Cellulosic ethanol producer BlueFire Ethanol Fuels, Inc. has cleared the first hurdle in its quest to get a $56 million government loan guarantee for its Lancaster, California ethanol plant. As you might remember from my Domestic Fuel Cast earlier this month, BlueFire uses a process called Concentrated Acid Hydrolysis Technology that can turn many feedstocks into ethanol, including garbage. I …
RFA Talks Ethanol With Farm Broadcasters
Representatives of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) were in Kansas City last week for the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual Trade Talk event, which meant they did dozens of interviews about the importance of ethanol to agriculture and the rural economy. In this edition of “The Ethanol Report,” we hear from RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen about some …
DOE Official: Algae and Biomass Future of Biofuels
Oil from algae and the biomass from the green microbes could be the future for advanced biofuels… that word from a top U.S. Department of Energy official. Biomass Magazine reports that Valerie Reed of the U.S. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy said at the Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy held this week in Honolulu, …
Canadian Biofuelers to Ask for Bigger Mandates
Ethanol and biodiesel producers in Canada will ask their government early next year to increase the amount of the green fuels produced and added to fossil fuels… even as there are doubts the industry can meet current mandates and production incentives. Reuters reports that the industry has not decided what those levels should be: Canada has given annual incentives for …
Ceres Awarded $5 Million Grant to Develop Energy Grasses
Ceres has been awarded $5 million dollars by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue its advanced trait development project designed to increase the biomass yields of several energy grasses, such as switchgrass, sorghum and miscanthus, by as much as 40 percent. At the same time, the use of inputs such as nitrogen fertilizers would be decreased. The grant …
New Venture to Finance Sorghum-to-Ethanol Projects
A new venture could provide up to $376 million for projects that will turn sweet sorghum into ethanol. DPG Investments, LLC (DPG) has announced its partnership with EPEC Biofuels Holdings, Inc. (EPEC) to put together a new platform finance company called EPEC Finance, LLC that will fund the manufacture and deployment of EPEC’s proprietary Ethanol Production Units (EPU’s) on select …
Wet Ethanol Process May Have Benefits
Soaking corn kernels instead of drying them could increase ethanol yields and create more co-products. Researchers at the University of Illinois have found that a wet ethanol production process results in more gallons of ethanol and more usable co-products. “The conventional ethanol production method has fewer steps, but other than distillers dried grains with soluble, it doesn’t have any other …
Corn Crop Still Strong and Good for Ethanol
Even though USDA lowered its forecast for 2009 corn production in the latest report out today due to lower yields, farmers are still expected to see record yields and production is still expected to be the second highest on record. Corn production is forecast at 12.9 billion bushels, down 1 percent from last month but 7 percent higher than 2008. …