Category Archives: biofuels

Nice summary of the RFS (and a new blog to follow!)

Posted on March 29, 2013 by

For those who are confused about RFS, RINs, and other acronyms in my last post, I found a great summary on a new blog that we’ll add to our blogroll.  Seems like he is making some nice posts of the … Continue reading →

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Corn, ethanol, RIN prices, and the blend wall!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

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More on automotive fuel efficiency

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

EPA just released a big report on vehicle fuel mileage, summed up in this WonkBlog entry http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/16/cars-in-the-u-s-are-more-fuel-efficient-than-ever-heres-why/ A few comments: A) I’m struck by how response fleet mileage seems to crude oil prices in their figure in point #1.  In … Continue reading →

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The blend wall and what we will do with all the cellulosic ethanol

Posted on February 24, 2013 by

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

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Has biofuels led to major land use changes in the US?

Posted on February 21, 2013 by

And is the land that is being converted from grassland to corn and soy the “marginal land” that people take about growing dedicated bioenergy crops?  A new article in PNAS this week seems to answer “yes” to both these questions. … Continue reading →

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updates on the court challenge to the RFS: minimal long-term impact

Posted on February 7, 2013 by

I like how this post by Judy Endres explains the recent court ruling “overturning part of the RFS”.  The devil is in the details: Although the court rejected EPA’s approach favoring overestimation of projected cellulosic biofuel production, the RFS itself, … Continue reading →

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The RFS- basket case, or just a few years ahead of it’s time?

Posted on February 5, 2013 by

When Congress established the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) through the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, one of the primary goals was to grow the fledgling cellulosic ethanol sector from laboratory scale up to an industry surpassing corn ethanol, via … Continue reading →

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comparing original RFS volumes with revised volumes (some perspective)

Posted on February 1, 2013 by

Today the EPA released revised mandated amounts of biofuel to be blended under the RFS legislation. To put these numbers in perspective I have taken the original requirements for cellulosic in the 2007 law and compared to the revised amounts … Continue reading →

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Colorado goes cellulosic!

Posted on January 28, 2013 by

Via Paul, and article in Biofuels Digest highlighting how our local corn ethanol plant (Front Range Energy in Windsor, CO) will soon be transitioning to cellulose-derived sugars for a fraction of its feedstock: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/01/16/sugar-rush-sweetwater-front-range-ink-100m-cellulosic-biofuels-deal/ This is a very exciting development!  … Continue reading →

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The EIA Energy Outlook seriously bums me out

Posted on January 2, 2013 by

The US Energy Information Administration, a great source for all kinds of domestic energy use data, just released a preview of their Annual Energy Outlook 2013, as written up by Biomass Magazine: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/8392/eia-releases-annual-energy-outlook-2013-reference-case Of specific interest to those of us … Continue reading →

Posted in biofuels, climate change, energy | 6 Comments