Sprit-Ersatz - Biodiesel & Co.

[Benjamin]

Phenomena & Curiosities: Fuel For Thought

Sept. 05

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smiths...phenomena.html
Cars that run on vegetable oil? Do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs alike fill 'er up with the nation's fastest-growing propellant

Every few weeks, Etta Kantor goes to a Chinese restaurant and fills a couple of five-gallon pails with used cooking oil. Back in her garage, the 59-year-old philanthropist and grandmother strains it through a cloth filter and then pours it into a custom-made second fuel tank in her 2003 Volkswagen Jetta diesel station wagon. Once the car is warmed up, she flips a fuel toggle on the dashboard to switch to the vegetable oil. Wherever she drives, she’s trailed by the appetizing odor of egg rolls.

Sean Parks of Davis, California, collects his cooking oil from a fish-and-chips restaurant and a corn-dog shop. He purifies it chemically in a 40-gallon reactor that he built himself for about $200. The processed oil can be used even when his car's engine is cold, at a cost of about 70 cents a gallon. Parks, 30, a geographer for the U.S. Forest Service, makes enough processed oil to fuel his family's two cars.

Kantor and Parks are willing to go the extra mile to reduce their dependence on petroleum and cut down on pollution. But these days environmentalists are not the only ones banking on biodiesel, as diesel-engine fuel made from vegetable oil is known. Entrepreneurs and soybean farmers are creating a new biodiesel industry, with some 300 retail biodiesel pumps nationwide so far. Commercial production of biodiesel grew 25 percent in 2004, making it the fastest-growing alternative fuel in the United States. Even the singer Willie Nelson recently started a company to market the fuel at truck stops.

The greening of the diesel engine is a return to its roots. Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who in 1892 invented the engine that bears his name, boasted that it ran on peanut and castor oil. "Motive power can be produced by the agricultural transformation of the heat of the sun," he said. The inventor foresaw a future of virtually unlimited renewable energy from plants, but the idea slipped into obscurity because petroleum was so much cheaper than vegetable oil.

A century later, customers for commercial biodiesel include the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Army, the Forest Service, the city of Denver and numerous private truck fleets. Almost all use blends of 2 to 20 percent biodiesel mixed with standard petroleum diesel. The mixture helps federal and state agencies comply with a 2000 executive order by President Clinton mandating less petroleum consumption. Minnesota recently became the first state to require that all diesel fuel sold there be 2 percent biodiesel. Daimler-Chrysler's 2005 diesel Jeep Liberty comes off the production line with its tank filled with a 5 percent biodiesel mixture.

The major obstacle to wider use is price. Pure biodiesel sells for $2.50 to $3 a gallon, about 50 cents to $1 more than petrodiesel. To spur biodiesel's use, some European nations levy no taxes on it, and in October 2004, President Bush signed into law a 50 cent to $1 credit to fuel manufacturers for every gallon of biodiesel blended into petrodiesel. Diesel engines differ from gasoline engines in their use of high pressure rather than a spark plug to ignite the fuel and drive the pistons. Diesel engines can run on fuel that is heavier than gasoline, making it possible to substitute filtered waste grease for petrodiesel. Both used and virgin vegetable oil contain glycerin—a syrupy liquid used in hand lotions. It burns well in a hot engine, as in Etta Kantor's retrofitted diesel, but clogs a cold one. Removing the glycerin yields biodiesel, which is suitable for even a cold engine.

Skeptics have questioned whether it takes more fossil fuel to produce biodiesel—to fertilize crops, transport them and press them for their oil—than the resulting biodiesel replaces. But Jim Duffield, an agricultural economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), says the "few lone voices" who still make that point have not kept up with improvements in agriculture and biodiesel technology. Indeed, a study by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy in 1998 and another in 2002 for the French government show that soybeans and canola oil yield three to four times more energy than is needed to make the fuel. (Similar skepticism has also dogged ethanol, a corn-based fuel mixed with gasoline to create gasohol. But USDA and other studies show that today's ethanol provides up to 30 percent more energy than it takes to make it.)

Another benefit of burning biodiesel is cleaner air. Compared with fossil fuels, it emits less carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, as well as sulfur compounds related to acid rain. Pure biodiesel also substantially reduces overall emission of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change, because the plants from which the oil was extracted absorbed atmospheric carbon dioxide while they were growing. A bus running on pure biodiesel would emit 32 percent less particulate matter, which has been implicated in the dramatic increase in asthma cases in cities. The only air pollution downside of pure biodiesel, according to the 1998 U.S. study, is a slight increase of smog-inducing nitrogen oxides.

