Ethanol Plant Innovators

Cindy Zimmerman

Four ethanol producers who are innovating plants through new process and product technology took the podium at the American Coalition for Ethanol conference this week to talk about what they are doing.

ace14-ronFirst up was ACE president Ron Alverson of Dakota Ethanol who talked about the importance of carbon, particularly the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and how it impacts ethanol production. Alverson is a corn farmer in South Dakota and he discussed how carbon intensity ratings for corn ethanol are improving and will continue to improve down the road. Ron Alverson, Dakota Ethanol

ace14-baker-adkinsRay Baker, general manager of Adkins Energy in northwest Illinois, who talked about the new biodiesel plant they are building to co-locate with their 50 million gallon ethanol plant and use corn oil as a feedstock. “Having corn oil as your main feedstock gives you a competitive advantage,” he said.
Ray Baker, Adkins Energy

ace14-erhart-prairieMike Erhart, CEO of Prairie Horizon Agri Energy in Kansas, says he runs a biorefinery, not an ethanol plant. “I think ethanol plant is antiquated,” he said. “It’s now time that we become a biorefinery and start touting that.” Erhart also talked about why his plant is producing renewable diesel. Mike Erhart, Prairie Horizon Agri Energy

ace14-delayneDelayne Johnson, Quad County Corn Processors, has the distinction of producing the very first gallons of cellulosic ethanol, just about a month ago. He talked about his plant being the first to use Syngenta Enogen corn and efficiencies they have implemented in the production process.
Delayne Johnson, Quad County Corn Processors

27th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, advanced biofuels, biofuels, Cellulosic, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Processing, Production

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFPattern Energy Group LP has acquired the Logan’s Gap wind project from Pioneer Green Energy. Logan’s Gap is a 200 megawatt (MW) wind project to be built in Comanche County, Texas. As the developer of the project, Pioneer Green Energy began work of a significant nature in 2013 and executed a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. for approximately 60% of the project’s expected production.
  • Pacific Energy Solutions (PES), an energy project development company specializing in renewable technologies, has entered into a binding contract with the U.S. Navy to supply approximately 30,400 MWh of electricity annually to the Navy for use by Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force activities in the State of Hawaii. PES will supply this electricity to the Navy over a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement term. A groundbreaking ceremony was conducted on July 24, 2014 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The ceremony was presided over by the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Ray Mabus, who was joined by the Governor of the State of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie.
  • Sparq, Inc. a company focused on municipal and utility scale renewable energy, is now offering it’s solar energy service to residential customers beginning August 1, 2014. Sparq’s new Residential Solar Service will make it possible for homeowners across the Southwest to save thousands on their utility bills. Sparq’s existing partnership in the utility market will be expanded with Lightway Green New Energy Co. to provide high-standard solar panels and equipment designed specifically for residential applications.
  • From 2014 to 2035, worldwide gas consumption by the road transportation sector will fall 4 percent, the report concludes according to a new report, “Transportation Forecast: Global Fuel Consumption,” from Navigant Research. Gasoline consumption for road transportation will continue to rise through 2021, reaching 367.3 billion gallons a year, but then start to fall thereafter, declining to 348.1 billion gallons a year in 2035.
Bioenergy Bytes

SG Preston Announces Renewable Diesel Project

Joanna Schroeder

SG Preston (SGP) has announced the planned development of a 120 million gallon renewable diesel facility in Lawrence County, Ohio. The $400 million bioenergy facility will be the world’s largest producer of renewable diesel when finished in 2017 according to SGP.

SG Preston logoThe company said a key component of the facility’s development is the licensing of their advanced process technology that has been successfully proven at commercial scale at other locations. According to SGP, this advanced technology efficiently converts waste feedstock into renewable diesel – chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel- and can be used as a drop-in replacement in vehicles. In addition, SGP said this technology allows them to customize its biofuel offering by adjusting fuel characteristics to meet various operating environments (extreme cold or heat) of the end user without diluting energy content in the GHG reduced fuel blend.

“For SG Preston, this is an important milestone and part of a larger vision of partnering with leading, global refining technology partners and local communities to develop a portfolio of renewable diesel and renewable jet fuel refineries targeting 1.2 billion gallons per year, or 20% of the federal RFS2 biomass-based mandate for biofuels,” said R. Delbert LeTang, CEO of SG Preston. “We see a blue sky opportunity to deliver customized, renewable fuel to government, the petroleum industry and other private users throughout the United States and we look forward to partnering with the people of southern Ohio to build new industries and new economic opportunity.”

Other partners in the project include the Lawrence County Economic Development Council, which is investing 62 acres in land and other incentives. The Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth and JobsOhio were also instrumental in securing the investment and technology to play a role in the future of southern Ohio.
Pre-engineering studies for the facility are expected to begin in September 2014, with commercial operations targeted for 2017.

