CBOT Ethanol Seminars

Cindy Zimmerman

CBOT The Chicago Board of Trade will be holding a series of educational seminars for managing price risk using CBOT Ethanol futures contracts and its Over-the-Counter calendar swap products. According to CBOT officials, the seminars will be held during April and May in Omaha, Cedar Rapids, Bloomington/Normal, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Sioux Falls.

The free seminars will be held from 10:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Seminar topics will include an overview of CBOT Ethanol futures and OTC products, advanced strategies for managing ethanol price risk and a market outlook. Beginning April 17, the seminars will be held in the following cities:

April 17: Omaha (Doubletree Omaha Downtown)
April 24: Cedar Rapids (Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel)
April 25: Bloomington/Normal (Doubletree Hotel Bloomington)
April 26: Indianapolis (Sheraton Indianapolis Hotels and Suites)
May 2: Minneapolis (Minneapolis Airport Marriott)
May 3: Sioux Falls (Sheraton Hotel/Sioux Falls Convention Center)

Details are avialable on the CBOT website.

Ethanol, News

More Uses for Biodiesel By-products

John Davis

While animal feed products from the production of ethanol have caught most of the attention, researchers are looking at finding more uses for the by-products of biodiesel.

According to this article posted on posted on ThePoultrySite.com, Iowa State University and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Services are looking at using glycerin in poultry and swine feed:

Mark Honeyman“With an increase in biodiesel production comes a surplus of crude glycerin,” said Mark Honeyman, animal science professor and coordinator of Iowa State’s Research Farms. “And with an increase in ethanol comes higher corn prices. Since corn is fed to pigs primarily for its energy value, we’re studying the possibility of replacing corn with glycerin in swine feed.”

The USDA’s research has shown that the glycerin has a similar food-energy value to corn… and the pigs will readily eat it.

And the news looks good for chickens as well:

Kristjan BregendahlKristjan Bregendahl, assistant professor of poultry nutrition, conducted a metabolism experiment with 48 laying hens. Typical feed rations that included corn, soybean meal, meat and bone meal, and four levels of crude glycerin – 0, 5, 10, or 15 percent – were fed to the hens to determine the energy value of the glycerin.

“We found the energy in crude glycerin was used with high efficiency by the hens,” Bregendahl said. “And we saw no adverse effects on egg production, egg weight, egg mass or feed consumption in this short experiment.”

The article goes on to say that there are issues in getting the glycerin through the dry self-feeders, as well as problems with methanol in the glycerin, but researchers promise more work will be done.

Biodiesel, Research

EPA Issues Ethanol Plant Rule

Cindy Zimmerman

EPAThe Environmental Protection Agency has issued a final ruling that assures facilities producing ethanol for human consumption, industrial use or fuel are treated equally under Clean Air Act permitting requirements.

According to EPA officials, this final rule establishes the same emissions thresholds for new facilities that produce ethanol using a feedstock such as corn or sugar beets regardless of the product produced – 250 tons per year for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting program. The thresholds for the nonattainment NSR and Title V programs will remain at current levels.

The final rule also will no longer require facilities producing ethanol for fuel or industrial purposes to count emissions of criteria pollutants that do not come from process stacks or vents when determining if they meet or exceed the emissions thresholds for the Clean Air Act operating permits, nonattainment NSR, or PSD programs.

Ethanol producers greeted the EPA decision enthusiastically. “This decision is a critical step forward for the ethanol industry and corn producers everywhere. The EPA’s decision fixes a fundamental regulatory unfairness and will allow for more efficient permitting of ethanol plants that will promote American energy independence,” said Bill Paulsen, President of the South Dakota Ethanol Producers, in a statement issued by Poet Energy of Sioux Falls, SD.

Energy, Ethanol, Facilities, Government, News

VeraSun Plant Opens Early

Cindy Zimmerman

VeraSun VeraSun Energy Corporation, the nation’s second largest ethanol producer,
has announced the early startup of its 110-million gallon facility located in Charles City, Iowa.

According to a company release, construction on VeraSun’s third ethanol production plant began in March 2006 and was completed nearly three months ahead of schedule.

The plant will annually process 39 million bushels of corn and produce 350,000 tons of distillers grains for livestock feed in addition to 110 million gallons of ethanol. Full production at the facility is scheduled to be reached within 30-45 days.

Ethanol, Facilities, News

BC Buses Switch to Biodiesel

John Davis

Victoria busCity buses in Victoria, British Columbia are now running on 5% biodiesel. The Victoria Times Colonist reports the move will save green in two ways… in the environment and the city budget:

No mechanical modifications are required to the fleet, said transit senior vice-president Ron Drolet.

“You can do it without any capital outlay. You get a supply that will certify the product’s quality and, bang, it happens.”

The change is expected to save about $650,000 a year for the city and will greatly reduce the amount of sulphur oxides and sulphates.

