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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Biodiesel saves the day $$$

Northern Oil's biorefinery looking to biodiesel as way to go off-grid and save power bills
In Australia, Northern Oil's biorefinery that produces biodiesel from tires is looking to use some of that biodiesel to produce its own power in an effort to significantly reduce or completely eliminate it's $1.5 million annual power bill. The company's power bill went up 10% last year, money that could have been spent on creating two additional jobs at the facility instead.  See more st link:
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2017/10/23/northern-oils-biorefinery-looking-to-biodiesel-as-way-to-go-off-grid-and-save-power-bills/

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Hearing focuses on Farm Bill rural development, energy programs @BiomassMagazine

Hearing focuses on Farm Bill rural development, energy programs @BiomassMagazine: On Sept. 28, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a hearing on the 2018 Farm Bill focused on rural development and energy programs. The committee has now held nine hearings this year focused on Farm Bill development.



 “Today’s hearing marks this committee’s ninth hearing this year dedicated to listening to our stakeholders from around the country on how our authorized programs are currently working, or need improvement, as we work towards Farm Bill reauthorization during this Congress,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who serves as chairman of the committee. “This includes taking a look at spending requests and proposals for the 39 programs in the Farm Bill that do not have budget baseline.”

“While it is a principal duty of this committee to ensure the next Farm Bill provides our nation’s agricultural producers with the necessary tools and resources to feed a growing and hungry world, our responsibilities, and the role of USDA, do not stop there, “ he said. “It is also critical the next Farm Bill works to support rural businesses, cooperatives, health clinics, schools, renewable energy and biobased product manufacturers, and other essential services providers that serve as the backbone of the communities our farmers and ranchers call home.”
In her opening statement, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., called the Farm Bill a jobs bill. “The rural development and energy titles that we’re discussing today have a wealth of opportunities to provide a bright future for rural America,” she said.
“In Michigan, agriculture and manufacturing are at the heart of our economy,” Stabenow added. “We don’t have a middle class unless we make things and grow things. That’s why we created opportunities in the last Farm Bill to support biobased manufacturing. Instead of using petroleum, companies are creating new products from American-grown crops. The economic benefit is twofold: new markets for our farmers, and new jobs and manufacturing opportunities for our businesses.”
“Additionally, the Farm Bill invests in renewable energy, which also leads to job creation, she continued. “According to a new report, there are now 92,000 clean energy jobs in Michigan alone. The popular Rural Energy for America Program – known as REAP – helps producers and businesses lower their utility bills through installing renewable energy systems and making energy efficiency upgrades. Innovations in advanced biofuels are helping us to become more energy independent and pay less at the pump.”
“It’s clear the opportunities we created in the 2014 Farm Bill are helping our small towns and rural communities create jobs and support communities where parents want to raise their children,” Stabenow said. “As we begin work on the next bill, I look forward to building on that progress to help rural America reach its full potential.”
Brent Shanks, director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals at Iowa State University, was among those to offer testimony at the hearing.
In his testimony, Shanks said the current federal strategy for advanced biofuels could be enhanced by further decoupling the risks between technology, market and infrastructure inherent in completely new biorefineries. He said this approach would allow for progress to be made toward the overall goal while having important intermediate successes along the way.
According to Shanks, the previous two Farm Bills has included an increased discussion of the importance of incorporating renewable chemicals and biobased products for advanced biofuel production. The strategy has largely been positioned around the idea of higher-value renewable chemicals and biobased products subsidizing lower-value advanced biofuel production. “While achieving such a strategy would be a wonderful outcome, it actually increases the amount of overall technological risk because both advanced biofuel and renewable chemical technology would need to be developed in concert with one another,” said Shanks in his written testimony. “An alternative would be to also consider technology development with a near term focus on renewable chemicals that could be leveraged to technological needs for advanced biofuels.”
Shanks also noted that market viability risk mitigation needs to address the uncertainty of crude oil and natural gas pricing, which would require biomass-derived products to have valuations that are less tightly correlated to this pricing. “The best market-based approach for diminishing the correlation is to have biomass-derived products that are different from petrochemicals and that impart improved performance attributes in their use,” he said.
In addition, Shanks stressed that a crucial attribute in producing fuels and chemicals is the large capital infrastructure required for their manufacture. “Commercially, risk mitigation for biomass processing infrastructure can best be accomplished by adding on limited new equipment to an existing agricultural or wood processing facility or by co-locating the new manufacturing process next to (“across the fence” from) such an existing facility,” Shanks said. “This strategy is already happening in the industry.”
Ann Hazlett, assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development at USDA; Richard Davis, acting administrator of the Rural Housing Service at USDA, Chadwick Parker, acting administrator of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service at the USDA; Christopher McLean, acting administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the USDA; Aleta Botts, executive director at the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development; Elmer Ronnebaum, general manager of the Kansas Rural Water Association; Christopher Stephens, president and CEO of Coweta-Fayette EMC; Denny Law, CEO of Golden West Telecommunications Cooperative; and Mark Olinyk, president of Harvest Energy Solutions, also testified at the event.
A video of the nearly three-hour hearing can be viewed on the committee website.


