Increases In Ethanol Efficiences Will Decrease Land Use

Joanna Schroeder

A study done by researchers at the University of Illinois’ College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, has found that several factors will lower the need for land used to produced corn-based ethanol to as little as 11 percent of the corn acres by 2026 when adhering to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 15 billion gallon ceiling on domestic ethanol production.

The researchers note that a too common error made in reporting land used for domestic Disposition among major uses of no 2 yellow cornproduction is to measure the amount of grain shipped to ethanol manufacturers, compute the number of acres required to produce the grain and then end the analysis. However, the researchers say this is a gross oversimplification that leads to incorrectly concluding that 40 percent or more of U.S. corn acres are used for ethanol production. The real number, according to the research team is less than 25%. The reason is that most studies don’t account for the grain being used as high-value animal feed (distillers grains or DDGs).

The new study, conducted by Professors Rita H. Mumm, Peter D. Goldsmith, Kent D. Rausch and Hans H. Stein, explores the impact of technological improvements on corn grain production, ethanol production, and their interrelated effect on land use through a variety of scenarios over a 15 year period beginning in 2011, the year used to establish the base case. The researchers found that land area attributed to corn ethanol will consistently drop because plant breeding improvements and new technologies will result in significantly higher yields.

In addition, over the next decade, corn yields will improve significantly which will greatly reduce land use attributed to ethanol manufacturing. On the higher end of the spectrum, the study finds yields will increase by almost 100 bushels per acre, which represents 66 percent growth. The majority of this contribution will come from conventional breeding, with advanced breeding technology, biotechnology and agronomic improvements together contributing almost half.

“It’s no surprise to the agriculture industry that yield improvements will drive down land used for ethanol,” said Dr. Rita Mumm, coauthor of the study. “However, the mechanisms within the production complex, especially their effects on one another, were not fully understood. This work provides a clear picture on current land use and provides an approach for evaluating future land use.”Read More

biofuels, corn, Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Indirect Land Use, Research

Edeniq’s PATHWAY Validation Facility Shows Success

Joanna Schroeder

Leading into the Fuel Ethanol Workshop that is taking place this week in Indianapolis, Indiana (June 9-12) Edeniq, Inc., has announced the successful performance of its PATHWAY Validation Facility. The company’s PATHWAY Platform is a proprietary, integrated platform that produces cellulosic ethanol inside existing corn ethanol plants. Edeniq said their pilot facility showcases how their patented technologies, the Cellunator and PATHWAY Platform, work together to convert starch and break down corn kernel fiber, releasing cellulosic sugars into the fermentation process. The result is an ethanol yield increase ethanol of three to six percent. The pilot facility is located at the company’s headquarters in Visalia, California.

“The pilot facility confirms a necessary high-precision consistency in the PATHWAY Platform that is a first for our industry,” said Tom Griffin, chief technology officer, Edeniq, Inc. “Our customers are looking for a way to generate and validate cellulosic ethanol production, and with Edeniq’s PATHWAY Platform coupled with this unique pilot facility, we have equipped them with the solution.”

Edeniq facility at nightFunded jointly by Flint Hills Resources Renewables, LLC, and Edeniq, the pilot facility showcases the PATHWAY Platform and allows ethanol producers to quantify the impact of PATHWAY on yield enhancement and cellulosic ethanol production at their plants.

“The PATHWAY Validation Facility was developed to provide our customers and partners with data to verify the increase in ethanol yield the technology provides,” added Brian Thome, president and CEO of Edeniq, Inc. “Edeniq is committed to increasing the bottom line for our customers and partners by allowing ethanol producers to improve their efficiency and migrate to cellulosic ethanol.”

The PATHWAY Platform is currently in commercial testing and continues to demonstrate its ability to increase ethanol yield and boost customer profits.

