Iowa Biofuels Plants Help Fuel Monarch Butterflies

Cindy Zimmerman

Monte Shaw, Kevin Reynolds, and Eric Hakmiller at Lincolnway Energy’s Monarch Fueling Station

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) has launched the Monarch Fueling Station Project to help ethanol and biodiesel producers across the state establish monarch butterfly habitats on green spaces surrounding their plants.

“Because of their migratory patterns, monarchs need small patches of habitat throughout the state,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “Iowa’s ethanol and biodiesel plants are scattered across Iowa and also tend to have a lot of green space on their properties – making them excellent partners for this effort.”

Kevin Reynolds, who has over 30 years of experience in environmental conservation, will serve as the project’s Habitat Establishment Coordinator and assist biofuels producers in the best practices to convert grassy areas into monarch fueling stations that contain vital milkweed plants and other wildflowers that support the monarch population.

Lincolnway Energy in Nevada is the first IRFA member to establish a monarch fueling station. In recent weeks, the first steps were taken on a two-acre plot to prepare the fueling station for seeding in the spring. “It’s exciting to be the first ethanol plant in Iowa to launch a project like this,” said Eric Hakmiller, CEO of Lincolnway Energy. “Pollinators like the monarch butterfly are an important part of Iowa’s agriculture landscape. Anything we can do to protect their population is worth our time and effort.”

As part of the project, IRFA has joined the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, an organization that is implementing a statewide strategy to protect the monarch butterfly in Iowa.

Biodiesel, Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Iowa RFA

EPA Proposes Grain Sorghum Oil for Biofuels

Cindy Zimmerman

EPA has opened up the opportunity for grain sorghum oil to be used for making advanced biofuels and biomass-based diesel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.

EPA has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with biofuels that are produced from grain sorghum oil extracted at dry-mill ethanol plants and found no significant upstream agricultural GHG emissions. As such, biodiesel produced from distillers sorghum would meet the life-cycle GHG emissions reduction threshold required under the RFS.

Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says this will allow ethanol producers who use grain sorghum as a feedstock to have an additional market for one of their key co-products. “We look forward to filing comments and working with the EPA to finalize this important rule.

The comment period will begin once the rule is published in the Federal Register.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Growth Energy, sorghum

Ethanol Report on RFS2 10th Anniversary

Cindy Zimmerman

Ten years ago this month, just days before Christmas, President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act which greatly expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to include up to 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022.

The expansion became known as RFS2, like the sequel to a big movie that had just been released two years before. But unlike most movie sequels, the RFS2 has proven to be even better than the original and a success by any measure, according to a new analysis by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), “The RFS2: Then and Now.”

In this edition of The Ethanol Report podcast, we flashback to the promises of President Bush at the signing, and RFA CEO Bob Dinneen talks about how the 2007 Christmas gift has kept on giving for a decade.

Listen to it here: Ethanol Report 12-21-17

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Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, RFA, RFS

Green Plains to Expand Use of Enogen® Corn

Cindy Zimmerman

Syngenta and Green Plains Inc. have announced a partnership to expand the use of Enogen® corn enzyme technology across the company’s entire 1.5 billion gallon production platform.

“We have been using Enogen corn at a number of our locations for the past several years and have noted significant benefits, including enhanced yield and reduced energy costs,” said Green Plains President and CEO Todd Becker. “Combining our focus to buy more corn directly from farmers and purchasing alpha amylase locally, in the form of high-quality grain for all of our plants, we believe Enogen will create value for our shareholders, growers and the communities where we do business.”

Green Plains is one of the largest owners of ethanol production assets in the world, purchasing more than 500 million bushels of corn each year. Using Enogen corn as a portion of the feedstock enables alpha amylase to be delivered directly in the grain, eliminating the need to add a liquid form of the enzyme and significantly reducing the viscosity of the corn mash.

“Enogen is rapidly gaining popularity because of the value it delivers to ethanol producers and the opportunity it provides corn growers to be enzyme suppliers for their local ethanol plants,” said Jeff Oestmann, head, Bio-fuels Operations – Enogen at Syngenta. “Enogen corn enzyme technology creates increased profit potential for ethanol producers and corn growers while adding significant incremental value at the local level for communities that rely on their ethanol plant’s success.”

Enogen corn enzyme technology is an in-seed innovation available exclusively from Syngenta and features the first biotech corn output trait designed specifically to enhance ethanol production.

Read more here.

corn, Enogen, Syngenta

President Trump to Address Farm Bureau

Next month, for the first time in 26 years, the President of the United States will address the membership of the largest general farm organization in the country.

Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, will address farm and ranch families from across the nation at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 99th Annual Convention, Jan. 5-10 in Nashville, Tenn. It was January 13, 1992 when the 41st president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, addressed the AFBF 73rd annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri.

That was just two weeks after Chuck and I had uprooted our Florida family and moved them to Missouri to work for the Brownfield Network. Lynn Ketelsen and I were chosen for some reason to anchor the live audio feed of President Bush’s speech, delivered via satellite to radio stations. That was where I first heard the pronunciation Missour-uh for the Show Me State and wondered if I had been pronouncing it wrong all my life. The scanned photo here is the best I could find in my archives – which is a box in the attic.

