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Green Chemistry

Biofuels Part Three - Biomass and Future Fuels

Biomass Thumbnail

How biomass is fueling renewable energy integration in the U.S.




So, What is Biomass?






What about Biofuels?






The Complete Winning Recipe



Produced by: Cassandra Oliveira

Biofuels Part Two - Fertile Energy Policies

Biofuels Part Two - Fertile Energy Policies

Biofuels Producers Find Fertile Policies Across the Great Plaines.




Step One: Implement Renewable Fuel Standards






Step Two: Add State-Wide Incentives





Step Three: Mix with Abundant Resources



Produced by: Cassandra Oliveira

Biofuels Part One - Companies to Watch

Biofuel Companies to Watch

Bioenergy Companies Worth Watching.




Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE)



Renewable Energy Group (REG)

1) converting natural fats, oils and greases into biofuels and
2) converting diverse feedstocks into chemicals






Want to hear more?


Produced by: Cassandra Oliveira

Beer with us - sustainable brewing is here

Beer with us - sustainable brewing is here

Beer. Everyone already knows that if we drink enough, we’ll eventually solve all the world’s problems. Now Sierra Nevada is proving it.

The North California brewery—6th largest in the US—produces beer so sustainable you can feel the planet healing with every sip.

They’ve halved water use, slashed transport greenhouse emissions and now generate more than 60% of their electricity onsite, from clean and renewable sources. All while delivering one of the most competitively priced craft beers on the market.

Here’s how they do it.

It’s hard to imagine when swigging a lazy summer beer in your hammock, but that beverage in your hand is energy intensive. Every drop has spent its entire life under some sort of temperature control—from steeping and boiling, through 60°F fermentation and into a refrigerated supply chain.

Sierra Nevada takes the heat off the planet with a two-pronged approach to sustainable energy that starts with efficiency. When done boiling a brew, for example, they don’t just cool the kettle with any old water. They use H2O that’s destined for the next batch. Doing so pre-warms the water, so it requires less energy to boil the next brew.

State of the art refrigerator seals and locks ensure cooling is equally efficient while large windows naturally light the workshop. Sensors switch on supplementary artificial lighting only when needed.

Even with these efficiencies in place, however, brewing still chews through a lot of energy. That’s why Sierra Nevada started generating their own onsite, using natural gas-powered hydrogen fuel cells and solar.

At almost 11,000 panels, theirs is one of the largest privately owned solar installations in the US, and literally no panel is left unturned to max out the available power. Tracking technology follows the arc of the sun through the sky and rotates some of the panels to face it, producing up to 30% more energy than if they were static.

Sierra Nevada also installed 2 miles of rail lines to connect their operations with the national network. The link not only cuts back on greenhouse-intensive road transport (rail is 50% cleaner than truck travel) but it significantly lowers their annual logistics bill.

Finally, and perhaps most ingeniously, the brewery derives energy from waste streams by using microbes to break down unwanted organic by-products. The process produces clean-burning methane, which is used to fuel boilers.

A typical craft brewery uses between seven and eight pints of water to put one pint of beer on the bar. Sierra Nevada does it with less than five.

After filtering yeast residues and unwanted proteins out of the brew, they allow the sludge to settle out in ponds. By adding microbes to the remaining water, they’re able to break down finer organic fragments and send it back to the city in good shape for further cleaning.

Sierra Nevada has also refined dry bottle- and kettle-cleaning technologies to meet rigid hygiene demands with minimal H2O. And by using brewing water for heat exchange, they not only save energy but water as well.

Hop for the best
There are many reasons to like beer. Many indeed. Sierra Nevada’s just given us another, with a sustainable brew that makes you want to send a late night text saying: “I love you, planet.”

In the process, they’ve proven sustainable manufacturing is not just viable, but profitable. The brewery says its practices are set to yield considerable operational savings over the coming years, rewarding them for an innovative approach to environment and business.

Produced by: Murad Sabzali

"Crop that": biodiesel can be best of all worlds

Crop that: biodiesel can be best of all worlds

At about 300 million years, nature takes its sweet time turning plant matter into combustible oil.

Attempts to expedite the process through biofuels have been maligned for taking arable land out of food production. Others argue the net energy gain is minimal when agricultural inputs are taken into account.

However, a group of farmers in Western Australia, led by Bev and John Logue, are dispelling some of these myths with a backyard refinery, an intelligent farming system and an eye for win-win-win scenarios.

They’re using unwanted fields to produce biodiesel that’s kinder to engines, produces more torque and churns out 70% fewer emissions than the mineral alternative. Oh, and the by-product is food.

The feedstock for this best-of-all-worlds scenario is canola, which is grown in the area as a disease break, not a cash crop. Wheat is what makes the Logue’s bread, literally and figuratively, but it can’t be grown continuously in the same field. That’s where the canola comes in. By giving fields a break, it allows wheat-specific plant diseases to subside.

The difficulty was in finding a valuable use for the canola which, given local climatic conditions, didn’t produce enough grain or oil for food production.

“We decided to give biodiesel a go so John found refining techniques on the internet and we set up a makeshift refinery in the shed, using an old hot water system,” Bev Logue explained. “We made 100 gallons and tried it in the 220 horsepower International tractor. Immediately, we found it could operate at lower revs without stalling and we were sold.”

Just a few years later, the Logues were powering half their farm equipment on 15,000 gallons per year and were making plans to go 100% biodiesel.

“The customary diesel rattle is gone; everyone that uses it will tell you how kind it is to engines,” Bev continued. “It can be washed off your hands in water and it’s biodegradable, so spillage in a waterway won’t cause the damage it might otherwise. And the economics add up.”

When they started in the early 2000s, the Logues were producing diesel at 40c/gallon, against commercial at-pump prices of $3.60/gallon. The biodiesel costs include transport to and from a crushing facility, where grains are turned to oil. A local crusher would deliver even greater savings and may become a possibility as more local farmers have spotted the advantages of biodiesel and joined the Logues to form the Northern Biodiesel Company.

What’s more, the by-product of canola oil extraction is a meal that makes excellent animal feed. Other growers produce biodiesel from mustard seed, which creates a by-product that kills plant diseases and pests in the soil when used as a ferilizer.

Saving money and 300 million years with biodiesel

The Logues begin biodiesel production with the overnight addition of sodium hydroxide to methanol, which creates methoxide. Canola oil enters the mix the next morning and separates into biodiesel and glycerol.

The glycerol settles to the bottom and is drained before the biodiesel goes into a tank where water is misted onto the surface. That causes the raw biodiesel to separate into a layer of water, a layer of soap and a layer of tractor-ready biodiesel.

“It only takes about six hours to convert oil to biodiesel using our plant,” Logue said.

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