D3MAX Reports Better Than Expected Pilot Test

Cindy Zimmerman

D3MAX cellulosic ethanol technology is showing better than expected results in pilot test data at ACE Ethanol in Stanley, Wisconsin which began in February.

According to the company, the pilot test results indicate that “the yield of xylose sugar from the xylan in corn fiber routinely exceeds 90% of the theoretical maximum yield, and overall sugar production in the pilot plant is better than the target yields.”

“We’ve always been excited about developing the D3MAX technology based on our original projections,” says Mark Yancey, Chief Technology Officer for D3MAX. “Now that we’ve seen the actual pilot facility begin to exceed our expectations, we’ve become even more confident that the D3MAX process can produce higher yields from corn fiber at lower costs.”

“I am very encouraged by preliminary results of the pilot test,” says Neal Kemmet, president and general manager at ACE Ethanol, LLC. “Based upon the testing we have done to date, D3MAX may very well be the best option available for dry mill ethanol plants and will be able to be installed without significant downtime or interruption of ethanol production.”

D3MAX now intends to begin designing the first commercial scale D3MAX plant this summer with construction expected to begin by Fall 2017.

Cellulosic, corn, Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News, technology

ACE Founder Honored for Service by NFU

Cindy Zimmerman

ACE founder Merle Anderson receives NFU Meritorious Service Award

The National Farmers Union honored American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) founder Merle Anderson with the Meritorious Service Award in a special presentation last week in Grand Forks, ND.

Anderson was given the award for “the many years he spent advocating for family farmers and the advancement of the American ethanol industry to support local agricultural communities.” The award was announced at NFU’s annual meeting last month in San Diego but because Anderson was unable to travel, they planned this special ceremony for him.

ACE executive vice president Brian Jennings attended the event to honor Anderson, along with ACE’s current board president Ron Alverson and two former presidents of the board, Scott Parsley and Bob Scott.

“Merle and Farmers Union share a philosophy that when family farmers do well the entire country benefits from it,” Jennings expressed in his remarks at the awards ceremony. “That’s what Merle saw in ethanol 30 years ago. Merle lit the match to ignite grassroots support for ethanol because he had the vision to understand what it would mean for agriculture and rural communities.”

Anderson founded ACE in 1987 in the Dakotas and Minnesota as a grassroots movement to promote ethanol ownership and use. Today ACE is a nation-wide coalition of 500 members around the country and the 95-year-old founder still sits on the board and has attended nearly every annual meeting.

ACE, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Farming, NFU

Four Ethanol Safety Seminars in SD Next Week

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), in partnership with BNSF, the International Association of Fire Chiefs and TRANSCAER®, is hosting four ethanol safety seminars in South Dakota next week.

The goal of these seminars is for attendees to gain ethanol emergency response training experience that can be put to use in the field, as well as pass along to other first response teams. A majority of the training is based on the “Training Guide to Ethanol Emergency Response,” a training package.

“BNSF is pleased to partner with RFA on these important ethanol safety seminars,” said Derek Lampkin, manager of Hazardous Materials, Field Operations and Emergency Response for BNSF. “Safety is always our top priority and we want to make sure attendees have the tools they need in case of an emergency.”

Attendees will receive in-depth information on proper training techniques that first responders and hazmat personnel need to effectively respond to an ethanol-related emergency. While primarily targeting first responders, hazmat teams, safety managers, and local emergency planning committees, it is also open to the general public.

South Dakota is home to ten ethanol plants and the seminars will be held April 23 in Worthing, April 24 in Redfield, April 25 in Brookings, and April 26 in Watertown.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, safety

U.S. Initiating Biodiesel Anti-Dumping Investigation

Cindy Zimmerman

As the U.S. Commerce Department last week initiated formal antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia, the biodiesel industry was giving testimony to the International Trade Commission on how those countries are violating trade laws and injuring American manufacturers and workers. Biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia surged by 464 percent from 2014 to 2016, which has taken 18.3 percentage points of U.S. market share.

“Make no mistake, 2016 should have been a banner year for U.S. biodiesel producers with demand growth, stable feedstock prices, and regulatory certainty that should have led to profitability and reinvestment in their businesses, but unfortunately that didn’t happen,” said Anne Steckel, National Biodiesel Board (NBB) Vice President of Federal Affairs. “Instead, dumped and subsidized biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia entered the United States in record volumes, capturing greater market share at the expense of U.S. producers.”