Searching on-line for photos from the event, I did find the video of the address on C-SPAN, and the text of the speech from the American Presidency Project. Two of President Bush’s main themes were international trade and tax reform, which are likely to dominate President Trump’s remarks as well. President Bush actually addressed the AFBF annual convention twice – the first time in 1990, which C-SPAN also has archived.

This is pretty fun to watch – and thanks to C-SPAN for keeping such an extensive archive and being a good use of our tax dollars!

AFBF, AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, Video

MN Bio-Fuels Honors E15 Station Owner

Cindy Zimmerman

The Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association has presented its 2017 Distinguished Retailer Award to Drake Properties LLC, which owns three E15 stations in the Twin Cities metro.

“This award recognizes Drake Properties’ commitment to offering consumers a clean and locally-produced choice at the pump. In under 12 months, E15 has been made available in three of its locations,” said Tim Rudnicki, executive director of the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, who presented the award to company owner Andrea Drake at their station in White Bear Lake.

“I see E15 going the same way as leaded to regular unleaded. We will see a transition where E15 will be the new regular and 87 Octane will be a thing of the past. E15 is the minimum standard we should be at,” said Drake.

The company’s three E15 stations are among the 252 stations in the state that offer E15 and have contributed to a record-breaking year for E15 sales in Minnesota.

E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Retailers

GROWMARK FS Offers TOP TIER™ Biodiesel Blend

Cindy Zimmerman

GROWMARK FS FAST STOP locations recently became among the first registered TOP TIER™ Diesel Fuel sites in the country, and the Illinois-based farmer cooperative is offering the additized diesel fuel blended with biodiesel.

“By blending biodiesel into Top Tier Diesel Fuel, GROWMARK is providing customers with even more benefits,” said National Biodiesel Board Technical Director Scott Fenwick. “Biodiesel is cleaner burning than petroleum diesel, has higher cetane, provides better lubricity, and is safer to handle and store.”

Top Tier Diesel Fuel was developed to provide better performance, in turn helping the diesel fuel retailers, auto and engine manufacturers, and those who drive or use diesel-powered equipment. Relative to the ASTM D975 and D7467 specifications for diesel and biodiesel blends, the Top Tier Diesel Performance Standard requires detergents to reduce deposits on the fuel injectors, improve lubricity, improve fuel stability, and provide more protection against water and particulates that may be in the fuel before dispensing it into vehicles and equipment.

“We strive to provide the best fuel standard in the industry by not only meeting, but exceeding, the new TOP TIER Diesel Fuel standards,” said Curt Dunafin, GROWMARK energy services manager. “Additional performance benefits of Dieslex Gold include: cleaning up dirty engines, controlling moisture, faster starts, lower emissions, and extending storage stability.”

GROWMARK is a member of the National Biodiesel Board and has been an active participant in alternate fuel research, marketing and distribution for many years.

Learn more about TOP TIER and GROWMARK in this interview: Interview with Curt Dunafin, GROWMARK Energy

Biodiesel, GROWMARK, NBB

NCGA Announces 2017 Yield Contest Winners

Carrie Muehling

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has named the 2017 winners in its popular National Corn Yield Contest (NCYC). Five national entries surpassed the 400-plus bushel mark in the contest again this year.

The 18 winners in six production categories had verified yields averaging more than 386 bushels per acre, compared to the projected national average of 175.4 bushels per acre in 2017. While there is no overall contest winner, yields from first, second and third place farmers overall production categories topped out at 542.2740.

That 542-plus bushels is another world record, set by the previous world record holder David Hula of Virginia. The new record yield was accomplished using Pioneer® P1197AM™ brand corn and breaks his 2015 record of 532 bushels per acre. Pioneer is proud to say that nine national and 191 state NCYC awards for 2017 are going to growers using Pioneer® brand products in their contest entry.

NCGA will honor this year’s winners during Commodity Classic 2018 in Anaheim, Calif. Find the complete list of state and national winners at www.ncga.com. The NCGA National Corn Yield Contest is in its 53rd year.

AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, corn, NCGA

A Decade of Progress with RFS2

Cindy Zimmerman

It was ten years ago today that President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act, which greatly expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) established in 2005 so it became known as RFS2.

In the decade since passage, significant progress has been made towards greater energy security, cleaner air and boosting local economies, according to a new analysis by the Renewable Fuels Association, “The RFS2: Then and Now.”

Among the highlights in the report:

The number of operational U.S. ethanol plants has nearly doubled from 110 in 2007 to 211 in 2017

U.S. ethanol production has grown 143% from 6.5 billion gallons in 2007 to 15.8 billion gallons in 2017

The production of advanced and cellulosic biofuel increased 469% from 490 million gallons in 2007 to 2.79 billion gallons in 2017

Jobs in the U.S. ethanol industry grew 42% to 339,176, with the value of the industry increasing 74% to $31 billion in 2017

U.S. corn production grew 12% from 13 billion bushels in 2007 to 14.6 billion bushels in 2017, while corn acres planted fell 3% to 90.4 million acres in and average corn yields increased 16% to 175.4 bushels

The greenhouse gas emissions avoided from using ethanol has increased 291% from 12.7 million tons CO2e in 2007 to 49.6 million tons CO2e in 2017.

Read the full analysis.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS