Alternative Fuel Sources - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power - page 88

ConocoPhillips will see a more immediate payoff in its agreement with
Tyson Foods to process animal fats into renewable diesel. The company al-
ready has one renewable diesel plant in operation and another going on-
line. ConocoPhillips also produces renewable diesel from soybean oil at an
Irish refinery and plans similar operations at its Borger, Texas refinery. It is
providing a $100 million upgrade at the refinery to process animal fats from
Tyson Foods. ConocoPhillips also funds research at the Colorado Center for
Biorefining and Biofuels and gave Iowa State University $22.5 million over
eight years for research on producing renewable fuels from biomass.
ConocoPhillips is also studying the use of algae as a renewable diesel
feedstock and is a founding member of the Colorado Center for Biorefining
and Biofuels in Boulder. This research group is involved with algae, cel-
lulosic and other biofuels. Other group members include Chevron, Dow
Chemical, Shell Global Solutions, GreenFuel Technologies, Range Fuels,
Solix Biofuels and Blue Sun Biodiesel.
ExxonMobil has given $100 million to the Stanford University Global
Climate and Energy Project, where research projects are involved with hy-
drogen power, advanced combustion, solar energy, biomass, advanced
materials, catalysts and CO 2 storage, CO 2 capture, and separation.
Although obtaining and transporting feedstocks can be an obstacle,
the USDA and DOE believe that as plants are built around the country,
this will create local demand and farmers will respond.
The Andersons is an agricultural firm in Maumee, OH, with corn stor-
age, transport, ethanol production and delivery. They had about $2 billion
in sales in 2007 which placed them as the third largest diversified U.S. etha-
nol producer. Others are the giant Archer Daniel Midland and eight smaller
firms: Aventine Renewable Energy, Bunge Limited, Green Plains Renewable
Energy, Pacific Ethanol, U.S. Bioenergy, VeraSun Energy and Verenium. The
Andersons have developed a diversified ethanol business operating 14 grain
elevators in the Midwest to supply its own ethanol plants along with others.
It has built its ethanol plants near its corn supplies in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana
and Michigan to minimize transport. Its newest plant is a joint venture with
Marathon Oil of Houston and will be in Greenville, OH.
BIOFUEL LEGISLATION TRENDS
Farm lawmakers have been pushing for more biofuel production.
This legislation would offer over $2 billion for loans, grants and other in-