The inspiration for the do-it-yourself biodiesel movement came from Joshua Tickell, 29, of Baton Rouge. While studying in Germany in 1996, he was astonished to see a farmer using canola oil to run his tractor. Back in the States, Tickell used his last student loan check to help buy a 1986 diesel Winnebago. He painted sunflowers on his "Veggie Van" and, for two years beginning in 1997, toured the country, towing a simple reactor that turned restaurant oil into biodiesel. In 2000, he coauthored what would become the biodiesel bible, From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank. "My goal is very simply to make OPEC obsolete," he says.

Vegetable power also appeals to 50-year-old Marty Borruso, a chemist and partner in Environmental Alternatives in New York City, who insists he's no "environmental crazy." He produces biodiesel for a generator that makes electricity and hot water for an 87-family apartment house. He also sells the fuel to a tow truck fleet and anyone who comes to a pump he operates next to his production facility in Staten Island. In a 7,000-gallon reactor, Borruso processes out-of-date virgin vegetable oils, which he buys at a steep discount, and free grease from a fried chicken emporium. But he spurns grease from a seafood restaurant. "It smells like calamari," he says. "I love calamari, but I don't know if I want to drive it."

On average, fast-food restaurants in any major U.S. city generate about 22 pounds of waste grease each year per city resident, according to a 1998 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The National Biodiesel Board, a trade group in Jefferson City, Missouri, estimates that more than 2.5 billion pounds of waste cooking grease are available annually—enough to make 100 million gallons of biodiesel.

Of course, America's appetite for petroleum is huge: 2004 consumption was nearly 315 billion gallons, including 139 billion in gasoline and 41 billion diesel. Robert McCormick, a fuels engineer at NREL, says that biodiesel could displace 5 percent of the petrodiesel used in the United States within ten years. To replace more will require growing vegetable crops specifically for fuel—and America's soybean farmers are standing by. Some proponents envision growing aquatic algae—richer in oil than any other plant—in pools next to electric power stations. In an ecological two-for-one, the smokestack carbon dioxide would feed the algae, which would churn out biodiesel.

Grass-roots fans aren't waiting. Kantor, who paid $1,400 to outfit her VW diesel with a second fuel tank, says she gets nearly 200 miles per petrodiesel gallon. "This is not about money," says Kantor, who speaks at schools about protecting the environment. "I'm doing this to set an example."

By Frances Cerra Whittelsey

[Benjamin]

"Grünes Gold" für die Mobilität

Mobilität ermöglicht einen nahezu unbegrenzten internationalen Warenstrom und begründet einen hohen Lebensstandard. Fast undenkbar sind in der heutigen Zeit die während der ersten Ölkrise in den 70er Jahren zeitweise eingeführten „autofreien“ Sonntage. In der Gesellschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts gilt die individuelle Mobilität mit dem eigenen PKW vielen als Sinnbild für Unabhängigkeit und Lebensqualität. Aber die lieb gewonnene Freiheit ist gefährdet: Die jüngsten politischen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen zeigen, dass hohe Rohölpreise keine vorübergehende Erscheinung und dass die fossilen Ressourcen begrenzt sind. Der Artikel von Andrea Spangenberg, Stephan Prechtl, Doris Schieder und Martin Faulstich steht im Internet unter http://www.abayfor.de/abayfor/_media...pangenberg.pdf

[Benjamin]

BIOPETROL Industries AG
Marktkapital. 392,20 Mio. EUR
Symbol B2I.ETR
ISIN CH0023225938
WKN A0HNQ5
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[Benjamin]

Biofuels Corporation PLC
WKN: A0B666
ISIN GB00B00VD693

Börse: London

[Benjamin]

Archer Daniels Midland Company(NYSE:ADM)
WKN: 854161
Börse: NYSE

All data, quarterly:


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February 23, 2006:
Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM), the country's largest ethanol producer.

Now there's evidence that the agribusiness giant is convinced that rising demand for the fuel is here to stay. ADM recently revealed plans to increase its capital investment from $700 million in fiscal 2006, which ends in June, to $1.1 billion in 2007 and again to $1.2 billion in 2008. Part of the spending will go to increase ethanol production by 500 million gallons by 2009, a jump of about 42% from the current production of 1.2 billion gallons.

