Consumer Retorts
The media has made much this week about the Consumer Reports report that ethanol is less fuel efficient than gasoline. This is something the ethanol industry freely admits. The “quick take” from the Consumer Report is this: E85, which is 85 percent ethanol, emits less smog-causing pollutants than gasoline, but provides fewer miles per gallon, costs more, and is hard …
Fill Up Feel Good at Iowa Corn Indy
The latest “Fill Up, Feel Good” podcast from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is about the Iowa Corn Indy 250 announced last month to take place at the new Iowa Speedway. The podcast features comments from Iowa Speedway VP of Operations Craig Armstrong, Iowa Corn Promotion Board chairman Kyle Phillips and Ethanol Promotion and Information Council Executive Director Tom …
FlexFuel Motors Display
A new exhibit out here at the Farm Progress Show was put together in just the last 45 days by FlexFuel Motors. The man who’s the inspiration and work horse behind it is Tad Whitten, Motor Sports Management, Inc. Besides having a variety of vehicles on display that utilize ethanol or biodiesel, he built a replica of the first ethanol …
Farmers Visiting The Ethanol Car
It seems like the number 17 Team Ethanol Indy Car is all over the place. It’s here on display at the Farm Progress Show courtesy of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). The man who’s been touring this around is Alan Slunecka, farmer and brother to EPIC Executive Director, Tom Slunecka. The vehicle here has a simulator attached and …
Dupont/Bunge Announce Treus
One of the big announcements here at the Farm Progress Show on opening day was from Bunge and Dupont who have a biotech alliance. Basically they’ve created a new brand, “Treus.” This is being done to “reflect their expansion of the companies’ soy collaboration beyond food and nutrition products to include industrial applications, biofuels and other opportunities.” Low linolenic soybean …
Panda Powers Plants With Poop
Texas-based Panda Energy has announced plans to build a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Sherman County, Texas. According to a news release, the Sherman plant will generate the steam used in the ethanol manufacturing process by gasifying more than 1 billion pounds of cattle manure a year. Once complete, it will be one of the most fuel …
Debunking The Food vs. Fuel Myth
The incoming 1st Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association is Ron Litterer, Greene, IA. Here at the Farm Progress Show, I talked to Ron about the impact of using more and more corn for fuel and what his thoughts are on the issue of how that affects other uses of the commodity. Ron’s being interviewed here by Tom …
Monsanto’s Processor Preferred Program
Hello from the Farm Progress Show in Amana Colonies, IA. This is one of the biggest farm shows in the United States. Over 460 companies are on display out here in the middle of a corn field. The weather is not cooperating yet. It’s raining and muddy but I’m sure it will clear up over the next day or so.