REG Delivers First Life Sciences Commercial Product

Joanna Schroeder November 2, 2016

REG has expanded its offerings into the bioproducts market. Its REG Life Sciences Division has delivered a specialty fatty acid, its first commercial product, to Aroma Chemical Services (ACS) International. REG has been working closely with ACS, a specialty manufacturer and supplier of flavor and fragrance ingredients, to develop and bring to market fragrance and flavor derivatives based on the REG Life Sciences’ proprietary technology. ACS will use the specialty chemical for the production of a high performance musk ingredient for sale into the $620 million global musk ingredient market.

“We are proud to have achieved this key milestone and are confident that the musk will enjoy commercial success, creating growing demand for our multi-functional fatty acid,” said Eric M. Bowen, head of REG Life Sciences and Vice President, Corporate Business Development & Legal Affairs. “We have identified over 500 candidate compounds from our platform, several of which we believe could lead to attractive follow-on opportunities in the global musk market.”

According to REG Life Sciences, fatty acids are one of three product areas the company has been focused on along with esters and alcohols. Work on this product began last year after REG and ACS identified the specialty fatty acid as particularly well suited for the production of a high performance musk.

ACS leaders welcomed delivery of the renewable chemical. “We are very excited to see our joint efforts come to fruition through a powerful combination of industrial biotechnology and unique processing solutions,” said Koenraad Vanhessche, Vice President, Innovation and Business Development at ACS. “Moreover, this integrated fatty acid synthetic biology platform is the first of its kind in the field of flavor and fragrance and enables quick and cost-effective access to a plethora of targets previously beyond anyone’s scope.”

Dan Hirlea, CEO of ACS International, added, “Our partnership has deliberately targeted key ingredients in the flavor and fragrance industry. When combined with the other components of the ACS International business model, namely sustainability, reliability, creativity and respect, it will allow us to drive this project to its successful conclusion.“

biochemicals, REG, Video

The World Series and Energy Production

Joanna Schroeder November 2, 2016

Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Today in Energy had a special baseball themed topic: energy production and the 2o16 Major League Baseball World Series.

So let’s take a look at energy production and our two teams the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs.

As quoted from Today in Energy: “In the 68 years since the last title for the Cleveland Indians, and the 108 years since the last World Series title for the Chicago Cubs, energy production and consumption patterns in the United States have changed a great deal. In 1908, the last time the Cubs won the World Series, the United States produced less than half a million barrels per day (b/d) of oil, with crude oil production having only started approximately 50 years earlier. At that time, crude oil was mainly refined to produce kerosene for use in lamps. The first Ford Model T automobile was produced in 1908, kicking off a shift in demand for petroleum products from kerosene for lamps to gasoline for automobiles. The last time the Cleveland Indians won the World Series, in 1948, the United States produced 5.5 million b/d of crude oil. Crude oil production had been steadily increasing since declines in the 1930s and would continue to increase until production declines in the 1970s.”

As many of us are aware, the consumption of energy has significantly changed over the past century. Going back to 1908, the U.S. only consumed 15 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) with the majority, three quarters, coming from coal. Fast forward to the last time the Cubbies made their World Series appearance in 1945, total energy consumption had doubled (4.5 million b/d); although coal was still the leading fuel followed by petroleum.

The last World Series appearance for the Indians was in 1997. By then energy consumption had increased to numbers close to those seen today at 6.4 million b/d, or 94 quadrillion Btu. Yet a major change was that coal was no longer king with its share falling to one-quarter of total consumption while natural gas and nuclear held the top spots. For the past two decades, natural gas consumption has continued to increase and there has been rise in renewables.

Alternative energy, Natural Gas

Sponsors Pleased with #ExEx16

Cindy Zimmerman November 2, 2016

The Renewable Fuels Association and the U.S. Grains Council are the co-sponsors and hosts of the biennial Export Exchange, but dozens of other companies and organizations help make it happen with their support.

CHS, Inc. markets ethanol co-products for animal feed from two of their own plants and 21 others. “We market somewhere around four million metric tons,” said CHS DDGS Marketing Manager Sean Broderick. “So it’s important for us to maximize for the plants we market the best markets for them to go to – whether it’s down the road or the other side of the world.”

Broderick says Export Exchange has been very beneficial for CHS and their members. “It’s a great place for us to see a lot of people all at once,” he said. “It really helps us to both expand and continue to educate our export partners.”

