Officials rescue a woman after a sailboat capsizes on the Providence River in Cranston. [www.clipsyndicate.com | WPRI CBS 12 Providence]
The government admits the climate change deal struck in Copenhagen was disappointing [www.clipsyndicate.com | Press Association UK]
(12/21/09) - Murfreesboro residents will soon be able to live, work and shop without ever leaving home, and it will be the county's first eco-friendly development. [www.clipsyndicate.com | WSMV Nashville, TN]
Two decades after the Exxon Valdez disaster, a tugboat working to prevent another oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound ran aground on the same reef and left a three-mile sheen of fuel oil on the water. (Dec. 25) [www.clipsyndicate.com | Associated Press]
North Dakota farmers produced about 280 million bushels of Corn last year. More than 40% of that total is converted into ethanol for fuel at five ethanol plants in the state. Two of those plants are in western North Dakota - Red Trail in Richardton and Blue Flint near Underwood. Jim Olson reports on the Blue Flint plant that its manager says is unique in the industry. Sitting in the heart of McLean County, the Blue Flint Ethanol plant is hardly in the heart of corn country. But its proximity to coal Creek Station allows it to draw waste steam from the power plant to operate the ethanol plant. (Jeff Zuger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "We're the only plant that directly utilizes a steam from a power plant. We're the only one to operate that way." Blue Flint Manager Jeff Zuger says the economy of this location more than makes up for the cost of shipping in corn to turn into ethanol. (Jeff Zuger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "Our goal has been and is to be the lowest production cost facility in the US and we've got a lot of information that tells us we're certainly running in that area." Zuger has been in charge of the Blue Flint plant since its design back in 2005. And while he says he knew little about the ethanol industry then, he's learned a lot. You can see he's a supporter by the license plate in his office. But he says the current profitable cycle for ethanol has come only after surviving a glut of ethanol production that collapsed prices. (Jeff Zuger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "We've really passed through that era and we're in a time period where we're in a healthy state. Supply and demand are in balance." The plant brings about two-thirds of its corn from southeast North Dakota. But he says the other one-third from local sources - like this truck - is actually growing, thanks to the interest in growing corn that ethanol has sparked. (Jeff Zuger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "When we first started the plant there was not a lot of corn production in this area, there was not a lot of irrigation in this area or dry-land corn." Zug
Cause and amount of spill are not yet known [www.clipsyndicate.com | KTVF NBC 11 Fairbanks]
[www.clipsyndicate.com | KTVF NBC 11 Fairbanks]
Millions of gallons ethanol are purchased every month, but would ethanol plants be able to keep pumping without government funding? Randy Schneider is the president of the North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association. Schneider says consumers need to realize ethanol facilites are viable on their own. He says there is a small ethanol producer credit for plants producing less than 60 million gallons a year. There are counter-cylical payments available for those plants not making money, but those payments have limits on how much and for how long. He says many of the credits received, plants never see. (Randy Schneider / ND Ethanol Producers Assn. Pres.) "Alot of the subsidies or the blender credit for example, that credit is received by the companies that actually blend the ethanol into fuel. So in alot of cases the people that are getting that blender credit are oil companies that do the blending. Schneider says those credits are often passed along to the one filling up the tank. In October, 18.5 million gallons of ethanol were sold, down slightly from 19.8 million gallons in July. So far in 2009, the price of ethanol has ranged between $1.65 and $2.06 a gallon. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KXMC CBS Bismarck North ]
With North Dakota ethanol plants pumping out close to 300 million gallons of the corn-based alcohol each year, and plants elsewhere in the US making billions of gallons, the ethanol industry needs to find new ways to market its product. And one method may start showing up at gas stations around the state soon. Jim Olson reports on the industry's push for blender pumps. The ethanol industry wants you to Blend Your Own when it comes to ethanol in your car or truck. (VIDEO) "So let's go ahead and take a look..." This video from the Nebraska Corn Growers explains the choices customers are finding at some gas stations - a variety of blends of gasoline and ethanol. (VIDEO) "Unleaded gasoline, E-20, E-30, E-85, and E-10." Jeff Zueger, general manager at Blue Flint Ethanol near Underwood, says blender pumps will allow drivers with flex fuel vehicles - that can use up to 85% ethanol - to select a more gas-rich blend like 30% or 50% ethanol. And the pumps solve a problem for gas stations with limited numbers of underground fuel tanks since they can have just one with ethanol. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "Most facilities don't have the extra tank capacity so in this case, if they have a premium, a regular, and a diesel and an E-10, you can take one of those, maybe the premium or E-10, and put ethanol in it and then at the pump it becomes blended into whatever ratio is appropriate." But it's expensive to install new gas pumps - and that's where tax money comes in. The state legislature appropriated one million dollars to help stations put in blender pumps, and the state also dedicated one million dollars of federal stimulus money for installing blender pumps. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "The state funding runs out at the end of October next year so we've got a short window here." Zueger and others in the ethanol industry hope the incentives convince more gas station owners to make the move that would allow you to blend your own gas-ethanol mixture and increase the amount of ethanol used across the nation.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced it was delaying a decision that ethanol producers are waiting for. Jim Olson reports on the that and other factors that could determine the future of ethanol production in North Dakota. The EPA won't decide until at least this summer if it will declare that all motor vehicles can safely use 15-percent ethanol. Currently, the limit is 10% alcohol in gasoline for all cars and trucks. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "Right now you have E-10 and that's the bulk of the gallons that are blended in. Go to E-15 and you've increased that 50% so it's very significant for the industry so we get those types of technology issues behind us." Jeff Zueger is general manager at Blue Flint Ethanol near Underwood. His plant is pumping out 60 million gallons of ethanol per year, over it's official capacity, but he thinks a favorable ruling by the EPA would be good for the industry and spur development of ethanol made from things other than corn. For instance, he says his plant could be converted to make ethanol from non-food organic material. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "A corn-based, starch-based conversion facility like this could be converted over to a cellulosic-based and move into the advanced bio-fuel as opposed to the corn feed stock." He considers the EPA decision crucial since ethanol's growth has been hampered by problems with E-85 - not quality or performance problems, but rather more like chicken and egg problems. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "E-85 has had its challenges. There hasn't been as many flex fuel vehicles produced and move into the market as had been anticipated. It's kind of a what comes first, do you get vehicles there before the fueling infrastructure is there or do you get the fueling infrastructure before the vehicles." That's why Zueger hopes the EPA decides to allow an increase in ethanol at the pump, to help push more growth in the fuel he says has many advantages. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "Economically it's very
The Swedish island of Gotland in the middle of the Baltic is aiming to rid itself of fossil fuel within the next 15 years, using only sustainable energy from wind, biogas and solar panels to meet the electricity needs of its 57,000 inhabitants. Duration: 02:30 [www.clipsyndicate.com | Agence France-Presse]
The Environmental Manager for Tonawanda coke is in trouble with the Feds. Mark Kamholz is charged with violating the Clean Air Act and other federal environmental laws. [www.clipsyndicate.com | WNLO CW 23 Buffalo]
EnergySolutions ran TV ads over the weekend attacking Utah Congressman Jim Matheson for alleged misrepresentations about the company's plan to import nuclear waste from Italy. He fired back, triggering an unusual episode of dueling news conferences. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KSL - 5 Salt Lake City, ]
[www.clipsyndicate.com | KTVF NBC 11 Fairbanks]
The threat of a lawsuit has forced the cancellation of New Year's Eve fireworks at San Diego Bay. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KGTV ABC San Diego]
The Blue Flint plant is in the process of producing another commodity to sell - oil for the bio-diesel market. The oil extracting equipment sits in the main building at the plant site - and is the first of its kind in the state. It separates free, non-bound oil from corn that has had its starch extracted for ethanol. That oil is then sold into the biodiesel production market. General Manager Jeff Zueger says there is about half-pound of oil in a bushel of corn. (Jeff Zueger/ "We see it as a postive we are able to move oil into a higher value markets, produce another renewable fuel. When you remove corn oil from the process a gallon of corn oil estentially converts to a gallon of biodiesel. So we are able to get about another 5 percent out of this plant as opposed to just producing ethanol and distillers grain. Now we are producing a product that ultimately ends up as biodiesel." Zueger says the plant should produce about one-and-a-half million gallons of bio-diesel each year. And that would pay for the two million dollar project within a year. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KXMC CBS Bismarck North ]
The ethanol industry in North Dakota is looking up, after a very difficult couple of years when production out-paced demand. That's according to the general manager of Blue Flint Ethanol near Underwood. Jim Olson joined Jeff Zueger at the plant recently to learn how the operation turns farmers crops into fuel for all of us. There are 30,000 flex fuel vehicles on North Dakota roads - vehicles that can use E-85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. And every other car and truck can use the 10% ethanol blend sold at virtually every gas station in the state. And much of that ethanol comes from this plant near Underwood. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "We need about 60 semis worth of corn every day to keep the process running." The Blue Flint Ethanol plant uses some 20 million bushels of corn every year to make 60 million gallons of ethanol. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "The large concrete silos you see here are our corn storage." But let's go inside the buildings to see what happens to turn kernels of corn into alcohol. (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "So the main control room is right in this area." The control room keeps track of the raw materials, steam, chemicals, biological agents, everything needed in the process. And not far from the control room is another key area - the lab where people like Victor Loose are testing the product daily. (Victor Loose, Lab Technician) "Every morning we do a tank certification so the people buying the ethanol know the quality. And then the operators will do that every two hours they'll take a sample to make sure the system is running the way it's supposed to be runninig." Just outside the lab is where the process begins (Jeff Zueger, Blue Flint Ethanol GM) "This part of the process is called 'cook.'" That's where the glocose from the corn is fermented. It turns into a mixture of 14% alcohol they call beer. That's what's happening inside this window. Then, the mixture is separated so the alcohol can be made pure - or distilled - in these towers. The goal h
An ammonia leak Tuesday afternoon forces the evacuation of the Cook's Ham plant in south Kansas City. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KCTV FOX 5 Kansas City]
San Diego Bay is at a crossroads; it's decision time for one of its toxic hot spots. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KGTV ABC San Diego]
The Kings County Board of Supervisors voted to allow the expansion of the Waste Management facility near Kettleman City. [www.clipsyndicate.com | KGPE CBS 47 Fresno]
Getting the most from a kernel of corn. Tonight Ag. Reporter Sarah Gustin shows us how one ethanol plant is taking the process one step farther. (Jeff Zueger / Blue Flint Ethanol) "We are always looking to diversify the products we can create at this ethanol facility. And the industry has known that there is free oil in the distillers grains and recently there has been some really good developments on how to extract that oil and move that oil into the biodiesel production market." Blue Flint Ethanol in Underwood has a new spin on making its business even more profitable. This oil extracting system is the first to hit North Dakota. General Manager Jeff Zueger says the system seperates free non-bound oil within the syrup. (Jeff Zueger / Blue Flint Ethanol) "We take the syrup stream and run it through a center fuge. That center fuge virtually sprins that fuild and solid combinations and seperates the soildes and the water from the oil. And it seperates free non-bound oil that exists in that syrup and that is the oil that we essentially move to market for biodiseal production." 54:13 (Sarah Gustin / KX News) "This is an example of what the syrip looks like before it goes through the oil extraction process and this is an example of the oil that is produced." Zueger says there is about a 1/2 pound of oil in one 56 pound bushel of corn. He says while the fat content in the distillers grains does decrease....you get more of another valuable nutrient. (Jeff Zueger / Blue Flint Ethanol) "Alot of the value that is seen in feeding distillers grains is seen in the protein content. So while you are removing some of the fat and energy piece it is displaced by other valuable elements of the distillers grains." Zueger says there are two markets for the oil. Distillers grains and biodiesel. But obviously one of those markets generates a few more dollars than the other...making this spinning process worthwhile. (Jeff Zueger / Blue Flint Ethanol) "The price for it very much follows the value of biodiesel and is related with diseal
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