With the resignation of US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns last week, the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit next month has made an agenda change. Johanns was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the event but now Acting Secretary Chuck Conner will be the keynoter. The Summit will be in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15-17. The annual three-day event has established itself as …
Ethanol Keeps Gas Prices Down
Rising gas prices have made headlines this year, but those prices could have been much worse if not for ethanol. The Renewable Fuels Association sent out a media FYI release drawing attention to that fact, which is backed up by recent news reports. Specifically, RFA cites stories in the Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News. As a September …
Former EU Ag Commissioner on Biofuels
Back in 2003, the European Union instituted some major reforms in its agricultural sector, which are now known as the “Fischler Reforms” after the Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries at the time, Franz Fischler. Among the policies instituted at the time was a very small incentive for farmers to produce crops on set aside land that could be …
Bio Gasoline Research in Japan
Researchers at Japan’s National Agricultural Research Center are working on developing Bio-Gasoline from plant oils and animal fats. According to researcher Ken Taniwaki, bio-gasoline has the same properties as petroleum gasoline and can be run in automobile engines without modifications. “This is not bio-ethanol. This actually contains the same components as gasoline,” he says. Taniwaki says bio-gasoline can be made …
Ethanol at the EC
Leaders of the biofuels industry in both Europe and the United States are calling on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to disavow a paper issued last week critical of world ethanol production. Europe is well behind the United States in biofuels production and use, but the European Commission is moving ahead with its plans to have biofuels …
IRL Finishes Fill Up, Feel Good Season
The 2007 Indy Car Series will go down in the racing history books as the first year a major motorsport embraced a renewable and environmentally-responsible fuel source, setting the standard for the “Greening of Racing”. This edition features comments from interviews done at the last Indy Car Series race event for this season, the PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland …
Coast to Coast Biofuels Workshops
No matter which coast you call home, BBI has a Biofuels Workshop for you this fall. The Western Region workshop will be held October 9-11 in Portland, Oregon. The conference includes an opening keynote address from Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and a conclusion on “Policies and Technologies for a Sustainable Biofuels Industry” by Alex Farrell, Assistant Professor, Energy and Resources …
Sleeping Biofuels Giant
The National Alfalfa and Forage Alliance recently conducted its first Renewable Fuels Summit, “Bioenergy Systems: Alfalfa the Sleeping Giant,” in Washington D.C. The August 8 event, which had more than 80 registered attendees, included presentations on cellulosic ethanol, alfalfa as a green biomass alternative, the role of corn-alfalfa rotation in bioenergy systems, and more. Speakers also focused on United States …
Ethanol Demand Hits Record in June
According to the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol demand moved higher in June, to a new all-time record of 443,000 barrels per day (b/d). For the first six months of the year, ethanol demand is averaging 420,000 b/d. Ethanol production also edged higher in June, though continuing to trail the ethanol demand. U.S. ethanol producers added 418,000 b/d of ethanol supply …
Senator Tours POET Plant
The Associated Press has a feature on South Dakota ethanol producer POET this week, focusing on the company’s ethanol research that “should allow it to squeeze 27 percent more fuel from each acre of the crop.” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who toured the company’s headquarters and research lab last week, said there is only so much ethanol that can be …