Posted on February 14, 2023 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) will hold a webinar on February 22, 2023, entitled “DOE’s Progress Toward Meeting the Goals of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge.” The Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge is a government-wide commitment to scale up production of SAF to 35 billion gallons per year by 2050 and reduce lifecycle aviation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent compared to conventional fuel. According to BETO, the upcoming webinar is an effort to increase SAF awareness and communicate the progress and impact of the SAF Grand Challenge. Attendees will learn about DOE’s focus on:
- SAF priorities and program alignment with the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap;
- Implementation planning; and
- Stakeholder engagement and outreach.
The webinar will feature speakers from BETO, including Director Dr. Valerie Reed, who will share information about the six action areas outlined in the Roadmap that support the Grand Challenge goals. Scheduled BETO speakers include:
- Dr. Valerie Reed: Director -- Program Overview;
- Zia Haq: Senior Analyst -- SAF Overview and Enabling End Use;
- Dr. Art Wiselogel: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellow -- Feedstock Innovation;
- Dr. Ian Rowe: Technology Manager, Conversion Research and Development (R&D) -- Conversion Innovation;
- Dr. Mark Shmorhun: Technology Manager, Systems, Development, and Integration -- Building Regional SAF Supply Chains;
- Andrea Bailey: Technology Manager, Data, Modeling, and Analysis -- Policy and Valuation Analysis; and
- Sheila Dillard: Communications Lead -- Communicating Progress and Building Support.
Attendees can submit questions prior to the event, no later than February 17, 2023, by sending an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Posted on February 03, 2023 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on January 26, 2023, $118 million in funding for 17 projects to accelerate the production of sustainable biofuels for America’s transportation and manufacturing needs. According to DOE, the selected projects, located at universities and private companies, “will drive the domestic production of biofuels and bioproducts by advancing biorefinery development, from pre-pilot to demonstration, to create sustainable fuels that reduce emissions associated with fossil fuels.” Projects selected will contribute to meeting DOE’s goal to achieve cost-competitive biofuels and at least a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.
According to DOE, “[m]ade from widely available domestic feedstocks and advanced refining technologies, energy-dense biofuels provide a pathway for low-carbon fuels that can lower greenhouse gas emissions throughout the transportation sector and accelerate the bioeconomy.” DOE notes that financing for novel biorefinery process systems can be a barrier to commercializing advanced biofuels, and states that its funding will reduce technological uncertainties and enable industry deployment. The selected projects include pre-pilot, pilot, and demonstration projects that will scale-up existing biomass to fuel technologies that will eventually create millions of gallons of low-carbon fuel annually.
Posted on January 25, 2023 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on January 23, 2023, that researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) examined the benefits and trade-offs of current and emerging technologies for recycling certain types of plastics to determine the optimal options. According to BETO, the researchers provided a comparison of various closed-loop recycling technologies, which allow for the reuse of plastic through mechanical and chemical reprocessing, eliminating the need for fossil-fuel-derived virgin materials. They considered technical metrics, such as the quality and retention of recycled plastics, as well as environmental metrics, including energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. BETO and the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office provided funding for the research as part of the BOTTLE™ Consortium (Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment). The Consortium is a collaborative effort among industry, academia, national labs, and the government to change the way we recycle. More information is available in the January 2023 article “Technical, Economic, and Environmental Comparison of Closed-Loop Recycling Technologies for Common Plastics,” published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
Posted on January 05, 2023 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
On December 2, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule determining that renewable diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, naphtha, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) produced from canola/rapeseed oil via a hydrotreating process all meet the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction threshold of 50 percent required for advanced biofuels and biomass-based diesel (BBD) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. 87 Fed. Reg. 73956. EPA states that based on the analyses described in the earlier notice of proposed rulemaking associated with this action, it is adding these pathways to the list of approved pathways in the RFS regulations, making them eligible to generate Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN), provided they satisfy the other definitional and RIN generation criteria for renewable fuel specified in the RFS regulations. EPA also amended the RFS regulations by adding a new definition of “canola/rapeseed oil.” The final rule was effective on January 3, 2023.
