New Venture to Finance Sorghum-to-Ethanol Projects

John Davis

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 …

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

Wet Ethanol Process May Have Benefits

Cindy Zimmerman

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 …

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Research

Corn Crop Still Strong and Good for Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

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. …

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Farming, USDA

Biomass Baler From AGCO

Chuck Zimmerman

AGCO is one of the companies working on a prototype biomass harvest/transport system. At POET’s Project LIBERTY Field Day they demonstrated a pulled behind baler system to harvest corn cobs and stover. Dean Morrell, Product Marketing Manager for Hay and Forage Harvesting, was on site and talked with me about their system. He says it’s a one pass system which …

Agribusiness, Audio, biomass, Cellulosic, corn, Equipment, Ethanol, POET

#FuelChat Session Tuesday

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association will be hosting an online Twitter chat session on Tuesday, November 10 at 3:00 pm Eastern time. FuelChat will feature RFA president Bob Dinneen talking about ethanol from a global perspective and what he learned during his trip to F.O. Licht’s World Ethanol 2009 12th annual conference in Paris last week. Follow along and participate by …

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Verenium Optimistic Despite Decline in Revenue

Cindy Zimmerman

Verenium Corporation reports lower revenues so far this year, but lots of accomplishments. According to the cellulosic ethanol company, total revenues for the nine months ended September 30 were $49.3 million compared to $49.9 million last year, with product revenues representing more than 55 percent of total revenues in all periods. Product revenues for the this year are $32.1 million, …

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Cellulosic Biofuels Summit Fast Approaching

Joanna Schroeder

The 4th Annual Cellulosic Biofuels Summit will be held in Washington D.C. on November 16-19th. Attendees will represent the feedstock, industrial biotech, biofuel technology, plant developer, finance, and oil and transportation sectors. The main goal of the conference is to share information on the perspectives and progress in reaching commercial production of cellulosic biofuels. There will be three forums: *Forum …

Cellulosic, conferences, Ethanol

EPA Offers Mandatory GHG Reporting Webinar

Cindy Zimmerman

The Environmental Protection Agency will provide an overview of the Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule for ethanol producers who might be affected by the new regulation. The webinar was set up at the request of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy on behalf of their membership. It will consist of a short overview of the final rule with …

Environment, Ethanol, Government, Growth Energy, RFA