An Associated Press story on the wire about ethanol producers being encouraged by “new study” is the study that came out at the end of January (see previous post) Just want to make that clear in case someone sees the story and thinks that this is a different “new” study. It is a very positive story for the ethanol industry, so it’s good to see it resurface for another round. This story, which datelined in Iowa, interviews one of the University of California-Berkeley researchers who did the study. Alex Farrell, co-author of the latest study, said previous research didn’t take into account ethanol byproducts such as distiller grains and corn oil. Corn turned into ethanol also feeds animals and is used for other purposes, he said, which displaces competing products that require energy to make. “Studies with a negative impact ignored that,” Farrell said. Since the latest research wasn’t funded by any special interest group and used the most up-to-date data, Farrell said his group’s information is the most accurate.
Ethanol “Gold Rush”
Good story in USA Today about the ethanol plant construction boom. I like these quotes from the article: “It’s a little bit of a dot-com atmosphere,” says John Skelley, president of Arizona Grain” and “It’s a gold rush right now,” CEO Jeff Broin (of Broin Companies) says.
Switchgrass Studies
Most people never heard the word “switchgrass” before it was immortalized by President Bush in his State of the Union address, but someday we could be running our cars on fuel made from the stuff. USDA’s Agricultural Research Service just released a new study on the feasibility of switchgrass for energy production, focusing specifically on the economics of growing the crop and how to get the most yield per acre. According to an ARS report, “two switchgrass plants per square foot the first year ensures a successful bioenergy crop harvest in subsequent years.” The studies were done on farms in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, since switchgrass is a native prarie grass in those states. Normally the grass is used for conservation purposes or cattle feed. The guy in the picture is Ken Vogel, a geneticist at the ARS Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Unit at Lincoln, Neb. who led the study. Here’s a link to the report on “Establishment Stand Thresholds” reported in the January issue of Crop Science magazine, if you’re into that.
A big plus for switchgrass is that as a perennial plant, switchgrass has the advantage of not needing annual planting and tillage. Skipping these can save soil and energy. It can also reduce sediment and other pollutant losses to waterways.
By the way, research into switchgrass for energy production has been going on for at least a decade. I know that because I remember doing a story about it when I still worked at Brownfield Network – and I left there in 1997!
Energy Secretary Speaks in KC
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman spoke to the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce today. According to this KC AP article, Bodman echoed the adminstration theme that we need to make ethanol from other sources besides corn. Bodman said the ethanol industry now consumes roughly 14 percent of the country’s corn crop. The crop’s regular purpose as human and animal feed will eventually compete with the demand for ethanol, driving up prices. “We’re beginning to run into a limit of how much ethanol we can get from corn,” Bodman said, He also told the AP that he expects the oil industry to “come around” and start using and selling more ethanol.
Big Company Gets Big Incentives To Build Big Biodiesel Plant
The biggest biodiesel plant in the world is being built in Claypool, Indiana, according to this article from IndyStar.com. The project, which was announced last year, combines a soybean processing plant with a biodiesel production plant. The facility will crush nearly 50 million bushels of soybeans a year, producing more than 1 million tons of soybean meal for animal feed and 80 million gallons of biodiesel. The plant is being bulit by global agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus, a French conglomerate that is into just about everything from citrus to coffee to cotton, real estate and manufacturing to telecommunications – you name it. They have offices in Asia, Argentina, Canada and Kansas City, just to name a few. My question is, why Claypool Indiana? This little burg with a population of 311 according to the 2000 census is located about halfway between Ft. Wayne and Chicago – which might be a reason. During the aforementioned Ag Energy Summit in Washington, DC, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced that the state is providing between somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.5 million in tax credits and other incentives to Louis Dreyfus to build the plant.
Energy Excitement Generated at Summit
According to the press release from this week’s energy summit in Washington, DC, “Energy, enthusiasm and excitement marked the unveiling of 25x’25 to those attending the second National Agriculture and Forestry Renewable Energy Summit.” One of the most interesting news items from the summit was a survey of registered voters that shows overwhelming support for renewable energy initiatives. There is nearly unanimous support for a national goal of having 25% of our domestic energy needs met by renewable resources by the year 2025. Ninety-eight percent of voters see this goal as important for the country, and three out of four (74%) feel that it is “very important.” Ninety percent of voters believe this goal is achievable. The survey, which interviewed 1000 registered voters, can be found in PDF form on this page of the 25 X ’25 website.
This survey does not directly ask this question, but I believe that Americans would support a switch to domestic fuels and energy sources – even if it means they might be a bit more expensive and/or less efficient in the short term. I know I would. I would like to see a survey that asks American if they would be willing to make certain sacrifices to achieve a greater degree of energy independence as a nation. Let me know if there is one.