Posted on November 29, 2022 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) will hold a webinar on December 13, 2022, on the “SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap: Soaring Towards Sustainable Fuel Production Goals.” Attendees will learn about the six action areas that support the Grand Challenge’s goals of:
- Reducing life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 50 percent compared to conventional fuel;
- Producing enough sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) to meet 100 percent of aviation fuel demand by 2050; and
- Enhancing fuel sustainability.
The webinar will feature the director of BETO and speakers from DOE and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, who will discuss engaging with industry to achieve these goals. Speakers will include:
- Valerie Reed: Director, BETO;
- Zia Haq: Senior Analyst, BETO;
- Craig Brown: Bioenergy Systems Technical Integration Lead, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and
- Mark Shmorhun: Technology Manager, Systems, Development, and Integration, BETO.
Registration is now open.
Posted on November 04, 2022 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
On November 1, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced 26 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners, recognizing their achievements in the design, manufacture, selection, and use of products with safer chemicals. The awardees represent a wide variety of organizations, including small- and medium-sized businesses, women-owned companies, state and local governments, non-governmental organizations, and trade associations.
EPA encouraged applicants for the 2022 awards to show how their work advances environmental justice, bolsters resilience to the impacts of climate change, results in cleaner air or water, or improves drinking water quality. According to EPA, many of the organizations being recognized are working to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and combat the climate crisis. For example, several winners offer products with concentrated formulas that reduce water consumption and plastic use. This practice also lowers GHG emissions by reducing the amount of product that must be transported.
EPA states that additionally, many awardees increased access to products with safer chemical ingredients in underserved and overburdened communities. For example, one nonprofit winner conducted targeted outreach in both English and Spanish to promote safer cleaning techniques and products, including Safer Choice-certified products, in food trucks. Many of these businesses are owned and operated by immigrant entrepreneurs. Another winner made its Safer Choice-certified product line more accessible to lower income shoppers by offering affordable prices and making these products available at retailers that often serve low-income communities.
In early 2023, EPA intends to build on this work by announcing a grant opportunity for projects that can increase supply and demand for safer, environmentally preferable products such as those certified by the Safer Choice program or identified by EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program.
The 2022 winners include:
- American Cleaning Institute, District of Columbia;
- The Ashkin Group, LLC, Channel Islands Harbor, California;
- Bona US, Englewood, Colorado;
- Case Medical, Bloomfield, New Jersey;
- Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Ewing, New Jersey;
- Clean Safety & Health in Food Trucks (CleanSHiFT) Team, Seattle, Washington;
- The Clorox Company, Oakland, California;
- Colgate-Palmolive, New York, New York;
- Design for the Environment Logo Redesign Coalition: Environmental Defense Fund, The Natural Resources Defense Council, The Clorox Company, The Procter & Gamble Company, and Reckitt;
- Dirty Labs Inc., Portland, Oregon;
- ECOS, Cypress, California;
- Grove Collaborative, San Francisco, California;
- The Hazardous Waste Management Program, Seattle, Washington;
- Holloway House, Inc., Fortville, Indiana;
- The Home Depot, Atlanta, Georgia;
- Household & Commercial Products Association, District of Columbia;
- Jelmar, LLC, Skokie, Illinois;
- Lemi Shine, Austin, Texas;
- LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, San Francisco, California;
- Mother Africa, Kent, Washington;
- Novozymes North America, Raleigh, North Carolina;
- The ODP Corporation, Boca Raton, Florida;
- The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio;
- PurposeBuilt Brands, Gurnee, Illinois;
- Sensitive Home, Greenbrae, California; and
- Solutex, Sterling, Virginia.
Posted on November 02, 2022 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) announced on October 19, 2022, the release of a report finding that life cycle assessments (LCA) of transportation fuels are valuable tools for measuring environmental impacts, but uncertainties remain in the current models and further research should be conducted to strengthen their reliability. The report recommends ways to improve models, increase reporting and transparency, perform targeted verification of emissions, and other avenues that will better inform policymaking for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels. According to NASEM, LCAs have been increasingly applied in the development of transportation fuel policy to estimate and help reduce GHG emissions from fuels such as electricity, biofuels, synthetic fuels, and hydrogen. NASEM states that the report finds that there is no single LCA method capable of answering all questions related to the climate impacts of a transportation fuel, and that both attributional LCA (ALCA) and consequential LCA (CLCA) have important roles to play. CLCA, which considers the consequences of a policy or decision, such as the market effects of production changes, should be used to understand wide-ranging impacts of proposed changes on net GHG emissions. ALCA, which assigns portions of observed environmental impacts from human activities to specific goods and services, can be used to attribute emissions in well-defined supply chains and help identify opportunities to reduce carbon intensity throughout that supply chain. Hybrid methods that use a combination of process-based and economic input-output methodologies can also be useful in some circumstances. In all cases, modelers should provide transparency, justification, and sensitivity or robustness analysis for modeling choices.
