It was Irish author Brendan Behan who said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity – except your own obituary,” and the ethanol industry is getting a dose of it here with an AP article that has gotten picked up more than most of the positive stories written about ethanol in the past two months. Actually, it’s not really that …
Restaurant Chain Recycling Cooking Oil to Biodiesel
Northwest-based restaurant chain The Holland, Inc. is sending off it’s used cooking oil to be converted into biodiesel. According to a company release, all 39 Burgerville locations throughout the Pacific Northwest will have their used cooking oil picked up by Portland-based MRP Services and taken to a processing plant where the oil is transformed into methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerin …
Feel Good When You Fill Up on Vacation
Did you know that 76 percent of all vacations are taken by car? I did not know that. But, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) does and they are encouraging vacationers this year to fill up with ethanol on the road and feel good about leaving less pollution behind. An EPIC press release urges motorists to make note of …
RI has potential to become world’s biggest ethanol producer
This headline grabbed my attention. Rhode Island? Actually, no – it’s Rajawali Indonesia. Here’s the story from the Antara News. Seems that Indonesia has potential to become the biggest ethanol producer in the world because it has an abundance of raw material and vast lands for producing the commodity, an industry executive said. “The country`s potential as ethyl alcohol producer …
Selling Idaho to Iogen
A group of farmers wants Iogen Corp. to have their own private Idaho. According to this UPI article, there’s some heavy lobbying going on to get the “world leader in cellulosic ethanol production” to locate their first plant in Idaho rather than Canada. Idaho farmer Duane Grant a barley and alfalfa grower who has been involved with technology applications in …
Domestic Fuel High
Here’s the latest post from contributing blogger JW: You’ve seen here that switchgrass holds enormous potential as a domestic fuel. It’s not the only kind of grass that does. Hemp is another native plant that can produce both ethanol and biodiesel. Industrial hemp contains less than 3% of the physcoactive properties of it’s popular cousin, marijuana. There are political and …
Harrison Ethanol Website Located
Thanks to an alert reader – Tony Skulas of Future Concepts Computer Specialists, Inc. – I can now pass on to you a website for Harrison Ethanol (see previous post) which, according to Tony is AKA Farmers’ Ethanol LLC. Now, I don’t find any mention of Harrison on the website – although Tony gave me two different domain names – …
Working Together Could Reduce Petroleum Dependence
Florida’s governor is calling on Latin American countries to increase ethanol production for themselves and the United States. According to this article from the Bradenton Herald, Governor Jeb Bush made his pitch during the Second Annual Miami Latin America Conference, calling the proposal a “win-win for Florida and the region.” Bush says that increasing Florida and the nation’s reliance on …
Grass Makes Gas
The World Energy Monthly Review, which “offers a no-holds-barred perspective, timely information and in-depth analysis on energy issues,” according to the publication’s Business Wire press release, takes a look at using switchgrass to make ethanol in its March issue. Author Brian K. Tully compares switchgrass as an ethanol source to both corn and sugar cane and says “it looks like …
Essay Contest Winner
A high-school sophomore from Wisconsin was named the national winner of the 2006 Ag Day Essay Contest this week. The theme this year was “Growing Our Energy: Alternative Fuels From Agriculture” and here is a brief excerpt from Ashley Julka’s winning essay: “…By using gasoline-containing ethanol, we’re using homegrown products. Not only does this reduce our dependency on foreign oil, …