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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Biomass Hemp Coal Electricity GHG emissions

The use of clean energy biomass has a potential to reduce the lifecycle pollution emissions by 77%–99% in comparison to fossil fuel coal combustion




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Snippets of article on Green House Gas emissions with Biomass Feedstocks to Generate Electricity with and without Coal.

Biomass Hemp and Kenaf machines make Pellet,Brick, or Log Forms
Biomass Hemp and Kenaf machines make Pellet, Brick, Log Forms
Images, Infographics, Highlights added by Scotty to add life to the boring science paper.


Evaluation of the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Different Biomass Feedstock used for Electricity Generation-source


A review of the biomass literature showed that there are wide-ranging types of biomass that may be utilized in generating electricity.

The numerous types of biomass may be classified into distinct categories depending on the type of feedstock. The Idaho National Laboratory Report provided an extensive classification of feedstock-based biomass that included seven distinct categories as follows: 
MoHemp Kenya Hemp Pellet Biomass Price ComparisonAgriculture residues (AR): includes dry lignocellulosic agriculture residues (straw, sugar beet leaves) and livestock waste (solid manure, liquid manure) 

Dedicated energy crops (DEC): includes dry lignocellulosic wood energy crops (small round wood (SRW)—willow, short rotation coppice (SRC)—poplar, eucalyptus), dry lignocellulosic herbaceous energy crops (miscanthus, switchgrass, common reed, reed canary grass, giant reed, cynara cardu, Indian shrub), oil energy crops (sugar beet, cane beet, sweet sorghum, Jerusalem artichoke, sugar millet), starch energy crops (wheat, potatoes, maize, barley, triticae, corn, amaranth), and other energy crops (flax (Linum), hemp (Cannabis), tobacco stems, aquatic plants (lipids from algae), cotton stalks, kenaf) 
Missouri Farmers Hemp Invitation MoHemp Energy 
Forestry (F): includes forestry byproducts (bark, wood blocks, wood chips from tops and branches, wood chips from thinning, logs from thinning) 
Industry (I): includes wood industry residues (industrial waste wood from sawmills/timber mills (bark, sawdust, wood chips, slabs, off-cuts)), food industry residues (wet cellulosic material (beet root tails), fats (used cooking oils), tallow, yellow grease, proteins (slaughterhouse waste)), and industrial products (pellets from sawdust and shavings, briquettes from sawdust and shavings, bio-oil (pyrolysis oil), ethanol, biodiesel)
MoHemp Energy Hemp Biodiesel Example Comparison











Parks and gardens (P-G): includes herbaceous (grass) and woody (pruning) 
Wastes (W): includes contaminated wastes (demolition wood, biodegradable, municipal waste, sewage sludge, landfill gas, sewage gas) 
Others (O): includes roadside hay (grass/hay) and husks/shells (almond, olive, walnut, palm pit, cacao) This study adopted the same classification (agriculture residues, dedicated energy crops, forestry, industry, parks and gardens, wastes, others) as proposed by the Idaho National Laboratory Report [30] to evaluate the life cycle GHG emissions of biomass-only and biomass cofiring with coal electricity generation systems utilizing different feedstock options

Biomass to Electricity System Inforgraphic

Each of the reviewed biomass-only and biomass cofiring LCA studies (with specific details on the biomass feedstock type) were first assigned a

  1.  Biomass Category
  2. Feedstock-based GHG emissions 
  3. Biomass-Only 
  4.            Biomass Cofiring              

Biogas to Syngas System Image The use of forestry and industry feedstock categories is recommended for extensive use in both biomass-only and cofiring electricity generation systems

  • A consequence of considerably higher Sustainability- 11 of 12 GHGs being emitted from the combustion of coal in comparison with the combustion of biomass

Future feedstock-based biomass LCA studies need to focus on filling the knowledge gaps associated with the use of the parks and gardens feedstock-based biomass-only and waste cofiring electricity generation systems for which there were no references, which may provide valuable information on their applicability in producing electricity within a region. 

Future research efforts can also be aimed at increasing the number of real-world biomass LCA case studies, which can lead to further consolidation of the GHG emissions resulting from different biomass feedstock electricity generation systems.