In the near term, there is little doubt that ADM will be a major beneficiary from ethanol enthusiasm, but its aggressive plans for ethanol should be viewed with some caution. The political winds are definitely blowing in ethanol's favor right now. The federal government subsidizes production and provides tax breaks. What's more, six states have passed laws requiring ethanol-blended gasoline, and nine states are considering similar legislation, according to the Associated Press.

Not surprisingly, rising demand and government incentives are fueling a lot of investment in ethanol production, not only from giants like ADM, but also from a host of small refiners. But as ethanol production grows, so, presumably, will the federal subsidy bill. And as that bill becomes onerous, it's more likely that a future Congress and/or White House facing massive deficits will be tempted to make cuts. If that happens, ethanol could suddenly become a lot more expensive and a lot less attractive to consumers at the pump. And then, presto -- there's an ethanol glut.

Admittedly, the subsidies might never face the ax. Further, ADM and other ethanol outfits could find ways to produce ethanol so that it's more price-competitive with gasoline. Nevertheless, investors should note that ADM's ethanol strategy is currently built on favorable political winds, and those winds have been known to change direction.

[Benjamin]

BUNGE LTD
WKN: 762269
Börse: NYSE


1 Jahr:

[Benjamin]

Pacific Ethanol Inc
The only real pure-play ethanol stock is Pacific Ethanol (Research), a California startup that made headlines last November when it received an $84 million investment from Bill Gates. Pacific has plans to build five West Coast ethanol refineries by mid-2008. Paul Resnik, an analyst with Dutton Associates who rates Pacific a "speculative buy," believes the company will be profitable in 2007. The location of its plants, he says, will give it a cost advantage over Midwest ethanol producers selling to California, since corn is cheaper to transport than ethanol. (Dutton's research is paid for but not controlled by Pacific and the other companies it tracks.)

If Resnik's earnings projections prove correct -- a big "if" for a company that's yet to produce a drop of fuel -- Pacific would be trading at 56 times next year's earnings and 11 times 2008 earnings. Not cheap,


WKN: A0D9R1
Börse: Berlin-Bremen



Börse: NASDAQ NM:PEIX
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[Benjamin]

Bush will push green fuel
State of the Union will include an ethanol plug. Will it matter?

By Adam Lashinsky, FORTUNE senior writer

January 31, 2006


NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - Among those paying very close attention to the president's State of the Union address tonight will be folks from every sector of the energy industry, eager to hear what the petroleum president has to say about alternative energy.

Yes, you read that right. President Bush -- former oil man, son of an oil man, coached by the former chief executive of Halliburton (Research) – will hold forth Tuesday night on why America needs to be doing a better job of promoting renewable fuels.

"I agree with Americans who understand being hooked on foreign oil is an economic problem and a national security problem," Bush said in a recent interview with CBS, according to the Associated Press. That's really an astounding statement. Coming from Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton, it would be ho hum. But coming from George W. Bush it actually means something.

This is the Nixon going to China of renewable fuels. Of course, if the price of a barrel of oil was closer to $40 instead of $70, it's unlikely President Bush would even be talking about alternative energy. But oil isn't at $40, and Bush is talking about ways to cut down our use of petroleum, 60 percent of which we import.

So what will the president actually propose? It seems likely he plans to build on the modest success of last year's energy bill, which, among other things, mandated the use of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012.

Last year, Americans consumed about 4 billion gallons of ethanol, nearly all of it added to gasoline in a 90 percent gas/10 percent ethanol blend. In the interview with CBS as well as a long chat last week with the Wall Street Journal, the president has been talking up the virtues of flexible fuel vehicles that can burn a blend of 85 percent ethanol called E85. These are ordinary cars whose engines include a sensor that allow them to burn the higher ethanol blend. The president could propose tax credits for driving flexible-fuel vehicles or give automakers tax breaks for building them.

Already, there are more than 5 million flex-fuel vehicles on the road in the U.S. The car companies built them primarily to satisfy corporate fuel-efficiency requirements. The problem with promoting flex-fuel cars as well as E85 as the alternative fuel to run them is what former CIA Director James Woolsey calls the classic "Alphonse-Gaston" problem. Not only do most people who own one not know they already have a car that can burn gasoline or ethanol, there's almost nowhere for them to fill up with ethanol. Fewer than 600 of the 170,000 gasoline stations in the U.S. sell E85. It isn't clear who's going first here, Alphonse or Gaston. (Woolsey is involved with a group called the Set America Free Coalition. Theirthoughts on energy security are worth reading.)

