Newport Beach, Calif.—FirmGreen, Inc. (FirmGreen®) a technology leader in the renewable energy field, has prepared its final shipment of proprietary biogas cleaning equipment for export to Brazil, setting the stage for the installation phase of the project.

The Brazilian based project sponsor is Gás Verde, SA and the completed plant will clean biogas from the nearby Novo Gramacho landfill for sale to a local oil refinery owned and operated by Petrobras, the largest company in Latin America and the eighth largest energy company in the world.

The final shipment of FirmGreen equipment, mostly manufactured at Guild Associates in Dublin, Ohio, and shipped in installments over the past 11 months, has been loaded onto 16 trucks and is enroute to the Port of Jacksonville, Florida, where it will be shipped to the Port of Rio de Janeiro.  Upon arrival in Brazil by late May, the equipment will be transported to the Gás Verde biogas purification plant at the Novo Gramacho landfill for assembly.  By fall 2012, FirmGreen expects to begin operation of its patented CO₂ Wash® process at the Gás Verde facility to convert landfill gas into clean, biomethane fuel, with an energy content equivalent to natural gas.  Gás Verde will then inject the clean biogas, sold under FirmGreen’s trademark of gCNG®, into a pipeline 3.7 miles long to the local Petrobras refinery. Petrobras plans to use the gCNG to generate over 10 percent of the thermal energy needed to run its Duque de Caxias Refinery.

“The delivery of our fourth and last shipment is a huge milestone for the project,” explained Steve Wilburn, FirmGreen’s CEO. “Within months, the Gás Verde project in Brazil will use FirmGreen technology to convert landfill gas to pipeline quality natural gas. The completed facility will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.4 million metric tons a year, but it will set the standard as the technology to replicate at landfills worldwide, thus positioning FirmGreen’s U.S. based manufacturers to once again become the leading exporters of green technology. FirmGreen is proud to be at the forefront of this effort.”

Once the plant is in full operation, the Gás Verde project in Brazil will use the FirmGreen technology to clean 12,000 scfm (standard cubic feet per minute) of landfill gas into usable, pipeline quality biomethane.   The EPA estimates that such emission reductions are equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from removing 278,400 passenger vehicles from the road and/or reducing the CO₂ emissions from 159.6 million gallons of gasoline consumed.

In addition to its environmental benefits, Wilburn noted that export of FirmGreen’s green technology has created hundreds of skilled U.S. jobs and helps improve the nation’s trade balance at a time when the American economy has been challenged.  Manufacturing operations in seven different states contracted with FirmGreen on this project, each contributing a significant role in the fabrication of FirmGreen’s biogas purification equipment.

The undertaking has also created hundreds of jobs in Brazil.  “This is what truly makes this project a win-win,” explained Sergio Stacchini, President of Gás Verde. “We are dramatically reducing landfill emission, producing a cleaner, better product and improving the socio-economic status of the Gramacho area by creating jobs.  It doesn’t get better than this.”

Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, FirmGreen, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the generation and distribution of alternative energy resources. FirmGreen offers a wide range of products, services, and technologies designed to deliver real-time applications and bring renewable energy and fuels to the market. For more information on this privately held, entrepreneurial organization, please visit www.firmgreen.com, Facebook and Twitter: FirmGreen

Find out more about clean fuels at: www.firmgreen.com/fuel

A Croatian-built electric supercar? Yes, it’s true: the Rimac Concept_One debuted at Frankfurt Motor Show last September, and the automaker recently announced that a limited run of 88 vehicles will be built. At $980,000 for each, buyers will pay dearly to purchase one of these supercars.

Under its sleek lightweight carbon fiber hood (so to speak) the Concept_One has a 92-kWh battery powering a liquid cooled magnetic electric motor at each wheel; Rimac has stated that the car can go from a standstill to 62mph in 2.8 seconds, and travel up to 372 miles on a single charge.

The supercar inspiration began as a lark for Mate Rimac, after the engine of his 1986 BMW 3-series blew up during a bad day at the race track. Instead of dropping in a new internal combustion engine (ICE), Rimac decided to take his car in a completely new direction — by building an electric racecar. He formed VST-Conversions and the BMW became Rimac’s test vehicle for tinkering with EV technology.
Want more info? www.rimac-automobili.com

Video of the BMW at the track below.

This alternative fueled supercar joins other efforts at the high-performance sports car end of the vehicle spectrum. In recent years, Swedish automaker Koenigsegg produced biofuel powered vehicles on a limited basis, and Audi, BMW, and others have unveiled EV performance cars – many only as concepts to date. In 2008, Tesla Motors introduced the Roadster, an unprecedented development for the EV market at that time.