Listen to my interview with Broderick here: Interview with Sean Broderick, CHS, Inc.

Tate & Lyle, which markets the co-product corn gluten feed, stepped up to the sponsor level for this year’s Export Exchange. “There’s a large exposure base for potential customers for by-products of our wet milling process,” said Dan Smith, director of co-product and ethanol sales for Tate & Lyle. “We’ve had a lot of people stop by that maybe heard the Tate & Lyle name but didn’t realize that we supplied corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal.”

Smith is pictured here on the left with others on the Tate & Lyle team at Export Exchange. Interview with Dan Smith, Tate & Lyle

With Kansas looking at a huge corn crop this year, finding new markets is more critical than ever for the Kansas Corn Commission, which is why they were exhibiting at Export Exchange. “We knew we were going to have a record,” said CEO Greg Krissek. “We didn’t know we were going to get over 700 million bushels, which is 23 percent more than our record has ever been.”

Kansas Corn partnered with Kansas Sorghum, the state department of agriculture, and KSU’s IGP Institute to have a presence at Export Exchange and afterward hosted a group of distillers and corn buyers from Peru and Columbia.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Greg Krissek, Kansas Corn

2016 Export Exchange Photo Album

Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Export Exchange, Exports

Neste Renewable Diesel to Power City of San Diego

Joanna Schroeder November 2, 2016

Photo credit: Neste

Neste’s renewable diesel is now helping to power the city of San Diego, California. The city is using the biofuel in its vehicle fleet that includes service trucks, refuse packers, dump trucks, construction equipment and street sweepers among other vehicles.

“Air quality is a significant concern in many cities around the world today. Neste offers a drop-in solution for instantly reducing traffic-related local emissions and improving local air quality,” said Kaisa Hietala, executive vice president, Renewable Products at Neste. “We are very pleased that our innovative, low-carbon renewable diesel now benefits San Diego, the second largest city in California, as well as its inhabitants.”

According to Neste, the switch will improve air quality and reduce the fleet’s GHGs by up to 80 percent. Over 1,100 vehicles and equipment, representing approximately 25 percent of the city’s fleet, run on Neste Renewable Diesel, and no performance issues have been reported.

“This change will make a major part of our fleet greener overnight, creating more environmentally-friendly vehicles that are cheaper to maintain,” noted Mayor Kelvin L. Faulconer, City of San Diego. “By transitioning to renewable diesel, we’re significantly reducing the pollution caused by city vehicles that serve the public on a daily basis. We’re leading by example and showing other cities how to make common-sense changes to improve the environment around us.”

Alia Khouri, the City’s Fleet Operations Director, added, “We are constantly looking for ways to make San Diego’s fleet more sustainable, and advancements in alternative fuels are making it possible. Renewable diesel is going to help a significant portion of our fleet run much cleaner with less wear and tear on the engines compared to petroleum diesel.”

Neste Renewable Diesel is supplied to the City of San Diego by The Soco Group which is one of Neste’s distributors in California.

advanced biofuels, Biodiesel

Discussing A-Maizing DDGS at #ExEx16

Lizzy Schultz November 2, 2016

Research continues to show the value of dried distillers grains (DDGS) as a high quality animal feed, and the need to increase global demand for DDGS was a hot topic of discussion at this year’s Export Exchange. Dr. Jerry Shurston, professor at the University of Minnesota and Consultant for the U.S. Grains Council (USGC), gave a presentation during this year’s event on the co-product’s potential in both the domestic and the global animal feed markets.

For the last 18 years, Dr. Shurson has focused his research on the ways to increase the value of DDGS, a product that he finds truly amazing. He discussed how production, exports, and the industry’s understanding of the feeding value of DDGS has changed through his years of studying the industry.

“One of my messages today is that we’ve got to narrow this gap between what we’ve discovered at Universities and through research and helping those that are buying and using the product to know how to use it to optimize its value,” he said.

Listen to his full presentation here:
A-Maizing DDGS Presentation

He also discussed what he called “precision DDGS,” referring to the changes in the technologies that are able to analyze an assess the properties of DDGS that have long been thought of as variable and uncertain.

“Here’s an ingredient that is a co-product, and anytime that you have a byproduct or a co-product, you have variability in nutrient composition and quality, and it creates questions in end users,” he said in an interview following his presentation. “What I was taking the group toward today is that we’ve developed technologies to take some of this uncertainty out of the market and allow us to more accurately assess the economic value and the nutrient profile of this ingredient.”

