The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced it is accepting applications under its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) that is administered by the Rural Business-Cooperative Service for FY 2017. This cycle, REAP has two funding opportunities: Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Assistance, and Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance Grants. The goal of the …
Van Unen Miersma Propane Partners with Semper Fi Fund
Van Unen Miersma Propane has forged a partnership with the Semper Fi Fund, a non profit organization that assists injured and ill service members and their families. Van Unen has purchased three propane delivery trucks and for every gallon of propane these trucks use, the company will donate one cent to the Semper Fi Fund. The propane company anticipates pumping …
Homeland Energy Joins Billion Gallon #Ethanol Club
Homeland and Energy Solutions has joined the one billion gallons of ethanol club. The ethanol plant produced its one billionth gallon on August 31, 2016. The biorefinery went in to production in April 2009 and today has a nameplate capacity of 150 million gallons of ethanol each year. It’s one of the largest dry grind plants in operation today and …
ATRI Releases Fleet Fuel Economy Survey
A new fleet fuel economy and fuel usage study has found that the median fleet-wide fuel economy of 6.5 miles per gallon is being achieved through a number of technologies including biodiesel. The survey was released by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and was sponsored by ExxonMobil. For truck-tractors, aluminum …
Ames Lab to Develop Imaging to Study Plant Walls
The saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is being put to the test with research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to deconstruct plant cell walls as a means of learning how to more effectively convert plant material into bioenergy. The project has been awarded $1 million per year for three years. The research will …
RFA Offering NEC Student Scholarships
Once again the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is offering six scholarships for college students interested in learning more about ethanol by attending the National Ethanol Conference (NEC). The annual event will take place February 20-22, 2017 in San Diego, California. Scholarships will cover the cost of the conference registration fee of $899. Recipients are responsible for other costs including travel …
ORNL Researchers Deconstruct Biomass for #Ethanol
Better methods for deconstructing biomass will lead to more efficient conversion to biofuels; however, this is one of the most complex processes in bioenergy technologies. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have already uncovered information about how woody plants and waste biofuels can be converted more readily into biofuels. Now the team may have come one step closer to …
BioEnergy Bytes
With a broader range of market options and a growing infrastructure, the passenger electric vehicles (EVs) market is projected to have 11.4 million EVs on the road, with cumulative sales of 12 million EVs and a value of over $400 billion by 2025. This growth in EV adoption will create many points of complexity for grid operators and other electricity …
American Ethanol Sweepstakes Winners Take on Talladega
The American Ethanol sweepstakes winners are taking on the infamous Talladega this week in sweet home Alabama. Fans won’t be seeing the likes of NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby (yes, I went there – Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby) but they are going to see some amazing racing from drivers in speedsters fueled by E15, 15 percent ethanol and …
Super Yeast Yields Better #Ethanol Economics
A new innovative “super yeast” could very well improve the economics of ethanol production. A collaborative research team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have engineered a yeast strain that nearly doubles the efficiency of plant sugar to biofuel conversion. The team focused on the baker’s and brewer’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a microbe …