Steckel testified at the ITC preliminary hearing along with U.S. biodiesel producer members of the National Biodiesel Board Fair Trade Coalition.

“Negative margins within our industry due to low-priced imports have had a major impact on our company, with a disproportionately greater impact on smaller producers,” said Robert Morton, co-founder of Newport Biodiesel, a small biodiesel producer from Rhode Island. “We have halted several plant modification projects as a result of reduced working capital, even for modest projects.”

“When we see biodiesel from Argentina selling at a discount to the market price of soyoil, the main input into biodiesel, we know we are facing dumped pricing,” said Paul Soanes, CEO and President of Renewable Biofuels (RBF). “The United States is a key market for these exporters, and without a remedy, these unfairly traded imports are likely to continue unabated”

According to the Commerce Department’s notice of initiation, there is evidence that dumping margins could be as high as 26.54 percent for Argentina and 28.11 percent for Indonesia.

Biodiesel, International, NBB

DFA, Vanguard Renewables Partner On Renewable Energy

Lizzy Schultz

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and Vanguard Renewables have announced a strategic partnership to help bring anaerobic digestion technology to more farms across the country.

Although renewable energy methods, like anaerobic digesters that convert manure to energy, offer solutions to the waste management and sustainability challenges facing the dairy industry, they are not broadly used on American dairy farms. The major capital expense requirements and the significant expertise and time commitment needed to manage them keep many farmers reluctant to invest in the technology.

“Dairy farmers have always been great stewards of the land. But, like any business, farmers must continue to innovate and evolve,” said David Darr, president of farm services at DFA. “With this partnership, we hope to make anaerobic digestion more available to more farmers, which is not only good for the environment, but will also help our farmer families run their businesses more efficiently, and that’s a win-win.”

DFA and Vanguard Renewables will develop resilient business models using anaerobic digestion systems and work with farmers, government agencies, dairy processors and retailer customers to build business cases for innovative systems. Vanguard Renewables will also provide capital investment for anaerobic digestion systems on DFA member farms that cannot make the financial commitment on their own.

“Truth is, anaerobic digesters are extremely complex systems and could easily become a full-time job for a farmer to manage,” said John Hanselman, Executive Chairman at Vanguard Renewables. “We want to help farms by streamlining the development process and by providing professional operation. DFA is the perfect partner to make anaerobic digestion accessible as a mainstream technology on dairy farms across the country, addressing DFA member needs in a sustainable economy.”

Ag group, biogas, dairy, Waste-to-Energy

ACE Submits Regulatory Reform Comments to EPA

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) was one of the first in line to submit comments to the Environmental Protection Agency on regulatory reform.

Last month, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt established a Regulatory Reform Task Force to evaluate how existing regulations might be repealed or modified and the agency formerly began a 30 day public comment period April 11.

ACE provided the EPA with recommendations on a number of regulatory burdens which “unnecessarily limit the production and use of ethanol and stall job creation and economic growth in rural America,” including:
– Allow Reid vapor pressure (RVP) relief to E15 and higher ethanol blends.
– Update the lifecycle analysis of corn ethanol.
– Streamline the approval process for high-octane fuels such as E25-40 blends.
– Adjust CAFE compliance to allow incentives for flex fuel vehicles

During the recent ACE DC Fly-in, Iowa feedlot operator and ethanol plant investor Bill Couser visited with officials at EPA – something he does every year. “I’ve working with EPA the last ten years and I’ve never been more optimistic leaving the EPA building,” said Couser. “The staff person we met with was an Iowa person, it was like preaching to the choir.”

Couser also comments on the Trump administration roll back of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule in this interview: Interview with Bill Couser, Lincolnway Energy

ACE DC 2017 Fly-in Photo Album

ACE, Audio, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Meet the Ethanol Crappie Masters Teams

Cindy Zimmerman

Corn growers and ethanol producers have both seen an opportunity to educate serious anglers on the ethanol industry and the performance of 10 percent ethanol fuel in boat motors.

Terry Richard and Casey Rayner were chosen as the Renewable Fuels Association team in the Crappie Masters Tournament Trail this year as RFA became a title sponsor.

“We’ve always used ethanol fuel in our boat,” said Richard, who says they are glad to represent ethanol in the tournament and grateful for the sponsorship because fishing tournaments are “fun, but it’s an expensive hobby!”

Listen to an interview with Richard and Raynor here: Interview with RFA Crappie Masters Team

The Missouri Corn Growers got on board with the Crappie Masters as a sponsor for the 2015 tournament season to help showcase ethanol’s performance power on the water with Billy Don Surface and Kevin Jones as their team.

