Driving Ethanol Series on 10 Years of Growth Energy

Cindy Zimmerman

Growth Energy was created in November 2008 and so is celebrating ten years of advocating for ethanol this month. This edition of the Driving Ethanol podcast is the first in a series of three focusing on a decade of accomplishments for the organization.

This podcast includes historical comments from the early years with industry leaders, including Greg Krissek, who was with ethanol plant engineering firm ICM, Inc at the time, first Growth Energy co-chairs Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark and former Rep. Jim Nussle of Iowa, first CEO Tom Buis and current CEO Emily Skor, and President Barack Obama.

Listen here: Growth Energy Driving Ethanol podcast 11-19-18

Subscribe to the Driving Ethanol podcast

Audio, Driving Ethanol podcast, Ethanol, Growth Energy

RFA Welcomes New Members

Cindy Zimmerman

Six new member companies have joined the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) for the new year, including a new ethanol plant under construction in Kansas, a cellulosic ethanol facility soon to begin construction in North Dakota, and four associate members who provide goods and services to the industry.

The new RFA members are:

ELEMENT LLC, a partnership between ICM, Inc. and The Andersons, building a 70 million gallon per year biorefinery in Colwich, Kansas that will use ICM’s patent-pending Generation 1.5 Grain Fiber to Cellulosic Ethanol Technology™ to produce more than five million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually.

New Energy Blue – building a 16 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant in the Spiritwood Energy Park near Jamestown, N.D. The plant will use 280,000 tons per year of North Dakota wheat straw as its main feedstock and sell its biofuel into the California market under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

Associate member GROWMARK – an agricultural cooperative that offers a full line of energy products and recently announced offering pre-blended E15 at company-owned terminals in Amboy, Ashkum, and Petersburg, Ill., Fort Dodge, Iowa, and St. Joseph, Mo.

Associate member BetaTec Hop Products provides natural, customized solutions for controlling bacteria and enhancing fermentation for ethanol producers. It is a division of the world’s largest hops supplier, the Barth-Haas Group.

Associate member Renew Kansas represents the state’s independent ethanol producers, as well as farmers and those who provide services to the ethanol production industry in Kansas.

Associate member RSM US LLP is the U.S. member of RSM International, a global network of independent audit, tax and consulting firms with more than 43,000 people in over 120 countries.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

ACE Talks Ethanol with Farm Broadcasters

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) participated in the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s famous Trade Talk this year for the first time.

ACE CEO Brian Jennings says they were thrilled with the experience of being able to meet and talk with dozens of farm broadcasters around the country all in one place.

The main topic of discussion was the administration’s support of changing outdated rules to allow E15 to be sold year round, which Jennings says will be great if EPA can get it done next year in time for the summer driving season. “We’ve got to keep EPA’s feet to the fire, they tend to slow walk things,” said Jennings.

Listen to my interview with Jennings here: NAFB18 Interview with Brian Jennings, ACE

2018 NAFB Convention Photo Album

ACE, Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NAFB

Nebraska Ethanol Fuels Cancer Center Donation

Cindy Zimmerman

Nebraska drivers raised more than $6,100 in October for cancer research by choosing American Ethanol blends at retail stations participating in Fuel the Cure.

Fuel the Cure is a Nebraska awareness promotion designed to bring attention to the benefits of cleaner-burning American Ethanol blends available throughout the state. For every gallon of ethanol-blended fuel – E15 to flex fuel E85 – purchased between Oct. 1-31, the participating fuel station donated 3 cents per gallon with proceeds benefiting the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

While biofuels and cancer research may seem like an unlikely pairing, research shows that using more biofuels leads to less air pollution. According to the American Lung Association, up to 70 percent of ground-level ozone-forming pollutants come from mobile-source emissions.

Representatives from the Nebraska Ethanol Board, Nebraska Corn Board and Renewable Fuels Nebraska presented a donation check to the Cancer Center this week. Pictured here are (LtoR) Roger Berry, director of market development with the Nebraska Corn Board; Sarah Caswell, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, Ashley Christensen, University of Nebraska Foundation director of development for the Buffett Cancer Center; Megan Grimes, program manager with the Nebraska Ethanol Board; Jan tenBensel, chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board; Scott McPheeters, vice-chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Biodiesel Industry Elects New Board Leadership

Cindy Zimmerman

National Biodiesel Board members have elected their trade association leadership for the coming year, reflecting the wide range of member companies in the biodiesel industry from feedstock operations to producers.

NBB members voted to fill eight board member spots for two-year terms:

Troy Alberts, Ag Environmental Products
Rob Shaffer, American Soybean Association
Jeff Lynn, Illinois Soybean Association
Tim Keaveney, Lake Erie Biofuels DBA Hero BX
Mike Rath, Darling Ingredients Inc.
Greg Anderson, Nebraska Soybean Board
Robert Morton, Newport Biodiesel LLC
Tom Brooks, Western Dubuque Biodiesel, LLC

Kent Engelbrecht, Ron Heck, Ryan Pederson, Harry Simpson, Paul Soanes, Robert Stobaugh, and Chad Stone continue to serve on the board. The board also voted to re-elect Engelbrecht as chairman, Stone as Vice Chairman, Pederson as Treasurer, and Heck as Secretary.

Biodiesel, NBB

Biodiesel Board Meets Farm Broadcasters

Cindy Zimmerman

Once again, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) attended the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual Trade Talk in Kansas City to do interviews with agricultural reporters around the country on a variety of topics.

