Article by Steve Brewer – August 13, 2012

The renewable fuels industry changes constantly.

Because the field is affected by politics, commodity prices, and high-tech research, it’s difficult to make long-term predictions about ethanol and other “renewable fuels,” but Omaha seem likely to be at the center of those developments.

Ethanol is a chemical produced by the fermentation of sugars found in grains and other biomass. According to local producer Green Plains, ethanol can be created from grains that include corn, wheat and sorghum, as well as from waste products from agriculture, forestry and paper making.

Currently, most ethanol is produced from corn because it contains large quantities of carbohydrates and is produced in such vast quantities. Corn-based ethanol is controversial, because it takes corn out of the food system and a perception that it can contribute to food price increases.

However, many companies are now attempting to create “second-generation” renewable fuels from other materials.

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Article by Jim Lane – March 21, 2012

If the long-term is green, and the present is based on carbon-intense “black” technologies – the near term is going to be shades of olive, and technologies that combine green and black may be the big winners.

Today, 5 strategies at the nexus of green and black, exemplars of the Olive Economy

A couple of years ago, Sir Richard Branson said , “by 2030, all businesses, that are still businesses, will be green businesses.” Though ZeaChem’s Jim Imbler puts it a little differently, they have a common point of view.

“There are lots of ways to be green,” Imbler said, reflecting on the commercial progress at ZeaChem’s integrated biorefinery in Boardman, Oregon, after Itochu announced an investment in his company.

Over the years, it’s been Imbler who has reminded the Digest that integrated biorefineries not only have their novel technologies, but have a tremendous amount of traditional, off-the-shelf technologies inside them.

Off-the-shelf, he has told me, is a powerful way to make sure a green project is affordable. “If you can make some green,” he says, “you can really be green. You make a difference by selling product. You open a plant, show a margin, that’s what brings project finance and expansion. Green is not completely new and different. Every business, for all time, has needed to find ways to be more efficient, and find better ways to use the resources at hand.”

Over the years, it’s been Imbler who has reminded me that integrated biorefineries  generally have about 10 percent novel technology, but are, in their remainder, very much like traditional chemical refineries and have a tremendous amount of traditional, off-the-shelf technologies that are powering them.

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Article by Bre Power Eaton. Photography by Jacqueline Marque

Inside a large, inconspicuous warehouse in Portsmouth, a textile machine whirs faster than the eye can see. Water trickles down rope-like vines toward it. Growing within clear revolving catchment cylinders are valuable microorganisms. In the industry this contraption is called “looped chord media.” And, what is happening is a form of future farming that intends to do more with less. If successful, it will meet the unprecedented food, water and energy needs of an estimated nine billion inhabitants of the Earth in 2050.

“The future is going to be built around the things we need rather than what we want,” says Tim Burns, the CEO of BioProcess Algae and its parent company bioprocessH2O. The microorganisms growing inside the cylinders will eventually go toward producing those “need” items on Burns’ list. An environmental industrialist for more than 25 years, he co-founded both companies with former Harvard research biologist, Dr. John Haley, the company’s chief scientific officer. The two believed their technology could revolutionize wastewater treatment by providing cheaper, more efficient water purification and reuse processes with less environmental impact. In 2003, bioprocessH2O was born and functions by making custom mini-treatment plants, called Membrane Bioreactors (MBR). Running within each system’s complex path of external tubular membranes is the looped chord media, what Burns calls bioprocess’ “secret sauce.” The sauce is produced by weaving a filament that makes up a rope-like material with opposing polarity to attract microorganisms like bacteria and algae that feed on unwanted nutrients in wastewater. This creates clean, purified water.

Systems such as these are not exclusive to large factories and corporations trying to meet EPA regulations. In fact, Director of Engineering and Senior Vice President Jeff Marshall designed a wastewater filtration system for a high school in Wayland, Massachusetts. “It is one of the most advanced wastewater treatment and reuse systems in a school in the country,” says Burns. “The wastewater from the bathroom is processed and recirculated back into the school – they can actually water the grass with it, it’s so clean,” explains Haley. “It’s really important to keep water where it belongs. We’re crazy to put all the water down a great big pipe and then it all goes to the treatment plant and into the ocean. The water is fine; you just have to remove the stuff from it and reuse it.”

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All About Algae launched today, a website that is…all about algae! The site covers algae basics, algae as fuel, algae as animal feed, and much much more.

Check it out:

www.allaboutalgae.com

Article by Kris Bevill – Feb. 2, 2012

BioProcess Algae LLC and Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. announced Feb. 1 that they have begun constructing a five acre algae production facility in southwest Iowa at the site of Green Plains’ 65 MMgy ethanol plant near Shenandoah. Construction of the algae facility is expected to progress quickly and the facility is slated to begin operating in the third quarter of this year.

The five acre facility is the next step in a long-term algae production project being carried out by BioProcess Algae, a joint venture between Green Plains, water filtration product manufacturer Clarcor Inc., clean-tech research and development company BioHoldings Ltd., and global renewable energy investment group NTR plc. Since first installing its trademarked Grower Harvester bioreactors at the Shenandoah plant in 2009, the project has continually met or exceeded its expectations, with the latest expansion being no exception. The company announced last fall that it planned to construct the five-acre farm in the spring and is now moving ahead as scheduled. But the successful scaling-up process has brought with it unexpected challenges on the demand side.

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Article by David Shaffer – Feb. 2, 2012

A Midwest ethanol company says it will begin building a five-acre production facility to grow algae fed by carbon dioxide emitted by its ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa.

The project, which uses technology developed by BioProcess Algae, is the next step toward commercial production of algae for animal feed, fuel, Omega-3 oils and other uses, the companies said in a news release.

Green Plains Renewable Energy, based in Omaha, owns nine ethanol plants, including one in Fergus Falls. It is the first ethanol maker to focus on producing algae using byproduct carbon dioxide from an ethanol plant.

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Article by Katie Schubert – Feb. 2, 2012

A Rhode Island-based biofuels company is expanding its operation at a southwest Iowa plant.

BioProcess Algae broke ground Wednesday on a five-acre facility at the Green Plains Energy ethanol plant in Shenandoah. BioProcess opened a demonstration plant in 2009 at GPRE’s Shenandoah campus. The facility captures the waste products used to make ethanol, and uses them to grow algae. The algae is then used in animal feed.

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BioProcess Algae and Green Plains Break Ground on Five Acre Production Facility in Shenandoah, Iowa

OMAHA, Neb., Feb. 1, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BioProcess Algae LLC and Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRE) announced that they will start construction of BioProcess Algae’s five acre production facility at Green Plains’ ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. The project will be comprised of a combination of at scale Grower HarvesterTMbioreactors and a plant to further dewater and process the algae into finished product. The horizontal reactors have been successfully running outdoors since the fall of 2011 and this marks the next step in the project to commercialize algae focused on markets for animal feed, fuel, omega-3 products and high-value nutraceuticals.

“After a successful rollout of the horizontal reactors at full commercial scale, we are eager to move forward with this project producing meaningful quantities of dried wholesale algae for use in products now,” said Todd Becker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Plains. “This new phase will mark the successful transition to a larger footprint located adjacent to our Shenandoah, Iowa ethanol plant which will provide the basic inputs the bioreactors need: carbon dioxide, warm water and heat.”

“Our technology has successfully brought algae directly into the sunlight using limited inputs while increasing growth rates,” says Tim Burns, Chief Executive Officer of BioProcess Algae. “We continue to work with potential strategic customers including major food, animal feed, energy and pharmaceutical companies around the world,” continued Burns. “Often times, this is the first access they have had to larger quantities of wholesale algae. Our goal is to produce algae in a cost effective manner that can be used as the customer sees fit.”

BioProcess Algae Grower Harvester bioreactors located in Shenandoah, Iowa have been continually running since their Phase I launch in October 2009.

About BioProcess Algae, LLC
BioProcess Algae provides a carbon capture technology for low cost, high quality feedstock production for nutrition, animal feeds and biofuels. BioProcess Algae is a joint venture among CLARCOR Inc. (NYSE:CLC), a global provider of filtration products, BioHoldings LTD, a clean-tech research & development company, Green Plains Renewable Energy, and the international renewable energy group NTR plc, which builds and runs green energy and resource-sustaining businesses.

About Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc.
Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRE) is North America’s fourth largest ethanol producer. The Company markets and distributes approximately one billion gallons of renewable motor fuel on an annual basis, including 740 million gallons of expected production from the Company’s nine ethanol plants located throughout the U.S. Green Plains owns and operates grain handling and storage assets and provides complementary agronomy services to local grain producers through its agribusiness segment. Green Plains owns BlendStar LLC, a biofuels terminal operator with locations in the southern U.S. Green Plains is a joint venture partner in BioProcess Algae LLC, which was formed to commercialize advanced photo-bioreactor technologies for the growing and harvesting of algal biomass.

Safe Harbor
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such statements are identified by the use of words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “goal,” “intends,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “should,” “will,” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to various factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, outcome of events, timing and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Green Plains may experience significant fluctuations in future operating results due to a number of economic conditions, including, but not limited to, competition in the ethanol and other industries in which the Company competes, commodity market risks, financial market risks, counter-party risks, risks associated with changes to federal policy or regulation, risks related to closing and achieving anticipated results from acquisitions, risks associated with the Company’s joint venture to commercialize algae production and commercialize algae-related products and technology as well as market acceptance of such products, the growth potential of the algal biomass industry, and other risks detailed in the Company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, as amended, and in the Company’s subsequent filings with the SEC. Green Plains assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The cautionary statements in this report expressly qualify all of the Company’s forward-looking statements. In addition, the Company is not obligated, and does not intend, to update any of its forward-looking statements at any time unless an update is required by applicable securities laws.

CONTACT: Jim Stark, Vice President – Investor and Media Relations
Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc.
(402) 884-8700

Source: Green Plains Renewable Energy