The 2008 Commodity Classic kicks off this week in Nashville at the Opryland. Biofuels will be in the spotlight throughout the conference and the yet-to-be-completed Farm Bill will likely be a major topic of conversation as new agriculture secretary Ed Schafer will address the crowd on Friday during the general session. Saturday night’s entertainment at the Grand Ole Opry featuring …
Outlook Puts Biofuels in Focus
Biofuels had a seat on the plenary panel entitled, “Getting It Right: Responding to Market Forces” at USDA’s 2008 Outlook Forum last week. Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen noted that while ethanol is “not a silver bullet” for all of America’s energy, economic and environmental issues, but “biofuels are absolutely a part of addressing each of them to some …
POET Funds ISU Research
POET is helping to fund research at Iowa State University into starch for ethanol production in the hopes of finding starches to further improve the efficiency of POET’s patent-pending BPX™ process. BPX is a raw starch hydrolysis that converts starch to sugar and then ferments to ethanol without the use of heat. It is utilized in 20 of POET’s 22 …
LifeLine to Supply Indy Fuel
LifeLine Foods of St. Joseph, Missouri will join forces with the IndyCar® Series for the 2008 season as the official supplier of the 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol used in all IndyCar Series cars. LifeLine Foods is a unique company that uses corn to produce food and fuel. One portion of the kernel is processed and marketed to the food industry …
Promoting Biofuels in Indiana
Indiana corn and soybean growers are helping to promote biofuels awareness in their state in a number of ways. For one, the corn growers have partnered with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) on a billboard and radio campaign in major Indiana cities aimed at informing consumers that all automakers approve the use of 10 percent ethanol-enriched fuel. The …
Ethanol Boosts Bottom Line for Farmers
According to a Reuters poll done this week U.S. farmers overwhelmingly said they have benefited from the demand for corn to produce ethanol, with 71 percent of those surveyed saying the renewable fuel has helped boost their bottom line. The poll also showed that 90 percent of those farmers said they would not reduce their corn plantings this year because …
Biofuels Demand Driving Corn & Soybean Price Spikes
Corn and soybean prices have gone to record levels as producers struggle to keep up with food and biofuel demands. Bloomberg.com says a new U.S. government report prompted traders to push soybean prices to a record of about $13 a bushel while corn prices hit an 11-year high of $4.95 a bushel: The world soybean harvest will fall 6.5 percent …
Panda Puts Ethanol in Texas
Texans in Sherman County can expect a new ethanol refinery. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has given Panda Ethanol the okay for an air permit for the company’s plans to build a 115 million gallon-per-year ethanol refinery. Panda says the refinery will be fueled by biomass. The facility will be designed to annually refine an estimated 38 million bushels …
Rose Bowl Fans Learn About Renewable Fuel
The Illinois Corn Growers made some in-game statements during the Rose Bowl. Too bad the local team didn’t win. This graphic is an example of the messages they used for this promotional opportunity. The game on the field may not have yielded the desired results that the University of Illinois football program had hoped for on Tuesday, but Illinois did …
Corn Myths Exposed
As part of its campaign to educate consumers and the news media, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has developed a one-page document responding to the top 10 myths about corn production and ethanol production. The document addresses such myths as: Ethanol is bad for your car’s engine, ethanol is not energy efficient, corn and ethanol production waste water, increased …