PA State Grants Fuel Alternative Energy Projects

NRG Energy Center Paxton LLC will get $112,000 to increase use of biodiesel at a cogeneration plant the company operates next to its Bruce Mangione Steam Plant at Ninth and Walnut streets in Harrisburg.  Keith Li of NRG said the cogeneration plant now burns mostly natural gas and regular diesel fuel.

NRG did small-scale testing of biodiesel in September, and the grant will support testing on a larger scale throughout 2008.  Li said state money is needed because the use of biodiesel “ is not a commercially viable operation yet” for NRG.  “We’re positioning ourselves to take advantage” of the future market conditions, he said.  Source: Dan Miller of The Patriot News __________________________________________________

Soy Energy Inc Recipient of USDA 9006 Farm Grant
USDA Rural Development announces $18.2 million for energy efficiency, renewable energy projects. Soy Energy received its funding to add a waste oil to biodiesel component to their existing facility in New Oxford, PA.

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Lancaster BioFuels/Worley & Obetz
$100 million ethanol plant in Conoy Township in Lancaster County
Seth Obetz said Lancaster Biofuels wants to begin construction within 18 months and complete the project within 42 months.  Obetz said the plant is expected to produce 60 million gallons of ethanol a year using a process similar to the production of alcohol.

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Air Products Opens Pennsylvania's First Hydrogen-filling Station at Pennsylvania State University

In State College, Air Products and Penn State are experimenting with a fuel blend of 30 percent hydrogen and 70 percent natural gas. The blend is burned in specially adapted internal-combustion engines. It is considered an intermediate step to 100 percent hydrogen vehicles. The Centre Area Transportation Authority is lending one of its 52 buses to the project.

Air Products - which had $8.1 billion in sales in 2005 - says it does not intend to enter the retail market with company-branded hydrogen-filling stations, but is selling its technology and equipment to others. Oil giant BP P.L.C. used Air Products equipment in a hydrogen-filling station in Beijing, which will fuel transit buses for the 2008 Olympics. Air Products also supplied BP with technology for hydrogen stations in Detroit and California.

With the stations, Air Products is shrinking its huge industrial hydrogen reformers - usually built near oil refineries in the Gulf Coast and California - to something that can fit on a lot the size of a gas station. The initial goal is modest. The State College station will produce the hydrogen equivalent of 100 gallons of gasoline a day.  http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage6486.html

 

                                                  
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