With the latest USDA forecast showing tighter grain supplies, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry is holding a hearing Wednesday on the concerns of livestock and poultry producers about feed availability and ethanol is likely to be a target for blame. In advance of the hearing, officials with Growth Energy have sent a letter to the committee …
Day in the Life of Biofuels Photo Contest
Biofuels Digest editor Jim Lane is looking for photos depicting “A Day in the Life of Biofuels” for an upcoming photo essay and he’s paying $1000 for the best photo he gets. “It has to relate to biofuels in some way – as a consumer, researcher, policymaker, producer, journalist, feedstock grower, industry supplier, student, enthusiast, carmaker, mechanic, and so on,” …
USDA Cuts Corn and Ethanol Forecasts
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has lowered its estimate of both corn production and ethanol usage of corn for this year. The latest crop forecast for corn was cut three percent in the August report, due to excessive summer heat that lowered average yields by almost five bushels an acre. The estimate for corn production this year is now 12.5 …
MAPCO Puts Another E85 Pump on the Map in Alabama
Flex-fuel vehicle owners in Madison, Alabama now have more choices in filling up with E85, thanks to MAPCO Express and Protec Fuel. This is the first location for the multi-state MAPCO Express to offer 85 percent ethanol blended fuel. The company partnered with florida-based Protec Fuel to convert the station and equipment and provide the E85 fuel for the company’s …
President Mentions Advanced Biofuels in Jobs Speech
President Obama reaffirmed the importance of domestically produced fuels in his address to Congress on jobs Thursday night. “If we provide the right incentives, the right support — and if we make sure our trading partners play by the rules — we can be the ones to build everything from fuel-efficient cars to advanced biofuels to semiconductors that we sell …
Canadian Firm Developing Industry Oilseed Crops
Vancouver-based Linnaeus Plant Sciences has been awarded $1.2 million in support from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to further advance production of green alternatives to petroleum oils. SDTC support will help Linnaeus advance production of camelina and safflower-based oils as renewable feedstock that can substitute for petroleum in a variety of high-value, non-fuel applications including polymers, lubricants, surfactants and other …
RFA Reminds President of Ethanol Jobs
As President Obama prepares to address the nation with a proposed $400 billion jobs plan, the Renewable Fuels Association is reminding him that American ethanol fuels 400,000 jobs right now and could do even more with more support. In an open letter to the president running today in Politico, RFA president Bob Dinneen says the “American ethanol industry is a …
Grading Grasses for Ethanol Potential
U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers have developed an inexpensive way to grade the ethanol potential of perennial grasses at a biorefinery’s loading dock. Geneticist Ken Vogel (pictured) was one of a team of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who developed the grading process that costs only about $5 a sample rather than the $300 to $2,000 per sample that …
When Will Cellulosic Ethanol Match Corn?
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How many years before cellulosic ethanol matches corn ethanol production?” So what did you say? 42% said More than ten years; 23% said Five to ten years; 18% said Five years; 14% said Never and 3% said Next year. We’ve seen huge strides in the efficiency of corn ethanol production and research on the …
Blue Angels Perform With Biofuels
The Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, performed over the Labor Day weekend using a biofuel blend at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River Air Expo. All six F/A-18 legacy Hornets were powered with a 50-50 blend of conventional JP-5 jet fuel and a camelina-based biofuel. “Changing the kinds of fuels we use and the way we …