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It’s unlikely to be the final word on the subject, but a new MIT analysis shows that the energy balance between ethanol and fossil fuel is actually so close that several factors can easily change whether ethanol ends up a net energy winner or loser.

In other words, it depends on what you figure into the equation.

According to MIT, Tiffany A. Groode, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, performed her own study, supervised by John B. Heywood, Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Based on her “most likely” outcomes, she concluded that traveling a kilometer using ethanol does indeed consume more energy than traveling the same distance using gasoline. However, further analyses showed that several factors can easily change the outcome, rendering corn-based ethanol a “greener” fuel.

Among those factors is system boundary, or which energy-using factors of production are included and excluded in determining energy efficiency. Groode compared several different studies that used different factors, including the 2003 Pimental study which counts such energy-consuming inputs such as the manufacture of farm machinery.

“The results show that everybody is basically correct,” she said. “The energy balance is so close that the outcome depends on exactly how you define the problem.” The results also serve to validate her methodology: Results from the other studies fall within the range of her more probable results.

Groode also did energy analyses of corn stover and switchgrass and found that fossil energy consumption is far lower with these two cellulosic sources than for the corn kernels.

“I view corn-based ethanol as a stepping-stone,” said Groode. “People can buy flexible-fuel vehicles right now and get used to the idea that ethanol or E85 works in their car. If ethanol is produced from a more environmentally friendly source in the future, we’ll be ready for it.”

Read more from MIT.

Cargill has launched a renewable energy subsidiary to build four big ethanol plants.

According to Cargill, Emerald Renewable Energy plans to develop four 100 million gallon/year ethanol plants in the Midwest. No sites have been announced yet, but several are under consideration, including empty locations and sites near Cargill grain elevators

Emerald Renewable Energy is a privately held, limited liability company formed by Cargill to develop and invest in renewable energy projects in the United States. Cargill will provide the initial development capital for the projects. Emerald Renewable Energy will contract with Cargill for services to support the facilities, including corn supply, natural gas, price risk management and the marketing of ethanol and distillers grains.

“Emerald Renewable Energy will have access to Cargill’s world-class expertise in trading, sourcing corn, plant construction and operations, risk management and bulk commodity transportation,” noted Scott Portnoy, Cargill corporate vice president with responsibility for its Biofuels and Bioproducts businesses.

Read more from Cargill.

Improving the quality and digestibility of ethanol by-products for livestock feed is a major goal of Renessen, a joint venture between Cargill and Monsanto.

At the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Doug Rushing of Monsanto described how Renessen’s recently launched ethanol processing system, combined with a new corn hybrid, creates dried distillers’ grains (DDGs) with added value as hog feed.

The improved hog feed comes from lysine, an essential amino acid necessary for the growth and development of animals, which is an added biotech quality trait. The hybrid, called Mavera, also has twice the oil content of traditional corn.

The process cuts down the amount of DDGs produced by about one-third to one-half compared to traditional ethanol corn processing, but Rushing emphasizes that the DDGs are much more valuable to livestock producers who normally add synthetic lysine to rations.

The system is being used at a recently opened pilot ethanol plant in Iowa.

Listen to a recent interview with Doug Rushing done by Chuck Zimmerman, which describes the new corn hybrid and ethanol process. Renessen (4 min MP3)

A University of Florida scientist is starting to see 20 years of research bear fuel.

The Palm Beach Post reports Dr. Lonnie Ingram, director of the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals and Fuel at UF in Gainesville, has spent more than 20 years on scientific work that uses E. coli bacteria to convert plant waste into ethanol.

But UF only recently licensed Dedham, Mass.-based Celunol Corp. to use Ingram’s technology at an ethanol plant in Jennings, La., expected to break ground in the next few months. A small pilot plant has been operating there. Sugar cane bagasse – the pulp or fiber left after sugar cane is crushed for its juice – will be the Louisiana plant’s feedstock. A Japanese consortium led by Marubeni Corp. is also using the method to produce 1 million gallons of ethanol a year at a plant in Osaka, Japan, from wood from torn-down houses.

Read story from Palm Beach Post.
Listen to Domestic Fuel interview with Ingram from previous post.

A Malaysian company is building what it says is the world’s first plant to commercially produce ethanol from nipah palm trees.

The Associated Press reports that Pioneer Bio Industries Corp. Sdn. Bhd. is building the plant in northern Perak state to extract ethanol from the sap of the nipah tree, scientifically known as Nypa fruiticans and found in abundance in Malaysia’s coastal areas.

The first plant, costing 1.4 billion ringgit ($398 million), will have a capacity to process 140 million gallons of ethanol per year. It is expected to be operational at end-2008, Badrul Shah told reporters.

Read more from the Associated Press and from Bloomberg.

The new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee made his first official appearance outside Washington at the South Dakota Corn Growers Association annual meeting Saturday, telling farmers that ethanol produced from corn and from new feedstocks such as switchgrass will be one of the forces driving a new farm bill in Congress.

“I tell farmers, in 10 years, you’re going to be growing 25 percent switchgass,” Peterson said.

Also addressing the corn growers was South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune who told the group that developing new feedstocks for ethanol should help the industry grow in other areas. “Corn ethanol is fine,” he said. The challenge for Congress: “Don’t screw it up.”

Read more from the Argus (SD) Leader.

The demand for corn to make ethanol is expected to keep growing, which is creating challenges for livestock producers.

Both farmers and ranchers are meeting this week in Salt Lake City for the 88th American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting and biofuels has already been the main topic of discussion.

Calling ethanol a “bull on the loose,” USDA Chief Economist Keith Collins told producers that the next three to four years will be a critical period of adjustment in both the ethanol industry and the livestock industry because of higher feed prices.

Collins says that we can expect to see growth in corn yield per acre, more corn acreage, higher corn prices, the development of new economically feasible feedstocks and products replacing some corn or meal in feed.

“Dried distillers grains (DDGs) have to improve in quality and be more easily digested,” he said.

However, demand for biofuels is expected to lead to lower revenues for livestock producers this year, according to AFBF livestock economist Jim Sartwelle and other industry experts who addressed the conference.

“All protein producers are going to face a challenging year in 2007 when it comes to increasing feed costs,” said Sartwelle. “We are sure to see producers limiting the size of their production capacities because it just doesn’t pay to keep animals around with $3.50-per-bushel corn.”

Farm Bureau representatives will be making policy decisions this week, the “marching orders” for the organization this year, and resolutions concerning biofuels are on the docket.

Read more from the Farm Bureau meeting:
AFBF website
Highlights from AgWeb
Libby Quaid, Associated Press

Georgia’s first ethanol plant broke ground this week in Mitchell County.

First United Ethanol, LLC – or FUEL, as it is better known – has been in the works for almost two years, according to chairman Murray Campbell, who says they will import corn from the midwest to produce ethanol initially.

“Even though our facility in the corn belt, we have a viable plan to meet our supply needs to operate a 100 million gallon facility by bringing in corn on rail shipment, and hopefully over time to encourage local production.”

Campbell thinks that within 5-7 years they will be able to supply the plant locally, “which will be a huge benefit to our row crop farmers in southwest Georgia.”

The company hopes to have the plant on-line by Spring of 2008.

U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss attended the groundbreaking Wednesday along with hundreds of other dignitaries and well-wishers.

Read more from the Moutrie Observer and Dow Jones.