NBB Names New Chief Operating Officer

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has promoted Doug Whitehead to Chief Operating Officer, after 10 years in various roles with the organization, most recently as the Director of Operations and Membership.

“Doug has admirably served the biodiesel industry in his various roles at NBB over the years and his experience and expertise in operations, membership, strategic thinking, and management uniquely position us to continue our growth as an organization and as an industry,” said NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen. “His deep understanding of the day-to-day operations of the organization allow us to continue serving our members in a highly effective, efficient way as a member association.”

As Director of Operations and Membership, Whitehead managed the planning, implementation, administration, and reporting of all contracts for funding and subcontracting. He was also responsible for recruiting new members to the organization and served as the main point of contact for current members.

Whitehead is a native of Jefferson City, Missouri and a graduate of the Professional School of Architecture at Kansas State University. Prior to his time with NBB, he was a business development and management consultant where he worked with a wide range of non-profit and for-profit organizations, and he spent 15 years on the Jefferson City Public Schools board of education, serving as president of the Missouri School Board’s Association in 2014/2015.

Biodiesel, NBB

Former White House Spokesman to Speak at #RFANEC

Cindy Zimmerman

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer will provide a heaping helping of political analysis for lunch at the 22nd annual National Ethanol Conference, Feb. 20–22 in San Diego.

From 2001 to 2003, Fleischer was the primary spokesperson for President George W. Bush. He previously served as the Bush campaign spokesman in 1999 and 2000. In his almost four years working for George W. Bush, he served as spokesman during the historic presidential recount, September 11th, two wars and the anthrax attack. Now president of his own firm, Ari Fleischer Communications Inc., he offers advice to clients in the corporate and sports worlds on how to handle the press. He is a frequent guest commentator on many of the leading political and news shows.

Fleischer will be the featured luncheon speaker on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the National Ethanol Conference.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, National Ethanol Conference, RFA

Confirmations Continue to Crawl Along

Cindy Zimmerman

Confirmation hearings for Trump administration cabinet members have been moving slowly, so it may be toward the end of February before Sonny Perdue is confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture, but he has been meeting with lawmakers in the meantime.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) “had a good conversation” with the former governor of Georgia last week where they discussed “regional differences in agriculture” and the importance of sound policies. “I am confident that Governor Perdue’s experience and unique perspective will prepare him well to take on the critical role of leading the USDA,” said Fischer.

You might be wondering just who’s minding the USDA during this transition time. According to a USDA memo, various career department staffers were named by outgoing Secretary Tom Vilsack to perform critical duties in the transition period. No acting secretary was named but Michael Young (Director of the Office of Budget and Program Analysis) has the title of acting Deputy Secretary of Agriculture so is the de facto head of the department without cabinet status. Michael Scuse, who was named acting secretary for the week between Vilsack leaving and the inauguration, was just confirmed as Delaware Secretary of Agriculture last week.

Working on the transition is Dr. Sam Clovis, a political science professor and talk show host from Iowa who was named Senior White House Advisor for USDA.

Government, USDA

Four Ethanol Safety Webinars Scheduled

Cindy Zimmerman

Four free ethanol safety webinars are scheduled this year for ethanol emergency response teams and the first is being held tomorrow, February 7. The Renewable Fuels Association and TRANSCAER® are hosting the “Train the Trainer” webinars, funded through a Federal Railroad Administration / TRANSCAER® grant. RFA is a founding member of the Ethanol Emergency Response Coalition (EERC) and this program is based on the EERC’s Training Guide to Ethanol Emergency Response.

These webinar courses are intended to develop instructors to lead operations-level training. The webinars, led by national hazardous materials trainer Joel Hendelman, are open to all professional individuals above the technical level of training who are interested in learning how to teach ethanol emergency response. These professional individuals must also have an awareness level of hazardous material storage, handing and emergency response. The webinar courses are intended to develop instructors to lead operations-level training.

Future webinars will be held April 11, June 14 and Aug. 2. All four webinars will be held from noon to 2 p.m. ET. Registration is free, but is limited to the first 100 attendees per webinar. Certificates of attendance will be awarded following the completion of the safety seminar.

Register at rfa.traincaster.com.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, safety, transportation

Lower Corn Prices Encouraging Ethanol Production

Cindy Zimmerman

University of Illinois agricultural economist Gary Schnitkey gave an update on the farm economy at the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau annual meeting last week, and the news overall was bleak.

“We’re seeing deteriorating financial conditions on many farms and we’re likely to continue to see that as long as we have corn prices below four dollars a bushel,” said Schnitkey.

However, those lower corn prices are helping to increase ethanol production, even as market growth in the United States is slowing. “We’ve had increasing petroleum prices and pretty low corn prices so that does make the margins of ethanol production pretty good right now,” said Schnitkey, who expects much of the increased production to head to the export market.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Gary Schnitkey, Univ. of Ill

2017 CIRB Annual Meeting photo album

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

PERC Launches Autogas Newsletter

Cindy Zimmerman

The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) is launching a new quarterly e-newsletter this month for transportation professionals interested in propane autogas.

