POET Announces Cellulosic Ethanol Pilot Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

POETAt the 21st annual American Coalition for Ethanol conference on Wednesday, POET CEO Jeff Broin announced that the company will complete construction on a $4 million pilot-scale cellulosic ethanol production facility by the end of this year.

The pilot plant will be adjacent to POET’s corn ethanol pilot facility and a nine million gallon per year ethanol production facility in Scotland, SD and will allow the company to build upon recent technology advances before starting construction on Project LIBERTY, their commercial cellulosic production facility, next year.

POET Jeff Broin at ACE“Our expanded research effort has led to several significant strides in the development of cellulosic ethanol technology at the lab scale in recent months,” said Broin. “Construction of this pilot facility will allow our company to take the next step toward the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol.”

Broin says he is more confident about the future of cellulosic ethanol than ever before. “In the past few months, our scientists have been able to achieve significant ethanol percentages in fermentation and improve the yield of ethanol from biomass. Additionally, in our work with farmers and agricultural equipment manufacturers, we had a very successful harvest of corn cobs last fall and anticipate further advances during an expanded harvest this fall.”

During the 2007 harvest, POET worked with major agricultural equipment manufacturers to harvest 4,000 acres of corn grain and cobs from a farmer’s field in Southeastern South Dakota. Cobs from this fall’s harvest and last will serve as the feedstock for the cellulosic pilot plant, along with corn fiber extracted from the adjacent corn ethanol production facility with POET’s proprietary fractionation process, BFRAC™.

Listen to an interview with Jeff Broin from the ACE conference regarding the announcement:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ace/ace08-broin.mp3]


See the ACE 2008 Photo Album here

ACE, Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

Hydrogen Road Tour Underway

John Davis

A 13-day cross-country road tour running on hydrogen kicked off this week in Portland, Maine and will wrap up in Los Angeles, CA… 31 stops and 18 states later, hoping to convince the public that hydrogen is the fuel of the future.

This story from the New York Times says eight different car makers started the tour… with the American companies conspicuously absent. But General Motors, which has put more a billion dollars in hydrogen technology, joins the tour in New York, Washington and Los Angeles:

The 2008 Hydrogen Road Tour includes some highly touted, state-of-the-art technologies like the Honda FCX Clarity fuel-cell sedan, which has a 280-mile range on four kilograms of hydrogen (the energy equivalent of four gallons of gasoline) compressed at 5,000 pounds per square inch. The tour also showcases some fuel-cell vehicles that have been less frequently seen on U.S. roads, including the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage FCEVs, Nissan X-Trail FCV and Volkswagen HyMotion Tiguan.

The odd man out is the BMW Hydrogen 7, which burns super-cold cryogenic liquid hydrogen; BMW claims that emissions from the Hydrogen 7 are actually cleaner than the ambient air.

The Hydrogen Road Tour is co-sponsored by the National Hydrogen Association, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation and the California Fuel Cell Partnership.

Hydrogen

Ethanol Industry Meets in Omaha

Cindy Zimmerman

ACE 1The 21st Ethanol Conference & Trade Show is underway in Omaha with the theme “Fueling Revolution.” The event kicked off officially with the opening of the trade show at the Qwest Center.

The conference is expected to draw more than 1,200 attendees, with more than 200 companies represented at the trade show. Topics that will be covered during sessions over the next two days include ethanol blender pumps and mid-range blends, innovations in corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol commercialization and feedstock logistics, and much more.

ACE 2Prior to the start of the conference, the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) held its annual business meeting and voted to expand their board of directors. The ACE board now includes representatives from Fagen, ICM, Nebraska Ethanol Board and Missouri Corn Growers.

“ACE has always prided itself on being the grassroots voice of the industry, and today we’re proud to expand our board of directors to better represent the industry as a whole by adding two leading companies and two grassroots organizations,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE.

ACE is also offering a new blog to follow the convention proceedings – at ethanol.typepad.org.

See the ACE 2008 Photo Album here

ACE, conferences, Ethanol, News

John Deere, Clean Fuels Clearinghouse Announce Partnership

John Davis

John Deere Agri Services has teamed up with Clean Fuels Clearinghouse, developer of the RINSTAR™ Renewable Fuel Registry, to provide Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) and reports that meet the requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

This press release from John Deere says AGRIS V9 system users will be integrated with the RINSTAR solution:

The RIN-based system was created to identify, measure, and track batches of renewable fuel. RINs are unique serial numbers that renewable fuel producers or importers assign to each batch of fuel produced or imported and must be reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and listed on product transfer documents if the batch is transferred to another party. Each year refiners, blenders, and importers obligated to meet the renewable volume requirement must acquire sufficient RINs to demonstrate compliance. RINs can be traded and serve as the currency for the credit trading program.

“We are pleased to provide our biofuel producer customers an efficient, straightforward process to manage RIN compliance,” says Tom Angell, director of marketing for John Deere Agri Services. “By having the ability to communicate with the RINSTAR registry, our customers can focus on their business and reduce effort to meet Renewable Fuel Standard reporting requirements.”

