VNews. Amyris Brasil S.A. and the city of São Paulo, Brazil have begun a pilot project in which three urban public bus transport will be supplied with 5% renewable diesel produced from sugarcane feedstock. Three others will be fueled by 100% renewable diesel. Also involved in the trial are Daimler and Petrobras.

Amyris Brasil is a majority-owned subsidiary of US-based Amyris Biotechnologies, and was established to support technology scale-up leading toward commercialization of Amyris renewable product.

Amyris applies industrial synthetic biology to genetically modify microorganisms to serve to produce a broad range of products, including farnesene. Farnesene is an isoprenoid molecule that, when used as a fuel precursor, can be hydrogenated to farnesane, which has a high cetane number (58). Amyris modifies farnesene to become Amyris diesel. The company recently entered an off-take agreement with Shell. (Earlier post.)

Amyris Brasil says that a renewable fuel plant in Saint Martin should become operational next year and will be marketing the renewable diesel immediately thereafter.

A team at Cornell University has developed a new highly stable and CO-tolerant platinum/titanium tungsten oxide anode (Pt/Ti_0.7W_0.3O₂) electrocatalyst for PEM fuel cells. A paper on their work was published online 12 July in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Among the challenges facing the commercialization of fuel cells for automotive and portable electronics applications is the development of inexpensive, durable and efficient catalysts for hydrogen oxidation. Platinum is currently the catalyst of choice, but is easily “poisoned” by low levels of CO (10 ppm), resulting in a significant degradation in performance.

Other research has shown that platinized metal oxides—especially those of tungsten—exhibit increased CO tolerance. However, tungsten suffers from low electronic conductivity.

To address that issue, the Cornell team, led by Dr. Hector Abruña, turned to titania (TiO₂), which been used as a catalyst support in fuel cells duel to its stability, even though its own electronic conductivity is much lower than that of conventional carbon supports. The conductivity of titania, the team noted, can be improved by aleovalent cation substitution.

The Cornell team synthesized nanoparticles of Pt supported on conducting Ti_0.7W_0.3O₂.

Initial tests indicated that Pt/Ti_0.7W_0.3O₂ is more stable than Pt/C and PtRu/C catalysts. After 500 cycles, the

loss in the integrated Coulombic charge of the CV for the new catalyst was only 5%, while it was more than 30% in the case of a commercial

E-TEK PtRu/C catalyst.

The new material also exhibited high activity for H₂ oxidation

as well as a higher CO tolerance than Pt/C and PtRu/C catalysts.

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and by the Energy Materials Center at Cornell, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The authors acknowledged helpful discussions with General Motors Fuel Cell Activities.

(A hat-tip to David!)

Resources

• Deli Wang, Chinmayee V. Subban, Hongsen Wang, Eric Rus, Francis J. DiSalvo and Hector D. Abruña (2010) Highly Stable and CO-Tolerant Pt/Ti_0.7W_0.3O₂ Electrocatalyst for Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells. J. Am. Chem. Soc., Article ASAP doi: 10.1021/ja102931d

Reflecting the ongoing sluggish economic recovery, US gasoline deliveries for the first half of 2010 averaged 8.88 million barrels per day, 0.6% lower than the corresponding period a year ago, according to the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Monthly Statistical Report for June.

June gasoline deliveries of 9.18 million barrel per day were the lowest level for any June since 2004 and were 0.5% lower than June 2009 deliveries, the report noted.

Even as gasoline demand remained depressed, distillate (home heating and diesel) demand—which tends to track economic output closely—improved in both the first half of the year and for June. First-half low sulfur distillate deliveries jumped 2.1% from 2009 to average 3.29 million barrels per day in 2010; June low-sulfur distillate deliveries surged 12.3% from last year to average 3.51 million barrels per day for June 2010.

Total US crude oil production averaged 5.47 million barrels per day in the first half of 2010, 3.5% higher than last year’s 5.29 million barrels per day. For June, crude production in the Lower 48 states rose 3.9% to 4.8 million barrels per day, while Alaskan production dipped 2.6% to 556,000 barrels per day after some North Slope operators reduced production in the middle of the month. Historically, production wanes in the summer in Alaska due to maintenance work and lower operational efficiency in warmer weather.