Johanns at Energy Summit in DC
With a goal of providing 25 percent of the nation’s energy supply from renewable resources by 2025, the Ag Energy Work Group held it’s second National Ag and Forestry Renewabe Energy Summit, in Washington, DC this week. I apologize for having been remiss in doing posts about this group’s activities, especially since good friend Sara Wyant sent us some info about this at least a month ago that got lost in my email filing system.
Anyway, here is a picture of Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns addressing the group on Tuesday. There were numerous other political types on hand, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle. Text of Secretary Johanns speech can be found here and I also downloaded a radio story from USDA’s newsline about his speech – listen to that here. Besides ethanol and biodiesel, Johanns talked about wind power and biomass – and the exciting potential for American agricultural and forest lands to provide our nation’s energy. In the future we may have the opportunity to not only provide for agricultural power needs, but also to provide power back into the grid. Wouldn’t that be a great day for rural America? We’ve always considered our forests and farms to be precious resources. That notion has taken on a new meaning as America embraces renewable energy.
Squeezing More Ethanol From Corn
Researchers at Iowa State University are working to squeeze every available drop of ethanol from a corn kernel. According to this UPI story, “they are working to create chemical catalysts that would increase the yield of fermentable sugars from corn.” The research is supported by grants of $305,000 from the National Science Foundation, $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and $162,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Some Cross Country Pics
Here’s some more pictures to go with the posts we have been receiving from the E85 Cross Country trip. These go with the Day 3 post when the team stopped in their home state of Iowa. They got lots of media attention there and switched out some team members so more students could take advantage of the opportunity to go coast-to-coast on E85 and “see the USA in a Flex-Fuel Chevrolet!”
KCCI Channel 8 News was there to do a live broadcast, as well as the Fort Dodge Messenger, and the Farm Bureau Spokesman. We talked to Van and Bonnie of WHO radio, Doug Cooper on WOI radio news show, and KJAN radio in Atlantic, via cell phone. Sponsors that were in attendance to the fill up in Ankeny were the American Lung Association, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Representatives from General Motors, and Karl Chevrolet. Senator Beall from Fort Dodge, Iowa paid for the fuel and filled the Avalanche’s tank.
Thanks to Jessica Zopf with the American Lung Association of Iowa for sending the pictures!
Captain’s Blog – Stardate 03.09.06 – Day 4
The journey continues for the Iowa Central Aggies E85 cross country road trip. Here is the latest post from designated blogger Bradley Westrum.
March 9-06
The road was still closed when we woke up this morning around 5:15, so we took our sweet time getting ready. Leaving the hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming around 7:00 A.M. still knowing that Interstate 80 was closed west of Laramie, Wyoming, which is 5 miles west of Cheyenne. When we pulled into Laramie, we saw a pile up of semis that reached back about 10 miles, filling both sides of the road, the entrance and exit ramps, and all the gas and truck stops in the city. We sat and waited for about an hour for the road to open, but seeing that it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, we decided to take a minor detour. After taking the detour that forced us out of our way about 30 miles, we got back onto our scheduled path. The roads were questionable for the most of the day, but the weather could not decide what it wanted to do. It snowed, rained, the wind blew in some parts, but in others the temp sky rocketed, and the sun was out. We filled up in Draper, Utah and Provo, Utah. Provo is where we were planning on staying the night tonight, but when the weather report came in, it sounded as if there was another storm on its way toward us. So we decided to get as far as we could tonight before it started to storm. We got as far as Cedar City, Utah which is just off Interstate 15 and got a hotel room for the night.
Tomorrow we plan to drive to Las Vegas, and spend some time seeing the sights around the area and then head to Los Angeles where we will spend the remainder of our trip until the flight out of LAX Saturday afternoon.
We found that most of the Ethanol Stations that offer E-85 are in towns that have a Military Base. This is because the stations then can almost put any price up, and the Military Base will be nearly forced to pay the price.
The Students that went on the first part of the trip are, Alex Lundgren, Ashley Heflin, Tami Davis, and Bradley Westrum, as well as the Ag Coordinator Jim Richardson. The students that are currently on the second leg of the trip are Pat Lennon and Nate Marean. Bradley and Jim have been on the whole trip.
Stay tuned for further updates as the Iowa Central Aggies for Renewable Resources travel across the country, supporting 85% Ethanol. You can expect another update tomorrow night.
See the U.S.A in your Flex Fuel Chevrolet!!!
Two of the team’s sponsors are the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition and the American Lung Association of Iowa.