LIQUID FUELS US EPA announces RFS renewable volume obligations Bioenergy International No 83, 7-2015 29 of government data released during conference. Canada held on as the top export market with 26.2 mg (44 percent) of US ethanol crossing the border. Meanwhile, India imported 14.3 mg (24 percent) in September 2015, its highest level of imports since February, while exports to Brazil were close to zero. Total year-to-date US ethanol exports reported in Budapest were 624.9 mg. This is a 6 percent increase compared to this time last year and already greater than total exports in 2013. Year-todate shipments indicate an annualized rate of exports of 833 mg. Low risk ILUC Ruta Baltause from the European Commission (EC) Directorate General (DG) for Energy explained several new directives for greenhouse gas (GHG) savings. Minimum GHG emission thresholds are increased to 60 percent for new installations starting physical production of biofuels after 5 October 2015. – The estimated indirect land-use change (ILUC) emissions are included in the fuel suppliers and commissions reports in both Directives but no ILUC factors in the sustainability criteria or for the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) 7a accounting are changed, Baltause said. The new thing, according to Baltause, is so called “low risk ILUC” biofuels and bio-liquids. The definition and EC reporting shall be fulfilled by 2017 on possibility for identification and certification. There will also be change in procedure for the GHG emission calculation methodology for both fossil- and biofuels. Incorrect assumptions So-called “flex-fuel” vehicles can run on blends of ethanol up to 85 percent (“E85”). These vehicles have been sold for more than a decade–more than 15 million are on the road today– but up to now have not run on ethanol very often. – Both in the EU and the US, the focus should be on providing cleaner, low carbon octane to help meet health, climate and efficiency goals, underlined Douglas Durante, Executive Director from Clean Fuels Development Coalition. Durante said that in the light of continuing detections regarding the Volkswagen emissions problems, this scandal should lead air quality officials around the world to look closer at, often incorrect, assumptions and calculations used in determining emissions. – Furthermore, a better understanding of the importance of looking at fuels and vehicles as a unified system would tell a far more encouraging story than what many current and outdated models would indicate, Durante specified. He said that regardless of the misinformation spread by the petroleum industry, ethanol is a superior fuel and additive to anything out of the oil barrel. Gasoline is a mix of hundreds of different chemicals and hydrocarbons, the worst of which are the toxic, often carcinogenic aromatics. – The US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is actually obliged to reduce these risky components in the US and if we were allowed to splash blend additional volumes of ethanol, we would be able to improve fuel quality and protect public health, explained Doug Durante. Despite the challenges facing the biofuels industry in regard to political and public support, solutions exist, said Durante, which can easily overcome the imaginary blend wall. – The value of ethanol in reducing carbon emissions while providing the octane they need is persistently acknowledged by auto industry, Durante said. Encouraging consultations among the ethanol, agriculture and auto industries as well as the US Departments of Energy and Agriculture are, according to Durante, focusing on blends of 25, 30 and even 40 percent in the coming year. He also noted hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in the fuelling infrastructure and the industry is working to provide consumers with choice by creating access to the market. – With vehicles that can use ethanol and through the capability to distribute the fuel, the potential is nearly unlimited for both first- and second generation fuels. To oppose these programmes means lost market shares to the petroleum industry, which admittedly funds the opposition we see in all of our countries. Working together we can tell the facts and how biofuels provide a wealth of environmental, energy and economic benefits, underscored Doug Durante. Text & photos: Markku Björkman BI83/5111/AS Global chemical major US-based DuPont has officially opened its US$225 million commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa, USA. The plant will convert corn stover (corn cobs, leaves and stalks) to 30 million gallons (mg) of fuel-grade ethanol annually making it the world’s largest such facility to date. DuPont is collaborating with more than 500 local farmers to gather, store and deliver 375 000 dry tons of corn stover each year, harvested from 190,000 acres of farmland within 30 miles of the plant. Proximity to Iowa State University and DuPont Pioneer research locations enables further research, collaboration and innovation and the plant’s fully integrated endto end production system will be available to license globally. DuPont recently announced its first licensing agreement with New Tianlong Industry to build China’s largest cellulosic ethanol plant, and last fall a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was announced between DuPont, Ethanol Europe and the government of Macedonia to develop a biorefinery project. The company also is working in partnership with Procter & Gamble to use cellulosic ethanol in laundry detergents. DuPont celebrated the opening of the Iowa facility on October 30. – Today, we fulfill our promise to the global biofuels industry. Cellulosic biofuel is joining ranks with wind and solar as true alternatives to fossil fuels, said William F. Feehery, President of DuPont Industrial Biosciences. The majority of the fuel produced at the Nevada facility will be bound for California to fulfill the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. BI83/5127/AS DuPont inaugurate world’s largest cellulosic ethanol plant The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2014, 2015 and 2016 that refiners have to meet in blending biofuels with gasoline. The agency increased the blending requirements across the board, to a total of 18.1 billion gallons, including 14.5 billion gallons of undifferentiated biofuels or corn ethanol and 230 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol. Under the new RFS rule, Biomass-based Diesel volumes would grow to 1.9 billion gallons in 2016 and 2 billion gallons in 2017. The Biomass-based Diesel category – a diesel subset of the overall Advanced Biofuel category – is made up mostly of biodiesel but also includes renewable diesel, another diesel alternative made from the same feedstocks using a different technology. BI83/5129/AS Cont. from 27
Bioenergy International no 7 December 2015
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