There is more wheeling & dealing on ethanol measures going on in DC today. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced a bill that would repeal the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) also known as the blender’s credit. Policy makers have been attempting to end VEETC for many years and made an unsuccessful, but down to the …
POET’s Biorefineries Slash H20 Use
POET biorefineries have slashed water use through the utilization of the company’s Total Water Recovery technology. Across the board, the company’s plants have reduced water use by a total of 411 million gallons of water per year compared to 2009 levels. This savings means that on average, a POET ethanol plant uses 2.77 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol …
Biodiesel, Ethanol Maker Signs ex-Oil Exec to Board
A company that is producing ethanol and biodiesel from non-food cellulosic wastes has welcomed a former oil industry executive to its board of directors. BlueFire Renewables, Inc. announced that Joe Sparano, a former President and, subsequently, Executive Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), as well as former president of Tesoro Petroleum’s West …
Propel Fuels Hosts USDA’s Judith Canales
Propel Fuels hosted Judith Canales, Administrator for Rural Business and Cooperative Programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), yesterday at one of the fuel retailer’s stations in Oakland, California yesterday to promote the positive and economic and environmental impacts biofuels has on the US. Propel is the leading retailer in the US installing biofuel infrastructure for both ethanol and …
Corn Ethanol Walks the Line Song
Here’s another video clip from the ethanol producer group known as “Green Floyd” that played at the recent National Ethanol Conference. The Green Floyd band is made up of Frontline Bioenergy CEO Bill Lee, Neil and Tom Koehler with Pacific Ethanol and Paul Kamp with Inbicon. This song is a parody of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” with lyrics …
Researchers Develop Isobutanol From Cellulose
Using consolidated bioprocessing, researchers at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center have discovered how to develop isobutanol directly from cellulose. The research was led by James Liao of the University of California at Los Angeles, and the results were published in the paper titled “Metabolic Engineering of Clostridium Cellulolyticum for Isobutanol Production from Cellulose,”online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. …
New Study – More Ethanol Commitment Needed to Meet RFS2
In a new study from Air Improvement Resource, Inc. (AIR) commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the requirements of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) can be met with ethanol if more infrastructure is put into place. In addition, more flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) are needed. The report concludes that if “blender pumps” are made available at nearly one-third of the …
Vilsack: US Farms Producing Enough for Food & Biofuels
The man in charge at the USDA says American farmers are producing enough to provide the food AND fuel, in particular ethanol and biodiesel, this country needs. During the recent Commodity Classic, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack took on the food vs. fuel debate head-on. “It is irritating to me that we have to read about this all the time, …
Coalition Urges Congress To Axe Ethanol Tax
The fight over the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) continues. Earlier this week, a coalition of “usual suspects” made up of 90 business associations, taxpayer advocates, hunger and development organizations, agricultural groups, free-market groups, religious organizations, environmental groups, ‘budget hawks’, and public interest groups sent a letter to the Congressional leadership asking them to axe the tax. In addition, …
Chemists Engineer Bacteria for Biofuels
Several chemists at the University of California, Berkeley have engineered bacteria for biofuels. More specifically, they have created bacteria that will churn out a gasoline-like biofuel at about 10 times the rate of competing microbes. The researchers believe this breakthrough could soon provide “green” gas. The research was published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology and authored by Assistant Professor …