A new report from the Federal Trade Commission says U.S. ethanol industry become more competitive in 2007.
According to the report, “The ethanol production industry is not concentrated, and has become even more unconcentrated over the last year.”
The FTC utilizes the Herfindahl-Hirschman Indices (HHIs) to determine concentration. As outlined by the FTC and the Justice Department, HHIs with values below 1000 are deemed not concentrated and competitive. Based on actual production volumes of ethanol (as compared to total capacity that includes gallons under construction), the FTC gives the U.S. ethanol industry a score of 465, down from 736 in 2006.
Since 2005, the number of ethanol production facilities operating across the country has increased from 95 to 134 as of December 2007. Similarly, the number of firms producing ethanol has also increased. “As of September 2007, 103 firms produced ethanol in the United States, a one-year increase of 13 firms, and a two-year increase of roughly 28 firms,” the FTC reports. While the number of firms producing ethanol has risen, the market share of the nation’s largest producer has decreased to approximately 16 percent, down from 21 percent in 2006.
Read the FTC report here.
Cindy reported previously that 
Last May, the town of Greensburg was virtually wiped off the map as a tornado ripped through the small town in Southwest Kansas. But despite losing almost everything, the resilient folks of Greensburg are getting a chance at economic recovery… by way of a green fuel.
“This is terrific news for Kiowa County and for Kansas,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, a Greensburg Democrat whose home was lost in the storm. “The more businesses that commit to building in Greensburg, the sooner hardworking families of our community will be back in town and back in the work force.”
So, we’ve all heard the talk how biodiesel is just not built for the cold… how it gels up when the temperature goes down. But a ski resort in New England is proving that myth wrong.
“We know that even with heavy snow falling and temperatures hovering around 20 below, we can count on our biodiesel-powered vehicles to start up and perform with no problems at all,” said Mersereau, Operations Director for New Hampshire’s Cranmore Mountain Resort. “We have been very pleased with biodiesel’s performance and have had absolutely no cold weather problems.”
“Cranmore Mountain is one of many examples demonstrating that it is a myth that you can’t use B20 in cold weather,” said Joe Jobe, CEO of NBB. “As we enter the coldest time of year in many parts of the country, biodiesel users can rest assured that precautions such as using high quality fuel and following proper blending procedures, biodiesel blends are reliable even in sub-zero temperatures.”
Hardly anyone knew what ethanol was 20 years ago, but that is when the company formally known as Broin started in the ethanol business. 
An innovative “closed loop” ethanol plant in Nebraska shut down last week as the company filed bankruptcy, according to 
Smiling Earth Energy got approval from the Chesapeake City Council to build the 320-million-gallon-a-year refinery six weeks ago, but 
Researchers at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom are looking at a way to get hydrogen gas from glycerin, a biodiesel by-product. 
The novel process developed by Dr Valerie Dupont and her co-investigators in the University’s Faculty of Engineering mixes glycerol with steam at a controlled temperature and pressure, separating the waste product into hydrogen, water and carbon dioxide, with no residues. A special absorbent material filters out the carbon dioxide, which leaves a much purer product.
Renewable Energy Group and East Fork Biodiesel held a ribbon-cutting ceremony today for their 60-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant in Algona, Iowa with the plant fully operational on Tuesday.