ACE Conference 2026

Promoting Freedom at AG CONNECT Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

Sunbelt BiofuelsIn the growing field of biomass conversion to fuel there’s a plant that Mississippi State University thinks will help farmers and all Americans. It’s Giant Miscanthus and you can follow it on Twitter @GiantMiscanthus. They’ve actually licensed the product which is Freedom Giant Miscanthus that’s being marketed by Sunbelt Biofuels LLC. On the show floor at AG CONNECT Expo last week to talk about it were John Holmes (l) and Sunbelt’s Chairman Phil Jennings (r).

Phil says they’re taking the product commercial for MSU. He says they’ve been in the turf grass business for years and this new product caught their attention. He says they’re off to a great start and expect to see a lot of acres signed up in the next couple years as the demand for cellulosic ethanol production increases. John says Freedom is a play on words to denote the ability to become independent of foreign produced oil. Phil says “We know of no other plant that is a perennial, that is renewable as fast as it is that can give us the masses of biomass that we’re looking for.” He says Freedom provides four times the yield per acre of switchgrass.

You can listen to my interview with Phil and John below:

AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Audio, biofuels, biomass, Cellulosic

Corn Growers Focus on Ethanol Future

Cindy Zimmerman

NCGAWith a record corn crop under their belts despite challenging weather conditions in 2009, corn growers are continuing to develop the production and use of ethanol for America’s energy future.

National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Ethanol Committee chairman Jon Holzfaster, a grower from Nebraska, says they are focused on increasing the domestic market and overcoming the blend wall in 2010.

“We will increase the market for ethanol and overcome the blend wall if we achieve a blend up to E-15,” said Holzfaster. “The EPA made some favorable moves last year. They are taking a closer look at E-15 right now, but I am excited about what we might see in the future in terms of a move from an E-10 to a higher blend.”

Holzfaster is also excited about moving ethanol into other racing venues. “NASCAR is excited about a future partnership with the ethanol industry to not only help promote the fact that they are becoming more environmentally friendly, but also to help the ethanol industry promote their product,” said Holzfaster.

With the nation’s corn growers producing record and near-record crops, Holzfaster says growing the domestic ethanol market will remain a top priority for NCGA.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Joule Biotechnologies Secures Solar Fuel Site

Joanna Schroeder

Joule Biotechnologies announced today that they have signed a lease agreement to build its first pilot plant to be located in Leander, Texas. The plant will be the testing ground to further develop and test its transformative system for the production of renewable solar fuels and is expected to be online within the first half of 2010. The site was selected due to its high solar insolation and logistically convenient location.

JOULE_logoThe first test product will be ethanol which will be produced, in part with its SolarConverter™ system. This system incorporates product-specific organisms to produce solar fuels and chemicals via the same process. So far, the company has successfully achieved the production of both ethanol and diesel at lab scale, with the former already reaching productivity rates exceeding 6,000 gallons/acre/year. At full-scale production, via future commercial sites, the company estimates the potential to deliver 25,000 gallons/acre/year of ethanol and 15,000 gallons/acre/year of diesel at highly competitive market pricing.

Bill Sims, President and CEO of Joule Biotechnolgoies stated in a news release, “We are excited to take the next step with pilot-scale development of our renewable solar fuels, following our progress in the lab and also in outdoor testing. Our combined advances in genome engineering, bioprocessing and systems engineering have enabled a first-of-its-kind platform for the production of direct solar fuels, including ethanol and diesel. Now we have the opportunity to test and optimize our processes on a larger scale, driving towards our productivity targets while also demonstrating the ease with which our system can scale up.”

According to the company, their process will achieve high net energy balance without the use of fresh water, crops or the depletion of arable land. The company’s secret is their Helioculture™ technology, which leverages abundant solar energy and genome-engineered organisms to convert waste CO2 directly into multiple solar fuels and chemicals. The continuous production process requires no biomass intermediates, removing resource limitations and costly processing from the equation.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Cellulosic Ethanol Power Plant for Kansas

Cindy Zimmerman

mid kansas electricAbengoa Bioenergy and Mid-Kansas Electric Company are planning to develop the nation’s first commercial-scale hybrid cellulosic ethanol and power plant in Kansas.

Announced this week, Abengoa Bioenergy Hybrid of Kansas will be “a sustainable solution that will diversify electric generation in Kansas and help power the state’s growing demand for energy using Abengoa Bioenergy’s state-of-the-art, integrated bio-refinery technology and Mid-Kansas’ service capabilities.”

“As an international energy company, we believe this project is an important part of our continual growth in bioenergy,” said Javier Salgado Leirado, president and CEO of Abengoa Bioenergy. “Advancing this project required the perfect match of agricultural resources, technology, and a utility partner—all present in our partnership with Mid-Kansas. The agreement terms allow us to move forward with the project and bring significant investment to Kansas.”

The facility will be constructed at a cost of $550 million and have the capability to generate electricity and produce cellulosic ethanol. The cellulosic ethanol facility will produce 15 million gallons of ethanol per year and use corn stover, wheat straw and switchgrass as fuel inputs. The plant will use 2,500 tons of biomass daily to produce ethanol and electricity. Start-up operations are expected in 2012.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Iogen Makes Cellulosic Ethanol Gains

Cindy Zimmerman

Iogen Corporation is moving cellulosic ethanol closer to commercial reality.

IogenThe Canadian company produced over 581,000 liters (153,484 gallons) of cellulosic ethanol in 2009, more than double its 2008 production. That brings the company’s total cumulative production to more than one million liters since 2004, heading cellulosic ethanol into the realm of viable commercial production.