Learn more in Cindy’s full interview with Dr. Shurson here:
Interview with Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota

View and download photos from the event here: 2016 Export Exchange Photo Album.

Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by

Audio, corn, Distillers Grains, Export Exchange, Exports, University, USGC

Why Ethanol Gas Is Never Going Away

Joanna Schroeder November 1, 2016

Digital Trends recently examined ethanol in our fuel in an article, “Is ethanol in your gas a problem? We revisited the question with an expert,” written by Jeff Zurschmeide. The piece was a follow-up to an earlier story, “The effects of ethanol in gasoline,” that created quite a dialogue in its comment section. For this piece, Zurschmeide reached out to Dr. Andrew Randolph, Technical Director for ECR Engines who holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, with a specialty in the combustion properties of ethanol-gasoline blends. He’s been working with NASCAR since 1999 and started with ECR in 2008. (For those avid readers of AgWired, you’ll know that NASCAR race cars have been racing for several years using E15 and the Indy Series has used E100.)

In the article, Dr. Randolph hits on several topics:

Small engines – It’s OK to use E10 in small engines but not higher blends such as E85.
Classic cars – It’s case-by-case but before the 21st century cars used carburetors, technology not designed to use ethanol. Cars today do not have this problem.
The future of ethanol – Ethanol will not only stay in our fuel but the amount will rise.

“It’s largely driven by economics,” Randolph told Digital Trends. “The price of gasoline is dependent on the price of oil. On the other hand, the economy of ethanol in the United States is linked to the health of the corn crop. It’s linked more to weather than politics. Long term, ethanol is a much more stable commodity to rely upon, because you don’t have governments and wars that are going to put your supply at risk. Also, the dollars that you’re spending on ethanol are paid to U.S. farmers and U.S. infrastructure. Ethanol is also preferred as an oxygenating additive because it is less toxic than prior octane-boosting additives like tetraethyl lead and Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE).”

But the big reason ethanol will win at the pump? Randolph told Digital Trends it’s about price. “I think consumers want whatever’s going to be cheapest at the pump. That’s the long-term driver. I think ethanol’s going to win.”

It’s a good piece so be sure to check it out.

biofuels, E85, Ethanol

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder November 1, 2016

Ener-Core, Inc., a developer of innovative gas conversion technologies for global commercial and industrial facilities, has delivered two of its 2 MW sized Power Oxidizers to the Stockton Biorefinery site owned by Pacific Ethanol. The Power Oxidizers, after delivery and installation with the Dresser-Rand KG2 turbine, are expected to provide up to 3.5 MW of electricity and over 26,000 pounds of steam/hr from the two Power Station units. The Power Stations will provide Pacific Ethanol with a first-of-its-kind solution that can reduce air pollution by converting by-product low-quality waste gases generated by the Stockton plant’s ethanol production into useful electricity and steam.
Turf Feeding Systems, a Houston company, has teamed with AgriProjects, a South African company, to create special high-yield seed oil production for the Monarca Biojetfuel refinery in the Yucatan of Mexico. According to Turf Feeding Systems, this is the first biofuel project in the world to combine a 33,000 hectare Jatropha plantation producing feed oil with a refinery on site and transform jobs and the region’s economy.
Monarca, a BioJet Fuel Project planned in Mexico, is in discussions with AVStar Aviation Services, a corporate aviation service company based in Houston, to be their exclusive distributor of BioJet fuel in the U.S.
The Companies Vs. Climate Change Conference will welcome Alaska, JetBlue and United Airlines for a panel on December 2, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. This is the first-ever conference focused on bringing together companies from around the world to discuss climate change and how they can work together to address it. The two airlines will discuss sustainability efforts and operational efficiencies within the airline industry.

Bioenergy Bytes

REG to Increase Ralston, IA Biorefinery to 30M Gallons

Joanna Schroeder November 1, 2016

Renewable Energy Group (REG) has announced it is increasing the annual capacity of its Ralston, IA biodiesel plant to 30 million gallons. Once the company’s largest biodiesel facility at 12 million gallons per year, over time it became REG’s smallest nameplate capacity. When the plant was built in 2001, it was a division of West Central Cooperative, now Landus Corporation. REG is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the project on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 where Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will be a speaker.

