energy.agwired.com

Southridge Ethanol has popped up recently as a company with “a mission to become the ethanol producer of choice in the southeastern region of the United States,” according to the company website.

Just in the past month, the company has announced it’s intent to acquire ethanol plant equipment from South Louisiana Ethanol; that the Quitman County Mississippi Economic Development Committee has agreed to subsidize half of the costs incurred in building a new railroad spur for the plant; that they would be featured in the December issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine; that they met with the Quitman County Economic Development Board; and that they signed an agreement with Agri Systems for consulting and engineering.

Southridge has also gotten some negative attention for a stock push by market traders like Stock Market Alerts, who have sent out paid releases and emails promoting the company’s stock as a hot investment opportunity.

Ethanex Energy Inc. has received regulatory approval under a waiver to begin construction on its ethanol production plant to be located in Cape Girardeau.

According to a company release, Ethanex at SEMO will be a state of the art 132 million gallons per year fuel-grade ethanol plant. The facility will include patented fractionation technology that reduces energy consumption by 25%, increases the value of co-products and increases the throughput capacity by 20%. This next generation technology contributes to a 25% lower production cost per gallon than standard ethanol facilities.

Read the Kansas City Star article here.

Most cars are manufacturer-approved to run on up to ten percent ethanol blended with gasoline. Flex fuel vehicles can run on up to 85 percent. But the Environmental Protection Agency is looking into whether 20 or 30 percent ethanol-blended gasoline meets Clear Air Act standards.

At issue, according to this story in the Aberdeen (SD) News, is that so-called blender pumps “are marked for use by flex fuel vehicles only. However, they operate the same way as regular gasoline pumps, so customers with non-flex fuel vehicles are able to put higher blends of ethanol than are deemed acceptable into their vehicles.”

There are very few stations in the country offering multiple ethanol blends at a pump and the EPA question has already caused them to be shut down in South Dakota until the issue is resolved.