Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain spoke to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Council of Presidents meeting in Washington DC last week by teleconference about various issues of importance to agriculture, including it’s role in America’s energy needs. McCain heralded his “Lexington Project” to make America energy independent which includes alternative fuels, ethanol, nuclear and offshore drilling. The plan …
VeraSun Starts Up New Ethanol Plant
VeraSun Energy has announced the startup of its 110 million gallon per year ethanol biorefinery located near Hankinson, N.D. The Hankinson production facility marks the 12th VeraSun biorefinery in operation, increasing the company’s annual operating capacity to 1.2 billion gallons. Construction on the Hankinson facility began in August of 2006 and was completed in June. The opening of the plant …
Verenium Advances Cellulosic Ethanol in Asia
US biofuels development company Verenium Corporation and Japanese trading company Marubeni Corporation recently announced the opening of a three million-liter-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant in Saraburi, Thailand. The cellulosic plant in Thailand is co-located with a facility that will produce ethanol from sugar-cane derived sucrose, which is widely abundant in the region. Sugar cane bagasse, the biomass residue from the sugar …
Senators Introduce Ethanol Pipeline Bill
Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) have introduced legislation aimed at helping to efficiently bring ethanol to communities across America by giving pipeline owners the same tax benefits they receive for moving petroleum products. The tax code currently states that Publicly Traded Partnerships are supposed to earn 90-percent of income from the exploration, transportation, storage or marketing of …
EPAC Holds Board and Membership Meeting
Ethanol Producers and Consumers (EPAC) kicked off their 18th Annual EPAC Conference on July 20 with their Board and Membership Meeting. The event is taking place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell, Montana and the theme of this year’s conference is “Ethanol: Fuel AND Food”. “This conference will help to counter the negative news items we hear today regarding …
Australia Race Cars to Run on Ethanol
Race cars in the Land Down Under will be running on 85 percent ethanol next year. Australian media sources report that V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane announced on Sunday that all cars in the main V8 series and the Fujitsu Development Series will run on E85 made from sugar cane for at least five years starting in 2009. “We want …
Team Ethanol Partners With Drivers Edge
Team Ethanol has teamed up with Driver’s Edge, a nonprofit organization that travels the country teaching teens defensive driving techniques for free. Driver’s Edge was prominently displayed on the No. 17 Team Ethanol car, driven by 2008 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and 2008 Watkins Glen winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, during Sunday’s IndyCar® Series Honda Indy 200 in Mid-Ohio. Team …
Who is OPEC Kidding?
Ethanol makers all over the world are asking the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), “Who do you think you’re kidding?” In a full page ad in the Financial Times, the biofuel industries of Brazil, Canada, Europe and the United States are challenging the oil cartel’s “outrageous, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the role of ethanol in world oil markets.” …
Good News for Ethanol in OECD Report
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on biofuels policies out this week claims that that biofuel production “has a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security, and has a significant impact on world crop prices.” However, an analysis of the findings indicates the opposite. According to a review of the report by the Renewable …
Dow Catalyst Could Be Key to Cellulosic Ethanol
Dow Chemical Company will work with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop and evaluate a process to convert biomass to ethanol and other chemical building blocks. The partnership will evaluate a mixed alcohol catalyst from Dow that could hold potential for making cellulosic ethanol more commercially viable. “NREL is interested in reducing the cost of biofuels in support of …