Biodiesel In The News

Chuck Zimmerman

We’re not only about ethanol here at DomesticFuel. How about biodiesel? All these renewable, alternative fuels are getting more and more attention these days. I caught this story in the Gainesville Sun. Hey, I went to college there!

It looks like a group has been formed to promote the use of biofuels and the story starts out describing a lady who is putting homemade biodiesel in her truck. Apparently the biodiesel supply hasn’t developed way down south yet. It’s only a matter of time though.

How about this story in today’s Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette about the local community school system planning to convert their 300 buses to biodiesel? They’re applying for a state grant to pay for the conversion. High fuel prices are helping people realize the common sense in developing and moving to these alternative fuel choices.

Biodiesel

Mandated Ethanol Movements

Chuck Zimmerman

When there are so many reasons why it makes sense to use domestically produced fuel you have to wonder why anyone would object but people do. Part of the reason is a lack of facts and common sense. In Wisconsin there’s an effort to mandate a 10percent blend of ethanol and gas but according to a story today in the GazetteXtra this is being fought hard by an unlikely coalition of environmental and oil-interest groups. The story makes it sound like there’s more emotion involved than fact.

A number of states already have this type of legislation like Missesota, Montana and Hawaii. Others are considering it like Iowa according to a story today on WOI-TV that says that Iowa Representative Jim Nussle has introduced a bill that would make 20 percent of Iowa’s energy come from renewable sources by 2010.

Legislation is pending in Missouri to mandate a 10% blend of ethanol in that state.

Legislation

IRL Race Set For This Weekend

Chuck Zimmerman

Indy Car SeriesIt’s off to Watkins Glen tomorrow for the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix! Why do we care? Because these cars will be powered by ethanol by 2007. That’s why. That’s because ethanol is a high performance fuel and it’s got to be if these guys are going to put in in their cars and cruise at 220mph plus.

Although he’s not in this race you need to be following team Hemelgarn’s #91, currently driven by Jimmy Kite. You may remember how he stepped in for the injured Paul Dana at the Indy 500. You can see quite a bit of that race experience by visiting our sister site, AgWired, which was around before DomesticFuel. Anyway, it’s Ron Hemelgarn and Paul Dana who have had a lot to do with helping convince the IRL to make the switch to ethanol. That’s why #91 is the “ethanol car.”

Update to this post: Scott Dixon won the race today and Dan Wheldon won the IRL title.

Indy Racing

Cranking Up The Ethanol Production

Chuck Zimmerman

Archer Daniels MidlandYou’ve really got to sit up and take notice when a company like Archer Daniels Midland decides to invest so heavily in a project like the one they announced yesterday. This is a very successful company and they see that the future growth of the ethanol business is a positive one. I say let’s keep turning that corn into ethanol. I’d much rather put that in my car than something imported from another country!!

Archer Daniels Midland Company announced plans to expand ethanol capacity by 500 million gallons through the construction of two new dry corn milling facilities. The facilities will be located adjacent to the Company’s existing ethanol plants. “We are pleased to leverage our extensive experience in the ethanol market to help meet increased demands for ethanol,” stated Edward A. Harjehausen, ADM Senior Vice President. “Ethanol demand is growing rapidly as the world’s energy requirements are being met increasingly from renewable agricultural sources such as corn.” Construction, expected to be complete in early 2008, is dependent on final engineering and permit approval.

Facilities

Big Ethanol In Beijing

Chuck Zimmerman

World BioFuels SymposiumI know we’re all about “domestic” fuel here so all I’m trying to do is show you that this is big time stuff. I think the regular media sometimes tries to make people think this ethanol thing is just something dreamed up by a bunch of corn farmers. Not!

Anyway, the folks at BBI International put on some great conferences if you want to learn about ethanol. This one’s in China of all places. It’s the World BioFuels Symposium and it’ll be held in Beijing.

It gets started with a tour of what they claim is the world’s largest ethanol plant – the Jilin Fuel Ethanol Company in Jilin, China November 11. This is one of two plant tours they have arranged. Apparently China is facing a big fuel shortage and with severe air pollution problems they’re looking to renewable fuels like ethanol.

Doesn’t that just make sense?

International

Yellow Fuel Caps On GM Cars Means E-85 OK

Chuck Zimmerman

Did you know that there’s almost 5 million vehicles on the roads that can run on E85, an 85 percent blend of ethanol in gasoline? Most of the owners don’t even know it. The reason is that there’s no easy way to know if your car will accept this high level blend. On many of these FFV’s (flex fuel vehicles) you can check inside the fuel door and you might see a sticker that tells you but not all of them.