This week, Frito-Lay announced plans to add 67 compressed natural gas (CNG) powered trucks to its fleet by mid-July. It hopes to operate most of its heavy-duty fleet on CNG, or liquified natural gas (LNG) for longest-haul trucks within the next few years.

With cost savings of $2.50 per diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) of fuel at today’s prices, the company’s CNG pilot program revealed that payback would only take one and a half years. In a recent interview, Mike O’Connell, senior director of fleet capability for Frito-Lay, characterized the shift as “a no-brainer”, and added that the company expects to save 900,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually once the 67 trucks are deployed. Frito-Lay now plans to replace its diesel trucks with natural gas trucks as they are retired. At a rate of 125 tractors being retired annually, O’Connell said he expects the process could take six or seven years.

Frito-Lay also uses plug-in electric vehicles (EVs). The company launched electric delivery service trucks in 2010 and expected to have 176 in service by end of 2011. Mike O’Connell, senior director of fleet capability for Frito-Lay, estimates that the fleet of EVs reduces its fuel use by 500,000 gallons annually.

The company wants to achieve a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2017: natural gas vehicles (NGVs) will provide a big boost to this effort!

Find out more about clean fuels at: www.firmgreen.com/fuel

How do you deliver 30 million packages for the London Olympics Games without generating a lot of vehicle emissions? UPS has added biomethane (renewable natural gas) trucks, plug-in electric vans and a few hybrid cars. The company also plans a trial run for sailing barges down the Thames to ease road congestion.

Business Green reports that Peter Harris, EMEA director of sustainability for UPS, said the Olympics contract has enabled the company to significantly expand its research and development of low-carbon technology.

“We think biomethane is potentially a really exciting fuel,” Harris said. “It’s one of the few alternative fuels that can work at the heavy end of vehicle spectrum. It has great potential for reducing carbon because the fuel is generated from producing waste. This is a little understood thing but it’s close to miraculous if you think about it because the win-win opportunities that exist from number one: reducing the amount of waste that we’ve generated and number two: then turning that into a truck fuel.”

Find out more about clean fuels at: www.firmgreen.com/fuel

Cummins Westport officially unveiled its ISX12 G engine that can operate on compressed (CNG) or liquified natural gas (LNG). Based on the Cummins ISX12 diesel engine platform, production of the 12 liter heavy-duty engine starts early 2013, and will be manufactured at the company’s heavy duty engine plant in Jamestown, NY.

This new addition to the Cummins engine line-up is expected to be California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified at commercial launch, along with Euro VI and pending U.S. EPA regulations for emissions and fuel economy. The engine is targeted at North American regional haul and refuse-haul applications would represent an ideal choice for fleet owners looking to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards.

Cummins received partial funding for development of the ISX 12G engine from the U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Laboratory (NREL), and the California Energy Commission (CEC) in conjunction with the Gas Technology Institute.
More on this story: Cummins Westport press release

Rising prices at the pump?
Consumers start to complain,
As pundits gather to assign the blame.
Energy policy, or perhaps big oil?
The Middle East once again in a roil?
One thing is certain — always the same,
fuel buyers are feeling the pain!

With rising fuel prices during an election year, and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasting continued increases, there’s been no shortage of finger pointing. In recent interviews, Republican presidential candidates have, perhaps predictably, blamed the current Democratic administration’s policies, especially regulatory hurdles that impede increased drilling. One candidate, Newt Gingrich, has promised to usher in an era of $2.50 gallon gasoline, if elected. Golly! Can he control the market enough to accomplish that?

Jeff Bingaman, (D) New Mexico, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, begged to differ about the primary influences on oil and gas prices. In a floor speech this week: “While domestic oil production plays an important role in the energy security and economy of our own country, its contribution to the world oil balance is not sufficient to bring global oil prices down.” Bingaman illustrated his points about domestic production and the world petroleum market with a variety of charts and graphs.

Links to article sources:
Read the text of Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D) speech at energy.senate.gov
(opens in new window or tab)

See Chairman Bingaman’s Charts at: energy.senate.gov
(PDF opens in new window or tab)

Did Bingaman suggest a strategy for dealing with rising prices? Yes: use less oil. We couldn’t agree more, but we do need cost effective options — especially for fleets such as municipal buses, school bus fleets, and trucks that transports much of our food and other goods. Route optimization can only do so much to reduce fuel use, and many fleet owners already adopted this practice during the mid-2000’s as diesel prices skyrocketed.

