's position is unique because it is a biodiesel retailer that also has a production facility—most producers sell their fuel on a wholesale basis.

In 2008, Griffin Industries made a majority of its biodiesel from tallow and animal fats and in 2009 used waste grease as a primary feedstock. "We've made biodiesel from all three main feedstocks," Geis says. "But we've never branded that component of our fuel. We use a lot of fuel in our own fleet, so we kind of have a captive market. We're certainly a commercial producer but we're not actively promoting BIO-G3000 and we're not spending a lot of money advertising it."

In effect, biodiesel branding has been an evolutionary process that started with companies trying to differentiate their biodiesel products and feedstock choices from others in the business.

Service and Reputation

Most of the biodiesel consumed in the U.S. is a blended product. BIO-G3000 is a co-brand of Griffin Industries, a wholesale brand. "Sometimes there isn't any consistency and that is why branding becomes so important," Geis says. "Branding is much less important today than it was five years ago, in my opinion. Anybody can have a brand—what's important is the reputation behind the brand."

In addition, the BQ-9000 brand is a result of quality assurance efforts in the industry. "It's become a brand in and of itself, and seems more important than calling your fuel A, B or C," Geis says. "We want to promote the fuel as high quality, consistent and stability-driven as much or more than its feedstock derivation."

Griffin Industries' identity is essentially its brand, which includes relationships the company has cultivated with buyers. "We often are selling directly to fleets and petroleum jobbers who, in turn, sell their own brand of biodiesel," Geis says. "We're selling B100 or B99.9—to get the excise tax credit—on a wholesale basis. We're not selling B20."

"We do have a fuel handling manual that we developed, and we did do a lot of handholding in the earlier days," Campbell says. "We had to educate people on hoses and the proper materials, but we've matured and the fuel distribution system has matured. You rarely hear about those sorts of problems anymore because people know how to prepare their system properly."

Much ado has been made of the production numbers two years ago when the industry manufactured almost 750MMgy of methyl esters. Talked about much less is that a majority of that volume was exported and consumed outside U.S. borders. As U.S. EPA contemplates RFS2 implementation and its biomass-based diesel carve-out, a significant number of parties will be required to use biodiesel that never have before. Currently, companies with various positions in the biodiesel supply chain have achieved a kind of comfort level where everybody knows how to use it, but if use quadruples there will be lots of jobbers who have never handled it. "People have gotten comfortable with their suppliers, but there is going to be a learning curve for new users,"

Campbell says. "These users are going to be looking for brands that have been around and the reputation of the company behind it is what is meaningful."

Source : http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article-print.jsp?article_id=3938

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Government Programs and the Biodiesel Industry: A 2010 Outlook

As 2009 came to a close, several government programs that impact the biodiesel industry—both in the U.S. and internationally—remained uncertain. The final determinations on these programs will play a significant role in how the U.S. biodiesel industry produces and markets its product.

The renewable fuels standard (RFS2) was modified in 2007 to require that advanced biofuels reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent relative to gasoline sold or distributed in transportation. In May 2009, the U.S. EPA proposed rules that took into account indirect land use changes when calculating GHG emissions. Based on the EPA’s preliminary findings, soy-based biodiesel was found to reduce GHG emissions by only 22 percent, which would disqualify it from counting towards RFS2. Biodiesel from animal fat was found to reduce GHG emissions by approximately 80 percent. The EPA’s draft results did not measure biodiesel produced from corn oil. The EPA has announced that it intends to publish final rules prior to the end of 2009; however, as of the date this article went to print, such final rules have not been released. The EPA has suggested that the final rules will take into account estimates for the uncertainty of the inclusion of indirect land use changes in its calculations of GHG emissions. Depending upon the outcome of the final rules, biodiesel producers should be prepared to respond accordingly—as the rules will likely impact demand for any feedstocks favored or disfavored by the rules.

Another significant government incentive for the biodiesel industry is the biodiesel blender tax credit, originally created in 2004. The credit provides a $1 tax credit per gallon of pure biodiesel to the company that first blends the biodiesel with petroleum-based diesel. The credit was originally set to expire on Dec. 31, 2008, but was extended until Dec. 31, 2009 as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. A bill known as the Biodiesel Tax Incentive Reform and Extension Act of 2009 (Senate Bill 1589) has been introduced; however, as of the date this article went to print, the bill had not moved past the Finance Committee. If the credit is not extended again, or if the extension includes overly restrictive limitations, it will have a negative impact on the biodiesel industry’s ability to compete with petroleum-based diesel, and the biodiesel industry will need to develop strategies to counteract this disadvantage.

On March 12, 2009, the European Commission applied temporary duties on imports of biodiesel from the U.S., while it continued to investigate the evidence of unfair subsidies and dumping of U.S. biodiesel imports into the European Union. Beginning on July 13, 2009, the EU decided to impose tariffs on biodiesel imported from the U.S. for a period of five years. The U.S. government has stated its opposition to these tariffs and is in the process of reviewing this decision, but it is unclear what, if anything, can be done in response. Until a modification to the tariffs can be implemented, or the five year time period expires, biodiesel producers will need to focus their marketing efforts on targeting non-European markets and increasing demand in the U.S.

During this volatile time in the biodiesel industry, producers should stay apprised of developments in government programs, in order to best position their business to respond to the changing climate.

Kristi Harshbarger is an attorney with BrownWinick, a Des Moines, Iowa-based law firm serving the renewable fuels industry. Reach her at (515) 248-6627 or klh@brownwinick.com.

