Iran wants Biofuels, Spokane Gets Exxon Blender, Gilbert Gets New Regs for Biodiesel
Stafford Williamson
October 13, 2008
It hardly constitutes a major move into the biofuels field but it is reported that Exxon Mobil has announced a three million dollar biofuel blending facility on property they already home in the Spokane Valley in Eastern Washington State. The reporter for the redorbit.com website indicated that he had little success in obtaining further information from either local employees or spokespersons of the company from headquarters in Irving Texas. However, a permit is on file listing of Albany New York firm as the engineer for the project.
It also hardly constitutes a "rash" of recent fires when the fire department of Gilbert, Arizona reports that they have battled two blazes in the last two years involving biodiesel. Nevertheless the Gilbert fire chief has proposed to limit the amount of biodiesel that would be permitted in a residential garage. Further, he would like to require a (free)(for now) city permit so that fire department would know exactly where any biodiesel was being manufactured. Perhaps if grown to more cynical in light of the recent political campaigns, but while I agree it is a good idea or firemen to know where biodiesel is located in or perform job better, I cannot help but see this move as preliminary, even preparatory, to implementing some sort of new Municipal tax.
A staff writer for the Greensboro, North Carolina New & Record reports that while local prices in the Greensboro area range from $3.61 is slightly over $4.00, a Nationwide survey reports that biodiesel is solely at retail currently for anything from $3.99 to $4.70 which amounts to a modest 10% to 15% premium, a range which seems in line with local prices variances from low to high. Oil prices have fallen to a new low for the year recently as it dipped below $85.00 for a barrel. No doubt this has OPEC Oil ministers in a tizzy. People considering getting into the biodiesel will, no doubt, be feeling a little nervous too. However, palm oil prices are dropping, alternative oil sources like jatropha are on the rise, and just over the horizon are a dozen other alternatives including algae, the most promising.
In an odd bit of synchronicity I have received two proposals/inquiries about Iran in the past week. One was a valiant attempt by a non-English-speaking person to write an e-mail to me in the Latin character set which we use to write the English language. I had to struggle a bit to interpret the message since it appeared that this person had trouble distinguishing between the English letters for "O" and "A", but presumably far less struggle for me than that for her/him to venture outside their more familiar Arabic script. This "letter" inquired about training, equipment and information on making biodiesel from either jatropha or algae. The writer must have been new to the field, since he also wanted me to explain the difference between biodiesel and the petroleum kind of diesel. The other proposal came for my Canadian partner. Apparently a group of Iranian investors might be interested in financing a pilot scale demonstration plant of the kind we are developing of algae-to-biodiesel with integrated sewage treatment and potentially including manure gasification in cooperation with an equestrian group in Southern Ontario. I spoke with the man in Southern Ontario, but I had to tell my partner that I need to check with the US government on the embargo issues which may or may not apply. It does seem to me that if the Iranians agree that their "investment" in the pilot plant represents an "option" to license the process that this wouldn't be a problem. After all, I have no quarrel with the Iranian people (barring those of the Islamist militant minority who want me, and all "infidels", dead), but I have put in a telephone message to the Department of Commerce as to the implications and regulations. Of course, being Columbus Day, here in the USA, the workers are not working, so the answers will have to wait, at least until tomorrow.
I think I will take a "pass" on entering the fray of political discussions this week. I'm not very happy with either side at the moment and I'm thinking about filling out my mail-in ballot so I am trying to start with as neutral an outlook as I can, at least at the down-ticket candidates. I'm a Democrat (okay I´m really an Independent who changed registrations to vote for Senator Hilary Clinton in the primaries) stuck in a "red" state, I am a person who some of my conservative friends call "too pink" for their tastes (and oddly enough that "pink" means something closer to a pejorative "liberal" than leaning toward "redness") and I worry that casting a vote strictly along party lines is potentially contributing to the nasty state of divisiveness that has left Washington in such a partisan gridlock that useful and sometimes even crucially necessary legislation cannot get passed because of the locked horns of the political "bulls".
Darn, I said I was going to stay away from politics and I couldn't even tell you why without a whole paragraph of my viewpoint slipping out.
Entertainment has a bright note from me this week. Eagle-Eye, which happens also to be a nickname of one of my golfing buddies, was a lot of fun. I laughed out loud several times, and the plot was filled with unexpected twists and turns required to make a strong action-thriller movie. The director was a little TOO fond of car chases for my taste, but the special effects were nothing short of spectacular when it came time for the car crashes. As many ways as Hollywood has found to destroy a car, director D.J Caruso must have found at least a half dozen stunts I have never seen before. The moving van (if that's what it was) was a favorite of mine, not the most original, but very well done. Shia LeBoeuf is not exactly outstanding but I fear it is more of a criticism of my advancing age than of his abilities to say that I saw him as kind of a "discounted" John Cusack. His co-star, however, Michele Monaghan has that "girl-next-door" thing down to perfection, with just the right touch of vulnerability and a pinch of "kick-ass" heroine to make the film tilt in her favor. Rosario Dawson isn't hard to look at either, a convincing performance as a "don't try that testosterone carp with me" Department of the Navy Agent, but Billy Bob Thornton was chewing the scenery for all he was worth in what seemed a rather one-note performance as the hyper-super national security agent. And despite the near perfection of those beautiful ladies appearances, the nothing less than perfect one in the show was young Cameron Boyce. It is only his second film role, and he was just about the cutest kid in movies since Jackie Cooper and that goes back a ways.