US refinery operations continued to improve in June relative to May this year, with production of all products, except residential fuel oil, improving in June. Inputs to crude distillate units averaged 15.3 million barrels per day, a 0.6 increase from May, and the fifth consecutive monthly increase. For the first half of 2010, refinery inputs of 14.84 million barrels per day were 1.3% higher this year than last.

Scania AB and MAN SE are studying the potential for collaboration on component supply and pre-development. The companies are conducting feasibility studies regarding four strategic areas that are not brand-related. The studies cover the potential for:

• Scania and MAN to pursue joint research on hybrid components for heavy trucks and buses
• Scania to adapt its manual gearbox for use in MAN trucks
• Scania to use MAN’s rear axle for heavy applications (36-40 tonnes) and its transfer cases in Scania trucks
• Commodities without affecting brand identity

Detailed evaluations to determine the potential for cost savings will be carried out in the course of further talks.

University of South Florida researchers say they have definitively connected clouds of degraded underwater oil found in the northern Gulf of Mexico to the Deepwater Horizon well (MC252) through Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA). Biodegraded oil was found suspended at depths of 400 meters (one-quarter mile) and 1,000-to 1,400-meters (two-thirds to three-quarters of a mile) beneath the Gulf’s surface in the form of microscopic droplets.

CSIA measures the natural carbon isotopic abundance of individual organic molecules which can be used to delineate sources of a complex mixture of organic materials, such as petroleum hydrocarbons. This is a technique that is widely used in the petroleum industry.

The confirmation by USF chemical oceanographer David Hollander is the first direct scientific link established between the subsurface oil clouds (“plumes”) and the massive BP spill. Scientists had gathered circumstantial evidence to link the subsurface oil to the Deepwater Horizon well, but had lacked a definitive scientific link until now.

Hollander’s findings came after extensive rounds of testing involving water samples gathered during a 22-28 May cruise of the R/V Weatherbird II to the northern gulf, against samples of oil provided by BP in June.

What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is. It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe.

—David Hollander

The 400-meter layer was approximately 30 meters (100 feet) thick, and was observed 45 nautical miles north-northeast of the Deepwater Horizon site. The layer at 1,000 to 1,400 meters was observed approximately 24 nautical miles east of the Deepwater Horizon site.

Researchers were lead to the clouds after models created by USF ocean circulation expert Robert Weisberg predicted subsurface oil from the Deepwater Horizon well would move toward the north-northeast. The clouds were found near the DeSoto Canyon, a critical area that interacts with Florida’s spawning grounds.

The researchers’ preliminary findings came from water sampling using three separate technologies: an optical device that measures red backscatter; the ship’s sonar; and filtrations that trapped microscopic particles. Lab tests of these trapped particles confirmed in early June that the particles were microscopic oil droplets suspended at depth. The recent Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis further confirmed that these suspended oil droplets matched BP MC252 oil.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conclusively linked surface oil samples to the Deepwater Horizon well but concentrations in the subsurface samples were too small to be conclusively linked to the blownout well. Because of limited BP oil samples, USF scientists were unable to pursue further testing until the oil company turned over additional oil from the well, which occurred in late June.

The BP oil samples were obtained after a meeting between company officials and US Rep. Kathy Castor.

Researchers from across USF’s College of Marine Science are now conducting work on determining what impact the spill, the subsurface degraded oil and the heavy use of chemical dispersants may have for marine life and the Gulf’s ecology.

The R/V Bellows has recently completed a nine-day scientific mission to gather baseline water quality and food web samples from the gulf in an area that extends north of Tampa and west about 100 miles off the coast. On 6 Aug., the Weatherbird II will return to the spill zone to assess the condition of marine life, including small fish and shrimp which are key sources of food for larger fish and marine mammals.

The 22-28 May Weatherbird II research was funded by the National Marine Fisheries Service and led by biological oceanographer Ernst Peebles, chemical oceanographer David Hollander, and geological oceanographer David Naar.