Meeting the media were NBB Communications Director Kaleb Little, Nebraska Soybean Market Development Coordinator Cale Buhr, NBB Director of Outreach and Development Tom Verry, and NBB Treasurer and Nebraska farmer Greg Anderson.

In this interview, Little talks about a number of biodiesel issues, including the continuing need to address the biodiesel tax incentive that is always being retroactively renewed by Congress, providing no stability for the industry. He also promotes the 2019 National Biodiesel Conference and Expo coming up January 21-24 in San Diego.

Listen here – NAFB18 Interview with Kaleb Little, National Biodiesel Board

2018 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Audio, Biodiesel, NAFB, National Biodiesel Conference, NBB

Growth Energy Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Growth Energy was first announced this month in 2008 so they are now officially 10 years old. At the NAFB Convention Trade Talk last week, Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor shared some of the many accomplishments the organization has made over the last decade, from promoting the performance value of ethanol through NASCAR, to growing international and domestic markets and advocating for sound biofuels policy.

We are creating a three-part Driving Ethanol podcast series on the 10th anniversary of Growth Energy, including some archived interviewed with the founders of the organization and early advocacy efforts, but want to share the entire interview with Emily from NAFB where she talks about the progress they have made in the past decade.

Listen here: NAFB18 Interview with Emily Skor, Growth Energy

2018 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Coverage of the NAFB Convention is sponsored by
Coverage of the NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC
AgWired Energy, Audio, Ethanol, Growth Energy, NAFB

Plastics-to-Fuel Plant Planned for Indiana

Cindy Zimmerman

The first commercial plastics-to-fuel plant is in the making to be located in Indiana.

San Francisco-based renewable energy development company Brightmark Energy has acquired a majority interest and invested $10 million in plastics-to-fuel technology company RES Polyflow, while committing to an additional $47 million investment in the first plant.

RES Polyflow, based in Ohio, innovated the process for converting plastics directly into transportation fuel and other products. RES Polyflow’s plastics-to-fuel process sustainably recycles waste such as plastic film, flexible packing, and toys.

The facility will be located in Ashley, Indiana and will convert 100,000 tons of plastic waste into 18 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and naphtha blend stocks and five million gallons of wax per year, more than the weight of 5,400 tractor trailers or seven Brooklyn Bridges.

Alternative energy

German Company Buys DuPont Cellulosic Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

VERBIO North America Corporation (VNA), the U.S. subsidiary of leading German bioenergy producer VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG (VERBIO), has agreed to acquire the DuPont cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa that was shut down and put up for sale last year.

VNA also purchased a portion of the plant’s corn stover inventory and intends to install facilities to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) made from corn stover and other cellulosic crop residues at the site. This would be VERBIO’s third production facility devoted to this cellulosic technology – in 2014, the company commissioned its first facility in Schwedt, Germany, and its second facility in Pinnow, Germany is currently being commissioned.

“The DuPont facility in Nevada, Iowa offers excellent infrastructure to construct our first RNG facility outside Germany. We can use part of the installed equipment for our production and there is a solid base of local farmers from whom to procure the raw materials. Once the plant is in operation, it offers the Nevada, IA community new agricultural revenue streams, new employment opportunities and new sources of tax revenues,” said Claus Sauter, CEO of VERBIO.

“We’re very confident in VNA’s ability to take over operations of the Nevada plant.” said Jan Koninckx, Global Business Director of Biofuels, DuPont. “This community has been very supportive during our time in Story County. We thank the many people who were instrumental to our operations, and we wish VNA well.”

Following its merger with Dow in 2017, DuPont announced a strategic shift within the cellulosic biofuels market and began to seek a buyer for the biorefinery. DuPont continues to participate in the overall biofuels market through specialty offerings, including both first- and second-generation biofuel enzymes and engineered yeast solutions that improve yield and productivity for biofuel producers.

Cellulosic, Dupont, Ethanol, Ethanol News

NBB Opposes Review of Biodiesel Import Duties

Cindy Zimmerman

Biodiesel stakeholders are opposing an “unprecedented review” of biodiesel import duties being conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce at the request of Argentina.

The department last week granted a request from the government of Argentina to initiate “changed circumstances” reviews of U.S. trade duties imposed on Argentine biodiesel companies, after imposing antidumping and countervailing duty orders earlier this year following investigations that determined biodiesel imports from Argentina were massively subsidized and dumped, injuring U.S. biodiesel producers.

The National Biodiesel Board’s Fair Trade Coalition urged Commerce to reject Argentina’s request and opposes Commerce’s initiation of the reviews, which could result in resetting the duty rates Commerce calculated only months ago.

“The Commerce Department has no basis for initiating this unprecedented review,” said NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen. “Commerce has established procedures for conducting reviews with extensive fact-finding for the very purpose of revisiting antidumping and countervailing duty rates but has never used “changed circumstances” reviews for these purposes. Commerce’s initiation of these reviews just months after finding that Argentina has engaged in unfair trade practices creates a great deal of uncertainty for our industry at a time when the positive results of the original cases are just beginning to be realized.”

The Commerce Department’s changed circumstances review process typically takes 270 days, meaning a final determination could come by August 2019. The orders on biodiesel from Argentina imposed by Commerce earlier this year established final countervailing duty rates ranging from 71.45% to 72.28% and antidumping duty rates ranging from 60.44% to 86.41%.

Biodiesel, International, Trade