Articles About Us
- Biomass push can help Georgia - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- CEO takes once-hyped ethanol company in new direction - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Xethanol exits cellulosic, moves into methane - Reuters
- Xethanol Returns In New Form, With New Model - Dow Jones Clean Technology Insight
- Xethanol drops cellulosic, chases methane - Green Fuels Forecast
- Xethanol changes name, energy focus - Biomass Magazine
- Xethanol Abandons Cellulosic Ethanol for Methane - Sustainable Business
- Xethanol becomes Global Energy Holdings, refocuses on biomass-to-energy, algae - Biofuels Digest
- Georgia company quits cellulosic ethanol in favor of garbage methane - Autobloggreen
- Biofuel from tree waste? Maybe not - GraniteGeek
- Global Energy Systems Drops Ethanol - EnergySniff
Biomass push can help Georgia
By David Ames
For the Journal-Constitution
Friday, December 26, 2008
Over the past 30 years, Georgia has experienced remarkable growth in population, economic activity and energy demand. Already the ninth most populous state in the country, Georgia’s population is expected to grow by an additional 50 percent by 2025. This growing population will demand more energy and new jobs.
Unlike other states that have made waves instituting ambitious renewable energy targets, Georgia has not developed its renewable resources. However, by developing the renewable-energy industry in Georgia, particularly our significant biomass resources, we can ensure a steady supply of cost-effective energy and a market for skilled workers —- both of which will bolster our state’s economy in years to come.
Biomass refers to any organic feedstock, such as yard clippings, timber and agricultural products. In an energy context, though, biomass usually means unwanted or unused organic material: wood waste, food byproducts, agricultural residue, etc. This means biomass-based energy does not compete with the food supply. Replacing fossil fuels such as coal with biomass is a clear win for the environment. In addition to burning cleaner than many traditional fuels, biomass-to-energy projects greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. When done sustainably, the carbon released through burning equals the amount of carbon absorbed by the next generation of plants. Biomass energy projects also utilize local materials, reducing the need to transport fuel and further minimizing emissions. Regional businesses, including the forestry and agricultural industries, also benefit from biomass by earning additional income through the sale of their by-products.
Thanks to our robust forestry and paper industries, Georgia has a great deal of biomass to harness. In an April 2008 study, The University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development estimated the state has over 13 million tons of biomass that could be converted into energy each year. This material could generate about 8.6 percent of Georgia’s 137.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough power to handle about a third of Georgia’s residential electricity needs. As biomass utilization efficiencies increase, the state could increase its biomass conversion to over 19 million tons each year providing even more energy to Georgia.
Georgia has already taken some measures to jumpstart its renewable energy production. Private companies, government agencies and others in Georgia have begun exploring the use of biomass to not only generate electricity but also produce transportation fuels and natural gas. The University of Georgia has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and has already developed a pilot-scale facility generating 25 kilograms of hydrogen per day from catalytically reformed biomass. In Tifton, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is conducting research into using a variety of feedstocks including Bermuda grass, giant reeds and other plants for biofuels. My company, Global Energy, is also developing biomass-to-energy and waste-to-energy projects in Georgia and throughout the Southeast.
In its 2006 Georgia State Energy Strategy, the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority identified encouraging the development of distributed biomass-to-energy plants in Georgia as one of its top priorities. This is encouraging, but biomass projects can create not only energy but research and skilled jobs that will boost Georgia’s economy. Thus far biomass has been primarily used in Georgia’s forestry and pulp and paper industries. However, there is a great deal of promise for expanding energy production to other small-scale industrial, municipal and county government customers and also utilizing several untapped biomass resources including unsellable timber, crop harvest residue, solid waste water sludge and various nutshells.
There are a number of ways to harness the energy in biomass, some of which are currently deployable and others that are promising in the years to come. Combustion is a relatively mature technology that is efficient for heat and electricity; gasification (biomass converted into a gas that can power a turbine or be used as a chemical feedstock), or conversion into a liquid fuel (such as ethanol) are both technically feasible but require greater research and engineering to become widely economical.
Though no single technology is the solution to our energy challenge, biomass is ideal for the local, sustainable projects that will keep skilled jobs in Georgia and insulate us from turbulent energy prices.
> David Ames is the CEO of Global Energy Holdings Group, an Atlanta-based diversified renewable-energy company.
CEO takes once-hyped ethanol company in new direction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Xethanol exits cellulosic, moves into methane
By Timothy Gardner
October 28, 2008
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Xethanol Corp (XNL.A: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it has changed its name and shifted the focus of its business from cellulosic ethanol to tapping energy from rotting garbage.
The new company, Global Energy Holdings Group GNH.N, will now focus on tapping methane from landfills. Rotting garbage gives off methane, a greenhouse gas about 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide, that can be purified and burned in the home or to generate electricity.
"It's like the most abundant feedstock and it's just sitting there," said David Ames, the company's president and CEO, said about the abundance of untapped landfills.
Ames said the company shifted to methane because the cellulosic ethanol market is too difficult amid falling prices for the alternative motor fuel.
"You can make cellulosic at a price but it's not going to be economical when there are depressed prices for ethanol," said Ames.
Cash ethanol prices in the Midwest have fallen about $1.20, to about $1.70 a gallon, since June as oil prices have plummeted amid the economic downturn.
Several companies aim to make cellulosic ethanol from the tough woody bits of non-food crop plants such as switchgrass and poplar trees. Cellulosic is seen as a way to boost domestic low-carbon fuel output that would not be blamed for helping to boost food prices.
Ames is skeptical that cellulosic will change the U.S. energy system. He said difficulties associated with making the fuel will not be eased by making it in bigger batches.
"You can scale widgets, but you can't scale chemistry," he said.
At one point, Ames, who had retired after making his money in the cable modem business, was an activist investor in Xethanol. The company's board appointed him as chief executive of the old company.
Xethanol announced plans in January to scrap two cellulosic ethanol plants. Global Energy Holdings will continue to operate a smaller plant that aims to make cellulosic from orange peels.
Reprinted in:
DTN Ethanol Blog
Xethanol Returns In New Form, With New Model
By Mara Lemos Stein
October 29, 2008
NO DATELINE SPECIFIED -- After settling shareholders' lawsuits and surviving the ire of short-sellers, the cellulosic ethanol company formally known as Xethanol Corp. is back as Global Energy Holdings Group Inc., trading publicly at the New York Stock Exchange Alternext.
Atlanta-based Global Energy is still headed by David Ames, who joined as chief executive officer nearly two years ago. The company has two businesses: Global Energy Systems, which focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects; and Global Energy Ventures, which will be doing venture capital-like investing from balance sheet funds.
The renewable energy business will produce energy from biomass and landfill gas, as well as provide services to improve energy efficiency for government and military facilities, said Ames, in an interview with Clean Technology Insight.
"The biggest feedstock out there is waste - you have trash, municipal waste, wood chips," he said. "The biggest barrier to entry is that you're dealing with the utilities."
Global Energy is putting together a team with experience and expertise in the utilities sector to help get deals for its projects. Ames said the company will be focusing on the southeastern states of the country because there's abundant feedstock for biomass processing plants. "We're technology agnostic," said Ames.
Global Energy Ventures is shedding Xethanol's previous practice of investing in universities to put money into start-ups. "Why invest in science when you can invest in entrepreneurs?," said Ames.
The company will announce shortly its investment in an algae entrepreneur in the southeast, he said. It will be the first round of funding for the business, said Ames, who declined to name the entrepreneur.
Some of Xethanol's previous investments will be kept, at least for now. One such investment is Carbon Motors Corp., an auto maker in Atlanta that is developing a specially built law enforcement vehicle that can run on biodiesel. The other is the project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to produce ethanol from waste from the orange industry in Florida. "We think ethanol will be part of the blend, either at 10% or even 20%," said Ames.
Next on the company's agenda is selling off the three facilities it had for cellulosic ethanol production in Iowa, Georgia and North Carolina. Global Energy's stock ended 43% higher on Tuesday at 25 cents per share.
As Xethanol, the stock traded on the Amex and had been a favorite of short sellers, who doubted its ability to produce cellulosic ethanol. Shareholders' lawsuits claiming the company had issued materially false and misleading statements concerning the sale of ethanol started weighing the stock down from late 2006. It traded at over $14 in April of that year, but dropped to just over $2 by the end of 2006.