“We know how busy transportation professionals are every day, so we’re going to take only the most important must-have news and information, and package it in an easy-to-consume format every quarter,” said Michael Taylor, director of autogas business development for PERC. “The Autogas Refuel will provide thoughtful material relevant to fleet owners and managers, whether they currently have propane autogas vehicles in their fleet or if they’re just now considering transitioning their vehicles.”

The e-newsletter will include propane autogas success stories; research and white papers from PERC and industry partners; new technology for propane autogas fleets; and more. The first issue of The Autogas Refuel is scheduled to be delivered Feb. 21. Sign up at propane.com.

PERC, Propane

Clariant Fleet Tests Cellulosic Ethanol in Germany

Cindy Zimmerman

Mercedes-Benz fleet cars in front of Clariant’s sunliquid® pre-commercial plant in Germany

A 20 percent blend of cellulosic ethanol was tested in Mercedez Benz fleet vehicles in Germany over the past year and found to provide “excellent combustion characteristics without additional consumption.”

Specialty chemicals company Clariant joined with Mercedes-Benz and Haltermann Carless to perform the fleet test using sunliquid® 20, a fuel produced by Haltermann Carless with a cellulosic ethanol content of 20 percent by volume (E20) from Clariant’s sunliquid plant in Straubing, Germany.

According to Clariant, “sunliquid 20 exhibited very good combustion properties with a high degree of efficiency and identical consumption compared to today’s standard E10 fuel. Due to the slightly lower energy density of E20 compared to E10, slightly higher fuel consumption was expected under the same operating conditions. The tests performed under laboratory conditions demonstrated variability in the consumption analysis in which additional consumption between 0 and 3 percent was observed.”

Clariant’s sunliquid precommercial plant in Straubing converts about 4,500 tons of agricultural residue such as cereal straw or corn stover into cellulosic ethanol each year.

advanced biofuels, Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Iowa RFA Presents High School Video Awards

Cindy Zimmerman

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) presented this year’s winners of the “Fuel the Future” High School Video Contest at the annual summit this week.

First place went to Jacob Roush and Dylan Smith of Waukee who received the $1,000 Grand Prize for their video “Choose Ethanol: Fuel the Future.” Amy Wieland and Tyler Groathouse of Waukee High School won the $600 second place prize for their video entitled, “E15 – A Decision as Simple as Dinner.” And Emily Sutherland, of Treynor High School, was awarded the $400 third place prize for her video entitled, “The World Needs Fuel.”

“When this contest began seven years ago, we asked students to focus on fuels that were scarcely available to the average consumer,” said IRFA Policy Director Grant Menke. “Now, the winning video actually features a typical E15 pump at a local gas station. Access to E15 and biodiesel at the pump grows each year because they truly are the fuels of the future. Jacob and Dylan’s winning video uses creative video editing, an interesting storyline, and effective messaging to point out why.”

IRFA’s “Fuel the Future” video contest was sponsored by the Faegre Baker Daniels Law Firm. Watch the winner below:


Biodiesel, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Iowa RFA

#Ethanol Production Continues to Grow

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol production set yet another record last week, continuing a trend that started at the end of 2016.

According to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol production averaged 1.061 million barrels per day (b/d) or 44.56 million gallons daily. That is up 10,000 b/d from the week before and a new record. It is the 14th week in a row with production above 1 million b/d. The four-week average for ethanol production stood at an unprecedented 1.054 million b/d for an annualized rate of 16.16 billion gallons.

Stocks of ethanol also are continuing to grow with the increased production, up .7% last week to 21.9 million barrels, while there were no ethanol imports for the 23rd straight week.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

“Make #Ethanol Great Again!”

Cindy Zimmerman

The president of the Renewable Fuels Association took a lead from the new president of the United States at the 2017 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit Tuesday, encouraging the industry to “make ethanol great again.”

“I believe we are on the cusp of making ethanol great again,” said RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen, who added that support for ethanol has been undermined for the last eight years by an administration mostly unwilling to fight for biofuels, with the notable exception of Tom Vilsack “absolutely the best secretary of agriculture for farmers and biofuels that there has ever been.”

“Unfortunately he became a lonely voice in an administration that didn’t necessarily get it…the rest of the administration kept us stuck in neutral,” Dinneen said.

Ever the optimist, Dinneen is enthusiastic about the future of ethanol with the new presidential administration. “You have a president who supports the RFS,” he said. “And you have a president who has an America first agenda.”

Listen to Dinneen’s remarks, courtesy of Brownfield Ag News, here: RFA CEO Bob Dinneen at Iowa RFA Summit

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS