The United States Department of Agriculture has released a road map detailing the benefits installing 11,000 new anaerobic digestion plants across the U.S. that could be used to produce energy or transport fuels. The biogas-using plants would have major positive effects in the fight to reduce carbon emissions. The agency also believes implementation of these plants is an important step toward America’s energy independence.
The safe development of job-creating American natural gas continues to deliver broad-based economic, environmental and national security benefits. From more jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector and for labor building trades, to expanded natural gas production and increased, locally-source power generation for consumers and small businesses, shale continues to benefit us all.
ABS, a leading provider of global marine classification services, has been chosen to class the world’s first compressed natural gas (CNG) carrier ordered by Pelayaran Bahtera Adhiguna, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state-owned power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PT PLN). The award for the precedent-setting ship is the latest example of ABS’ leadership in the gas ship sector, where the largest share of LNG ships is presently being built to its classification standards.
With great sessions at conferences, delegates are usually keen to get a hold of the powerpoint decks. But how do you get a hold of the great Q&A that follows the presentations — or the pertinent questions that get left unanswered when sessions run out of time? We’ve been saving classic questions this year — and here are the answers, too. We’ve divided these up into six areas: R&D, Policy, Feedstocks, Production & Commercialization, and Downstream Markets and Infrastructure, and Finance.
The Finnish government has agreed to foot 30 percent of the bill for a planned biofuel plant in Kajaani. The facility will produce bioethanol from waste sawdust, promising environmental, employment and other benefits for the economically-challenged Kainuu region.
There may be no romance in its seven-syllable name, yet for corn growers and environmental advocates, corn-based cellulosic ethanol holds the promise of an elixir. Cellulosic ethanol is a fuel made not from corn kernels, but instead the husk, stalk, cob and other waste parts of corn. And after being broken down by yeast and enzymes, proponents say it burns more cleanly than regular ethanol made from the parts of corn we’d otherwise eat.
Slowly but surely, the use of natural gas as a substitute for gasoline in our cars is climbing. The graph shows a 33% increase over the past seven years. However the trend may be about to accelerate. T. Boone Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels is having success building a “CNG Highway” across the country, aimed mostly at heavy-duty trucks.
“When it comes to protecting the environment and addressing climate change, America has a lot of work ahead of it,” former President Jimmy Carter said in Aspen on Tuesday.
Over the past five days, average retail gasoline prices have risen more than four cents per gallon in Oklahoma and even more dramatically in eight other Heartland states. Since the end of July, pump prices have jumped 13 cents in Ohio and 11 cents in both Indiana and Michigan. These increases can be traced back to refinery problems and maintenance issues at several facilities supplying the region: two in Kansas (HollyFrontier in El Dorado and the CVR plant in Coffeyville), BP’s refinery in Whiting, Ind., and ExxonMobil’s facility in Joliet, Ill.
U.S. refiners will refrain from buying more Kurdish crude oil until a long-running dispute between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan is settled, while Washington urges both sides to set aside their differences and helps them tackle Sunni militants.