Xethanol drops cellulosic, chases methane
By Scott Anderson
October 29, 2008
One of the few publicly traded cellulosic ethanol companies will now focus on capturing methane from landfills, amid a market of drastically faultering ethanol prices.
In a corporate restructuring announced today, the Atlanta-based Xethanol Corp. said it had dropped its name and would continue doing business as Global Energy Holdings Inc. Instead of focusing exclusively on cellulosic ethanol, it will look to other technologies to cleanly burn methane into electricity.
David Ames, the company's president and CEO told Reuters the abundance of untapped landfills presents a good market opportunity.
"It's like the most abundant feedstock and it's just sitting there,"said Ames.
But the plunging ethanol market - mainly tied to the down petroleum market and the overall decrease in fuel usage, had a big impact on the company's long-term business outlook.
"You can make cellulosic at a price but it's not going to be economical when there are depressed prices for ethanol," Ames.
The company will move ahead with previously a planned demonstration facilitiy in Florida for converting citrus peel waste into ethanol, but had previously announced plans not to pursue two other cellulosic ethanol plants.
The holding company that replaces Xethanol will operate two subsidiaries: Global Energy Systems and Global Energy Ventures. Global Energy Systems will be tasked with tapping renewable energy projects with a focus on biomass and landfill-gas-to-energy. It also implements energy conservation and alternative energy projects for commercial and government agencies, including the US military. Global Energy Ventures will invest in early stage energy companies.
Xethanol will cease trading on the American Stock Exchange under the XNL ticker symbol and Global Energy Holdings Group will resume trading on the NYSE Alternext US under GNH.
Reposted on:
CNET News - Green Tech Harvest
Xethanol changes name, energy focus
By Kris Bevill
October 31, 2008
The now defunct Xethanol Corp. relaunched on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 28 as Global Energy Holdings Group Inc. and is ushering in what company executives hope will be new life for a flailing company.
Xethanol was an ethanol company with a checkered history of various lawsuits and dead-end deals. The company repeatedly reported extensive losses and, while it successfully closed deals to develop ethanol sites, with the exception of its Blairstown, Iowa, facility, never began operating those plants. The Blairstown plant produced some ethanol but was never profitable. It was forced to close earlier this year.
Rather than continue down an unwinnable path, the company's Chief Executive Officer David Ames orchestrated an entirely new mantra for the company, complete with a new cast of executive members, and will now work towards becoming a "diversified energy company" focusing on various waste feedstocks for the production of energy and natural gas.
"We're moving on from ethanol and the reason is - the business model doesn't work, Ames said. With the price of corn and energy...we've lost a lot of money doing that. We've spent a lot of money in cellulosic research and nothing out there is really fruitful and will make a major economic impact on producing ethanol."
One Xethanol project that will continue under Global Energy is the citrus peel-to-ethanol work being conducted in Florida under a partnership with the USDA. The project was one of the most promising sciences undertaken by Xethanol and while ethanol in general may not be profitable, Ames said he believes that feedstock makes a difference and the use of citrus waste offers unique benefits. Ethanol will continue to be used a blending fuel, but he has lost confidence that it will ever amount to more than that and there is no need to expand production of the fuel.
Global Energy Holdings is comprised of two subsidiaries. Global Energy Systems will develop renewable energy projects while Global Energy Ventures will invest in early-stage energy companies. The company is located in Georgia and plans to utilize the abundant woody biomass available in the Southeast as a feedstock source for energy projects, Ames said. Global Energy also plans to process methane from landfills into usable products. Waste is the most abundant feedstock source out there, according to Ames, and Global Energy plans to use as many types as possible.
Ames expects to make development announcements on several company projects by the end of the year.
Reposted in:
Ethanol Producer Magazine
Xethanol Abandons Cellulosic Ethanol for Methane
Sustainable Business
Xethanol Corp (AMEX: XNL) announced today that it is changing its name to Global Energy Holdings Group, Inc. (NYSE Alternext US: GNH) and changing its business focus from cellulosic ethanol to methane.
Following the restructure, the Atlanta, Georgia-based company now has two subsidiaries, Global Energy Systems and Global Energy Ventures.
