ACE Conference 2026

Ethanol Industry Looking Forward to RFS Hearing

Cindy Zimmerman

RFAThe ethanol industry is looking forward to a public hearing and workshops this week in Washington, DC to address the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2).

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen will be testifying at the public hearing on Tuesday. “While we generally applaud EPA’s efforts to get the rule out, we do have some very serious concerns with the proposal, which we will be laying out tomorrow during the hearing and in the workshops,” said Dinneen during a media conference call Monday morning.

Dinneen says their most serious concerns revolve around EPA’s lifecycle greenhouse gas analysis, especially the inclusion of international indirect land use changes. “We don’t believe that the statute requires it, we don’t believe that Congress believes the analysis should include international impacts, and we certainly don’t believe that the science supports evaluating international impacts of a farmer’s decision someplace else in the world related to biofuels production.”

The EPA public hearing will be held June 9 from 10 am to 5 pm and the workshop on details of EPA’s lifecycle GHG analysis will be June 10-11, both at the Dupont Hotel in Washington, DC. More information is available here on the EPA website.

Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government, RFA

Cellulosic Technology Investment

Cindy Zimmerman

HCLTwo venture capitol companies have invested in an Israeli company with technology for converting cellulosic materials into fermentable sugars.

Burrill & Company and Khosla Ventures announced their investment in HCL CleanTech, which has “developed a proprietary technology to make an old, industrially proven German process converting lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars economically very attractive.”

“Accessing cheap sugar locked in biomass is one of the greatest challenges now faced by those pursuing renewable fuels and chemicals. HCL CleanTech’s technology represents a step change in accessing these sugars, and drops into the pretreatment step of any fermentation-based process or chemical reforming technique which starts with oligosaccharides,” said Burrill & Company Director, Greg Young. “We are eager to see this proven at scale, at which point it becomes immediately relevant to adjacent industries aiming to use biomass as a feedstock.”

Cellulosic

Bright IDEA Could Help Ethanol and Hog Producers

Cindy Zimmerman

A bright IDEA from Novus International could help both hog producers and the ethanol industry.

Brad LawrenceIDEA stands for “Immobilized Digestive Enzyme Assay” which Dr. Brad Lawrence with Novus says helps measure the digestibility of lysine and other amino acids in dried distillers grains (DDGS), the livestock feed by-product of ethanol production. “Distillers is one of the few ingredients that we have that does come from multiple manufacturing facilities with different methods that could impact amino acid digestibility,” said Dr. Lawrence. “We run this laboratory procedure that looks at all the digestibility of all the amino acids which gives us a tool to compare the economic value of distillers from different sources.”

Novus is working on a National Pork Board research project with the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center and the Universities of Illinois and Minnesota to find the best assays for determining amino acid digestibility of distillers grains. The results of that research are expected later this year.

I interviewed Dr. Lawrence about IDEA at the World Pork Expo last week. Listen to that interview here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/wpx/wpx09-brad.mp3]

Audio, corn, Distillers Grains, Ethanol

Another New Ethanol Plant in Iowa

Cindy Zimmerman

Plymouth energyA new ethanol plant in Merrill, Iowa celebrated its grand opening last week.

The Plymouth Energy plant has been operating at full capacity since last month and will produce 55 million gallons of ethanol a year using 18 million bushels of locally-grown corn.

The plant is located north of Sioux City in the northwest corner of Iowa and the company is hoping to start construction on a second plant in the same general area later this year.

Ethanol

Mini Ethanol Brewer Gets Governor’s Blessing

Cindy Zimmerman

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled the final production model of the world’s first home ethanol system last week at the California State Capitol.

E-FuelThe E‐Fuel MicroFueler™, which we first reported on here at Domestic Fuel in May 2008, looks like a washing machine and creates ethanol fuel from organic waste or leftover alcoholic beverages.

“Ethanol holds a promise of reducing the fuel costs, which is very important, because so many times we are all subject to the oil prices,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “But when you have those fueling stations at home you don’t have to worry about if a barrel of oil is $150 dollars or if it is $50, because that price always stays the same and it will be competitive.”

Schwarzenegger also announced that the state is exploring a pilot program using the MicroFuelers for the state’s fleet of E85 vehicle. “I think that we, as a state, want to be a good example on driving cars that are have a low output of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

Read and/or watch the governor’s speech here.

According to a company release, E‐Fuel is currently setting up a dealership network in 16 US states, as well as Ireland and Japan, with plans to be centered in major metro areas worldwide by the end of 2010.

Ethanol

More Time to Trade Ethanol Contracts

Cindy Zimmerman

Early risers will now have a little more time to electronically trade futures contracts for ethanol on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

CBOTElectronic trading hours for CBOT grains, oilseeds and ethanol contracts will be expanded in the morning by one hour and fifteen minutes, until 7:15 a.m., starting July 1.

The new electronic trading hours will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. central time Sunday through Friday for futures and options on futures for full and mini-size where offered corn, wheat, soybeans, soymeal, soyoil, rice, oats and ethanol contracts. Daytime electronic and open outcry hours will remain from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. weekdays.

corn, Ethanol

Wind Energy Industry Lobbies for Higher Mandate

John Davis

Last year was a big year for growth in the American wind energy field, as the U.S. added more than 8,300 megawatts of capacity in 2008… a record year!

This article in the Des Moines (IA) Register says officials with the industry, along with a governor from a state that is really making headways in wind energy, were on Capitol Hill to warn Congress that the current proposed legislation doesn’t support the same continued growth:

A bill approved by a House committee last month and another under consideration in the Senate would require utilities to get a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources starting in 2012, but the targets are well below what the wind power industry wanted.

The Senate version would start at 3 percent in 2012 while the House bill would begin at 6 percent, and both could be lowered through energy efficiency measures.

chetculverIowa Gov. Chet Culver joined industry representatives Thursday in meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to urge them to enact higher mandates. “The number does matter,” Culver said later.

To maintain the level of construction in the wind power industry last year – about 8,500 megawatts – the mandate would have to start at 10 percent in 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

House and Senate leaders agree they would like to see the higher mandate but don’t think that 10 percent level would make it through Congress. Lawmakers from southern states that don’t have as much wind potential are seen as the biggest roadblocks.

Government, Legislation, Wind

Phoenix Airport Taxis Could Run on E85, Propane

John Davis

phoenixskyharborCatching a cab at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport could soon be a greener proposition.

The Arizona Republic reports that the city council has voted in a new rule that will require taxis at the airport to use one of several alternative fuels:

Under the new rules taxicabs would have the choice of using compressed natural gas; liquid propane gas, or LPG; or E85 ethanol fuel…

Gasoline-powered cars – even hybrids like the Toyota Prius – won’t be allowed. Although hybrids use less gasoline than regular cars, they don’t meet the city’s new standard for greenhouse gas emissions and oil use.

Under the old airport policy, taxis with airport permits had to be powered by compressed natural gas. Clean Energy is the only firm with CNG fuel pumps for taxis at the airport.

In practice, however, a loophole allowed the airport to make exceptions to the CNG rule. Because of this, many of the airport’s 170 airport taxis are powered by gasoline.

The change could be implemented by early next year.

E85, Ethanol, News, Propane

WI’s First Commercial Biodiesel Plant Idled

John Davis

sanimaxBiodiesel is still having a tough go of it… just like many other businesses in today’s economy. The latest victim of the economic downturn is Sanimax Energy, which has had to temporarily close its DeForest, Wisconsin plant… the first biodiesel plant to open in the Badger State two years ago.

This story in the Wisconsin Ag Connection says the refinery, which turned used restaurant grease into the green fuel, has had to layoff 20 of its 30 workers who work in the biodiesel wing of the facility:

A spokesperson for the Canadian-based Sanimax, which has 24 locations across the continent and three other facilities in Wisconsin, says the closing is attributed to the economy. The firm did not release a possible re-opening date.

Sanimax began construction of its 15,000 square-foot plant in early 2006. In May 2007, the company sold its first large-scale load of fuel to Progressive Farmers Cooperative in Northeast Wisconsin. Sanimax was using a patented multi-feedstock technology developed by Nova Biosource Fuels to transform recycled cooking grease, rendered animal fats and vegetable oils into high-quality, clean burning biodiesel fuel.

The good news is, though, Sanimax’s partnership with BEST Energies in Cashton, Wi. will still produce biodiesel from the corn oil leftover from making corn into ethanol.

Biodiesel

Harkin: Indirect Land Use Rule Not Good Science

John Davis

harkinThe chair of the U.S. Senate’s Ag Committee says the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Indirect Land Use Rule, which would make biodiesel ineligible for mandates and federal subsidies, is not good science… and he believes there are enough votes in Congress to keep it from going into effect.

Agriculture Online reports that the EPA’s proposal would use the concept of increasing acreage for ethanol and biodiesel crops in the U.S. leads to deforestation and grassland destruction in other nations. Corn-based ethanol would receive a waiver, but biodiesel would not. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) said more than 100 scientists are questioning the EPA’s theory:

“I think EPA is way off the mark on this,” he said.

Harkin said he doubts that the final rule will have the same concept because he doesn’t think it’s supported by science and he wants to see scientific proof.

“Quite frankly, I can tell you, we’ll never see it,” he said, because, with so many factors influencing land use in other nations, it’s impossible to show that biofuel crops are responsible.

If the concept remains in EPA’s final rule, “I’m relatively confident we have the votes here [in the Senate] to say no and overturn that.”

Two Republican Senators have already introduced bills that would require EPA to not use indirect land use when it calculates the carbon footprint of biofuels. That requirement currently is part of the 2007 energy bill that ramps up federal mandates for biofuel use in the nation’s fuel supply.

grassleyHarkin has been joined in his criticism of the EPA by fellow Iowan Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who went to the floor of the Senate earlier this week to blast the EPA assumptions:

“The EPA’s models conclude that international land use contributes more in greenhouse gases than the entire direct emissions of ethanol production and use — from the growing the crop, the production of ethanol at the refinery, to the tailpipe emissions when it’s burned,” Grassley said. “The ripple effects are greater than the direct effects. This conclusion is ludicrous.”

Bipartisan bashing of the EPA… now that’s what I call government at its best!

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, Indirect Land Use, News