Biomethane is one of several paths being explored to bring cost effective renewable fuels to the market. Developing coherent policy that promotes a willingness for industry to invest in
alternative fuels and energy has recently gotten a boost in the U.S. with new funding for
development of technology for natural gas powered vehicles. While alternative fuels are
unlikely to noticeably reduce the price of petroleum at the pump for some time, fleet owners who adopt alternative fuels can typically reduce volatile price hikes and enjoy lower fueling costs while minimizing emissions that affect the environment.

Find more about the benefits of biomethane use at: firmgreen.com

As a by-product of the routine operation of landfills, water-treatment plants, and livestock farms, biomethane is considered to be a renewable fuel. Once purified, it has about the same energy content of and is chemically equivalent to traditional natural gas from non-renewable fossil fuel sources. Biomethane can be used to power electrical production, home appliances, or as a fuel for vehicles that run on natural gas (NGVs). From well-to-wheels, renewable natural gas is the cleanest fuel available today.
see report from Argonne Laboratory for comparison of lifecycle emissions for various fuels

Under current law, biogas producers in California are unable to sell their fuel. State law prohibits landfill gas from being injected into the pipelines that carry natural gas across the state, and imposes such strict testing requirements on other sources of biogas that it effectively prohibits them as well. As a result, California’s larger producers of biogas burn it in a flare; small operations are allowed to let it seep into the atmosphere, both of which degrade air quality. This seems counterproductive to California’s efforts to improve air quality, as well as a complete waste of an enormous amount of energy potential.

Because of California’s statutes, utilities that purchase biogas to meet renewable energy portfolio standards are currently buying from non-California sources. This means the jobs associated with this emerging industry are created outside the state. AB 1900 would protect existing contracts between utilities and biogas producers around the country, but set up a system in California to promote the biogas industry and job creation within the state. The bill authorizes the California Energy Commission to establish a certification process for biogas energy content and purity: once a California producer of biogas meets those requirements, it can then sell biogas to utilities or into a natural gas pipeline within the state.

If the bill becomes law, it will remove inconsistencies in state policy with respect to renewable energy and air quality, and provide utilities with a more predictable set of rules that can be expected to help prevent rate hikes. It can also be expected to serve as a catalyst for new job creation. Many of the state’s biogas producers are located California’s ex-urban areas that have been hit especially hard during the current recession, so this bill has quickly gained significant bipartisan support.

Assemblyman Gatto stated, “We can put Californians to work, clean our air, keep utility bills low, and we can stop the insanity of requiring existing producers of biogas to burn it while they use fossil fuels for electricity.” We hope to see at least a portion of biogas that could be injected into the state’s pipelines to be used as a transportation fuel, but this bill seems a step in the right direction.

AB 1900 has now been referred to the Assembly Committee on Rules and is currently scheduled to be heard in committee March 24.

Track the bill here: Visit CA Legislative Info website
More info on Assemblyman Mike Gatto can be found here.

Jay Leno test drives the Honda Civic GX and hosts a company rep for a chat in his garage. Visit Jay Leno’s Garage: Click here

State legislators are considering ways to collect “fair use” fees from electric vehicle (EV) owners, since drivers of 100% EVs (i.e., plug-in only, not hybrids) avoid paying taxes at the gas pump that cover the cost of maintaining roads. EVs cause wear and tear on roads just as gasoline or diesel powered vehicles, and were EVs to be widely adopted, obviously states would need to recoup the loss of funds needed to repair and maintain public roads.

Most EV advocacy organizations agree that some sort of road use tax is fair; the question being how best to impose new fees. Washington state introduced a bill that would impose a $100 annual fee, while legislation introduced in Oregon seeks to impose a rate of 0.06 cents per mile. Chad Schwitters, president of Plug In America objects to the flat fee structure, stating that the problem is the same as it would be for gas vehicles: no incentive for conservation.

EV manufacturers generally object to all of these efforts, opposing any attempt to introduce taxes at this point. Their contention? Automakers believe it’s too early, and cost increases to the consumer will slow further EV adoption.

More on renewable energy & fuels at firmgreen.com

We commend the President for recognizing the immediate benefit of using a clean, domestic fuel such as natural gas: “A great place to start is natural gas,” stated Obama.

Based on his remarks, the President plans to support tax incentives for companies to buy more natural gas vehicles, specifically mentioning city bus fleets and the federal fleet. He also mentioned job creation in the context of using a domestic fuel and building infrastructure (it is an election year). We can only hope this support turns into legislation!

So, we’re a little biased – since the biomethane (natural gas from renewable sources) FirmGreen produces is a “drop in” fuel for a natural gas infrastructure. Obama said his administration would continue to work with the private sector to develop five natural gas corridors along major highway routes.

Click here for the White House PR.

Visit FirmGreen’s website to find out how using biomethane recovered from wasted resources can benefit your community.

Want to watch the speech? It’s here on C-Span: