I recently hired an Alamo rental car to drive from South Bend to Indianapolis.  My only criteria was that it should be a “compact” vehicle with a good price relative to other car rental companies for one-way drop-off.  With key in hand, I went to the airport rental car lot and beeped my way to find myself looking at some sort of bright orange SUV-ish vehicle? “That’s no compact,” I bleeped to myself.  I have been living in Europe for 8 years, so have become unfamiliar with the car brand and makes landscape in the U.S. I headed to the back of the car which said “HHR” and also mention of the word “ethanol.”  I thought, “OK. Guess it is some kind of hybrid so it is an apropos compact car substitute?”

My inquiring mind wanted to know more about this HHR!  My findings:  Unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show in mid-February 2009, the 2009 Chevrolet HHR E85 is the first 4-cylinder Flex-Fuel Engine from GM in North America. It is a FlexFuel vehicle that runs on either gasoline or E85 ethanol.  “GM has pledged that half of the vehicles it produces by 2012 will be flex-fuel capable. The company currently has 11 flex-fuel models for 2008, and more than 15 planned for 2009.”

In January, GM announced at the Detroit Auto Show its partnership with and investment in the start-up company, an innovative developer of next generation ethanol, called Coskata (Illinois). Coskata produces produces ethanol from cellulosic biomass or waste at a low cost.  

Coskata is working with ICM (Kansas) to design and build its first sygnas-fermentation ethanol plant in late 2010.

What does “well-to-wheel” analysis by the Argonne National Laboratory say about E85? “An HHR running on E85 - a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline - would emit up to 23% fewer carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions than if running on gasoline.”

What I want to know now is how I would switch to E85 once I rented the HHR or do I need to switch? I guess I was emitting 23% more CO2 than I should have? (Anyone reading who knows, please do post a comment!)

Where would one go to refuel on E85?  As shown at http://e85vehicles.com/e85-stations.htm, there are nearly 1900 gas stations where you can fuel up with E85 across the U.S. That number is expected to double in a little over a year.

According to the www.hybridcars.com Sept 2008 article, Guide to Hybrid Car Rentals:

“A few years ago, it was nearly impossible to rent a hybrid car. Now, the ability to complete a hybrid car rental is only limited by your willingness to plan ahead… Unfortunately, the rental car companies are fighting for the same limited hybrid inventory that has put retail consumers on long waiting lists.”  The article mentions that Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Hertz, and Avis-Budget as the major rental car companies that all have hybrids in their fleets. Based on my recent experience, add Alamo to the list!  And, I just checked out the National Car Rental website which has a “Go Green” link which takes you to their “Comprehensive Environmental Platform.” Good move by National, considering their green color branding! 

Since knowledge is power, I will take this to heart next time I rent a “compact” car, ahem, SUV hybrid.  Recreational driving plus ethanol – a natural high! 

There was an interesting interview reported today of David Ames, the CEO of a cellulosic ethanol company, Global Energy Holdings (formerly known as Xethanol, by the way, another strategic name change).  In this article, Mr. Ames describes the business model of Global Energy, namely the use of waste (wood waste, grasses, trash, etc.) to generate ethanol.  One of their first projects is to mine the methane from landfills.  Another great potential technology and a good incremental advance in our effort to wean ourselves from foreign crude.

What was interesting about the article to me was the fact that the company is making use of the fact that it has inherited many millions of dollars worth of research, done with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy.  I find it interesting because I have seen the contracts that go into any collaboration done with federal dollars.  As with anything with the government, as you might guess, it is the direct opposite of simple.  Importantly, though, from an intellectual property perspective, the government typically reserves rights in any intellectual property that is developed from a project that uses federal dollars, even if non-federal dollars are also used.

What has been a challenge in the recent past is to structure your funding contract with the federal government in such a way as to ensure that any IP that is developed solely by your company (without federal dollars) does not get linked to the federal contract.  This requires planning, foresight and quite a bit of wordsmithing, but you can make sure your rights are protected.   In instances where the line was blurry, though, I’ve seen corporations walk away from the federal money.

Federal dollars are nice, especially in these tough economic times.  Without fleshing out all the details, though, receiving those dollars can cause significant headaches.  As with anything, plan ahead, research the potential pitfalls, and bring a guide along with you to ensure a favorable outcome.

It’s interesting to watch the ongoing debate between food producers and ethanol manufacturers.  A recent spat, reported here and here, boiled over into some name calling, with an anti-ethanol group deriding the 30th anniversary of ethanol subsidies by referring to ethanol as a “30-year-old under employed child” living in our basement.

The anti-ethanol campaign has, of course, scored a number of points and has, by many accounts, slanted public opinion against food-based ethanol.  An interesting sign of this occurred today when the company formerly known as SunEthanol announced that it has changed its name to Qteros, austensibly to reflect the name of its key technology, the Q microbe - a super bug that efficiently processes non-food cellulosic material to generate biofuel.  While Qteros does not use corn or other food-based feed stock, it is interesting to see that they have moved away from the name “ethanol” given the bad press surrounding the term.  Does anyone really think Qteros changed its name to more accurately reflect it’s dedication to the Q microbe?

The discovery of the Q microbe - by a University of Massachusetts professor in the woods of Massachusetts - raises an interesting question regarding patentable subject matter.   Can a company patent a microbe found in the woods?   A product found in the identical state in nature is not patentable subject matter.  It is not possible, therefore, for the professor to patent the Q microbe specifically.  But that is not to say a patent cannot be obtained covering the heart of her discovery - the manufacture of biofuel using Q microbe.  The exercise is merely a matter of how you claim that discovery.

For example, looking at the patent that was actually filed on this discovery, the inventor claims a method of making a fuel from biomass material using the following steps:

• Provide a biomass material comprising a high molecular weight carbohydrate;
• Hydrolyzing the biomass material;
• Combine the hydrolyzed biomass material with the Q microbe; and
• Fermenting the hydrolyzed biomass material under conditions and for a time sufficient to produce a fuel.

The inventor will not get a patent covering the microbe per se, but can obtain a patent covering the important part of her discovery - using Q microbe to make biofuel.

After reviewing the algae-to-oil technology, its nice to see a patent was at least filed…