Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol car driver Jeff Simmons finished in the top ten again Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, starting in his highest pole position at sixth and finishing ninth. Simmons commented, “The Team Ethanol crew did a great job preparing the car this weekend. We had over best qualifying run of the year and we scored our third …
Maryland’s Commitment to Domestic Fuel
The state of Maryland is not towing the “Old Line” when it comes to new fuels. Last week, the first E85 station opened in Baltimore – although it’s only for state vehicles and non-profits, according to an article in the Examiner. State officials want motorists to start thinking about using alternative fuels, said Michael Li, chief of staff at the …
Diversified in the Heart of Ethanol Country
Diversified Ethanol is establishing corporate headquarters in the “heart of ethanol country: Iowa,” according to a Business Wire release. “We needed to be right in the middle of the Midwest ethanol plants. As we work on ethanol mergers and acquisitions, it is a significant advantage to be established within the ethanol community. Being in Iowa, it will give us first …
Red Birds Make Flight Plans
Indiana-based Cardinal Ethanol has a 24-member board of directors in place and is holding public equity-drive meetings to secure the funds needed to finance an ethanol plant in Randolph County. The natural gas-fired plant is anticipated to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year, using 36 million bushels of corn. A total of 49 meetings are planned – if …
Nebraska Groundbreaking
The governor of Nebraska and representatives from the Renewable Fuels Association and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council will be in “the Irish capital of Nebraska” this Friday for the groundbreaking of Holt County Ethanol, a subsidiary of Midwest Ethanol Producers. The O’Neill plant will produce more than 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, along with 350,000 tons of …
It’s What Michigan Wants
Michigan-based retailer Meijer opened its first E85 ethanol fueling station this week in Warren, MI. According to a company release, the pump is one of 20 which will be installed at Meijer gas stations across the state before the end of this year. In April, Meijer, General Motors, CleanFUEL USA and the State of Michigan announced a collaborative partnership to …
MU Economists Study Ethanol Impact
Demand for ethanol is shifting Midwest acreage away from soybeans and into corn, according to a University of Missouri agricultural economist. “Ethanol has major implications for corn acreage,” Pat Westhoff with the MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute said in an MU press release. New FAPRI projections indicate fewer acres planted to soybeans and wheat as more acres are …
Developing Corn For Ethanol
I just finished up a day at Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. in Raleigh, NC. Although I blogged the event on AgWired I did run into an interesting story about ethanol. Syngenta is developing an amylase enzyme trait into corn which they hope to have on the market by 2008. In this picture a Syngenta scientist is conducting a simple iodine test for starch. That’s because the amylase enzyme speeds up starch conversion to sugar.
Georgia on Xethanol’s Mind
Xethanol Corporation has announced plans to construct a 50 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant in Augusta, Georgia which would begin producing ethanol by mid-2007. According to a company release, the plant will be constructed on the site of a Pfizer pharmaceutical manufacturing complex that Xethanol will be closing on within 30 days. Christopher d’Arnaud-Taylor, Chairman and CEO of …
Making the Switch
USDA’s Agricultural Research Service says switching to switchgrass would make sense to make ethanol. A report in this month’s ARS magazine says “this deep-rooted carbon-storing perennial has great biofuel production potential.” This native perennial has been shown to store more soil carbon than the major U.S. farm crops. They found that switchgrass stores most of its carbon deep underground….The reason …