Yesterday, DF featured an article on “Must Know Ethanol Trends” that came out of Christianson & Associate’s, PPL (C&A) Biofuels Benchmarking 2012-13 Annual Report. In addition to identifying important trends for the industry, the report also identified some “sweet spots” for the industry.

John Christianson, partner with C&A, said running a good business is the first thing and being as efficient as possible is important and having good sound prudent risk management is always going to be at the forefront of your business. But going forward, he said there are technology and market issues that will be a factor, or a sweet spot, for the ethanol industry.

“From a technology perspective, we’re seeing plants go further and digging further into the yield component,” said Christianson. “They are looking at difference technologies that will allow them to remove different components of the kernel of corn and allow them to create multiple products on the back-end. As we see this industry evolve, we’re going to see them evolve into a biorefinery industry.”

He cautioned that in order for a plant to make investments, you need a technology that is going to provide a return on investment. Last year was not the year for plants to make investments but Christianson said plants will need to make technology investments if they want to continue to be a long-term viable company.

Any ethanol plant interested in becoming a participant in C&A’s Benchmarking program, or interested in purchasing the The Biofuels Benchmarking 2012-13 Annual Report can contact the Benchmarking team.

Listen to John Christianson discuss ethanol sweet spots in detail here: Ethanol Sweet Spots