To be a success, ethanol will have to be made from agricultural products other than corn. Such cellulosic ethanol could come from prairie grass and wood chips, for example. The Department of Energy has estimated that ethanol derived from such sources could make up 30 percent of overall gasoline consumption in 25 years. (Click here for more about how ethanol could help break the country's dependence on foreign oil. )

Private industry already is working on ways to ramp up ethanol production. But if President Bush is serious about helping that process along, he'll need to suggest ways to make flex-fuel vehicles more than an empty promise. Of course, just by talking about alterative fuels the president sends a signal, especially to the gas-guzzling, anti-conservation crowd he knows well. Look where China is 35 years after President Nixon made it possible for the West to business there.

[simplify]

da grübel ich auch schon den ganzen tag dran rum, wer wird da profitieren?
wenn er ethanol aus holz o. gereide gewinnen will, dann wäre sicher ein weizen o. corn zertifikat angebracht.

welche unternehmen in den usa sind denn auf dem gebiet der gewinnung von ethanol o. herstellung solcher anlagen führend?

[Benjamin]

da grübel ich auch schon den ganzen tag dran rum, wer wird da profitieren?

Hallo simplyfy,
Du bist doch sonst schneller! Die Antwort steht hier im Thread, die 3 Unternehmen unmittelbar über jenem Artikel über Bush. Was glaubst Du wohl, warum diese Titel jetzt so in die Höhe schossen? Weil tausende von US-Anlegern sich genau die gleiche Fragen stellten, als sie vom Redetext über die Lage der Nation erfuhren. Jetzt ist die Rede gehalten und die Story wohl schon weitgehend gelaufen. Jetzt muss man imho erst einmal checken, ob da nicht zumindest kurzfristig eine Korrektur kommen könnte, bevor man da reingeht.

Im Energiespargeschäft der USA ist das hier ein Kandidat, zugleich Turn-Around-Story:
http://www.traderboersenboard.de/for...468#post202468

[simplify]

hallo benjamin,
ja da war ich etwas langsam was aber auch manchmal nicht verkehrt ist.

es ja so, dass bush auf 75% des erdöls aus dem unsicheren arabischen raum, in den nächsten jahrzehnten verzichten will. für diese menge will er einen ersatztreibstoff.
die usa beziehen aber aus dem arabischen raum nur 20% ihres erdöls, der rest kommt aus mexiko, venezuela o. kanada.

ich glaube man hat noch zeit genug, die sache etwas genauer zu betrachten, um nicht irgendwelche aufgeblasenen luftballons sich ins depot zu legen?

[Karl]

@ simplify und benjamin,

in diesem Zusammenhang kann es auch nicht verkehrt sein,Zucker im Depot zu haben. Da sind die Brasilianer ja führend.

Karl.

[simplify]

Steuerpläne bringen Aktien der Biodiesel-Hersteller unter Druck


Frankfurt, 03. Feb (Reuters) - Pläne der Bundesregierung zur höheren Besteuerung von Biokraftstoffen haben den Herstellern herbe Aktienkursverluste eingebracht. Sprecher der Firmen Biopetrol und EOP Biodiesel sagten am Freitag, ein Steueraufschlag von zehn Cent je Liter Biodiesel sei hinnehmbar und werde den Trend zum Biokraftstoff nicht stoppen.

Die EOP-Aktie lag am Vormittag mit zeitweise fast zehn Prozent im Minus, Biopetrol musste Einbußen von knapp sieben Prozent hinnehmen. Die Kurse beider Biokraftstoff-Hersteller lagen allerdings nach wie vor klar über dem Ausgabepreis. Die Biopetrol-Aktie hatte am Mittwoch mit 13,80 Euro ein Jahreshoch erreicht. Schon als die große Koalition Ende November erstmals öffentlich über ihre Steuerpläne diskutierte, hatten die Unternehmen deutliche Kursverluste zu verkraften.

