EPA awards $200K to MSU team to research biodiesel from wastewater treatment plant sludge

EPA awarded a $200,000 grant to a team at Mississippi State University to research the production of biodiesel from conversion of waste water treatment plant sludge. The team led by Dr. Rafael Hernandez and Dr. Todd French, will research the identification of microorganisms that can extract lipids from the sludge that can be converted into biodiesel. The team will also report on the net energy output and environmental impact of the process.

EPA background

The Midwest Governors Association announced that they have written Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson requesting that the EPA continue the Renewable Fuel Standard in its existing form and decline to issue waivers of ethanol blending requirements. The governors of Texas and Connecticut have issued requests for waivers in recent weeks. The EPA is responding to those requests by July.

Also in Washington, the EPA is accepting comments in June on the requests by the Governor of Texas to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard. More information on the request and how to comment is here. The EPA is required to respond by July 25, according to the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

Texas Governor Rick Perry requested a 50 per cent waiver from the federal renewable fuel standard as a response to rapidly rising food prices. “We appreciate the good intentions behind the push for renewable fuels,” Perry said in a statement. “In fact, we’re diversifying our state’s energy portfolio at a rapid rate, but this misguided mandate is significantly affecting Texans’ family food bill. There are multiple factors contributing to our skyrocketing grocery prices, but a waiver of RFS levels is the best, quickest way to reduce those costs before permanent damage is done.”

“Ultimately, food prices are reaching high levels, so we’re looking at this as an option for reducing that burden,” said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Gov. Perry, told cattlenetwork.com. State have sought temporary waivers from EPA mandates in the past, but this is one of the first permanent waivers, and may cause ethanol quotas for other states to increase.

The Renewable Fuel Standard, and state biofuels mandates, have come under increasing scrutiny since the passage of the Energy Security and Independence Act over food price concerns.

The Environmental Protection Agency has vastly expanded powers to determine crop policy and the rate of biofuels expansion, under the Energy Independence and Security Act signed into law last December. The EPA may waive or reduce annual targets prescribed under the ACt, and determine which fuels qualify as “advanced biofuels” that count towards the overall goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel blended with gasoline annually.

Under the Act, the EPA, states, or refiners can petition the EPA to waive ethanol blending requirement, or the EPA may alter the timetable itself. EPA officials have commenced design of their analytic framework, and at the heart of their work is a determination of land-use models to use in mapping the impact of ethanol production on greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA also will have final say in allowing higher blends of ethanol such as as E20 and E30 to be adopted as state minimums.

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