Don Hofstrand, retired agriculture extension economist with the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AMRC) located at Iowa State University, has recently published projections for ethanol plant profitability over the next several years. When the ethanol boom really took off, Hofstrand noted that most farmers purchased shares in ethanol plants as a way to hedge against low corn prices. So AMRC began …
Valero Restarts Mount Vernon, IN Ethanol Plant
Valero Renewable Fuels Company has restarted its recently purchased ethanol plant located in Mount Vernon, Indiana. On hand for the Port Appreciation and Welcome Ceremony was Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann and other state and local officials. The Mount Vernon plant is the 11th corn ethanol plant in Valero Renewables’ system and its second in Indiana. It has an annual production …
USDA Develops Switchgrass with Bigger Yield, More Biofuel
Researchers working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a variety of switchgrass that produces bigger yields and more biofuel. Rob Mitchell with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Nebraska gives credit to retired geneticist Ken Vogel who developed the Liberty variety of switchgrass. “He was able to identify an upland type and a lowland type that had …
Summit Group Building Brazilian Corn Ethanol Plant
Alden, Iowa-based Summit Group announced a project to build the first modern corn ethanol plant in Brazil during the 2014 Farm Progress Show. The project will consist of a US$140 million ethanol plant near Lucas do Rio Verde in Mato Grosso, a leading agricultural state in west central Brazil and the country’s largest producer of corn and soybeans. The project …
DF Cast: Ethanol Innovators Talk New Tech at ACE Conf.
Any manufacturer is looking to get more out of their operations, and it’s certainly no different for biofuel makers. In this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we hear from four innovators who talked about their operations and how they are on the cutting edge of biofuel producing technologies during the recent at the American Coalition for Ethanol conference. Among …
Fuels America Celebrates Labor Day
Labor Day in America is this weekend and Fuels America is celebrating by highlighting a recent report on American workers in the U.S. biofuels industry. According to the organization, the renewable fuels industry has tremendously grown since the passage of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Today, the sector supports more than 850,000 jobs and generates $46.2 billion in wages. Combined, the …
Iowa GOP Under Fire on RFS Stance
The Iowa GOP is under fire this week from biofuel supporters including the pro-biofuel association, Americans United for Change for its stance on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The Iowa Republican Party published on its site that the “perfect world” is one devoid of the RFS and their site actually called for a repeal of the RFS, until today that …
New Holland Loans Tractors to BioCentury Farm
This morning during the Farm Progress Show, New Holland hosted a tour of the Iowa State BioCentury Research Farm. New Holland got involved with the project when they saw a need for the use of some of their equipment and loaned them two tractors, which provided new options for their biomass research projects. The BioCentury Research Farm combines biomass feedstock …
Enogen Corn Passes 300,000 Acres
In one year the acres planted in Enogen corn will expand from 100,000 acres in 2014 to more than 300,000 acres in 2015 and that means that ethanol production will be expanding too. To learn more about how Syngenta achieved this feat, I spoke with David Witherspoon, head of renewable fuels for Syngenta during Farm Progress. Not only are ethanol …
IA Ag Secy Bill Northey On Corn, RFS
There are two big topics during the Farm Progress Show this year: the corn crop and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). During the show, I had the opportunity to speak with Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey who is a corn farmer and also a huge supporter of biofuels. I first asked him how the corn crop was looking with all …