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, FEW, Renewable Energy

BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFPOET Biorefining – Caro hosted Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, recently to highlight the benefits of ethanol for Michigan. “Ethanol provides a unique opportunity for renewable, Michigan-made energy,” said Wyant. “I appreciate all of the great work done here at POET Biorefining.” General manager Dave Gloer took the director on a tour of the plant and discussed the economic and environmental benefits of using corn ethanol for transportation fuel as well as the economic benefits of ethanol for consumers, local businesses and rural economies.
  • Morrison & Foerster partner Peter Hsiao has been elected a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, one of the premier professional legal associations in America. Mr. Hsiao is head of the firm’s Environment and Energy Group in Los Angeles. He is a trial lawyer and chemical engineer with more than 29 years of courtroom experience in environmental, natural resources, and chemical litigation. He is one of 16 lawyers named as a Distinguished Environmental Advocate by the American Bar Association, former chair of the State Bar of California’s Environmental Law Section, and identified by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers and Legal 500 as one of the nation’s leading environmental attorneys.
  • Green-e Marketplace is hosting a free, one-hour webinar about the benefits of using clean-energy in an organization’s sustainability strategy on June 12, 2014 at 10:00 am PT. Green-e Marketplace is a program that recognizes organizations using certified renewable energy and enables them to demonstrate their environmental commitment through the use of the nationally recognized Green-e logo. Green-e Marketplace gives its participants unique resources to help them communicate their commitment to clean energy on their collateral, website, and products.
  • In support of the President’s bold new climate change action plan that will cut significantly down carbon pollution, save lives and help the economy, Americans United for Change released a new video called ‘Not A Scientist’ that says it all about how the climate denier culture is thriving like pine beetles in the Republican Party. The video features numerous potential Presidential candidates down the line to Members of Congress all preaching from the same climate skeptic hymnal, all refusing to acknowledge overwhelming scientific data that climate change is happening and is man-made. But while their head-in-the-sand position has become a litmus test for who’s a real Republican or not, a new PPP poll commissioned by AUFC released yesterday shows it will alienate Independent voters in the coming elections, with only 29% open to supporting a climate skeptic.
Bioenergy Bytes

REG Completes Dynamic Fuels Acquisition

Joanna Schroeder

The largest U.S. biodiesel company Renewable Energy Group (REG) has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary REG Synthetic Fuels, LLC has completed its acquisition of the remaining 50 percent ownership interest in Dynamic Fuels, LLC. Dynamic Fuels was previously owned by Tyson Foods.

The new biodiesel facility will be known as REG Geismar, LLC and is a 75-million gallon renewable diesel biorefinery located in Geismar, Louisiana. The plant was formerly jointly owned by Tyson and Syntroleum and completed in 2010 as the first U.S-based large-scale renewable diesel biorefinery. The majority of the employees will stay on with REG Geismar.

REG Geismar LLCAs a result of last Tuesday’s closing of its purchase of substantially all of the assets of Syntroleum Corporation and the closing of this transaction with Tyson, REG now takes full ownership of Dynamic Fuels’ 75-million gallon nameplate capacity renewable diesel biorefinery.

“Closing these transactions enables our entry into the renewable diesel market in a significant way,” said Daniel J. Oh, Renewable Energy Group, Inc. president and chief executive officer. “We are excited about the opportunity to offer new products to our customers, while building on our core competencies in research, engineering, production, and distribution of advanced biofuels. We look forward to bringing the Geismar biorefinery online and work to do so has begun.”

REG paid Tyson approximately $16.5 million in cash at closing and retired approximately $13.5 million of Dynamic Fuels’ indebtedness to Tyson. REG has also agreed to make up to $35 million in future payments to Tyson tied to product volumes at the Geismar biorefinery over a period of up to eleven and a half years. REG intends to use proceeds from its recent $143,750,000 convertible senior notes offering to either replace the letter of credit that Tyson Foods obtained to support the biorefinery’s $100 million in Gulf Opportunity Zone Bonds, issued through the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority, or to redeem these bonds.

advanced biofuels, Biodiesel, REG, Renewable Energy

2 Ethanol Plants Select ICM’s Added Value Technologies

Joanna Schroeder

In the past few weeks ICM has signed on three new ethanol plants which will use two of their second-generation ethanol technologies. Patriot Renewable Fuels has selected ICM’s Fiber Separation Technology (FST) while Front Range Energy has selected ICM’s patent-pending Selective Milling Technology (SMT) for their ethanol plant located on Windsor, Colorado. SMT is what is known as a “value-added platform technology” for plant yield enhancement.

Front-Range-Web-Logo-2013Dan Sanders, vice president for Front Range Energy LLC, said of their choice, “We are excited to own and operate this new technology from ICM. Our team did an excellent job evaluating options available in this space and we believe ICM’s SMT gives us the greatest potential for overall yield improvements, and the most control to make operational changes on the front end of our plant to enable lower cost per gallon production.”

With the agreement for purchase and full-scale installation at Front Range Energy, there are now 17 ethanol plants in North America either operating or under contract to operate ICM’s Selective Milling Technology, raising total throughput for ICM and its partner in this yield enhancement technology, Fluid Quip Process Technologies, to over 1.65 billion gallons of ethanol production per year.

Chris Mitchell, President of ICM, Inc., said, “SMT continues to prove itself as the long-term solution of choice for plant yield enhancement, and ICM is pleased to continue our partnership with Front Range Energy, a leading supplier of fuel ethanol to the Rocky Mountain transportation fuel market.”

In addition, IGPC Ethanol of Ontario, Canada had signed a contract with ICM to be the first Canadian Adopter of FST. This technology is also a value-added platform technology that increases ethanol yield and throughput. It also increases oil recovery. According to ICM, IGPC-ethanol-logoremoving the fiber from the standard ethanol process allows the plant to produce each gallon more efficiently as well as creates the opportunity for diversified co-products with high protein feeds and fiber.

Jim Grey, CEO of IGPC Ethanol, Inc. said, “Through our previous collaboration with ICM, we believed it was important to continue down the path of obtaining their critical platform technologies that are necessary for making a sustained impact on agriculture and economic development for our region, and strategically position our business for future opportunities.”

Chris Mitchell, President of ICM, Inc., noted, “ICM is very excited to move forward with IGPC as they adopt the FST process. FST is the next step after Selective Milling Technology, which the plant purchased in 2013. The platform technologies build on each other, increasing ethanol and corn oil yield, as well as enabling additional throughput and reducing energy usage. Every gallon produced will be processed more efficiently with the addition of the technologies.”

advanced biofuels, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Renewable Energy

EPA Extends 2013 RFS Compliance Deadline

Cindy Zimmerman

epaThe Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that the compliance deadline for the 2013 Renewable Fuel Standard is being extended from June 30 to September 30. The EPA intends to finalize the remaining portion of its rulemaking to establish the 2014 renewable fuel standards shortly.

EPA said the extension is warranted because they have not yet issued the 2014 annual standards rule. The agency received comments on the proposed rule “emphasizing the need for the EPA to promulgate the 2014 RFS standards quickly and the need for obligated parties to know their obligations for the following year when finalizing their 2013 compliance demonstrations.”

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) was among those requesting the extension and President Charles Drevna says it was the right decision. “While we do not believe that delaying the compliance date eliminates the injury caused by the late promulgation of the rule, it will provide obligated parties with a degree of certainty by knowing their blending obligations,” said Drevna in a statement. “Now more than six months late, the agency’s inability to recognize the impact of continued delays is yet another reason that Congress must address this set of mandates whose very premise has proven obsolete.”

The 2013 RFS mandated 16.55 billion gallons of biofuels be blended into US transportation fuels, including 2.75 billion gallons of advanced biofuels.

EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFS

Iowa’s Steve King Urges EPA to Follow Law on RFS

Cindy Zimmerman

steve-kingIf the administration wants to make changes in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) they should follow the law, according to Rep. Steve King (R-IA).

“The RFS is in statute and there are waiver provisions in there for the EPA, but they need to comply with the waiver provisions,” said King during an interview.

King notes that EPA used 2011 data in proposing volume requirements for this year under the RFS. “So we’ve asked them in hearings, discussions, pleadings, every way that we can … that we want them to go back and look at the 2013 data and go back and re-read the law,” he said. “If they make those adjustments appropriately, they’ll come back to what the law says.”

King made those comments during an interview at World Pork Expo in Des Moines last week.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) RFS comments
Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government, RFS

Gen 1.5 – Corn Fiber to Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

scott-kohlSomewhere between corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol is a midpoint that can be found in the corn kernel.

“Generation one is starch to ethanol and generation two is corn stover and grasses but there is cellulose in the corn kernel,” explained ICM, Inc. technical director Scott Kohl during a session last week at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. “That’s the Generation 1.5 – the fiber in the corn kernel.”

Kohl says ICM is developing processes to separate that fiber from the rest of the kernel to make more ethanol so that the yield from a single bushel of corn will increase. “We’ve run nearly 2,000 hours of pilot runs on that system,” he said. “We are now in the process of getting the financing arranged to have the first plant running by the middle of 2015.” Interview with Scott Kohl, ICM

It was just announced last week that Patriot Renewable Fuels of Annawan, Illinois will be one of the first to use Gen 1.5 with ICM’s patent-pending Fiber Separation Technology (FST). “ICM’s ethanol technology is a logical platform on which to build our business as a bio refinery” said Patriot’s VP/GM Rick Vondra. “There are many new product and growth possibilities using corn as our feedstock, and we have identified these as two high potential processes that we can adopt now.”

2014 CUTC Photo Album

Audio, corn, CUTC, Patriot Renewable Fuels

GENERcoin to Back Renewable Alternative to Coal

Joanna Schroeder

Now this is an interesting concept that I’ve run across – a mix of digital currency with renewable energy. The crypto currency is backed by real Green ENERgy and their product is coined ‘GENERcoin’. The product is being offered through Arterran Renewables and according to the company combines stable value together with economic utility that neither debt-backed or gold-backed currencies offer.

Ok, let’s take a step back. Arterran Renewables is a nextgen biofuel company whose technology converts any waste with a suitable cellulose content into a solid biofuel that can replace coal.  According to the company, the result is a renewable and abundant source of energy that produces significantly more energy than industrial wood pellets, with no off gassing, superior combustion characteristics, and lower handling costs.

“Arterran Renewables is very enthusiastic about the potential from this partnership with members of the crypto currency community. The mutual discovery of the benefits that each of us can offer the world is enormous,” said Arterran’s CEO Lloyd Davis. “Arterran believes both parties have disruptive innovation at the core of our technologies and our innovations will change the World.”

GENERcoinNow back to GENERcoin. The solid biofuel, which is a replacement for coal, is reality thanks in part to GENERcoin, whose currency is in essence backing the technology.

“GENERcoin is simply about one thing: a World with sustainable renewable energy. The world cannot afford to ignore the effects of 150 years of fossil fuel use, nor can it continue down the big energy business as usual path,” said GENERcoin’s lead visionary David Tiessen. “The effects of fossil fuel use will continue to increase the CO2 levels of the planet and negatively affect our climate and the future of thousands of species, including ours.”

“We now have the choice of business as usual and the continued burning of dirty fossil fuels and the polluting of the planet, or renewable and sustainable alternatives like Arterran Renewables,” continued Tiessen. “Mankind now has at our disposal clean, sustainable energy alternatives and Arterran Renewables with their ability to directly replace coal is the latest exciting addition. GENERcoin is the medium to deploy Arterran’s NextGen Renewable Solid Biofuel and we’re excited to get down to the business of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

GENERcoins will be released through a crowdsale taking place on the Master Protocol on June 11, 2014. Each participant will actually be pre-purchasing Arterran’s NextGEN Solid Biofuel at the rate of $0.062 USD per coin, equivalent to 10,000 btu calculated at a significant discount (according to current market prices as reported by Argus Media). Each coin holder then has the option of redeeming their coins for the fuel or exchanging or trading them as they see fit.

bioenergy, biomass, Clean Energy, Electricity, Waste-to-Energy

Prez Michelle Bachelet of Chile Inaugurates Solar Plant

Joanna Schroeder

President Michelle Bachelet of Chile inaugurated the Amanecer Solar CAP plant in Copiapo, Chile. The solar project is the largest photovoltaic solar power plant in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. The project was developed, built and interconnected by SunEdison under an offtake agreement with CAP Group.

The Amanecer Solar CAP plant has 100 MW of total installed capacity; the amount of energy consumed each year by approximately 125,000 Chilean homes, or equivalent to 10 percent of the renewable energy generation capacity goal established by the Chilean Government for 2014. The project involves an investment of US $250 million and is critical for the future development of renewable energy in Chile and Latin America.

SunEdison 100 MW Amanecer Solar CAP Power PlantAhmad Chatila, President and CEO of SunEdison, noted: “This project has changed the course of renewable energy development not only in Chile and Latin America, but throughout the world. Amanecer Solar CAP has become a benchmark for SunEdison in how to develop photovoltaic solar energy on an international level.”

Located 37 kilometers from Copiapo in the Atacama Desert, the plant has more than 310,000 photovoltaic modules spread over 250 acres. The Amanecer Solar CAP plant was built in six months and all of its energy is injected into the Central Interconnected System, which lowers the net cost of grid electricity.

In its first year of operation it is estimated that the plant will inject 270 GWh (gigawatt hours) of clean energy into the system. To generate the same amount of energy using diesel would require more than 71 million liters of fuel.

Jose Perez, President of SunEdison for Europe, Africa and Latin America, added: “This plant demonstrates that photovoltaic solar energy is an ideal way of diversifying the energy matrix in Chile, reducing costs and contributing towards meeting the demand for clean and sustainable energy. SunEdison has now interconnected 150 MW in the Atacama Desert – the 100 MW Amanecer Solar CAP plant plus a 50 MW power plant in San Andres – and this is just the starting point. We are firmly committed to the future of clean energy production and the development of the energy industry in Chile.”

Clean Energy, Electricity, International, Solar