More E85 Ethanol Stations, More Supportive Studies

John Davis

RFA-logo-13It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks for E85 ethanol, as the green fuel made its way into 24 more stations across the country and got another study with supportive results. The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) says there are now 139 stations in the Nation offering E85. Plus the group touted the results of Iowa State University’s Bruce Babcock study that found “… it is feasible to meet 2014 and 2015 biofuel mandates with expanded E85 consumption given existing numbers of flex vehicles and stations that sell E85.”

Other key conclusions include:

• “…enough flex vehicles are located close enough to stations that sell E85 that significant volumes of E85 would be sold if it were appropriately priced.”

• “Current high RIN prices create a large incentive for oil companies to increase consumption of E85 because expansion in E85 consumption will decrease RIN prices.”

• “…pricing E85 low enough to generate fuel cost savings has the potential to quickly increase ethanol consumption, perhaps by three billion gallons over the next year or two.”

RFA is glad to see the demand high and the price low for E85, averaging just $2.64/gallon and running as low as $2.17/gallon in Minnesota, compared to $3.42 for a gallon of regular gasoline.

E85rfa“E85 is in high demand and growing as retailers begin to see the advantages of offering the high level blend at their stations,” said Robert White, Director of Market Development at the Renewable Fuels Association. “The price savings can be seen across the country as more and more drivers demand additional fuel options and cheaper prices at the pump.”

E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Happy With Current Smartphones

Melissa Sandfort

zp-nhOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Planning to buy new iPhone or upgrade?”

Our poll results:
· Happy with my current iPhone 25%
· Still using a dumb phone 25%
· Not an iPhone fan 17%
· Upgrading to 5S 17%
· Buying 1st iPhone – either one 8%
· Other 8%
· Upgrading to 5C 0%

It looks like the majority of you are satisfied with what your current phone has to offer, or still using what you’re comfortable with. Leave the bells and whistles for someone else you say!

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What is your favorite rodeo event?” What really gets your heart racing (besides the cowboys and cowgirls)? Do you show up early for the roping or stay late for the bull riding? Let us know!

ZimmPoll

New Holland Helping Farmers and Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

cnh-club-kacherFarmers who provide corn for ethanol plants can get special discounts on New Holland equipment and help the ethanol industry at the same time.

New Holland district sales manager Bob Kacher says their American Ethanol Producers Club is an initiative they developed two years ago with Growth Energy to help both growers and the ethanol industry. “It offers the opportunity to reinvest back into the ethanol industry through the purchase of New Holland products,” he explained during an event this week at the Absolute Energy biorefinery near Lyle, Minnesota. “The producers are part of the club by their contracts and the amount of grain they sell to the ethanol producing plants and that membership allows them discounts off New Holland equipment that they purchase through their local dealer, and in turn New Holland reinvests back into the support and promotion of ethanol.”

Producers can qualify for club membership if they have a current contract with an ethanol plant for at least 10,000 bushels, supply at least 50,000 bushels per year or purchase at least 280 tons of distillers grain, or be a board member or major investor in an ethanol plant. Bob suggests producers contact their local ethanol plant or Growth Energy for more information.

Find out more in this interview: Interview with Bob Kacher, New Holland
New Holland American Ethanol Producers Club photo album

American Ethanol, Audio, corn, Ethanol, Growth Energy, New Holland

CNG & LNG Conversion Co. Expands to Indiana

John Davis

A1aA California company that converts light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to run on CNG, LNG, and LPG systems is expanding to the Midwest. A-1 Alternative Fuel Systems announced the opening of its new Elkhart, Indiana facility, meeting the needs of several area bus manufacturers.

“We are in a strong position to apply our depth of experience in California to markets all around the country,” said Mark Gilio, President of A-1 Alternative Fuel Systems. “Over the past eighteen years we have built a reputation in California that I am very proud of and my goal is to make sure that the rest of the country is able to experience, firsthand, exactly what enabled us to earn that reputation.” Having installed natural gas systems on over 400 vehicles at his Fresno headquarters in 2012, Gilio believes the new Elkhart facility has the potential to reach that capacity and more. The company will be cross-engineering its range of platforms (Ford E-450, F-550/650, F-59, GM G4500) with body builders of the major manufacturers in Elkhart and the surrounding areas.

The Fresno-based A-1 made the announcement at the recent BusCon in Chicago.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied natural gas (LNG)

19 Up-and-Comers to Be Part of Solar Show

John Davis

SPINineteen up-and-coming companies have been picked to participate in a program to showcase sun power at next month’s Solar Power International. The Start-Up Alley Challenge held on Wednesday, October 23 during SPI ’13 in Chicago, is the culmination of the show’s new Start-Up Alley, a new, featured show floor area at the solar meeting.