The use of biomass has a potential to reduce the life cycle GHG emissions by 77%–99% in comparison to fossil fuel combustion, depending on the feedstock category and combustion technology used 

The biomass-only electricity generation system net electric efficiency was identified to be the most important factor that influences the final GHG emission savings

NOTE: Sustainability in transportation and distance would largely influence the GHG emissions from biomass electricity generation systems 
GHG emission stats biomass cofiring electrricity generation chart
GHG emission stats biomass cofiring electrricity generation chart
emission biomass only electricity Generation graph



Sunday, September 24, 2017

Rick Simpson Bizarre New Theory May Not be that Crazy







Rick Simpson https://www.facebook.com/ricksimpsonofficial



Friday, September 22, 2017

Industrial Hemp Farming would help Missouri Farmers

How does an Agriculture State like Missouri not recognize the potential that Industrial Hemp will bring our State? 

 Missouri Legislators where are you at? Missouri was 2nd to Kentucky in Hemp production years ago.  These other states are getting a jump on cornering the market.
MoHemp Energy Missouri Farmers lets grow hemp
Missouri Legislators where are you at? 



With hemp taking on a rare bi-partisan approach in the United States, here’s #HempToday’s review of current efforts to advance hemp growing across the country:
Arizona: Republican Sen. Sonny Borrelli has sponsored an initial measure aimed at establishing the framework for an industrial hemp industry. The bill would legalize the cultivation, distribution and sale of industrial hemp under state oversight for licensing and regulation.The bill recently passed the state Senate 26-4 with bipartisan support and is now in the House of Representives.
Florida: Republican Rep. Ralph Massullo proposed allowing state colleges and universities to start industrial hemp programs under which their agriculture schools would be able to establish programs in research, cultivation processing and marketing. The measure should get consideration during the legislative session now under way.
Idaho: Lawmakers have at least floated the idea of making industrial hemp legal to grow for research purposes under a state-controlled regime. Republican Rep. Dorothy Moon said she’s working on the measure.
Illinois: Democratic state Sen. Toi Hutchinson has filed a bill that would allow Illinois farmers to cultivate industrial hemp as part of research projects approved by the state.
Kansas: A legislative committee recently held a hearing on a state industrial hemp bill after which lawmakers said they’ll tweak it following a “good reception.” It would create the Kansas Industry Growth Act, authorizing and promoting research, business development activities, public-private cooperation and educational initiatives to promote the crop.
Kentucky: Already well advanced in development of its hemp industry, Kentucky’s state House of Representatives recently passed a bill which aligns the state’s industrial hemp research pilot program with the federal Farm Bill. The the bill would more fully align Kentucky law with the 2014 Farm Bill, which authorized state-level research pilot programs. It also charges UK’s Regulatory Services laboratory with responsibility for THC testing. Kentucky’s governor is expected to sign off on the measure.
New Hampshire: A state House of Representatives committee has unanimously approved a bill that would remove the state ban on industrial hemp; it would not create a state regulatory structure and treat industrial hemp like other plants. The measure passed out of a state agriculture committee on an 18-0 vote and is expected to eventually be enacted into law.
North Carolina: Farmers have started filing applications to join an already established pilot state hemp research pilot set up in 2015. State rules strictly regulate hemp farming and stipulate that the crop can be used for commercial purposes only.
Pennsylvania: While proponents have complained about slow progress on hemp, one regional coalition recently got certified to research hemp under state guidelines set out earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and expects to plant its first crop next month. The University of Pittsburgh will undertake a market analysis study.
Washington: The House of Representatives in early March passed a measure that would remove industrial hemp from the scope of the state’s controlled substances act. The bill would ensure hemp is not regulated as a controlled substance, opening the door for a full-scale commercial hemp market in the state by treating it as any other crop for farming.
Wisconsin: Republican Assemblyman Jesse Kremer recently circulated a draft bill seeking co-sponsors for a bill, which has bipartisan support, that would set a pilot program in motion under state supervised licensing. article continues
Hemp Environmental Forum Facebook Source: https://www.facebook.com/HempEnvironmentalForum/posts/824844944360439
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

MOhemp: Report: Italian wood pellet consumption expected t...

MoHemp Energy Biomass Hemp Pellets, Hemp Logs, Hemp Bricks,
MoHemp Energy Biomass Hemp Pellets, Hemp Logs, Hemp Bricks, 

Article Takeaways: 

  • Italy currently consumes approximately 3 million metric tons of wood pellets annually.
  • Domestic Use accounts for all but 4% of the Pellet Market
  • 85% of Italys biomass pellets are imported
  • 2016 1.66 M metric tons imported from Austria, Croatia, German, Slovenia, France, and Czech Republic
  • Majority purchased in retail settings by the bag
  • 6% of the sales were made online
  • only 20,000 metric tons used bulk transport
  • 2015 62,710 tons from Canada
  • 2014 85,349 tons from Canada
  • 5 Million Metric Tons increased by 2020



Source: MOhemp: Report: Italian wood pellet consumption expected t...:






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