That’s why it was good news to see in USA Today a story about about how both Ford and GM will be taking some extra steps to educate their customers and produce even more FFV’s. GM is going to make sure all their FFV models have a yellow gas cap, which will let you know that it can accept the E85 blend! That’s the spirit. Make it easier on people to know they can put the higher octane, domestically-produced fuel in their cars.

Flex Fuel Vehicles

First Day Is Done

Chuck Zimmerman

Well we’ve got day one under our belt here at DomesticFuel. As we stated from the start we hope to be a resource for news and information about renewable fuels like ethanol, which we believe will help us become less dependent on foreign sources of fuel. In the coming weeks and months we’ll continue to develop the site to include links to resources providing factual information for anyone who wants to know the truth. Although we’re going to be dependent on financial support from industry-related organizations we want to offer an independent look at the issues and news coming out on the business. Can we do that? Sure we can. Just watch us.

Our title was chosen because renewable fuels being developed here are often referred to as “domestic fuels.” Do a Google search for those words using the quote marks and you’ll see the large number of results. We want to distinguish our subject matter and perspective. It’s just downright American to want to support our own industries and the people who make them work.

We’re looking for feedback so don’t be shy. We can take it if you don’t like something we say. You can count on our quoting our sources and in fact often directing you to them so you can surf on over and “see for yourself.”

It’s going to be an interesting journey!

Miscellaneous

Update On Renewable Fuels Standards

Chuck Zimmerman

MO Senator Jim TalentIn case you’re wondering where things stand with new national renewable fuels standards you can hear an update from Missouri Senator Jim Talent. Senator Talent (pictured speaking at an E-85 fuel station in St. Charles, MO) was a guest on the Missouri Corn Growers Association weekly CornTalk program. Talent speaks about his efforts to get the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward on this issue.

U.S. Senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.), co-chair of the Senate Biofuels Caucus, is asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move quickly to implement the new national standard for renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. In a letter to EPA Administrator Steve Johnson, Sen. Talent, together with Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), said time is of the essence, as the Renewable Fuels Standard will take effect next year.

“Given today’s record oil and gasoline prices, the need to diversify our energy supplies by expanding the use of renewable fuels is clear,” the senators wrote. “The Renewable Fuels Standard will provide for the use of 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel next year, growing to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. The program is a necessary and important part of our nation’s new energy policy.”

You can hear an excerpt from the program here: Download MP3 File

Legislation

Ethanol Fuel Economy Study

Chuck Zimmerman

American Coalition For EthanolThe American Coalition For Ethanol just released a study on the how well vehicles operate on an ethanol fuel blend.

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) released the results of its recent Fuel Economy Study, a pilot study that researched the fuel economy, cost per mile, and driveability of various blends of fuel, including unleaded gasoline, E10, E20, and E30.

“As ethanol production and use continues to expand from coast to coast, increased public discussion and media attention have often turned to a debate over ethanol’s fuel efficiency,” said Ron Lamberty, ACE Vice President / Market Development. “Because there was very little scientific information out there, ACE commissioned a pilot study to determine whether there are variances in gas mileage between ethanol blends and gasoline.”

The research tested unleaded gasoline, a 10% ethanol blend (E10), a 20% ethanol blend (E20), and a 30% ethanol blend (E30) in three late-model vehicles. The Chevrolet Impala, Ford Taurus, and Toyota Camry were not flexible fuel vehicles, and no modifications were made to them for this research. Care was taken to eliminate any human inputs that might render the tests unscientific, including the use of a computerized data logger and strict controls on the vehicles, fuel, and terrain.

Summary results:

Miles per gallon
The three vehicles averaged only 1.5% lower mileage with E10, 2.2% lower mileage with E20, 5.1% lower mileage with E30, and increased mileage of 1.7% when using the specially denatured E10 blend.

Cost per mile
Although the MPG of ethanol blends was slightly lower than the unleaded, the cost per mile of operation was generally lower. Also, the higher the concentrations of ethanol, the lower the cost per mile. Using the study’s average MPG, E10 is less expensive per mile than unleaded until ethanol’s cost is nearly 30 cents above unleaded. On a $20 bill, drivers can travel up to 15 miles farther on ethanol-blended fuel than on straight unleaded.

Driveability
Contrary to statements commonly made by vehicle manufacturers and technicians, no warning lights were displayed at any time while operating on any of the fuel blends. The data logger used for the research monitored all systems and detected no malfunction indicator lights (MIL), diagnostic trouble code lights (DTC), or emissions DTCs.

Full Study

Research