Love and warm wishes,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://making-biodiesel-kit.psyrk.us/
It also hardly constitutes a "rash" of recent fires when the fire department of Gilbert, Arizona reports that they have battled two blazes in the last two years involving biodiesel. Nevertheless the Gilbert fire chief has proposed to limit the amount of biodiesel that would be permitted in a residential garage. Further, he would like to require a (free)(for now) city permit so that fire department would know exactly where any biodiesel was being manufactured. Perhaps if grown to more cynical in light of the recent political campaigns, but while I agree it is a good idea or firemen to know where biodiesel is located in or perform job better, I cannot help but see this move as preliminary, even preparatory, to implementing some sort of new Municipal tax.
A staff writer for the Greensboro, North Carolina New & Record reports that while local prices in the Greensboro area range from $3.61 is slightly over $4.00, a Nationwide survey reports that biodiesel is solely at retail currently for anything from $3.99 to $4.70 which amounts to a modest 10% to 15% premium, a range which seems in line with local prices variances from low to high. Oil prices have fallen to a new low for the year recently as it dipped below $85.00 for a barrel. No doubt this has OPEC Oil ministers in a tizzy. People considering getting into the biodiesel will, no doubt, be feeling a little nervous too. However, palm oil prices are dropping, alternative oil sources like jatropha are on the rise, and just over the horizon are a dozen other alternatives including algae, the most promising.
In an odd bit of synchronicity I have received two proposals/inquiries about Iran in the past week. One was a valiant attempt by a non-English-speaking person to write an e-mail to me in the Latin character set which we use to write the English language. I had to struggle a bit to interpret the message since it appeared that this person had trouble distinguishing between the English letters for "O" and "A", but presumably far less struggle for me than that for her/him to venture outside their more familiar Arabic script. This "letter" inquired about training, equipment and information on making biodiesel from either jatropha or algae. The writer must have been new to the field, since he also wanted me to explain the difference between biodiesel and the petroleum kind of diesel. The other proposal came for my Canadian partner. Apparently a group of Iranian investors might be interested in financing a pilot scale demonstration plant of the kind we are developing of algae-to-biodiesel with integrated sewage treatment and potentially including manure gasification in cooperation with an equestrian group in Southern Ontario. I spoke with the man in Southern Ontario, but I had to tell my partner that I need to check with the US government on the embargo issues which may or may not apply. It does seem to me that if the Iranians agree that their "investment" in the pilot plant represents an "option" to license the process that this wouldn't be a problem. After all, I have no quarrel with the Iranian people (barring those of the Islamist militant minority who want me, and all "infidels", dead), but I have put in a telephone message to the Department of Commerce as to the implications and regulations. Of course, being Columbus Day, here in the USA, the workers are not working, so the answers will have to wait, at least until tomorrow.
I think I will take a "pass" on entering the fray of political discussions this week. I'm not very happy with either side at the moment and I'm thinking about filling out my mail-in ballot so I am trying to start with as neutral an outlook as I can, at least at the down-ticket candidates. I'm a Democrat (okay I´m really an Independent who changed registrations to vote for Senator Hilary Clinton in the primaries) stuck in a "red" state, I am a person who some of my conservative friends call "too pink" for their tastes (and oddly enough that "pink" means something closer to a pejorative "liberal" than leaning toward "redness") and I worry that casting a vote strictly along party lines is potentially contributing to the nasty state of divisiveness that has left Washington in such a partisan gridlock that useful and sometimes even crucially necessary legislation cannot get passed because of the locked horns of the political "bulls".
Darn, I said I was going to stay away from politics and I couldn't even tell you why without a whole paragraph of my viewpoint slipping out.
Entertainment has a bright note from me this week. Eagle-Eye, which happens also to be a nickname of one of my golfing buddies, was a lot of fun. I laughed out loud several times, and the plot was filled with unexpected twists and turns required to make a strong action-thriller movie. The director was a little TOO fond of car chases for my taste, but the special effects were nothing short of spectacular when it came time for the car crashes. As many ways as Hollywood has found to destroy a car, director D.J Caruso must have found at least a half dozen stunts I have never seen before. The moving van (if that's what it was) was a favorite of mine, not the most original, but very well done. Shia LeBoeuf is not exactly outstanding but I fear it is more of a criticism of my advancing age than of his abilities to say that I saw him as kind of a "discounted" John Cusack. His co-star, however, Michele Monaghan has that "girl-next-door" thing down to perfection, with just the right touch of vulnerability and a pinch of "kick-ass" heroine to make the film tilt in her favor. Rosario Dawson isn't hard to look at either, a convincing performance as a "don't try that testosterone carp with me" Department of the Navy Agent, but Billy Bob Thornton was chewing the scenery for all he was worth in what seemed a rather one-note performance as the hyper-super national security agent. And despite the near perfection of those beautiful ladies appearances, the nothing less than perfect one in the show was young Cameron Boyce. It is only his second film role, and he was just about the cutest kid in movies since Jackie Cooper and that goes back a ways.
Love and warm wishes,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://making-biodiesel-kit.psyrk.us/