REG Ralston is a 12 million gallon per year nameplate capacity biorefinery in Ralston, Iowa. REG announced today the company will increase Ralston’s capacity to 30 million gallons.

“Ralston is where it all began for REG and the experience and lessons we have learned, and are still learning, have helped our company grow into what it is today,” said Daniel J. Oh, President and CEO.

The REG Ralston expansion announcement comes on the heels of Landus Cooperative expanding their adjacent soy crush operation.

“On behalf of our farmer-owners, we look forward to finalizing plans with REG for their expansion as another way to add value to our soybeans via oil utilization at the Ralston biorefinery,” said John Scott, an Odebolt, Iowa farmer and President of the Landus Cooperative Board of Directors.

Brad Albin, REG vice president, manufacturing, added, “With a greater, adjacent feedstock supply and continuous improvements at REG Ralston, this capacity expansion is a logical investment. We look forward to more good things from this outstanding biorefinery and our continued relationship with Landus Cooperative.”

Once completed, the Ralston expansion would increase REG’s cumulative nameplate capacity from its 11 active biomass-based diesel plants across the country to 470 million gallons annually.

advanced biofuels, Biodiesel, REG

Novozymes Named to Climate “A-List”

Joanna Schroeder November 1, 2016

The international non profit CDP, an organization that runs a global carbon disclosure system, has announced its annual “A-List” of highest scoring companies on climate action. On the list was Novozymes for its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the business risks of climate change.

“Apart from being honored to once again be recognized as a global leader on climate action, we are also extremely thrilled to see that business is making substantial effort to transit to a low-carbon world. The Paris Agreement and the SDGs are already working as the new compass for business,” said Claus Stig Pedersen, Novozymes’ Head of Corporate Sustainability. “It is exciting to witness the ongoing shift in the role of business as it realizes that some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, also represent some of the biggest future business opportunities.”

Novozymes implemented 40 different energy-saving and process optimization projects in 2015, helping reduce CO2 emissions in the company’s own operations by 7 percent, as compared with 2014. Last year, Novozymes’ customers avoided an estimated 60 million tons of CO2 emissions by applying the company’s products. The savings achieved are equivalent to taking approximately 25 million cars off the road.

According to Novozymes, its biological solutions save customers 100kg CO2 for every 1kg of product applied, on average. The company made history last year by becoming one of the first in the world to align its corporate strategy with the SDGs.

Climate Change, Environment, Novozymes

Sharing the Benefits of #Ethanol with Mexico

Cindy Zimmerman November 1, 2016

Mexico’s Secretariat of Energy (SENER) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently hosted a workshop in Mexico City to help local authorities determine how ethanol fits into their country’s energy mix. The two day workshop featured the latest environmental research on ethanol, technological advances in production, distribution and commercialization of ethanol for mixture with fuels, and how other countries have benefited from biofuels programs.

Among the experts were representatives from the National Federation of Biofuels of Colombia, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Paraguay, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy For All. From the United States, there were experts from Oakridge Labs, the American Lung Association, Urban Air Initiative, Growth Energy, the U.S. Grains Council, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Lifecycle Associates.

At the conclusion of the workshop, USDA and SENER agreed to establish a bilateral ethanol working group to continue the dialogue and to plan a “study group” of Mexican government and industry representatives to come to the United States to see firsthand the U.S. ethanol supply chain and experts to learn further about the benefits of ethanol blending.

The workshop is part of a larger effort by the U.S. industry to share information with Mexican regulators as they consider increased use of ethanol produced locally from sorghum or imported from the United States. At last week’s Export Exchange, I talked with U.S. Grains Council director for Mexico City Ryan LaGrande about that effort.

“We’re heavily involved in the ethanol scene in Mexico and the prospects are very bright,” said LaGrande. “The Mexican government recently passed a regulation allowing 5.8 percent ethanol to be blended into gasoline in the entire country outside of the three major cities – Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. So we still have about 65-70 percent of the market that we can work with to blend ethanol.”

LaGrande says the industry has been doing trade missions and technical conferences to educate Mexican regulators about the benefits of increased ethanol use “so we can hopefully lift the prohibition in the three major cities and eventually move to 10 percent blends or higher.”

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Ryan LaGrande, USGC

2016 Export Exchange Photo Album

Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Export Exchange, Exports, RFA, USGC

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