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US Corn-Based Ethanol Output To Hit 31.5B Gallons by 2015

U.S. corn-based ethanol production could potentially reach 31.5 billion gallons annually, or about 20% of projected U.S. fuel consumption, by 2015, said a report issued by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. According to models examined, this would be the case if the price of corn rises to $4.05 per bushel, which is eyed as the breakeven price for ethanol production under current ethanol tax policy, as well as prices for crude oil, natural gas and distillers grains. The report did not specify whether $4.05 level is a cash or Chicago Board of Trade futures price. In order to fuel this ethanol production, the report said it would require the U.S. to plant 95.6 million acres of corn. This would mean production of about 15.6 million bushels of corn, compared to recent levels of about 11.0 billion bushels. The researchers said most of the additional corn acres would come at the expense of reduced soybean acreage. Meanwhile U.S. corn exports and U.S. output of pork and poultry would all be need to be reduced in response to higher corn prices. Wheat would be used to help fill feed demand. “This means that the adjustments required […]

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Spain: SCHOTT to Build New Solar Facility

SCHOTT announced plans to establish a second manufacturing facility for solar receivers in Spain, doubling its solar receiver production capacity by the beginning of 2008. The new plant will require a capital expenditure of approximately $28 million (Euro 22 million). Receivers are a key component of solar thermal parabolic trough power plants, which convert solar energy into heat and then electricity. SCHOTT has already received orders to supply receivers for the solar power plants currently being constructed in Nevada and in Andalusia. The project in Nevada, the 64 megawatt Nevada Solar One power plant, is the largest solar thermal power plant to be built in the U.S. in more than a decade. The project in Andalusia represents the first commercially operated solar thermal power plant in Europe. How Parabolic Trough Power Plants Work Because they offer the highest level of efficiency and incur the lowest costs for generating power of all solar technologies, parabolic trough power plants will soon offer the potential to generate solar electricity inside the world’s Sunbelt at competitive prices. Parabolic trough power plants consist of numerous trough-shaped parabolic mirrors that concentrate sunlight onto receivers (absorber tubes) that are located along the focal line. Inside these specially […]

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Green Star to Build 90 Biodiesel Plants

Green Star Products, Inc. (GSPI.OB) has signed an agreement with De Beers Fuel Limited of South Africa to build 90 biodiesel plants. Each plant will have a 10 million gallon annual capacity. The 2-ton reactors will be built by GSPI at their Glenns Ferry Facility in Idaho and delivered over the next 18 months. The first reactor was shipped November 8, 2006 by airfreight to South Africa. Presently, the De Beers plant is now operating at 10 million gallons per year on sunflower seed oil as feedstock and has contracted for additional feedstock for additional plants. However, the final answer for biodiesel feedstock will not be oil crops – it will be algae. For example, soybean produces only 48 gallons of oil per acre per year, canola produces 140 gallons per acre and algae can produce well over 10,000 gallons per acre. This figure has been verified in actual algae field production tests by the US Department of Energy in an 18-year Algae Study Program from 1978 – 1996. This makes algae the only worldwide feedstock capable of replacing crude oil. Making use of algae also means not competing with crops for food sources that would otherwise lead to an […]

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Hydrogenics Reports Q3 Results

Hydrogenics Corp. (TSX:HYG.TO; NASDAQ:HYGS), a Canadian fuel cell manufacturer, said its third-quarter loss widened primarily due to an impairment charge. The company reported a loss of $90.7 million, or 99 cents per share, compared with a loss of $7.5 million, or 8 cents per share, in the prior year. HYGS attributes the poor results to a $79.9 million impairment charge related to the company’s OnSite Generation and Test Systems businesses. Its research and development costs also surged to $2.7 million from $908,000. Q3 revenue droppd 14% to $9 million, down from $10.5 million last year because of production delays in its OnSite Generation unit. Said Pierre Rivard, President and CEO, “On the operational side, we resolved the substantial majority of supply chain and component quality issues identified earlier in the year in our Belgian-based OnSite Generation business. We are now initiating product deliveries on a case by case basis and anticipate returning to historical levels by the first quarter of 2007, assuming no further issues are identified. On the business development side, we completed a number of initiatives with the highlight being the signing of a three-year manufacturing and supply agreement with American Power Conversion (NASDAQ:APCC) to deliver 500 HyPM® […]

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