ACE Conference 2026

ADM Calls for the Approval of E12

Joanna Schroeder

While ethanol supporters continue to wait on the fate of the E15 Waiver, ADM has spoken out today and requested the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pass E12 (twelve percent ethanol and 88 percent gasoline). The “Green Jobs Waiver,” also known as the “E15 Waiver” is a request that would allow conventional vehicles to use up to a 15 percent ethanol blend (E15) in their tanks. The ruling must be given by the EPA and the latest rumors coming out of Washington are that the waiver will be passed but with a stipulation on what vehicles would be approved for the higher ethanol blend (potentially cars manufactured 2001 or after).

Today, ADM submitted a formal request to the EPA seeking approval of ethanol-gasoline blends containing up to E12 for all cars. In addition, they also formally requested that the EPA alter its Clean Air Act interpretive rule to allow for the higher oxygen content in E12. The Clean Air Act is the piece of legislation that would need to be changed to legally allow any blends of ethanol in addition to E10 and E85.

In a company statement ADM said, “We commend the EPA for its thorough consideration of the E15 waiver request. ADM continues to support full implementation of the E15 waiver request, but believes that limiting E15 to model year 2001 and newer cars will not meet the goals of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) or the President’s goal of tripling biofuels production over the next twelve years.”

“We believe immediate interim approval and implementation of E12 for all cars provides a sound path to advance our nation’s renewable energy goals,” concluded ADM.

The ethanol industry reacted to ADM’s call to action today Read More

ACE, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Iowa Indy Race Spotlights Corn Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Dario FranchittiThe only Indy race to still run on homegrown corn ethanol is just around the corner. The 2010 Iowa Corn Indy 250, presented by Pioneer, will once again showcase 100% race powered corn-ethanol during the 4th annual race in Newton, Iowa on June 20.

2010 Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti won the very first Iowa Corn Indy in 2007, when the series first started using 100 percent ethanol. He says Indy’s transition to ethanol was a winner. “It was a big deal for us when we first switched over to ethanol,” he said during an Indy racing press conference Monday. “We’ve had tremendous success as a series with ethanol and had a really seamless transition. It’s just been a real win-win situation for the IndyCar Series.”

The Iowa Corn Indy 250 has been a win-win for Franchitti, who won it again in 2009. He hopes to be able to take home a third fuel-pump designed trophy this year.

The Iowa Corn Indy 250 is presented by Pioneer, with support from the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and the Iowa Corn Grower’s Association. It is the only Indy race this year to run on corn ethanol, since Brazil’s ethanol industry has taken over sponsorship of the series and provides fuel for the rest of the races.

Listen to or download Franchitti’s comments about ethanol in the player below:

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, IA Corn Indy, Indy Racing, Racing

USDA Chief Confident of Ethanol Blend Increase

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack believes that the Environmental Protection agency will increase the amount of ethanol allowed in regular gasoline above the current ten percent.

“I’m very confident that we’re going to see an increase in the blend rate,” said Vilsack in a telephone press conference from Iowa on Friday.

Vilsack also said that long-term extensions of the ethanol subsidies are needed in order to attract private capital to meet the mandate of 36 billion gallons of ethanol production by 2022. “We need a plan. We need to show that there’s a way to get to 36 billion gallons,” he said. “We want to find out how many refineries we need to build, we need to find out what feedstocks need to be advanced in terms of research and development. We need to figure out how to do things more efficiently with our current systems and how we might be able to incent those efficiencies. We need to figure out a distribution system and how many blender pumps are we gonna need and where are they going to be located and how do we get started doing that.”

The secretary says he has a team working on that plan and hopes to have it ready by the end of summer.

blends, Ethanol, Ethanol News, USDA

New Central Florida E85 Station

Cindy Zimmerman

Motorists in Central Florida with Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) can now fill up with 85 percent ethanol in Lakeland.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Protec Fuel have announced the availability of E85 for both the general public and government fleets at the Fleetwing retail station in Lakeland, which is near Tampa and St. Petersburg.

The station utilized Protec Fuel’s turnkey E85 fuel program which included the conversion process to an E85 fueling pump, E85 supply and promotional marketing. Protec’s fuel supply and marketing program for Fleetwing is built around a strong strategic partnership with the Renewable Fuels Association, General Motors, Testing LLC and many other reputable companies. Fleetwing also supplies a private fleet E85 fueling station in Lakeland.

RFA Market Development Director, Robert White says efforts to install more of these types of fueling stations are underway with a goal to at least triple the availability of these blends within the next few years. “Florida alone has added several new E85 fueling stations installed within the past two months,” he said.

E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Brazil Invests in Next Generation Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

The Brazilian Innovation Agency, FINEP (Research and Projects Financing), and Brazil’s National Development Bank have entered into a new partnership to promote bioethanol development, providing up to $540 million in financing to the country’s biofuels sector to promote innovation in the field of bioethanol.

The funding will be invested in technology projects over the next three to four years, which would advance the use of sugarcane bagasse and straw, to produce second generation ethanol and new products such as polymers, special oils and biodiesel. This is an initial step toward the development of an industrial complex for ethanol in Brazil, following a similar model to that of Brazil’s petrochemical industry. The goal is to double Brazil’s ethanol production capacity in the country without increasing the area necessary to plant sugarcane.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News, International

ZeaChem Breaks Ground on Biorefinery

Cindy Zimmerman

ZeachemBiomass refinery developer ZeaChem broke ground last week in Boardman, Oregon for a 250,000 gallon-per-year facility that will eventually be used to turn wood and other feedstocks into cellulosic ethanol.

