POET Continues to Cut Water Use at Ethanol Plants

POET is now more than 75 percent of the way to achieving its water reduction goal of one billion gallons annually by 2015 at the company’s ethanol plants.

This year POET reduced water use by more than 770 million gallons compared to 2009 by using the company’s Total Water Recovery System at their 18th ethanol production facility, POET Biorefining in Chancellor, South Dakota.

“We’ve made reducing water use a priority at our plants, and it shows,” POET CEO Jeff Broin said. “I’m confident that we can reach our overall water use goal.”

Eighteen of POET’s 26 ethanol plants now have Total Water Recovery Systems under the company’s “Ingreenuity” initiative that was instituted in March 2010.

Ethanol, Facilities, POET, water

Growth Energy Adds to Marketing Development Team

Growth EnergyMike O’Brien has joined Growth Energy as vice president of marketing development. He will help develop the ethanol market by assisting fuel retailers with delivering higher blends of ethanol to consumers through increased flex fuel pumps.

Growth Energy continues to advocate for opening the fuels market to ethanol through infrastructure investment. Their market development team will educate consumers about the benefits of ethanol and help retailers install flex fuel pumps capable of dispensing mid- to high-level blends of ethanol.

Before joining Growth Energy, O’Brien was global director of marketing and communications for Draka Oil & Gas. O’Brien also served in global communications for Cargill Dow/NatureWorks focusing on food retail adoption of the first commercial scale bio-polymer made entirely from corn.

Ethanol, Growth Energy

US and Brazil Spar Over Ethanol Trade Policy

Cindy Zimmerman

Brazilian and U.S. ethanol interests are challenging each other over ethanol trade policy.

The U.S./Brazil Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote a joint letter to Congress last week asking that the U.S. secondary tariff on imported ethanol be allowed to expire as scheduled at the end of the year, together with the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC).

UNICAMeanwhile, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) introduced legislation last Friday that would extend the 54-cent per gallon ethanol import tariff until the end of 2014. “My legislation would preserve duty-free ethanol for the U.S. as well as ensuring that the gains achieved for the Caribbean remain intact,” stated Rangel.

The legislation, which is not backed by the U.S. ethanol industry, was immediately condemned by the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), saying that “certain parties who benefit from the current, anti-competitive arrangement and their allies in Congress are trying to change the rules by making the tariff a true trade barrier rather than a subsidy offset.”

“As the world’s top producers, the United States and Brazil need to lead by example in creating a free market for clean, renewable fuel,” said Leticia Phillips, UNICA’s Representative in North America. “That means putting an end to trade distorting tariffs on ethanol.”

RFAToday, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) in turn challenged Brazil’s commitment to free trade.

RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen wrote his own letter to the U.S./Brazil Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Please know that while we share your desire for the removal of trade distorting practices between the U.S. and Brazil, we are very concerned about the Council’s singular and biased focus on U.S. ethanol policy, and its failure to address more timely recent trade distorting practices engaged in by Brazil,” wrote Dinneen, pointing out specific actions taken by Brazil that limit U.S. access to that market.

“Recently, the Brazil government reduced the volume of ethanol that can be blended in fuel from 25% to 20%. As a result of this mandated reduction in blend volumes, U.S. exports of ethanol to Brazil are being dramatically reduced from levels that would have otherwise occurred had Brazil left the mandate at 25%,” said Dinneen.

“Second, while your letter to Congress is correct to state that Brazil’s 20% import tariff has been suspended, you fail to further explain that this suspension was only on a temporary basis. While Brazil’s Chamber of Foreign Trade (CAMEX) did indeed reduce its tariff in April of 2010, the temporary suspension is scheduled to expire one day after the U.S. tariff is set to expire,” Dinneen added, noting that the tariff reduction instituted in April 2010 is scheduled to end the day after the U.S. tariff is set to expire at the end of this month.

Read the RFA letter here.

Brazil, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

New Ethanol Production Record Set

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol production hit an all time high last week, according to the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration.

eiaFor the week ending December 2, ethanol production averaged 954,000 barrels per day (b/d) – or 40.068 million gallons daily, which is 24,000 barrels more than the previous week and a new record. Getting close to the end of the year now, the four week average for ethanol production stood at 929,000 b/d, which translates to an annualized rate of 14.25 billion gallons.

Gasoline demand for the week averaged 360 million gallons daily. Expressed as a percentage of daily gasoline demand, daily ethanol production was 11.63%.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Verenium Markets Enzyme for Biodiesel Production

Cindy Zimmerman

VereniumVerenium Corporation is now marketing its successful Purifine® phospholipase C (PLC) enzyme product for use in the pretreatment of oil for biodiesel production. The Purifine® PLC enzyme is designed to improve yields and overall economics of edible oil and biodiesel production.

“Since the initial launch of our Purifine® PLC enzymatic degumming process, we have seen rapid adoption and success within the edible oil market, and are pleased to now offer an enzymatic degumming solution for the production of biodiesel,” said James Levine, President and Chief Executive Officer at Verenium. “When compared to traditional degumming processes, our Purifine® PLC enzyme enables a high yield of oil while at the same time efficiently removing phospholipid impurities. Purifine® PLC can also be applied to replace chemical or crude refining, making for a much ‘greener’ process.”

Verenium began marketing and selling Purifine® PLC in 2008 for processing of edible oils and estimates the addressable global market for Purifine® PLC in production of edible oils and biodiesel to be approximately $350 million annually. The Company expects its first customer applying the enzyme for biodiesel production, engineered and implemented by Alfa Laval, to be fully operational in the first half of 2012.