Global Energy Systems will develop renewable energy projects with a focus on biomass and landfill-gas-to-energy. It also implements energy conservation and alternative energy projects for commercial and governmental organizations across the United States, including government agencies and the U.S. military.
Global Energy Ventures invests in early stage, strategically relevant energy companies.
Global Energy Holdings CEO David Ames said the company chose to get out of ethanol, because the market has gotten too tight amid falling oil prices.
"You can make cellulosic at a price but it's not going to be economical when there are depressed prices for ethanol," Ames said.
Cash ethanol prices in the Midwest have fallen about $1.20, to about $1.70 a gallon, since June, according to Reuters.
Global Energy Holdings Group said it recently restructured its management team and that it has extensive experience in developing companies in various sectors of the energy markets. In addition, the company said its engineering staff has significant expertise in biomass gasification, cogeneration, heat recovery and energy conservation projects.
Xethanol becomes Global Energy Holdings, refocuses on biomass-to-energy, algae
By Jim Lane
October 29, 2008
In Georgia, Xethanol is no more, after a name change to Global Energy Holdings (GNH), and a change in strategy. The company will divest its ethanol investments, retaining an interest in a citrus-based ethanol plant in Florida, and concentrate on biomass-to-energy development and algae food and fuel development. The company's initial algae project will focus on developing protein for a catfish farm.
A company spokesman said: The company has a new management team led by CEO and activist shareholder David Ames, who made his fortune in the cable modem business as CEO of Convergence. David got bored counting his cable modem money and reluctantly took up the post of CEO of Xethanol at the request of the Board. He has spent the last two years cleaning out "the pirates" as he calls them and settling law suits.
The re-launched company is now going to divest from its ethanol business and launch a new business model: Global Energy will simultaneously develop established alternative energy projects, like landfill-gas-to-energy and biomass, while investing in emerging tech, including algae.
Georgia company quits cellulosic ethanol in favor of garbage methane
By Sam Abuelsamid
October 29, 2008
The company formerly known as Xethanol Corp, is now known as Global Energy Holdings Group. As a renamed and reorganized company, it has dropped its focus on cellulosic ethanol in the face of falling ethanol prices. Instead, the company will take a more wide-ranging approach that includes tapping into landfills to harvest the methane contained within. The methane can be filtered and either used to produce electricity or blended with other natural gas sources. In addition the company will work on biomass including gasification technology and burning the biomass directly for electrical generation. The company will continue to do some work on biomass-to-liquid development as well. A second part of the company called Global Energy Ventures will focus on investments in technology developed by other companies.
Reposted in:
Hybrid-Car Blog
Biofuel from tree waste? Maybe not
By David Brooks
October 30, 2008
Another bit of financial-crisis fallout for innovative alternative energy ideas: the company Xethanol has decided that making ethanol out of cellulose from wood chips, weeds and similar plant matter is bad business; as reported here, they're switching to getting methane out of old landfills. The problem isn't the science or technology, it's the business plan: Ethanol prices have collapsed along with those of oil and natural gas, as the world heads into a recession. (Their Web site down - not a good sign.)
I don't know if this is good or bad news for Mascoma Corp., the New Hampshire / Massachusetts firm that's trying to build a cellulosic-biofuel industry from long-running research by Dartmouth's Lee Lynd. It reduces their competition, but also gives pause to potential funding sources.
Global Energy Systems Drops Ethanol
October 29, 2008
The company formerly known as Xethanol will no longer focus purely on cellulosic ethanol but will expand into other energy sources such as methane landfill gas. Xethanol will now be called Global Energy Holdings Group and will trade under the ticker GNH. The new company will be divided into Global Energy Systems and Global Energy Ventures. Based on the website, Global Energy Systems will focus on developing alternative energy form biomass, landfill gas, solar, gasification and improving efficiency with demand side energy.
Global Energy Ventures will acts an the investment arm of the company making early stage investments for alternative energy technologies. They have currently made investments into Consus Ethanol, Carbon Motors, and Global Algae Systems.
Xethanol was one of the few, if not only, publicly traded company that focused on cellulosic ethanol. It's stock peaked in 2006 as President George Bush proclaimed America was addicted to oil and cellulosic ethanol would save the country. As the price of oil dropped and electric cars / plug-in hybrids became all the rage, the commercialization potential of cellulosic ethanol came into question.
