The scenic community of Watkins Glen, NY will once again play host to the Green Grand Prix on July 6 as hybrid and alternative fueled vehicle owners highlight energy independence and a cleaner environment. The Green Grand Prix features a road rally held on a 78-mile course around the perimeter of beautiful Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of …
MFA FFV Giveaway
To celebrate independence from foreign oil on Independence Day, MFA Oil Company – which currently sells E85 at more than 40 locations in Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri – will be giving away a Ford F-150 FFV for the second year in a row. The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition reports the F-150 will be given away as part of the Fourth …
Ethanol Co-Products Use
Roughly half of the cattle and hog operations in a 12-state region either fed ethanol co-products or considered feeding them to their livestock last year, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) with the support and funding of the Nebraska Corn Board. According to Dan Kerestes, chief of the USDA NASS …
FEW Bloggers
Great thing about going to meetings is getting to meet people you only know by email. I got to meet a couple of fellow bloggers at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis. Pictured here with me is C. Scott Miller, editor of the BIOconversion Blog. We started our blogs at about the same time and started communicating way back …
Hopping Into Ethanol
Many of the exhibitors at the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop were offering new technology and equipment to make ethanol production better, faster, easier, more efficient – you name it. One example here is BetaTec hop products, which can be used to control bacterial infections in distilleries. “Controlling lactic acid bacteria increases ethanol yields,” says one of the company’s handouts. Hops, …
FEW Expo Walk Through
The growth of the ethanol industry was most obvious at the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop last week in St. Louis on the expo floor. Some 700 exhibitors were there, an increase of 60 percent from last year alone. Kathy Bryan, president of FEW organizer BBI International, says the trade show portion of the 23 year old event is a relatively …
US FEW Report
US Farm Report was on location this week at the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis. Agribusiness Director Al Pell taped a segment of the weekly show on the trade show floor. His guests were ICM, Inc. president Dave Vander Griend, National Corn Growers Association chairman Gerald Tumbleson, and BBI International CEO Mike Bryan. The segment will be part …
FEW Award for POET
The chief science officer for POET received the 2007 Award of Excellence at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop this week. Steve Lewis accepted the award during Wednesday’s general session. The award was established in 2000 to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the fuel ethanol industry through their research, technical advisory and/or development activities. Lewis has 22 years of …
Growing Corn Acres
The latest report from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service shows that acreage planted to corn this year is now estimated at 92.9 million acres, up 19 percent from 2006 and 14 percent higher than 2005. Farmers increased corn plantings 3 percent from their March intentions, resulting in the highest planted area since 1944 when 95.5 million acres were planted for …
EPA at FEW
The administrator for Region 7 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told participants at the 2007 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis this week that the partnership between EPA and agriculture is helping to find solutions to environmental challenges. “We’ve had a major role in dealing with one of America’s top priorities – reducing dependency on foreign oil,” said John …