Biodiesel

Petroleum Equipment Group Joins E85 Coalition

Cindy Zimmerman

The Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI) has joined the Coalition for E85 – a group of retailers, producers, equipment manufacturers and other supporters of E85 fuel.

PEI executive vice president Robert Renkes says the goal of the Coalition is to protect the investments of 2,500 small businesses and stop a multimillion-dollar tax hike on consumers. “Fuel marketers, equipment manufacturers and the motoring public have invested a significant amount of money in building the E85 infrastructure and flex-fueled vehicles,” said Renkes. “We must not abandon E85 this close to self-sustainability.”

According to the Energy Information Administration, Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) capable of running on up to 85% ethanol fuel represent approximately 98 percent of all the alternative fuel vehicles operating on the nation’s highways. “E85 represents a form of liquid transportation fuel that is growing in use and has an infrastructure investment cost similar to unleaded gasoline,” said Renkes. “Following the lead of the Congress and several recent presidents, many of our members have committed to the production of E85 fueling equipment, and we call on the Congress and Obama Administration to maintain the small incentives provided to advance the sale of E85.”

Currently, other alternative fuels, such as compressed natural gas, propane and hydrogen, receive a $0.50 per gallon tax credit as part of the Alternative Fuel Credit and the Coalition believes E85 should be included as well.

E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Flex Fuel Vehicles

American Ethanol Celebrates Great First Year

Cindy Zimmerman

The partnership between NASCAR and ethanol is officially one year old and it has been a great year for racing on the renewable fuel.

It was one year ago last week at the NASCAR Champions Week in Las Vegas that American Ethanol was announced, a partnership that includes Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association.

Throughout the 2011 NASCAR season, every race car and truck in the Sprint, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series ran on Sunoco Green E15 as part of the American Ethanol partnership. And every race weekend, NASCAR’s newest special award, the American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award was given to the participating driver who recorded the fastest average speed on restarts and who finished the race on the lead lap – a reminder of American Ethanol’s dedication to NASCAR’s green initiatives.

At this year’s Champions Week in Las Vegas, Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis gave an overall award to No. 17 driver Matt Kenseth for winning the Green Flag the most times in the 2011 season.

“I appreciate American Ethanol and Growth Energy and Sunoco for making such a great fuel this year,” Kenseth said when he accepted the award. “It worked great, it’s been good for the environment, it’s been good for NASCAR and we appreciated being a part of it.”

According to NASCAR officials and drivers, the E15 fuel blend has met and surpassed expectations – providing increased horsepower with minimal decrease in mileage. In fact, NASCAR’s 2011 Million Mile Report, proved that NASCAR racing vehicles accumulated more than a million miles of practice, qualifying and racing laps on E15 without any problems.

American Ethanol, corn, Ethanol, Growth Energy, NASCAR, NCGA

Iowa Renewable Fuels Partners with Petroleum Marketers

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) and the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa (PMCI) have formed the Renewable Fuels Partnership where representatives of both groups will serve in an advisory capacity to exchange ideas on advancing the availability and use of renewable fuels in Iowa. The goal of the partnership is to bring more renewable fuels to Iowa motorists while addressing the needs of the marketplace and providing consumer education.

“Working collectively, we can bolster the distribution network for domestically-produced fuels and strengthen the local economy,” said Dawn Carlson, president of PMCI.

“Cooperatively, we’ll bring a strong education program to consumers on the benefits of having a variety of renewable fuels to meet their needs and their wallets,” said Lucy Norton, IRFA managing director.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Looks Like Income Pretty Steady For Most

Chuck Zimmerman

The slices on this ZimmPoll pie are almost the same size! In our latest ZimmPoll we asked the question, “With net farm income up this year, how is your income?” The idea for the question came from the recent USDA Economic Research Service Net Farm Income Forecast that showed a 28% increase over 2010. The responses to our question were Higher – 34.4%; Lower – 31.2% and Same – 34.4%.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “What’s tops on your Christmas gift list?” If your income is the same or higher than last year perhaps you have a little more in the disposable category for holiday shopping. What categories are tops for you this year?

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

ZimmPoll

RFA Responds to Letter Sent to Senate Committee

RFAThe Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has sent a letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leadership refuting statements that were made in a Nov. 30th letter sent to the committee by ethanol critics.

According to RFA, the letter sent by ethanol critics misrepresented the findings of two recent papers on American biofuels and American biofuel policy — one from the National Academies of Science (NAS) and one from United Nations Committee on Food Security (CFS). Authors of the letter, including corporate livestock, food manufacturing, fossil fuel production, and other industries, are seeking a hearing on domestic biofuels and the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

In a follow-up letter sent this week, RFA provides additional research confirming the benefits of domestic biofuel production. Specifically, RFA took exception to assertions made that the NAS study offered definitive conclusions about the environmental impacts of ethanol or the efficacy of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

RFA also highlighted a finding of the NAS report that was omitted in the letter that, “using biofuels holds potential to provide net environmental benefits compared to using petroleum-based fuels…”.

RFA notes that even some participants in the NAS research work have questioned its incompleteness and lack of definitive conclusions. It has been reported by the American Association of Advancement of Science that Dr. Virginia Dale, an ecologist at the DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory believes the NAS report, “is not based on the most current information” and could be “misleading if the assumptions of the analysis are not considered.” Dr. Dale encouraged readers to “read the details with care,” a point which RFA notes was left out of the letter to the committee.

Regarding the UN CFS study, the RFA noted that no mention of the RFS or specific biofuel policies were included in the study.

RFA believes the letter and claims sent by the ethanol critics does not warrant a hearing by the Senate EPW Committee. However, if a hearing is granted, RFA encourages the committee to hear from witnesses from the biofuels industry and academia who can testify to the benefits of the biofuels industry.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA