Hydrogen Engine Center In India Venture … report raps biofuels … biodiesel takes a cruise …

Diesel Progress North American Edition, Oct, 2007

Hydrogen Engine Center Inc. (HEC) a designer, manufacturer and distributor of alternative-fueled internal combustion engines and distributed power generation equipment, said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with New Delhi-based Belliss India Ltd. to sell, deploy and service its engines and distributed generation equipment in India. Currently, Belliss supplies steam turbines for electricity generation throughout India, where demand is growing rapidly. Much of the steam reformer generation is fueled by coal, and India is seeking greener ways of generating power. By combining wind turbines with Hydrogen Engine Center's product line, Belliss anticipates it will be able to offer a constant and stable power supply to virtually anywhere in India, even where the national grid doesn't run.

HEC also announced the shipment of its first ammonia-fueled power unit for testing purposes. The power unit, equipped with an Oxx Power 4.9 L engine outfitted with HEC's proprietary controls and fuel delivery system, has been shipped to TGP West in California. The engine will run primarily on anhydrous ammonia, with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a catalyst fuel for this test. The clean power supplied by this unit will be used to irrigate a walnut grove and provide water for a cattle ranch in the San Luis Obispo area. Don Vanderbrook, COO of HEC, noted that "Californian law requires that approximately 50,000 irrigation pumps in the state need to be converted to nonpolluting fuels by 2010. We believe that a successful field test of the Oxx Power engine would give us a significant advantage in bidding for that business."

Tenneco has opened its second manufacturing facility in Russia, located in St. Petersburg. This facility will be St. Petersburg's first emissions control manufacturing plant for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Initially, the 55,000 sq.ft. facility will supply exhaust systems for Ford Motor Co. However, as more OEMs establish production facilities in St. Petersburg and elsewhere in Russia, the company hopes to win additional business and grow the size and capacity of the new plant.

Biofuels, championed for reducing energy reliance, boosting farm revenues and helping fight climate change, may in fact hurt the environment and push up food prices, a study has suggested. In a report on the impact of biofuels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said biofuels may "offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal." The conclusions of the study appeared in a report by Reuters. "The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits," the OECD said. "When acidification, fertilizer use, biodiversity loss and toxicity of agricultural pesticides are taken into account, the overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel." The OECD called on governments to cut their subsidies for the sector and instead encourage research into technologies that would avoid competing for land use with food production.

Imperium Renewables said it will provide Royal Caribbean Cruises with biodiesel. The Seattle, Wash.-based biodiesel maker, which commenced operations at its Grays Harbor plant in August, will sell the cruise line 15 million gallons of biodiesel in 2007 and 18 million gallons annually for four years after that. Grays Harbor is considered by some to be the largest biodiesel facility in the country and is capable of producing 100 million gallons of biodiesel a year. The Miami-based cruise line has four vessels that call in Seattle. "We believe this is the single-largest long-term biodiesel sales contract to an end user in the U.S.," the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Imperium also said it had reached an agreement to purchase Royal Caribbean Cruises' 7% stake in the Grays Harbor facility. The company is pushing back the completion date of three planned biodiesel plants by one quarter. Its Hawaii and Argentina facilities are now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2008, and a Philadelphia plant for the first quarter of 2009.

Prime Minister Helen Clarke said in a recent speech that New Zealand will commit to 90% renewable electricity by 2025. The country already uses 70% renewable electricity, primarily hydro- and geothermal power, and will continue to increase its use of renewables over the next 20 years. Eventually, Clarke said she would like to see the country carbon-neutral. "I have set out the challenge to our nation to become the first truly sustainable nation on earth--to dare to aspire to be carbon-neutral," Prime Minister Clarke said. The Prime Minister also gave a brief outline of further goals, which included a 2040 target of reducing by half, per-capita emissions from transport and widely introducing electric vehicles. She also stated the goal of achieving a net increase in forest area of 617,000 acres by 2020.