According to the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report, farmers intend to plant a little more corn and a little less soybeans this year, for a total of 174.4 million acres. “This will be the highest total amount of acres for those two crops that we have on record,” said USDA chief economist Joe Glauber. Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 …
Stover Harvesting Requires Careful Management
According to Purdue University researchers, removing corn stover from agricultural fields to produce cellulosic ethanol requires careful management to avoid adding greenhouse gas emissions and soil erosion to the environment. However, environmental impacts from stover removal can be reduced by switching to no-till corn or adding winter cover crops, but these practices likely would increase production costs, researchers reported in …
Ethanol Producers Respond to Market Conditions
Corn oil recovery is helping the bottom line of ethanol producers with tight margins, according to a new report from the Energy Information Administration. Beginning in summer 2012, the prices of ethanol and corn reached levels where production costs at relatively simple ethanol plants exceeded revenue. These simple plants, which are not able to recover corn oil, make up a …
Corn Use for Ethanol Steady
Projected 2012/13 U.S. corn ending stocks were unchanged in the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate report out Friday, lowering exports but increasing feed use and keeping corn use for ethanol the same. Projected corn use for ethanol this season remains unchanged at 4.5 billion bushels, which is down 10 percent from last year on lower gasoline use, according to …
ENOGEN: Profitable for Corn & Ethanol Producers
Growers looking for a more profitable corn crop should consider planting ENOGEN corn. Ethanol producers looking for more gallons from a bushel of corn should look to farmers growing ENOGEN corn. I learned about the emerging corn trait designed specifically for ethanol production from Jeff Carver who is the ENOGEN Accounts Manager for Syngenta, when we spoke during the Iowa …
Iowa Could Be Energy Independent Today
Did you know that if Iowa were a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of corn in the world behind the U.S., China, and Brazil? Iowa also produces more than the entire European Union – comprised of 27 countries. And Iowa has a tiny footprint in comparison to America, U.S. and Brazil. Talk about producing more on less …
Ethanol High Priority for Corn Farmers
Ethanol was high on the priority list for delegates to the National Corn Growers Association Corn Congress policy meeting last week during the 2013 Commodity Classic. NCGA President Pam Johnson said they will continue to fight the attacks on both the Renewable Fuel Standard and the approval of E15 in the marketplace. “We will not let these attacks stand,” said …
Dakota Spirit AgEnergy Receives EPA Certification
Dakota Spirit AgEnergy has received a renewable fuels certification (RFS2) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its proposed 65 million gallon per year biorefinery that will produce ethanol, distillers grains and fuel-grade corn oil at the Spiritwood Energy Park near Jamestown, North Dakota. Under the EPA’s revised Renewable Fuel Standard, cornstarch-based ethanol production facilities built after 2007 are …
If You’re Not Extracting Corn Oil, Why Not?
Ethanol producers need to squeeze every penny out of their operations. But one expert in the field of corn oil wonders why some refiners aren’t trying to capture the corn oil produced when they make ethanol. “It seems to be a fundamental piece of ethanol plant profitability,” Joe Riley, General Manager with FEC Solutions told Joanna during the recent Iowa …
Abengoa to Use ICM Oil Separation System
The ICM Advanced Oil Separation™ System (AOS™) will be deployed at Abengoa Bioenegy plants Madison, Illinois and Mt. Vernon, Indiana. The AOS™ is a specially-designed combination of equipment that utilizes an ICM-proprietary, patented process to maximize the recovery of non-food-grade bio-oil from emulsion concentrate after the centrifugal separation of mid-stillage (syrup). Installation of the two corn oil extraction systems is …