WBIA BLOG
Posted on March 8, 2010 by Maura @ 3:58 pm

WI Small Scale Gas & Liquid Biofuels Workshop & Expo

Categories: Bio Fuels, Education, Ethanol Production, Events
Tags: , ,

The Wisconsin Small-Scale Biofuels Producers Program (WSSBPP) from Fox Valley Technical College is presenting a new workshop – the Small Scale Gas & Liquid Biofuels Workshop & Expo – that will give participants an opportunity to visit with local biofuels equipment manufacturers, learn about starting a small-scale biofuels operation and hear about new funding opportunities.

The workshop will include a morning “lecture” session and and afternoon “hands-on” session. Speakers will include biofuels experts, business leaders, state officials and educators from Wisconsin.

The program will be held on Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Fox Valley Tech College’s Agriculture Center in Appleton.

Registration is required.
Workshop Fee: $25.00*
Registration deadline: 4/5/2010
* WSSBPP members receive a $25.00 discount (cost is free)

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Posted on March 5, 2010 by Megan @ 3:30 pm

UW-Platteville Students to Compete with Ethanol Powered Snowmobile

Categories: Bio Fuels, Education

Every year the WBIA sponsors a team of students from UW-Platteville to participate in an engineering-design competition called the Clean Snowmobile Challenge.  Their task is to redesign an existing snowmobile to reduce emissions and noise.  An important part of this redesign is converting the snowmobile to run on ethanol blends.  Their modified snowmobile competes in a variety of competitions including emissions, noise, fuel economy/endurance, acceleration, handling, static display, cold start and design.

Their team captain, Ryan Kubat, recently shared with us this update:

We have been extremely busy working on the sled and finishing up the design paper and our suggested manufactured retail price (MSRP). I have attached the design paper for this year if you would like to read through it or pass it along to anyone else on the board. Our final MSRP cost for our snowmobile came to $14,823.24 this year!

We have just over one week before we head up to our competition and are just wrapping up some fine tuning and even looking at possibilities for next year already! The whole team has been investing a great deal of time over the past weeks to help get our paper finalized and to get the sled ready to go. We are all excited and looking forward to competition. The following email is where the schedule of events can be seen at:

http://students.sae.org/competitions/snowmobile/schedule.htm

To download their design sheet, please click here.

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Posted on February 25, 2010 by Jason @ 2:19 pm

New Renewable Fuel Standard Released

Categories: Bio Fuels, Government and Legislation
Tags: ,

Earlier this month, the EPA released the final regulations for the new Renewable Fuel Standard (or RFS2). The new rules require that 12.95 billion gallons of renewable fuels be blended into gasoline this year and that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels be blended by the year 2022. RFS2 also stipulates how much of the renewable fuels must be from cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, and advanced biofuels.

According to the EPA, the Renewable Fuel Standard will reduce “greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 13.1 million metric tons annually by 2012” which will be equal to having 2.3 million less cars on the road. For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/oms/renewablefuels/index.htm

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Posted on May 19, 2009 by Josh @ 1:19 pm

Tuesday Truth #40: Indirect Emissions Analyses Distort Benefits of Ethanol

Categories: Bio Fuels

The Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed including indirect emissions in calculating green house gas emissions for ethanol. Here are some facts:

  • Not applying these standards to petroleum-based fuels has created an unbalanced comparison that has distorted the proven benefits of ethanol.
  • When compared directly to gasoline, ethanol reduces green house gas emissions by 60%, according to EPA confirmed studies.
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Posted on May 15, 2009 by Josh @ 9:22 am

Biodiesel Basics #34: Innovation Fuels sells biodiesel at the Port of Milwaukee

Categories: Bio Fuels

Innovation Fuels, a renewable energy company, will begin selling biodiesel at the Port of Milwaukee, making it the first terminal in the nation dedicated solely to the sale of renewable fuels. Here are some facts:

  • Innovation Fuels C.E.O John Fox says that selling biodiesel via the Milwaukee terminal will significantly lower costs of biodiesel to customers in the Great Lakes due to lower transportation costs.
  • The company purchased the terminal, which was originally built as Shell Oil’s Milwaukee headquarters in the 1950s, from NuStar Energy L.P. in January.
  • The facility has a capacity of 312,000 barrels and is located on 10 acres. It includes a 20,000-square-foot warehouse, executive offices and a garage.
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Posted on April 30, 2009 by Josh @ 2:42 pm

Biodiesel Basic #32: Rock Band Guster Tours State Using Biodiesel

Categories: Bio Fuels

Popular rock band Guster was in Madison yesterday and is in Milwaukee today visiting campuses and promoting biodiesel as part of their Campus Consciousness Tour. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel which is made right here in Wisconsin. Here are some facts:

  • Guster is using only biodiesel-powered tour buses and trucks. [Source: Campus Consciousness Tour Facts, http://www.reverbrock.org/CCT/greening.htm, accessed 4/30/09]
  • The concert is a carbon-neutral event, offsetting carbon emissions through use of renewable energies. [Source: Campus Consciousness Tour Facts, http://www.reverbrock.org/CCT/greening.htm, accessed 4/30/09]
  • As a part of the tour, Guster is hosting Eco-Speak forums to talk about the benefits of biodiesel and other renewable fuels. [Source: Campus Consciousness Tour Events, http://www.reverbrock.org/CCT/townhallforum.html, accessed 4/30/09]
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Posted on April 29, 2009 by Josh @ 2:51 pm

Video: How Ethanol is Made

Categories: Bio Fuels, Ethanol Production, Wisconsin Ethanol

WQOW Channel 18 in Eau Claire did a great piece on how ethanol – and its co-products – are made, using footage from the Ace Ethanol plant in Stanley.  Check it out: http://tini.us/517

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Posted on March 17, 2009 by Josh @ 10:02 am

Follow the UW-Platteville Snowmobilers

Categories: Bio Fuels

Students from UW-Platteville are taking part in the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge at Michigan Tech. The team modified a stock snowmobile to run on E85, a cleaner, domestically made fuel. The events started yesterday and you can follow them online at: http://students.sae.org/competitions/snowmobile/results/

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Posted on March 6, 2009 by Josh @ 11:21 am

Green Jobs Waiver Fact Sheet

Categories: Bio Fuels, Government and Legislation

One of the WBIA’s national partners, Growth Energy, submitted a waiver to the EPA to lift the abitrary cap on ethanol blends in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent.

To learn more about the status of ethanol in our fuel supply and see the effects this waiver would have on our economy, please check out the “Green Jobs Waiver Fact Sheet” by clicking here.

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Posted on March 2, 2009 by Josh @ 12:24 pm

Watch Growth Energy’s Newest Video

Categories: Bio Fuels, Ethanol Production

Growth Energy, a national coalition advocating for increased biofuel usage, of which the WBIA is a member, has produced a new video that discusses the importance of biofuels for our country. Watch the video below:

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