Jones says they do get lots of questions from people when they see their American Ethanol wrapped boat about using ethanol in boat engines. “A lot of people are curious,” about using ethanol blended fuel in their boats, says Jones, but most don’t even know that they probably are using it already. “About 95 percent of the people, once you explain it to them they realize they do too, they just didn’t know it.”

The Missouri Corn team towed their boat about 23,000 miles last year on the tournament trail. “We hit a lot of states… we impact a lot of people,” said Jones. “When most people listen and find out the facts, they’re not scared of ethanol.”

Listen to an interview with Jones and Surface here: Interview with MO Corn Crappie Masters Team

2017 Crappie Masters Grenada Tournament

American Ethanol, Audio, Boats, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Corn Planting is Underway

Cindy Zimmerman

#Plant17 is officially underway now with the latest crop progress report issued yesterday from USDA.

Corn planting at three percent nationwide as of April 9 is a point behind last year at this time but exactly on target with five-year average.

Texas, where National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) president Wesley Spurlock farms, is well ahead of both last year and the five year average with 59 percent planted. Four percent of the corn has been planted in Kansas and Kentucky, where this photo was taken, with ten percent in North Carolina, seven percent in Tennessee, and five percent in Missouri.

The I states are running behind schedule with only Illinois making any progress and that only one percent. “Wet weather kept farmers from the field for most of the week, but the dryer weather and warmer temps late in the week allowed some field work and fertilizer applications to take place. We will need some more warm and dry weather before we start see widespread fieldwork,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said.

The 2017 Prospective Plantings report based on farmer surveys estimates that corn planted area for all purposes in 2017 will be 90 million acres, down 4 percent or 4.0 million acres from last year.

corn, USDA

Ethanol and DDGS Exports Up in February

Cindy Zimmerman

Exports of U.S. ethanol in February were the highest in a single month since late 2011, at 138.0 million gallons (mg), according to government data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association research analyst Ann Lewis.

RFA research analyst Ann Lewis

Brazil was again the top customer, taking in more than one-third of all U.S. ethanol exports (50.8 mg, or 37%) but 14% less than record shipments to Brazil in January. Canada also decreased its purchases in February with 24.7 mg (18% of total exports) entering the country. Sales to India, however, nearly doubled from the prior month, increasing from 13.2 mg to 24.3 mg. The United Arab Emirates (10.1 mg) and the Philippines (7.0 mg) were other significant importers in February. Year-to-date exports stood at 259.8 mg, up nearly 70% from the year-ago total of 154.1 mg.

Also in February, exports of U.S. distillers grains (DDGS) totaled 1.07 million metric tons (mt), the highest monthly total in six months and up 14% over January. Mexico was the number one destination, increasing its purchases by 36% to make up 23% of total U.S. exports. The Turkish market saw a 21% increase in DDGS purchased in February to take 14% of U.S. exports. Other top markets included Thailand, China, Japan, Indonesia, and Spain. Year-to-date exports stood at 2.01 million metric tons as of the end of February.

Ethanol imports continue to be virtually non-existent with only marginal volumes of foreign-produced fuel ethanol entering the U.S.

Ethanol production has started to slow down some in recent weeks, but still staying above a million barrels per day average. For the last week of March, production just squeaked over a million barrels and was the lowest in 18 weeks. At the same time, stocks of ethanol increased to a new record high of 23.7 million barrels.

Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports, RFA

Ethanol Plants Hold Annual Meetings

Cindy Zimmerman

ACE executive vice president Brian Jennings speaks at Absolute Energy recent annual meeting

In a world of mega mergers and company buy outs, farmer-owned facilities remain the back bone of the ethanol industry, with many in operation today for over 20 years.

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) executive vice president Brian Jennings has been attending many of the annual member meetings for these ethanol plants this spring to help them celebrate another year. “Our plant members work hard to provide a meaningful return to local shareholders, and I’m honored to speak at their annual meetings to congratulate them for the operational and financial progress they’ve made,” Jennings said. “Ethanol plants grow more efficient every day, which is a real testament to the folks who have dedicated their careers to innovation and to being wise stewards of their shareholder’s investments.”

Jennings has visited Cardinal Ethanol, Absolute Energy, Ace Ethanol, and Badger State Ethanol annual meetings so far this year and will be at Dakota Ethanol’s upcoming meeting in South Dakota this week.

ACE