Bill Dingus, executive director of Lawrence County Economic Development Council, added, “This project will be of significant economic importance to southern Ohio, bringing long-term employment and income to the region. We look forward to supporting the development of new energy technologies, and passing on the benefits of commerce and cleaner air to local residents.”

advanced biofuels, Alternative energy, biochemicals, Biodiesel, biomass

UC Riverside Researchers Enhance Biofuel Yields

Joanna Schroeder

University of California, Riverside researchers have developed a versatile, virtually non-toxic and efficient way to convert raw ag and forest residues along with other plant matter into biofuels and biochemicals. Professor Charles E. Wyman is leading the research team and their patent-pending method coined Co-solvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation (CELF) and they believe they are another step closer to solving the goal of producing biofuels and biochemicals from biomass and high enough yields and low enough costs to become viable.

“Real estate is about location, location, location,” said Wyman, the Ford Motor Company Chair in Environmental Engineering at UC Riverside’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). “Successful commercialization of biofuels technology is about yield, yield, yield, and we obtained great yields with this novel technology.”

Charles Cai UC RiversideThe key to the technology, according to Wyman, is using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a co-solvent to aid in the breakdown of raw biomass feedstocks to produce valuable primary and secondary fuel precursors at high yields at moderate temperatures. These fuel precursors can then be converted into ethanol, chemicals or drop-in fuels. Drop-in fuels have similar properties to conventional gasoline, jet, and diesel fuels and can be used without significant changes to vehicles or current transportation infrastructure.

Compared to other available biomass solvents, THF is well-suited for this application because it mixes homogenously with water, has a low boiling point (66 degrees Celsius) to allow for easy recovery, and can be regenerated as an end product of the process, explained Charles M. Cai, a Ph.D. student working with Wyman.

The research, focused on lignin, was recently published in Green Chemistry: “Coupling metal halides with a co-solvent to produce furfural and 5-HMF at high yields directly from lignocellulosic biomass as an integrated biofuels strategy.”

advanced biofuels, biochemicals, biomass, Research

MN Gubernatorial Candidates Differ on Biofuels

John Davis

mn-flagAll politics is local, and how some local and regional elections this year could help determine the fate of biodiesel and ethanol for a much larger area. Case in point, this article from the St. Cloud (MN) Times looks at how the four Republicans vying for their party’s nomination to take on current Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton in November have differing views on biofuels as they go into the August 12 Republican primary in that state.

A Marshall resident and former state representative, [Marty] Siefert said the state has created thousands of jobs, and the state should not change the requirement that gasoline include 10 percent ethanol.

“I see this as the status quo for now,” he said, not jumping on a bandwagon to increase ethanol percentages.

For diesel, Seifert said, he can understand concerns about biodiesel gumming up fuel filters in cold weather. “Biodiesel mandates are not going to go up if I’m governor.”

Raised on a North Dakota farm and now a Maple Grove resident, [Kurt] Zellers said he wants to look into increasing the ethanol mandate to 15 percent but needs more information before fully supporting it.

At minimum, he said, he wants to keep existing mandates in place.

[Jeff] Johnson, who grew up in Detroit Lakes and lives in Plymouth, said he favors eliminating mandates from state law, including those affecting biofuels.

However, he added, he has been around government enough to know that the mandates cannot be eliminated right away.

“Government has created somewhat of a dependency,” Johnson said, adding that eliminating biofuel mandates is not a priority and that he would like to phase them out.

There is none of that waiting for [Orono businessman Scott] Honour.

“I would try to push away from mandates as quickly as possible,” Honour said. “My view is that the less government is trying to influence a free market, the better.”

So there you have it Minnesotans. Choose wisely when you go to the polls on August 12.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Government, politics

Camelina Researched for Biodiesel and Drop-in Fuel

John Davis

camelinaResearchers at several universities are looking at the potential camelina has as a feedstock for biodiesel or even using the oil as a straight drop-in fuel. This news release from Kansas State University says Timothy Durrett, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at KSU, has joined researchers from Colorado State University, the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and the University of California, Davis, in using a $1.5 million joint U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy grant to see how to get the most out of a promising crop: Camelina sativa.

Camelina, a nonfood oilseed crop, can be a valuable biofuel crop because it can grow on poorer quality farmland and needs little irrigation and fertilizer. It also can be rotated with wheat, Durrett said.

“Camelina could give farmers an extra biofuel crop that wouldn’t be competing with food production,” Durrett said. “This research can add value to the local agricultural economy by creating an additional crop that could fit in with the crop rotation.”

The research will take advantage of the recently sequenced camelina genome. For the project, Durrett is improving camelina’s oil properties and by altering the plant’s biochemistry to make it capable of producing low-viscosity oil.

