When it comes to biomass feedstocks for biofuels, you need to think ahead. “Start early and think big,” was the advice Bob Randle, VP Sales and Marketing for Genera Energy gave attendees of the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) in St. Louis, Mo. “Because there’s a lot of moving parts in providing 250,000 to 700,000 tons of material annually, on …
POET-DSM Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Ready in ’14
The POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels’ first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant is on track to start in 2014. The announcement for the plant was made at the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) in St. Louis, Mo., where Wade Roby from POET took part in a panel discussion. Steve Hartig, General Manager for POET-DSM, talked with Joanna and said Project LIBERTY, currently under …
Edeniq Squeezing Every Penny Out of Ethanol Plants
After the ethanol industry went through such a tight year last year, it’s no wonder refineries are looking to squeeze every penny out of profitability out of every gallon that comes out of the plant. During the recent Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis, Mo., Joanna had a chance to talk with Brian Thome, the President and CEO of Edeniq, …
Management & Planning Key to Biofuels Profitability
How you manage and plan your biofuels operation is just as important to ensuring its profitability as the price of the inputs that go into making the green fuels. “The biofuels industry is like any other company,” explains John Christianson, partner and founding member of Christianson & Associates, a Minnesota firm that specializes in working with farmers and rural businesses, …
Genscape Monitoring to Ensure RIN Integrity
The recent crisis over fraudulent Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) led to great consternation in the biofuels community, as obligated parties sought assurances that the RINs they were buying were legitimate and met their obligations. Provider of energy information for commodity and financial markets Genscape, which got its start in monitoring the power grids, has expanded into the biofuels area. “We …
ICM’s 2.0 Tech to Add More Value to Ethanol Plants
Recently, we told you about ICM, Inc.’s Generation 1.5 Integrated Fiber to Cellulosic Ethanol Technology that will help produce cellulosic ethanol at existing grain ethanol plants. Now the company has announced its Generation 2.0 technology that will allow ethanol plants to also produce cellulosic ethanol from the stover from those same corn fields where the grain comes from. “ICM sees …
Study: EPA Lacks Transparency in Feedstock Approvals
A study from a pair of University of Illinois researchers says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks “transparency and clarity” when it comes to approving new feedstocks for biofuels as new pathway determinations. In farmdocdaily.com, James McCubbins and Bryan Endres say that if it’s not biodiesel or corn ethanol, it seems to take a lot longer to get the agency’s …
Farmers Encouraged to Ask for Higher Biofuels Blends
While we talk a lot about using more biodiesel and ethanol, there’s no more fitting place to use the green fuels than the farms where it all starts. A Minnesota farmer took his own advice to use more biofuels to heart, and this article from the Rochester (MN) Post Bulletin explains most farmers should use higher blends because their equipment …
New Yeast Strain Could Cut Cellulosic Ethanol Costs
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have developed a new strain of yeast that could cut the costs of cellulosic ethanol production. This Agricultural Research Service (ARS) news release says the work is being done at the agency’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill. ARS molecular biologist Zonglin Lewis Liu and his colleagues determined that this …
Europe Urged to Re-reconsider Biofuels Policy
It wasn’t that long ago that Europe was a champion of biofuels, in particular, biodiesel, as just a few years ago the continent adopted a policy of having 10 percent of transportation fuels come from renewable sources, including biofuels. This boosted biodiesel demand, coupled with favorable tax laws and the popularity of diesel vehicles. This piece in Public Service Europe …