An analyst with Bunge Ltd., expects world biodiesel output to hit nearly 16 million metric tons by 2009.
That prediction, which is more than triple the current 5 million metric tons this year, was made by Bunge’s Nancy DeVore at the Terrapinn Biofuels Finance & Investment World conference in London.
Read more from Farm Futures.
A Singapore-based company has made a deal with O2 Diesel Corporation to market the ethanol-diesel blend in the Asia Pacific and South Africa. 
Under the agreement, O2Diesel will supply its proprietary fuel technology to Energenics, which will brand the fuel as “EnerDiesel — Powered by O2Diesel,” in Asia Pacific & South Africa.
Monsanto is building a new soybean breeding facility in South Dakota. They broke ground just this week in fact.
The site will develop and test new soybean varieties developed by Monsanto’s breeders, as well as varieties containing traits in various stages of pre-commercial advancement in the company’s product pipeline. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in conjunction with the dedication of the adjacent corn breeding facility that opened June 30, 2006. “Farmers in the Dakotas have been leading adopters of biotech-improved soybeans,” said Mike Hawbaker, Monsanto North America soybean breeding lead. “This new facility further supports their adoption and growth in acreage during the past decade. Harrisburg is an ideal location, and we look forward to serving our customers with this new facility.”
The 17,500-square-foot site will have an initial permanent staff of two and a seasonal staff of up to 10 part-time employees. South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds said that Monsanto’s plans in this area — coming so soon after the opening of its corn breeding facility — has positive implications for the state’s bio-tech and agricultural industries.
From left to right: Jay Van Den Top and Craig Hagen (both representing Harrisburg Industrial Park); Clint Turnbull (Monsanto); Senator John Thune; Mike Hawbaker and Brian Ternus (both of Monsanto); Jon Klemme and Jeff Eckhoff (both representing Lincoln County Economic Development Association); South Dakota Lt. Governor Dennis Daugaard; Harrisburg Mayor Reed Ramsted, and Rob Everist (representing Harrisburg Industrial Park).
Converting wood chips and other forestry and agricultural biomass to ethanol is the goal of an agreement between a Connecticut energy company and a Massachusettes cellulosic technology firm.
According to a news release, Tamarack Energy, Inc. and Mascoma Corporation “will collaborate on the joint development of cellulosic ethanol facilities in New York, as well as follow-on opportunities in Pennsylvania and New England states, leveraging wood mills and other production facilities.”
Finding biodiesel to fuel up with just got a little easier thanks to NearBio.
The free service is designed to enable cell phone users to easily find nearby biodiesel fueling locations based on city, zip code, or GPS coordinates.
According to a company news release,
The comprehensive national database of over 1000 individually verified locations is updated daily and is complete with driving directions, hours, payment options, and blend information (where available). The website’s graphical map of nationwide locations is the first of its kind, using a color-coded icon for each pump location to identify the specific blend available.
Switch grass has gone from a relatively unknown prairie grass a year ago to the rising star of the ethanol industry since being featured in the President’s State of the Union address in January.
The Chicago Tribune reports on the growing interest in the grass for ethanol production.
Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world’s largest producer of ethanol made from corn, this month unveiled plans to ramp up research into switch grass as another source to make ethanol and other biofuels for cars, homes and industry. In Washington, the Democrats soon to take over as heads of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees have put development of switch grass as a fuel source high on their priority list.
This is a “natural evolution of an industry that could be massive,” said Patricia Woertz, chief executive of Decatur, Ill.-based ADM.
The race is on to get the first ethanol plant in the state of Maryland, according to this article in the Baltimore Sun.
A national boom in the use of ethanol has lured eight companies into a race to build Maryland’s first factory to convert corn into car fuel.
Two of the proposals would put ethanol plants on the Baltimore area’s industrial waterfront in 2008 – one on Sparrows Point and the other in Curtis Bay. A third, on the Eastern Shore, will be considered today when Somerset County commissioners vote on a zoning change to allow a $136 million ethanol plant.
Chesapeake Renewable Energy is planning a 50 million gallon per year facility in the farming area of Somerset County, while Atlantic Ethanol has plans for a 50 mgy facility in the Curtis Bay area of Baltimore. Ecron of Annapolis is the most ambitious of the three plans – a 110 mgy plant on the Eastern Shore of Maryland that would use corn shipped from the midwest
Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota hosted a meeting Monday with government and ethanol industry leaders to discuss new ways to market ethanol in the state.
According to an AP report from Fargo, some are suggesting the approval of blender pumps.
Many drivers have been scared away by lower fuel efficiency and reports that cars with E-85 start poorly in the winter, said Owen Jones, a Britton, S.D., ethanol producer. He said a blender pump would allow consumers to use a more economical 20 or 30 percent blend and work their way up to E-85.
“If you’re looking at E-85 sales, you really need to look hard a blender pump,” Jones said.
Federal law prohibits the promotion and production of blends other than E-10 or E-85, said Jocie Iszler, executive director of the North Dakota Corn Growers.
“We think the blender pump concept is a common sense approach,” Iszler said. “It’s up to the federal government to test and validate what we already know is true.”
VeraSun Energy Corporation, the nation’s second largest ethanol producer, has begun construction on its newest 110-million-gallon-per-year ethanol production facility near Hartley, Iowa. The plant is on schedule to begin production in the first quarter of 2008. (Read full release)
US BioEnergy Corporation has set the terms of its pending initial public offering at 9.4 million common shares with an estimated, per-share price range of $15-$17. US BioEnergy’s will be the third IPO by an ethanol producer this year, after VeraSun Energy Corp. and Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. (Read AP story)
The company has also acquired options to purchase land near Altamont, Ill. as a possible location for a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant. (Read more here)
Broin Companies, the nation’s largest dry mill ethanol producer, will celebrate the grand opening of Prairie Ethanol on Dec. 2 at the plant site near Loomis, S.D. The event will begin with the Vanguard Squadron, the world’s only 100 percent ethanol-powered aerobatic fleet, performing a series of fly-overs. (Read more from Broin)
An Iowa-technology company released a report last week that is fueling debate over whether ethanol plants should be powered by coal or natural gas, or something else.
The Frontline BioEnergy study found that coal-powered ethanol plants release up to 92 percent more carbon dioxide than those powered by natural gas.
Frontline’s analysis of a plant that would produce 50 million gallons of ethanol a year show a coal-powered facility would release as much as 207,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year while a natural gas-powered plant would emit 108,000 tons.
Read more from the Associated Press.
Frontline’s mission, according to the company website, is “to lead the nation in biomass gasification solutions for energy and products.” The technology they advocate involves converting solid carbonaceous materials
directly into a synthesis gas or syngas that can be combusted like natural gas.
With further processing, syngas can be converted into ethanol and other products, providing bio-based alternatives for an array of petroleum-based chemicals. Gasification can provide advantages over conventional combustion technologies in conversion efficiencies, emissions and process flexibility.