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National Biodiesel Conference and Expo 2010

Location:	Grapevine, Texas, United States Map
Start Date:	February 7, 2010
End Date:	February 10, 2010

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Description:

The Great State of Texas welcomes us back as we host the 2010 National Biodiesel Conference & Expo in Grapevine!

NBB has listened to our past attendees and exhibitors who, overwhelmingly, indicated they attended the conference to network with the numerous biodiesel marketers, feedstock growers, fuel distributors, government leaders and other biodiesel stakeholders. From our new Monday evening reception in the Exhibit Hall, the addition of a new Biodiesel Networking Center in the Exhibit Hall, a new and improved NBB Connections social networking system to the numerous open forum "round table sessions" that will be offered this year, NBB wants to assist in these efforts to connect and learn! We believe these additions and changes to the program will create boundless networking opportunities and allow you to meet new people with some of the same biodiesel interests. Where better to meet than the premier biodiesel conference in the country?

Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center
Grapevine, Texas
United States

Tel: (303) 798-3664
Email: nbb@kinsleymeetings.com.
Web: http://www.biodieselconference.org/2010/


Region: North America
Sector: Renewable - Biomass & Biofuels
Types: Conferences & Workshops, Exhibitions & Trade Shows

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2010 Advanced Biofuels Workshop - June 14, 2010, at the America’s Center convention hall in St. Louis.

Global warming, greenhouse gas regulations, food-versus-fuel, indirect land use change, deforestation—with these critical issues in the spotlight as the U.S. drives toward energy security, there has never been a more important time for advanced biofuels.

The U.S. renewable fuel standard passed under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 defines advanced biofuel as any renewable fuel that meets a 50 percent life-cycle GHG emissions reduction from the petroleum baseline, and is not derived from corn starch. By 2022, the standard calls for 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels to be used in our nation's fuel supply. It starts now.

Advanced biofuels include:

• Ethanol from biomass
• Biodiesel (methyl esters)
• Biobutanol
• Green diesel (hydroprocessed)
• Biopropanol
• Pyrolysis oil
• Fischer Tropsch bio-derived diesel
• Bio-derived synthetic paraffinic kerosene (bio jet fuel)
• Biomass-based dimethyl ether
• Renewable diesel (thermal depolymerization)
• Green gasoline
• And more!

If corn ethanol is your only passion, then this is not the event for you. For those whose interests lie in the countless other renewable fuels emerging, if there is only one workshop you attend this year, make it the Advanced Biofuels Workshop, June 14, 2010, at the America's Center convention hall in St. Louis.

Expert presentations, informed discussion, invaluable networking—all the perks of a full conference will be experienced during this convenient one-day workshop. More than 400 people are expected to attend to learn about advanced technology updates, algae and second-generation feedstock development, market challenges and trends, R&D activities, policy, finance, project development and more.

Be involved. Make a difference. Reserve your spot at the Advanced Biofuels Workshop today.

Source : http://advancedbiofuelsworkshop.com/ema/DisplayPage.aspx?pageId=About_Us

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BioFuels

Corn ethanol

Pluses: May reduce U.S. reliance on oil imports and enable moderate reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases compared with oil. Fosters the building of biofuels infrastructure.

Minuses: Ethanol is energy intensive to produce, and the recent boom has pushed corn prices to more than $5 a bushel (from $2 in 2006). That is increasing the cost of everything from beef to soft drinks. The biofuels craze is helping drive up grain prices worldwide as farmers devote more acres to corn and less to other crops. Over 450 pounds of corn are needed to fill a 25-gallon tank with ethanol_ enough calories to feed a person for a year.

Biodiesel

Pluses: Made from vegetable oils like soy and canola and animal fat, biodiesel provides 90% more energy than is required to produce it. Compared with petroleum-based diesel fuel, biodiesel is estimated to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 40% to 80%.

Minuses: Like corn ethanol, biodiesel's production from food crops boosts "agflation." European demand has been blamed for inducing farmers in Southeast Asia to burn and replant the rain forest with palm plantations, which has released large amounts of greenhouse gases. Production is limited at the moment_ just 250 million gallons in 2006.

Sugar-cane ethanol

Pluses: Sugar cane yields more ethanol per acre than corn, and it requires less energy to produce; hence, it is regarded as greener than corn ethanol. Sugar isn't a food staple, so making ethanol from it hasn't driven up food prices as has the production of large amounts of corn ethanol. Brazil makes nearly as much ethanol from sugar cane as the U.S. does from corn; cane provides nearly half of Brazil's transportation fuel from plants grown using about 1% of its arable land.

Minuses: Growing sugar cane requires a warm, rainy climate, which limits its potential as a global fuel source.

Cellulosic ethanol

Pluses: Made by breaking down wood chips, farm waste, and nonfood crops like grasses, cellulosic ethanol wouldn't require diverting the use of cropland. Scientists are making progress at breaking down plants' tough cellulose and lignin molecules, the key to turning nonfood biomass into fuel.

Minuses: Still costly and difficult to make, ethanol produced from nonfood plants is more energy intensive than that made from corn and sugar cane. By one estimate, putting all the grassland in the U.S. into fuel production could replace only about 10% of petroleum.

Algal biofuel

Pluses: The fastest-growing plants, algae theoretically can produce 30 times more energy per acre than other biofuel options. A particularly rich mix of byproducts can be made in algal-biofuels operations (everything from nutraceuticals to feedstocks for making plastics), potentially abetting their cost-effectiveness. This is the biofuels' dark horse.

Minuses: Unlike cellulosic ethanol, the biomass for making a lot of fuel from algae doesn't yet exist; it has to be grown from scratch. Harvesting is still expensive. Cost-effectively producing algal biofuels on a large scale may be many years away.

Source : http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.green_biofuels.fortune/index.html

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