“Advanced renewable fuels such as cellulosic ethanol will play a critical role in meeting future energy demands, and Iogen is playing a vitally important role in the commercialization of this technology,” says Gordon Quaiattini, President of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News, International

Global Ethanol Plant to Use GreenShift Technology

Cindy Zimmerman

Global Ethanol recently received the rights to use new corn oil extraction technologies at a 100 million gallon ethanol plant in Lakota, Iowa.

greenshiftThe technology, patented by GreenShift Corporation allows first generation corn ethanol plants to tap into the existing reserve of inedible crude corn oil with an estimated industry-wide output of about 20 million barrels per year. This corn oil normally comes out in the distillers grain co-product of ethanol production, but once extracted it can be used in the production of next generation fuels, such as biodiesel, biojet fuel, and renewable diesel, thereby enhancing total fuel production from corn and increasing ethanol plant profits.

Under the terms of the agreement, Global will directly finance, build, own and operate a facility based on GreenShift’s patented corn oil extraction technologies designed to extract more than 2.2 million gallons per year of corn oil in return for an ongoing royalty payment to GreenShift equal to more than about 20 percent of the market price of the extracted corn oil at the time of shipment.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Michigan Company Acquires Nebraska Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

A subsidiary of Zeeland Farm Services of Michigan recently acquired an idled ethanol plant in Cambridge, Nebraska.

Nebraska Corn Processing (NCP) is the name of the subsidiary that plans to resume production at the plant as quickly as possible this year. The plant was built in 2007 but was idled for much of 2009. “This acquisition will allow NCP to gain a foothold in the energy industry and to further invest in agriculture,” explained Cliff Meeuwsen, company president. “Our goal is to develop viable business opportunities that will benefit NCP, agriculture and the communities in which we reside.”

Zeeland Farm Services is an agricultural and transportation company serving the upper Midwest since 1950. The company’s Grain Division will provide commodity price risk management services to NCP while the Ingredients Division will market the animal feed co‐products that are produced from the plant to the livestock industry.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Facilities

Another Exciting Year for Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol Report Podcast2010 promises to be another exciting year for ethanol, according to Matt Hartwig with the Renewable Fuels Association.

“Like the last two, three, four years in the industry, 2010 promises to fulfill on excitement,” he says in this edition of “The Ethanol Report” podcast. That includes work on extending the blenders tax credit, increasing the ethanol blend level, implementing the RFS2 and watching state action on low carbon fuel standards.

Matt also previews the upcoming 15th annual National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, February 15-17. Register before Friday for the early bird discount on registration and room rates at the Gaylord Palms Resort.

You can subscribe to this twice monthly podcast by following this link.

Listen to or download the podcast here:

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, RFA

Kinder Morgan Energy Buys Three Ethanol Terminals

Joanna Schroeder

KinderMorgan-LogoIt an effort to turn-around its struggling renewable fuels operations, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has agreed to purchase three ethanol terminals for nearly $195 million in a joint venture with U.S. Development Group as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Kinder Morgan Energy has more than 28,000 miles of pipelines and 170 terminals and estimates that with this new deal, will handle around 218,000 barrels of ethanol per day in 2010.

USDevGroupLogoU.S. Development Group, a storage and distribution company, in partnership with Kinder Morgan Energy, will create a nationwide network of ethanol-handling facilities that are connected via various modes of transportation including rail and pipelines. Ultimately, this network will provide easier access for major markets. Despite the current Obama administration’s support of alternative energy, such as second and third generation biofuels, most pipeline companies are sitting by the sidelines waiting for the ethanol play to be executed.

In addition to this new deal, the Journal reports that Kinder Morgan Energy, the division that oversees their renewable fuels strategies, has spent now spent approximately $500 million to build its ethanol and biodiesel business through facility acquisitions, upgrades and expansion projects. While biofuels are still considered a small part of their business “the company said that higher revenue from biofuels for its Central Florida Pipeline and West Coast facilities had “positively impacted” earnings in the third quarter.”

In another effort to improve the distribution of ethanol, Poet LLC and Magellan Midstream Partners announced that they would be building a 1,800 mile ethanol pipeline from South Dakota to Linden, New Jersey. The project is expected to cost $4 billion and be completed in 2014.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, News

Blue Star Gas Partners With Alliance AutoGas

Joanna Schroeder

BlueStarGasLogoBlue Star Gas has announced that it has joined Alliance AutoGas to to work with public and private fleets on the West Coast to covert vehicles to run on propane. According to Alliance AutoGas, there are more than 14.6 million propane-powered vehicles globally making it the most widely used alternative fuel in the world.

Stuart Weidie, President of Alliance AutoGas said, “We are excited to add Blue Star Gas to our growing, nationwide network of partners, all of whom share our core values and passion for revolutionizing the accessibility of alternative fuels.”

AllianceAutoGaslogoBlue Star Gas is a propane distributor in Oregon and California and will work with Alliance AutoGas to provide an integrated chain of vehicle conversions, clean fueling stations at fleet home bases, year-round fuel supply and safety & technical support.

“We have always dedicated ourselves to growth driven by customer needs, and as the demand for alternative fuels accelerates daily, the Alliance AutoGas turn-key solution helps us honor that commitment,” said Jeff Stewart, President of Blue Star Gas. “In partnering with Alliance AutoGas, we are offering the next generation of ‘full service’ by equipping fleets throughout the Northwest to cut fuel costs and emissions, all while using a fuel that’s 90% produced in the U.S.”

According to the two companies, ideal candidates for propane conversion are taxis, law enforcement and municipal vehicles, limousines, utility company vehicles and more.

Company Announcement, Propane