NASEM notes that the report contains a number of other findings and recommendations for assessing the emissions of specific transportation fuels and their feedstocks, including the following for biofuels:
- Study of land use changes from biofuels has been the topic of intense study over the last decade. Substantial uncertainties remain on key components of the models used to assess the impacts. More research into this area should be supported; and
- Biofuel production facilities typically produce additional products. The distinction between what qualifies as a co-product, byproduct, or waste can be unclear, creating uncertainty in LCA models.
Posted on October 20, 2022 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
On October 6, 2022, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) announced the availability of a report entitled Update on Potential of Biofuels in Shipping, updating a previous study developed by EMSA on biofuels and examining the full range of biofuels from the perspective of current production capacity, storage and distribution infrastructure, and power-generation technologies. According to EMSA, the report also features techno-economic analyses and includes risk-based case studies to evaluate the potential of biofuels for the maritime sector. According to EMSA, among the broad spectrum of technology and fuel-solution pathways available for ship designers, builders, owners, and operators, biofuels potentially offer medium- and long-term marine fuel alternatives that can enter the market relatively quickly; they also offer the potential, if sustainability criteria are met, to reduce carbon output compared to traditional carbon-based fossil fuels. EMSA notes that although the current use of biofuels in marine-engine applications is very limited, there is significant potential for biofuels to capture a larger share of the total maritime fuel consumption and support the European Union (EU) and International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) greenhouse gas (GHG)-reduction ambitions for the maritime industry. EMSA states that “[r]ecent regulatory developments in the EU covering GHG emissions and the lifecycle aspect of fuels provide a basket of measures in line with the climate goals that could accelerate their adoption.” The “drop-in” characteristics of biofuels -- the possibility to replace conventional petroleum-refined hydrocarbons without substantial modifications to engines, fuel tanks, pumps, or supply systems -- may offer “an immediate, attractive and cost-effective solution, for the existing fleet.”
Posted on October 13, 2022 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The European Parliament (EP) voted on September 14, 2022, to increase the share of renewables in the European Union’s (EU) final energy consumption to 45 percent by 2030, under the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), a target also backed by the European Commission (EC) under its “RepowerEU” package. According to the EP’s September 14, 2022, press release, the legislation also defines subtargets for sectors such as transport, buildings, and district heating and cooling. The press release states that in the transport sector, deploying renewables should lead to a 16 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through the use of higher shares of advanced biofuels and a more ambitious quota for renewable fuels of non-biological origin, such as hydrogen. Industry should boost its use of renewables by 1.9 percentage points per year, and district heating networks by 2.3 points. The text was adopted by a vote of 418 to 109, with 111 abstentions.
Posted on August 22, 2022 by Lynn L BergesonBy Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 18, 2022, that it is accepting nominations for the 2023 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards from companies or institutions that have developed a new green chemistry process or product that helps protect human health and the environment. The awards again include a category to recognize technology that reduces or eliminates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EPA will hold a webinar on September 28, 2022, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. (EDT) to educate stakeholders on the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards and the nomination process. Registration for the webinar is open. Nominations are due to EPA by December 9, 2022.
EPA states that green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation and use of chemicals that are hazardous to the environment and people’s health. According to EPA, its efforts to “speed the adoption of this revolutionary and diverse discipline” have led to significant environmental benefits, innovation, and a strengthened economy. Green chemistry aims to prevent pollution before it is created, making it the preferred approach for providing solutions to some of the most significant environmental challenges.
An independent panel of technical experts convened by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute will formally judge the 2023 nominations and make recommendations to EPA for the 2023 winners. EPA anticipates giving awards to outstanding green chemistry technologies in six categories in fall 2023.
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