White House Supports U.S. State Dept. Decision to Delay Keystone XL Interstate Oil Pipeline

Environmental activists protesting at the White House against the Keystone XL pipeline. Photo courtesy of Bloomberg.com.

With controversy over the route that TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline will take through Nebraska, and fears over the potential threat to the state’s ecologically precious Sand Hills, the U.S. State Department has decided to postpone a presidential permit to the company for construction in the state.

President Barack Obama supports the measure to postpone the permit, saying in a statement, that there is a “need to seek additional information about the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal because this permit could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment.”

The State Department said that it needs to take more time to review potential alternative routes through Nebraska.

The Sand Hills have a unique combination of characteristics, which include a high concentration of wetlands and an extensive area of very shallow groundwater.

Sand Hills Lake. Photo by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The Sand Hills sit atop the massive Ogallala Aquifer, creating both temporary and permanent shallow lakes in low-lying valleys between the prevalent dunes. The eastern and central sections of the region are drained by the tributaries of the Loup River and the Niobrara River, while the western section is largely composed of small interior drainage basins.

The World Wide Fund for Nature designated the Sand Hills as an eco-region, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains. According to their assessment, as much as 85% of the Sand Hills eco-region is intact natural habitat, the highest level in the Great Plains. This is chiefly due to the lack of crop production. Most of the Sand Hills land has never been plowed.

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New Kansas Biomass Facility To Make Ethanol from the Non-Edible Plant Parts of Staple Food

Image courtesy of http://solar.calfinder.com.

A long-held problem with biofuels has always been that making them requires displacing land use and resources that would otherwise go to making food crops.

Well now, Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas, with a new finalized loan guarantee of about $132 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, may have found one viable solution to the land resource problem.

Construction has just begun on a new facility that’s expected - when operational – to produce yearly about 23 million gallons of ethanol fuel from plant fibers including: wheat straw, corn stover (leaves and stalks), switchgrass, and sorghum stubble.

The facility is expected to convert about 300,000 tons of this “crop residue” per year to generate the desired annual ethanol volumes.

“The plant will also utilize the same biomass feedstock to produce 20 megawatts of electricity, adequate to power the ethanol production operations, and help make the facility even more energy efficient and environmentally friendly,” added Abengoa.

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U.S. Oilfield Services Company Wins Oil Cleanup Challenge in Worldwide Competition

Elastec/American Marine, which makes oil spill and environmental equipment, just won The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge, a yearlong competition with participants from all over the world vying for who could achieve the highest oil recovery and efficiency rates from surface seawater.

Elastec won $1.4 million in first place prize money last week. “During a ceremony in New York, it was announced that we exceeded the competition’s oil recovery requirement of 2,500 gpm (gallons per minute) with 70 percent efficiency (oil recovered in percentage to water).

“Our new ‘Grooved Disc Skimmer’ was able to recover 4,670 gpm with an 89.5 percent efficiency, more than three times the industry’s previous best oil recovery rate tested in controlled conditions,” said the company.

The second place winner receiving a prize of $300,000 was NOFI Tromsø AS, a Norway oil spill control developer specializing in oil boom technology.

NOFI used a single vessel unit called the ‘Current Buster 6’ which collects, separates, and stores oil in a current up to five knots. The system incorporates a flexible v-shaped surface boom that when towed, corrals oil down to the end of the V where a separator removes it from the water.

NOFI’s Current Buster 6 technology being demonstrated last summer at Ohmsett – the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility in Leonardo, N.J. Photo courtesy of NOFI.

NOFI’s cleanup method had an oil recovery rate of 271.2 gpm, and 83 percent oil-to-water recovery rate for the ‘oil recovery efficiency’ requirement of the competition.

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European Airlines Testing Increasing Biofuel Use In Commercial Flights

Iberia Airlines launched, last week, Spain’s first commercial flight using a biofuel. The Iberia Airbus A320 flew from Madrid to Barcelona, burning a mixture of conventional A-1 jet fuel and a biofuel synthesized with the use of a plant the Spanish call camelina sativa.

The Iberia Airbus A320. Photo courtesy of Airliners.net.

The airbus needed no modifications to burn the mixture of second-generation biofuel.

In other parts of the world, the plant is also known as linseed dodder, German sesame, and Siberian oilseed. It’s native to northern Europe and to central Asia, but has also been introduced to North America.

A lot of the camelina plant’s appeal as a biofuel is that it needs little water or nitrogen to flourish. It can be grown on marginal agricultural lands and does not compete with food crops.

Repsol, the Spanish oil company that provided the fuel, said that the fuel’s characteristics were identical to those of conventional aviation fuel, with a 25 percent content of biofuel made from the plant.

Repsol blended and distributed the fuel, which was produced by Honeywell-UOP. Iberia estimated that using the fuel mixture resulted in a reduction of nearly 1,500 kgs of CO2 emissions.

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Illinois Top Chefs Looking To Turn Asian Carp From Nuisance Threat to American Delicacy

Some of Illinois’ top chefs are working to change the perception of Asian carp from a low-value nuisance fish that’s difficult to prepare to a culinary treat. 

Broiled Asian carp. Photo courtesy of thepickledtounge.com.

Earlier this month, chef Philippe Parola lead the preparations for a ‘Target Hunger Now!’ dinner event featuring Asian carp. The event was part of a humanitarian effort to raise awareness about hunger, hosted by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Feeding Illinois.

Asian carp is a popular fish in Europe and Asia, but many in the United States consider it a dirty bottom feeder that’s overtaking the Mississippi river system and posing a threat to the Great Lakes.

While it’s true that the Asian carp population has exploded within the river system, it’s a misconception that it’s a bottom feeder. Asian carp actually feeds on zooplankton and algae in the upper water columns of rivers.

“It’s time to change the perception of Asian carp in Illinois and throughout the U.S. I have worked with this fish for many years and can say without a doubt it is delicious and easy to use when prepared properly,” said Parola at the event.

Parola describes it as a “very white, tasty meat that is a cross between scallops and crab” and believes that, “The main reason the fish has not been harvested for consumption in the U.S. is the fact that it is a very bony fish. The floating bone structure of the Asian carp makes it extremely difficult to filet.”

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