“The renewable fuel registry interacts with more than 450 companies each day throughout the entire renewable fuel supply chain,” notes Clayton McMartin, president of the Clean Fuels Clearinghouse. “This partnership further expands the universe, bringing more certified RINs to the market and more confidence to the transactions.”

Biodiesel, Ethanol, John Deere, Miscellaneous, News

Ethanol Group Expands Board

Cindy Zimmerman

ACEThe American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) this week voted to expand its board of directors to add representation from key ethanol companies and grassroots organizations.

With the vote, four new members have been added to the board – Ron Fagen of Fagen, Inc; Greg Krissek of ICM; Todd Sneller with the Nebraska Ethanol Board; and Missouri Corn Growers Association CEO Gary Marshall.

The decision was made during the ACE annual business meeting which is held the day before the annual ACE Ethanol Conference & Trade Show begins. The conference starts today in Omaha.

ACE, Ethanol, News

USDA Increases Corn Crop and Ethanol Use

Cindy Zimmerman

Ideal summer growing conditions have helped the U.S. corn crop bounce back from flood damage, according to the latest report from USDA.

USDAThe August crop production forecast is now 12.3 billion bushels, nearly five percent higher than predicted last month. It is still down 6 percent from last year’s record, but up 17 percent from 2006.

The big story in the crop report is yields, which are now expected to average 155 bushels per acre, up 3.9 bushels from last year. If realized, this would be the second highest corn yield on record, behind 2004.

Meanwhile, today’s World Supply and Demand Estimates from USDA increases use of corn expected for feed and ethanol. Feed and residual use is raised 100 million bushels with the larger crop and lower expected prices. Ethanol use is raised 150 million bushels as increased supplies and lower prices
are expected to improve plant operating margins and capacity utilization rates. Exports are unchanged as increased competition from wheat feeding limits prospects for U.S. shipments. Ending stocks for U.S. corn are projected at 1.1 billion bushels, up 301 million bushels from last month.

corn, Ethanol, Government, News

Cellulosic Ethanol Demo Plant Opens in Montana

Cindy Zimmerman

A cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant opened Monday in Butte, Montana – reportedly the first such plant to integrate the use of both cellulose and starch based feedstocks.

AE BiofuelsCalifornia-based AE Biofuels celebrated the opening of its plant with various government representatives, including both U.S. senators and Governor Brian Schweitzer, who commented that he was proud “AE Biofuels’ groundbreaking technology was developed here in Montana.”

According to the company, the plant uses “proven, patent-pending Ambient Temperature Enzymes for converting cellulose and starch to fermentable sugars to optimize process conditions for multiple feedstocks. Non-food ethanol feedstocks used at the facility include switch grass, grass seed straw, small grain straw, sugarcane bagasse, and corn stalks either alone or in combination with a variety of traditional starch and sugar sources such as corn, wheat, barley, and sugarcane.”

The $1.5 million, 9000 square foot plant was privately funded. AE Biofuels officials say they plan to build a full-scale, $100 million production plant in the United States as early as next year.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, News

POET to Open 24th Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

POETThe largest ethanol producer in the world will get even bigger next month.

On September 11, POET will host a grand opening event for POET Biorefining – North Manchester, Indiana. The $105 million ethanol production facility will be the 24th POET production facility and will produce 65 million gallons of ethanol per year from more than 22 million bushels of local corn. The program will include addresses from Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and POET CEO Jeff Broin.

POET Biorefining – North Manchester will be the third ethanol plant opened by POET in Indiana with others near Portland and Alexandria. Once the North Manchester facility is operational, POET’s annual production capacity will be 1.4 billion gallons.

Ethanol, News

BlueFire Ethanol Presents at GM Briefing

Cindy Zimmerman

Blue Fire EthanolGeneral Motors recently held a briefing in California on cellulose to ethanol production in North America. One of the companies that presented was BlueFire Ethanol of Irvine, CA.

BlueFire president and CEO Arnold Klann talked about the company’s Concentrated Acid Hydrolysis process known as the “Arkenol Process” which converts cellulosic, or “green” waste materials to ethanol. His presentation is featured here on the GMnext blog in a post by contributor Matt Kelly.

Cellulosic, Ethanol

VeraSun Boosts Earnings on Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

VeraSunOne of the nation’s largest ethanol producers has announced a revenue increase of nearly 500 percent over last year.

VeraSun Energy Corporation on Monday reported its financial results for the three months ending June 30, which increased revenues by 499% over the second quarter of 2007, to $1.015 billion, and generated earnings of $.15 per diluted share, driven by higher ethanol volume sold and an increase in average ethanol price.

During the quarter, VeraSun completed the merger with US BioEnergy effective April 1, adding five facilities and 420 million gallons to operations. The company also completed construction at its Hankinson, North Dakota; Welcome, Minnesota; and Hartley, Iowa biorefineries, with a combined capacity of 330 million gallons per year. Upon completion of two additional ethanol production facilities in Dyersville, Iowa and Janesville, Minnesota, the company expects to have a capacity of 1.64 billion gallons of ethanol through 16 production facilities by the end of 2008.

Ethanol, Facilities, News