A four hour hearing of the House Agriculture Committee Thursday covered the waterfront on mainly ethanol, even though it was supposed to be on renewable fuels in general. After USDA’s Tom Dorr, the second panel offered some really interesting testimony on lots of new developments in the field.

First up was Mark Gaalswyk, president of Easy Automation in Welcome, Minnesota who talked about self-contained, miniature ethanol plants that can make 750,000 gallons of ethanol a year. “This enables the value-added to be moved much closer to the producer themselves.” He also talked about ways they are trying to improve the production technology. “It’s looking like we can drive the conversion ratio from 2.8 gallons per bushel to 3.2 gallons per bushel and about 70 cents per gallon produced, compared to the current $1.00.” They are also working on reducing the water and natural gas usage to produce the fuel.
You can listen Gaalswyk’s full remarks to the committee here: Gaalswyk (3:25 min MP3)