BP starts up celullosic ethanol joint venture with $45m, pays $161m fine for Clean Air Act violations
BP goes on the offensive and plays defense in two news stories yesterday. First, we learn that BP Products North America Inc. has agreed to pay $161 million for "pollution controls, enhanced maintenance and monitoring, and improved internal management practices" because of Clean Air Act violations committed at a Texas refinery. The EPA's Catherine McCabe said that, "BP failed to fulfill its obligations under the law, putting air quality and public health at risk."
Maybe the $45 million that BP (along with another $45 million from partner Verenium Corp.) is putting into a new cellulosic ethanol commercializaion project will result in better headlines. The new joint venture company will seek to create the biofuel from non-food feedstocks at a commercial-scale plant coming to HIighlands County, Florida. Construction there should start in 2010 and cost somewhere between $250 million and $300 million. If all goes well, the ethanol should start flowing in 2012. These dates are slightly later than previously indicated.[Source: EPA, Boston Globe]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Carney 10:38AM (2/20/2009)
I used to be annoyed at bp's "beyond petroleum" ad campaigns pretending they were something other than an oil company.
This Onion article encaspulated my views:
http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/were_investing_so_much_in
But it's good they're doing cellulosic research.
However, cellulosic is too often a PR stunt, an excuse to treat a switch from a petroleum-based economy to an alcohol based one as maybe someday years down the road.
We can do this NOW. Methanol fuel can be made from ANY BIOMASS WITHOUT EXCEPTION, including high cellulose material, today, now, with no further research necessary.
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Weedy 11:46AM (2/20/2009)
methanol also corrodes all metal parts it comes in contact with and it destroys lubricant oils. with methanol as fuel piston internal combustion engine is not an option. Methanol causes corrosion damage to all metal surfaces it comes in contact with(fuel lines, injection pumps, injection nozzles, intake valves(with indirect fuel injection only ofc), pistons, cylinder walls...). and with piston engine some fuel will end up in engine oil. only castor oil is somewhat able to withstand methanol. So with methanol say good bye to engine life and oil change intervals of over few hundred kilometers. and methanol wont evaporate at low temperatures so good bye winter usage as well. Other than that methanol seems like a good choice...
Carney 1:09PM (2/20/2009)
Wendy, your claimed concerns about corrosion are relevant to antique cars (those older than about 15 to 20 years), with their inferior materials but are irrelevant for today's cars with modern materials.
Also, flex fuel vehicles are specifically designed to use methanol, and were subjected to extensive field operations in California with a fleet of over fourteen thousand vehicles which were used day in day out in commutes and ordinary use. Based on this years-long, real-world experience, the California Energy Commission's final report in 2000 said that "FFV engine durability can be expected to match that of standard gasoline vehicles."
As for cold weather startup, that's why alcohol fuel is typically not sold pure in the US, but rather has an 85% mix, as in E85 (ethanol) or M85 (methanol). The 15% gasoline content is enough to allow cold weather startup. In tropical Brazil they don't have to do this.
In future we'll be able to replace that gasoline with another alcohol fuel, butanol, to perform the same function.
Noz 12:49PM (2/23/2009)
Oh the irony of an oil company pushing cellulose ethanol.
I thought conspiracy junk like that was reserved only for vapor-ware like hydrogen.
Tim 12:53PM (2/20/2009)
"Maybe the $45 million that BP (along with another $45 million from partner Verenium Corp.) is putting into a new cellulosic ethanol commercializaion project will result in better headlines."
There will be 3 main results in BP ethanol venture.
1) GREENWASH
2) IDOTIC LIBERALS REDISTRIBUTING TAXPAYER MONEY TO BP
3) MORE GOV'T DEBT.
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Carney 1:15PM (2/20/2009)
Those headlines sound a lot better than
1) FANATICS BRAINWASHED BY OIL-FUNDED HATE PROPAGANDA COMMIT YET MORE TERRORISM
2) US, WORLD ECONOMY CRASHES UNDER BURDEN OF SKY HIGH OIL PRICES; MILLIONS LOSE JOBS; TRILLIONS IN WEALTH WIPED OUT FOREVER
3) FLEX FUEL MANDATE, CALLED "HAMMER TO SHATTER OPEC AT ITS WEAK SPOT", REMAINS UNUSED 20 YEARS AFTER POSSIBILITY OF IT EMERGES
Steve-O 12:04PM (2/21/2009)
LOL Carney, I like 1 and 3 the best!
When are we going to wake up here? I have read, and heard, every anti-ethanol argument there is. I just don't understand why so many have not been able to see through the petroluem industry smog that these arguments are.
If Ethanol and other biofuels cannot run the world, they are a better alternative by far to petroleum. Gallon for gallon. So if we can displace a billion gallons of gasoline with (and I'll do the oil company math for those of you who still buy the "energy content" deal) 1.3 billion gallons of alcohol fuel, whic like Carney says can be produced from many, many sources, I say let's get on it yesterday.
What alcohol can do, is burn cleaner, and displace a whole lot of petroleum, create locally based, smaller energy production facilities, prop up some 3rd world nations who have no oil to export, the list can go on.
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