The plant will initially use ZeaChem’s technology to produce ethyl acetate, which the company says is a salable chemical intermediate and precursor to cellulosic ethanol. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the company is scheduled to begin production of cellulosic ethanol in 2011.

ZeaChem has contracted with GreenWood Resources (GWR), a Portland-based timberland investment manager, to obtain sustainable hybrid poplar tree feedstock from nearby farms. Because the technology is feedstock agnostic, ZeaChem will also process trials of herbaceous crops, agricultural residuals and other renewable biomass resources.

biomass, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

E85 Promotions in Minnesota

Two E85 stations will hold promotions for the clean burnign fuel next week in Minnesota. The Cenex Prairie Pride in Slayton, MN and Schmitty’s in Grove City will sell E85 for 85 cents off per gallon.

Following are the locations of the promotions, dates and times:

June 9 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Cenex Prairie Pride
Hwy 59 & 30
Slayton, MN

June 10 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.
Schmitty’s
100 Atlantic Ave.
Grove City, MN

Supporters for the events include: Meeker County Corn Growers, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, US Department of Energy Clean Cities, American Lung Association in MN & the Minnesota Clean Air Choice™ Team, Murray County Corn & Soybean Growers.

The Cenex Prairie Pride event will also have the Biofuels Bean Bag Toss, Clean Air Choice Plinko and fun prizes along with the E85 powered F150.

Visit CleanAirChoice.org for more information.

corn, E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Facilities, News

Importance of Biofuels in Rural Revitalization

Cindy Zimmerman

The expansion of biofuels will play a significant role in the revitalization of rural America, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

“Why not create biofuel refineries and renewable energy plants that create jobs and markets for a product that otherwise might not be valued as much,” said Vilsack during a Rural Summit in Missouri on Thursday. “Why not create opportunities for the bioeconomy to respond to challenges like we have down in the Gulf.”

Vilsack says we need to build both the production and distribution systems for renewable fuels. “We’re working hard to get that long term commitment for the financial support. We want to figure out ways to make sure that we get the credit that is necessary to build these biorefineries and maintain them through tough times. We want to increase research and development in advanced biofuels and feedstocks and figure out how to do things more efficiently,” said Vilsack.

The National Summit, held in Hillsboro, Mo., culminates the Rural Tour Secretary Vilsack led last year to 22 states.

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, USDA

E85 Now Available in Tullahoma, TN

Edwards Oil Company has opened the first E85 station in Coffe County, Tennessee. According to WDEF.com, the Shell Quik Mart on the corner of 41A and Hwy 55 in Tullahoma is now available for flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) owners.

“We are pleased and excited to be the first and only station in Coffee County. Our customers who own flexible-fuel vehicles have been asking for it, and now they have a choice to refuel their vehicles with a product that reduces air pollution, lowers our dependence on foreign oil, and helps support American farmers,” said Edwards Oil Company President Jonathan Edwards.

In 2008, Edwards Oil opened their first E85 fueling location at the Quik Mart #14 on Nashville Highway Columbia and at Quik Mart #10 on North Ellington Parkway in Lewisburg, Tennessee. Following these facilities, Edwards opened a third E85 site in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

“More and more stations across Tennessee are offering their customers a choice of E85 and B-20. We are excited to see Edwards Oil leading the way in Coffee, Marshall, Maury and Bedford counties by offering alternative fuels to their customers” said Atha Comiskey, Coordinator of Clean Cities of Middle Tennessee Coalition. “Seeing businesses such as Edwards Oil now offering renewable fuel choices is a good thing for those of us wanting to use alternative fuel.”

Currently, there are 33 E85 stations in the state of Tennessee.

E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, News

How Many Wind Turbines for Leaking Gulf Oil Well?

John Davis

Found a great piece (well, with some help from some Facebook friends at Beckerman PR) on the real cost of offshore wind turbines versus offshore oil platforms in Forbes.

Karl Burkart’s piece asks, “How many offshore wind turbines could have been installed for the cost of one $10 billion Deepwater Horizon?,” the platform that sank and unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history:

How many turbines can $10 billion buy?

Assuming that the next few big offshore projects will drop in price as manufacturing and grid infrastructure improves, let’s say a 60-megawatt project will go for $200 million. Divide that into $12 billion and you get 60 60-megawatt wind projects, or about 33 billion kilowatts of power capacity per year.

How many electric cars does that power?

A typical American drives 12,000 miles per year. The latest plug-in electric vehicles (like the much-anticipated Tesla sedan) use about 370 watt-hours per mile. The U.S. driver’s 12,000 miles x .37 = 4,440 kilowatts per year. Divide 33 billion by 4,440 kilowatts and you get about 7.4 million electric vehicles that could be powered each year with a $10 billion wind investment.

Now while the piece does admit that the Deepwater Horizon well would have fueled more cars … 18.2 million vehicles per year … it does it at a higher cost per mile: 13.6 cents/mile for petroleum and only 3.7 cents/mile for electric vehicles running on wind-generated power.

If you figure that 7.4 million Americans would be saving $1,188 per year, that is about $8.8 billion going back into the U.S. economy rather than into the grubby hands of foreign oil companies like BP.

And that’s not even counting cleaning up the occasional mess created by Big Oil.

So the next time someone tries to tell you that wind energy is too expensive, just ask them: just how high of a price should we continue to pay for non-renewable oil?

Wind