Finanzminister Peer Steinbrück will Medienberichten zufolge zehn Cent für jeden Liter Biodiesel kassieren. Bei Mischungen mit konventionellem Diesel denke der Sozialdemokrat an 15 Cent.
Steinbrücks Überlegungen stoßen auf Widerstand in den eigenen Reihen.

"Schauen wir erst einmal, was passiert", sagte EOP-Sprecher Volker Siegert. Noch gebe es einzelne Stimmen zu dem Thema, aber keine Beschlüsse. "Jedes Mal, wenn darüber diskutiert wird, kommt ein Schlag auf den Kurs." Die Lage werde sich auch jetzt wieder rasch beruhigen. "Mit zehn Cent könnten wir leben".
Biopetrol-Sprecher Karl Steinle nannte zehn Cent "nicht so tragisch". Bio-Diesel sei immer noch attraktiver als herkömmlicher. Das Unternehmen sei zudem vor allem am Beimischungsmarkt engagiert und damit als Zulieferer von der Steuerbelastung weniger betroffen.

Biopetrol Industries hatte im November einen starken Börsenstart hingelegt: Die Aktie war zu neun Euro und damit 80 Cent über dem Ausgabepreis in den Handel im Wachstumssegment Entry Standard der Frankfurter Börse gestartet. Biopetrol stellt im brandenburgischen Schwarzheide rund 150.000 Tonnen Biodiesel im Jahr her. Das Unternehmen plant nach eigenen Angaben den Ausbau seiner Produktionskapazitäten. Der Konkurrent EOP Biodiesel war im September an die Börse gegangen.

tso/brn

[Benjamin]

Habe von diesen Sprit-Companies bislang nur die EOP Biodiesel AG seit 8 € nochwas im Depot, halte sie weiter.

Interessant wird es erst, wenn man endlich auf chemisch-physikalischem Wege (und nicht wie bislang mirkrobiologisch) aus Biomasse und organischen Abfällen/Biomasse neuen synthetischen Kraftstoff gewinnen kann. Da ist ein Verfahren in der Erprobung und Weiterentwicklung, das offenbar aus solchen - im chemischen Sinne - langkettigen organischem Material in einem einstufigen Verfahren synthetischen Diesel erzeugen kann mittels eines Katalysators. Dann kann man Biomasse und viele Mischabfälle verwenden. Das wird DER Kracher im Bereich Kraftstofferzeugung.

Nicht zu verwechseln mit
-- dem Verfahren ohne Katalysator, von dem die Firma Clyvia - imho irreführend - behauptet, sie würde es beherrschen).
-- dem mehrstufigen Hochtemperatur-Verfahren, mit dem das Ausgangsmaterial zuerst vergast und dann wieder zu Kraftstoff neu zusammengesetzt wird.

So in 2007 oder 2008 sollten Companies da sein, die das wirtschaftlich können. Sofern da dann eine AG dabei sein sollte, werde ich die mit Sicherheit im Depot haben wollen.

Einschränkung: Die Öl-Multies und großen Versorgungsunternehmen besetzen zunehmend diesen Markt. Bald wird es schwerer werden, noch derartig neuartige "Nachhaltigkeits-Stories" zu finden. Habe jetzt schon BP als Mischkonzern bei mir gelistet: Öl, Gas + nachhaltige Energieerzeugung. Siemens baut Windkraftanlagen. Ebenso Mitsubishi. EON entdeckt den Klimaschutz, Vattenfall will CO2-freie Kohlekraftwerke bauen (das CO2 wird am Ende durch Kühlung verflüssigt (und so von den gasförmig bleibenden übrigen Verbrennungsgasen abgetrennt) und später in tiefen Erdschichten deponiert, etc. Experten haben errechnet, dass es in Zukunft recht schwer werden wird, das viele CO2 über Jahrtausende sicher zu lagern - sofern diese CO2-Emissionseinschränkung einmal vorgesehen werden muss. Ebenso wie abgebrannten Kernbrennstoff muss auch das viele CO2 aus solchen Kraftwerken dann sicher endgelagert werden, ohne dass es zu einem Eintritt in die Biospäre kommen kann!
Kann man sich heute noch gar nicht vorstellen!

[Benjamin]

Aktien-Basket-Zertifikat, kein Hebel: Biokraftstoff-Aktien-Basket
http://www.hsbc-tip.de/!OpenSnapshot...se&iTabChart=1
Aktien von Unternehmen im Umfeld der Biokraftstoff-Herstellung, Details siehe Link oben.