The article says developing a low-viscosity oil is crucial to improving biofuels and could allow camelina oil to be able to be dropped in as a fuel without any kind of chemical modification.

Biodiesel, Research

Collin Peterson Honored for Ethanol Support

Cindy Zimmerman

ace14-merle-collinThe American Coalition for Ethanol meeting in Minneapolis this week honored Congressman Collin Peterson of Minnesota with its highest award for supporters of ethanol, the Merle Anderson award. Anderson himself presented Peterson with the award, as well as an ethanol lapel pin and five dollars for his campaign.

Peterson says ethanol has been great for agriculture and he continues to fight for it in Congress. “It’s just been a tremendous success story in agriculture because it’s changed the marketplace so farmers can get a decent price for their corn,” he said. “We do have our opponents and they are still working to undermine things,” he continued, noting that just last week Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) attempted to bring up a bill to get rid of the RFS. “They want to go back to $1.85 corn and I tell them if they are successful they will rue the day because nobody can grow corn for $1.85.” Peterson says the only way farmers survived when prices were $1.85 a bushel was because of the government subsidy “and that’s gone.”

Peterson remains hopeful that the EPA will eventually come out with a better final rule on the 2014 volume obligations for the RFS. “I think the fact that they delayed this for now a third time shows they are listening,” he said. “It appears to me that they realize they made a mistake here and they’re trying to figure out how to undo it.” He thinks it could be next year before the rule is final, but “a delayed decision is better than a bad decision.” Interview with Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) at ACE Conference

27th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government, RFS

RFA Pumping up Ethanol for Motorcycles

Leah Guffey

sturgis-14-fuelThe Renewable Fuels Association is pumped up to provide some free 10% ethanol for motorcyclists attending the 74th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this week.

RFA set up this morning for the Free Fuel Happy Hours taking place from 1–4 pm today through Thursday. This is the sixth year that RFA has had a presence at the legendary motorcycle event and the main meeting place at the Buffalo Chip campground.

On hand to educate the bikers and pump them up with free fuel is RFA director of market development Robert White, who took part in the Legends Ride on Monday morning at the Rally, riding his flex-fuel Harley during the week to promote the benefits of ethanol. RFA sponsored the seventh annual charity ride, which begins in Deadwood, S.D., with the proceeds going to benefit charities in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, including the Black Hills Special Olympics.

There’s a lot going on at the rally, but not much in the way of internet access, so we’ll have more from Sturgis when we get wired!

See all the photos from the rally and RFA’s involvement in the 2014 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Photo Album

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Motorcycle, RFA, Sturgis

ACE President Optimistic About Ethanol Industry

Cindy Zimmerman

ace14-alversonAmerican Coalition for Ethanol president Ron Alverson of Dakota Ethanol says there are lots of reasons to excited about the ethanol industry right now.

“We’re just super competitive,” Alverson said in his opening comments at the 27th annual ACE conference, showing a graph indicating the positive price spread between ethanol and gasoline. “I think we’re building new markets because of that.”

ace14-ron-billThe new theme for ACE is Power by People and Alverson kicked off the conference by presenting the President’s Award to someone he believes is “one of the finest ethanol advocates” in the industry. That award was given to Bill Couser of Couser Cattle Company in Nevada, Iowa. “He immediately struck me as a very passionate advocate for agriculture and ethanol both,” said Alverson. Interview with ACE president Ron Alverson, Dakota Ethanol

27th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News

ACE Celebrates “Power by People”

Joanna Schroeder

This morning during the opening session of the 27th Annual Ethanol Conference, the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) launched a new campaign featuring the people of ethanol. Their redesigned website features personal and authentic stories of the people who built and continue to innovate the ethanol industry. In addition, ACE released a new video, “The Home Place”.

ace14-jennings“Instead of keeping the industry’s most valuable players on the bench and pouring all our trust and money into playing defense with facts-alone, ACE’s Power by People campaign features the compelling and positive stories of the individuals and families who built the ethanol industry and those who support and continue to benefit from ethanol,” said ACE Executive Vice President Brian Jennings during his state of the union address this morning.

“The story of ethanol is a profile in courage about grassroots people who, without any precedent to guide them, set out with their families and neighbors to rescue their communities from economic disaster by building ethanol plants,” continued Jennings. “For far too long the stories of these people have gone untold, and that’s why ACE is launching the new Power by People campaign.”

Jennings said the organization has produced several video testimonials from people of all walks of life that ACE members can use to promote ethanol on their websites, through social media, and in meetings with the public. He also noted the group plans to continue and expand the campaign in the months ahead.

Listen to Jennings’ opening comments at the ACE conference: Brian Jennings, ACE Executive VP

View the 27th Annual Ethanol Conference photo album.

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol, Video