Biodiesel

Hydrogen Bus Debuts in CT

John Davis

Hartford busA new, hydrogen-powered bus has hit the streets of Hartford, Connecticut as a test of the technology that emits nothing but water vapor.

The Hartford (CT) Courant reports the 30-passenger bus will be checked for fuel economy, maintenance costs and reliability and compared to three other fuel cell buses in California:

The Greater Hartford Transit District signed a contract with UTC Power, a unit of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., to build the bus last year.

Vicki Shotland, executive director of the transit district, said UTC Power will also provide two years of program support, including the use of Connecticut’s only hydrogen refueling station at UTC’s headquarters.

“The people who live and work in Hartford and the people who visit the city are not only going to enjoy riding this quiet bus, but also will like the fact it emits nothing but water vapor, making for cleaner air for all of us to breathe,” said Jan van Dokkum, president of UTC Power.

A $2.9 million federal grant helped fund the bus’s development.

Hydrogen

Andersons Marathon Ethanol Grants

Cindy Zimmerman

The Andersons Marathon Ethanol project in Greenville, Ohio is getting about $650,000 in state money to move the plant toward completion.

AndersonsAccording to state officials, the plant will receive a $100,000 grant to help cover the costs of buying machinery and equipment. Additionally, the state is providing Darke County with a $500,000 roadwork grant to facilitate the project.

MarathonThe Andersons Marathon Ethanol LLC, a 50/50 joint venture between Marathon Oil Corporation and The Andersons, Inc. and Marathon Petroleum Company LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil Corporation.

The plant will produce 110 million gallons of ethanol and 350,000 tons of distillers dried grain per year and is expected to be in production in the first quarter of 2008.

Ethanol, Facilities, News

Chavez Criticizes Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Chavez-CastroThe president of oil-rich Venezuela is campaigning against President Bush’s plan to increase ethanol use in the United States, with the help of his close friend, Cuban President Fidel Castro.

According to NewsMax, Hugo Chavez pledged to undermine a U.S.-Brazil ethanol agreement in a speech made on Tuesday.

“We are working on an alternative proposal,” he said without elaborating. “Just as we overthrew the Free Trade Area of the Americas, we will now overthrow” the ethanol plan.

The Miami Herald notes that Chavez’ attitude is a sudden about face. Until just a few weeks ago, the leftist Chávez was pressing ahead with a five-year project to sow almost 700,000 acres with sugar cane to produce ethanol. With the technical support of Brazil and Cuba, 15 new sugar mills were planned to produce 30,000 barrels of ethanol a day.

However, Chavez says he has no conflict with Brazil, one of the Latin American countries with which he pledges to “share” Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves, or with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bloomberg reports, “We’ll never fight with Brazil on this, we’ll never fight with Lula,” Chavez said. “The world press says, `It’s `Fidel and Chavez against Bush and Lula.’ No, it’s not like that. It’s Fidel and Chavez against the U.S. empire.”

Castro launched his own attack against the Bush ethanol plan in recently published editorials, saying that “more than three billion people in the world [are] condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst” as a result of Bush’s “sinister idea of converting food into fuel.”

OrtegaMeanwhile, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is also criticizing the Bush ethanol “fantasy campaign.” Press TV reports Ortega said that he fully agrees with Cuban President Fidel Castro that large-scale production of ethanol as a fuel would affect food production for humankind.

Ethanol, Government, International, News

WI’s First Commercial Biodiesel

John Davis

Wisconsin’s first commercial biodiesel plant has started producing the renewable fuel… and a second refinery will open in about a week.

According to this story in the Wisconsin State Journal, the Sanimax plant in DeForest began testing the production of beef tallow-based biodiesel:

SanimaxThe first batch of biodiesel is expected to be ready in one week. Plant manager Russ Read said the production time will be cut to 12 hours once the testing phase is done. “We’ll be going at a slow speed and making sure all the pumps and level sensors work.”

Read said the plant, with a capacity of 20 million gallons per year, will be fully operational by the end of June.

Another 10-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant run by Midwest Biofuel that uses soybeans as its raw material is expected to start production near Clinton in Southeast Wisconsin by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

Biodiesel

EPA Chief on Ethanol Plant Emissions

Cindy Zimmerman

The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency says a proposed rule change regarding ethanol plant emissions is a matter of consistency, not favoritism.

EPA JohnsonWhen asked about the expected rule change during a press conference announcing the administration’s new Renewable Fuels Standard, administrator Stephen L. Johnson responded, “If you are using corn to produce alcohol for human consumption, you are under one air standard. If you are producing alcohol to be used as a fuel, there’s a different standard,” he said. “That doesn’t make sense. There should be a level playing field, a consistent approach, that is health protective and environmentally protective. And that’s what we are in the rule-making process of doing right now.”

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch story this week headlined that the new rule “would allow plants to pollute more.” Shorter versions of the lengthy article, which gave the EPA reasons for the proposed change, included only the first few paragraphs, indicating that the rule change is politically motivated and would lead to more air pollution.

Ethanol, Facilities, Government, News