Earthrace is Here

Cindy Zimmerman

Earthrace The first 100-percent pure biodiesel race boat arrived last week in Seattle. Earthrace, “the World’s Coolest Boat,” is on a promotional tour in advance of its assault on the record for circumnavigating the globe, according to a release from Imperium Renewables, formally known as Seattle Biodiesel.
Imperium

Not only is it cool-looking, it’s cool-burning — as its biodiesel engines emit 78 percent less carbon dioxide.

Through a sponsorship by the Port of Seattle, the boat was on display at Bell Harbor Marina through Sunday, August 6. It then heads down the Pacific Coast, stopping in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego before cutting through the Panama Canal en route to the eastern United States. Stops are planned on the east coast in Annapolis, Richmond, New York and Portland, Maine.

Check out the port tour site for exact days when the cool Earthrace boat will be in your area.

Boat photo by John King courtesy of Earthrace.

Biodiesel

NCGA Participates in Biofuels Workshop

Cindy Zimmerman

NCGA The National Corn Growers Association participated in a two-day workshop in Washington, D.C. last week aimed at setting initiatives to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil by increasing the usage of renewable fuels like ethanol in the transportation sector, according to an NCGA release.

The workshop was hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Office of Biomass Program as part of the department’s effort to achieve the goals set forth in the Bush administration’s Biofuels Initiative.

The initiative focused heavily on how to make cellulosic ethanol cost competitive by 2012 and to reduce the nation’s dependence on oil imports by 75 percent by 2025. The initiative aims to achieve a volumetric goal of 60 billion gallons of biofuels (or 30 percent of 2004 gasoline consumption equivalent) by 2030.

The agenda included discussions on collaborative planning efforts and breakout sessions, including wet and dry mill corn processing, agricultural residues, infrastructure needs and identification of barriers to biofuel expansion by 2012 in order for the United States to meet the 30×30 biofuels goal.

Cellulosic, Ethanol

Aventine News

Cindy Zimmerman

Aventine Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc., has finalized its purchase of land from the Aurora Cooperative in Aurora, Neb. to build a 220 million gallon per year ethanol plant. The site is adjacent to an existing 50 million gallon ethanol facility operated by Nebraska Energy, LLC., of which Aventine is a majority partner/owner.

Aventine has also announced that it will be the exclusive marketer for Heartland Grain Fuels LP’s recently completed expansion of its Huron, South Dakota ethanol facility. Heartland, an existing Aventine marketing alliance partner, completed the expansion of its Huron facility from 12 million gallons per year to 30 million gallons per year in July.

Ethanol, Facilities

VeraSun in Iowa

Cindy Zimmerman

Verasun Hartley, Iowa, has been selected as the site for VeraSun’s new 110-million-gallon-per-year ethanol production facility in northwestern Iowa. According to a company release, construction of the plant, planned to begin later this year, will take approximately 16 months. When completed, the plant will process more than 39 million bushels of corn annually and employ approximately 50 skilled workers. VeraSun expects to enter into contracts with ICM and Fagen, Inc. for engineering and construction services for the facility.

Ethanol, Facilities

Midwest Ethanol Moves Into Iowa

Cindy Zimmerman

Midwest Ethanol Directly on the heels of last week’s groundbreaking and announcement of two more plant sites in Nebraska, Midwest Etahnol announced yet another plant site this week, this one in Blencoe, Iowa. This little town of 213 people is located very close to the Nebraska/Iowa border and the proposed plant site is 477 acres of family owned property, which John Kant, corporate director of public relations for Midwest Ethanol Producers says is ideal for the project.
“You have to be near a rail; you have to have enough corn; and you have to have enough cattle to sell the (dry distiller’s grain) to,” Kant said.

The other four Midwest Ethanol plants are in Phelps, Holt, Furnas and Dawson counties in Nebraska. Here is another picture of the Holt County groundbreaking last week, thanks to Kurt Bravo. Kurt, could you identify the folks in the photo for us?

Ethanol

EPIC Agency Retreat Concludes

Chuck Zimmerman

EPIC Agency RetreatThe Ethanol Promotion and Information Council agency retreat in Omaha is over. Isn’t this a fine looking bunch?

EPIC works with a variety of agencies on different projects that includes everything from member communications to consumer awareness and education. Representatives from the various agencies came together over the last 2 days to discuss plans for the coming year.

As our primary sponsor here on Domestic Fuel we are involved in making sure we cover the organization’s activities since they’re so active on the consumer education front nationally. There’s a lot of excitement within this group as they look at how to continue to promote this energy alternative.

EPIC

Learning More About EPIC

Chuck Zimmerman

Chuck & CindyHello from Omaha, NE. It’s a rare opportunity for both Cindy and I to travel together but it worked out for this meeting today with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. As you know, they are our primary sponsor and it’s through their efforts and support that Domestic Fuel exists.

Today we’re getting an opportunity to learn more about them and interact with other companies that are providing various types of services for them. The organization is a little over a year old and it’s time to look forward to the next year. I’m sure this will be interesting.

EPIC

ADM Riding Ethanol Wave

Cindy Zimmerman

ADM Lots of stories out about Archer Daniels Midland’s big fourth quarter profits on the strength of ethanol. ADM’s quarterly profit more than doubled from last year to $410 million, or 62 cents per share on “strong results from oilseed processing and ethanol.”

Overall, ADM shares have risen 77 percent this year. Earnings from its bioproducts division, which includes ethanol, catapulted to $174 million from $25 million last year.

Shoulda bought that ADM stock in January …

Biodiesel, Ethanol

Looming Glut?

Cindy Zimmerman

Here we go again – feast or famine time. Reuters is reporting that there could be a “looming glut” of ethanol ahead. Just a month ago we couldn’t produce enough.

I especially like the fact that this story is based on the predictions of one person, Fimat Energy analyst Antoine Halff, who says, “Surging capacity … poses daunting challenges for the ethanol industry, including heightened competition for feedstock and the logistical headache and costs of shipping ethanol from the Midwest to the main gasoline markets.”

Halff predicts that by the end of 2008, ethanol production capacity in the Midwest will be sufficient to replace 25 percent of Midwestern gasoline demand and he suggests that the solution to the problem will likely be the wider adoption of E85.

Sounds like good news to me.

Ethanol

Record Setting Demand

Cindy Zimmerman

RFA It should come as no surprise that demand for ethanol is setting records this year.

The Renewable Fuels Association just announced the lastest available statistics to confirm that. According to RFA, May ethanol demand set a record at 349,000 barrels per day. That’s well ahead of May’s production figure of 293,000 barrels per day.

Ethanol imports were down in May from April, according to RFA President Bob Dinneen. “The decline in imports from April to May explains much of the ‘distressed’ situation we have seen in the spot market for ethanol in recent weeks,” said Dinneen. “Imports from countries like Brazil were late arriving and caused some to become unnecessarily nervous about ethanol supplies. Fortunately, the U.S. ethanol industry has grown and continues to grow at a pace sufficient to meet surging demand for this cleaner-burning, domestically-produced renewable fuel.”

Ethanol