Start-Up Alley Semi-Finalists:
SPIlist2

Mike Dershowitz, President & Founder of ModSolar, and the driving force behind the program, commented, “At so many major events, finding the start-up companies with the innovative ideas is like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack. Start-Up Alley puts all the needles in one place.”

The 19 semi-finalists chosen receive a free booth at SPI.

Solar

ICM, Lincolnway Ink Deal on Selective Milling Tech

John Davis

ICM SMTICM, Inc. and Lincolnway Energy, LLC have signed a deal that will see Lincolnway purchase ICM’s patent-pending Selective Milling Technology™ (SMT™) that increases ethanol yield and increases oil recovery for its customers.

ICM President Chris Mitchell stated, “We are thrilled to announce the purchase of our Selective Milling Technology™ by Lincolnway Energy. We appreciate the opportunity to have designed Lincolnway Energy’s ethanol plant, and years later – to have another opportunity to deliver this successful yield enhancement solution that can improve their bottom line and strengthen the community of Nevada, Iowa and surrounding communities.”

Lincolnway Energy President and CEO Eric Hakmiller stated, “As the industry continues to get more efficient, Lincolnway Energy felt it was a priority to keep up with new technology. The SMT™ system will allow us to take the maximum advantage on the high quality corn that is produced in Central Iowa and help us extract the greatest amount of ethanol, corn oil and DDGS possible. We are looking forward to what this will do for our yields and returns to our facility.”

ICM is based out of Colwich, Kansas, and Lincolnway Energy operates in Nevada, Iowa

Ethanol, Ethanol News

KiOR Looks to Double Capacity at Cellulosic Facility

John Davis

kior_logo_CMYKCommercial scale cellulosic gasoline and diesel producer KiOR has announced plans to double the capacity of its Columbus, Mississippi facility. Officials expect the project, dubbed Columbus II, will cost approximately $225 million, will break ground within 90 days of raising the money needed and be finished building 18 months later.

Once completed with its latest technology improvements, KiOR expects that the Columbus II project will allow each Columbus facility to achieve greater yields, production capacity and feedstock flexibility than the original design basis for the existing Columbus facility, enabling KiOR to more quickly make progress towards its long-term goal of 92 gallons per bone dry ton of biomass.

Fred Cannon, KiOR’s President and CEO, says this project is an important step in the company’s long-term business plan, as it will make them profitable with lower capital costs and will take advantage of “operational and technological synergies between the two Columbus facilities.” He says it will also help accelerate plans for next year’s groundbreaking of another standard scale commercial production facility in Natchez, Mississippi.

biomass, Cellulosic

Biodiesel Production Responsive to Profitability

John Davis

An analysis shows what might seem obvious, but fills in the gaps of why, that biodiesel production responds positively to profitability. In another quality piece from Scott Irwin with the University of Illinois, he breaks down how staying in the black helps the green fuel.

A more detailed view of production responsiveness is shown in Figure 3. Basically, production in this scenario is “stuck” at the mandate regardless of the level of returns (more technically, shifts in supply and demand curves do not change market quantities over a wide range of outcomes). The flat fitted regression lines for 2010 and 2012 in Figure 3 confirm this observation. One has to be careful to avoid the mistake of arguing that when the tax credit is restored a more normal upward sloping response curve will be observed. If market participants expect the credit to be in place permanently then market prices will adjust but production will remain stuck at the mandate. However, if market participants expect the credit to expire at the end of a calendar year then there is an obvious incentive for blenders to bid up the price of biodiesel in order to increase production and take full advantage of the credit before it expires. This appears to be exactly what happened in 2011 and is currently happening in 2013. In essence, these unique market circumstances provide an opportunity to learn something about the responsiveness of biodiesel production to profitability even though a seemingly binding RFS mandate is in place.
fig3irwin1
Irwin concludes that biodiesel production is quite responsive to profitability, if the right market conditions are present. He says the “next challenge is to determine whether a supply curve based on the estimated relationships in combination with a demand curve can replicate the prices of D4 RINs actually traded in the marketplace.”

Biodiesel

Project LIBERTY Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Update

John Davis

POETplant1A 25 million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant is on track to start cranking out the advanced biofuel early next year. Officials with POET-DSM Advanced Biofuel’s Project LIBERTY updated progress on the refinery in Northwest Iowa during the Platts Biofuels and Chemicals conference.

“We had a great summer for construction and have been able to stay on track to start producing cellulosic bio-ethanol early next year,” [Steve Hartig, General Manager – Licensing for POET-DSM] said. “It’s impressive to see this technology coming to life in Emmetsburg.”

[The plant] will be one of the first plants of its kind in the nation. It will use cob bales – made up of corn cobs, leaves, husks and some stalk – to produce 20 million gallons of cellulosic bio-ethanol annually, later ramping up to 25 million gallons.

Hartig said the progress to date includes:

Biomass receiving and grinding building is complete and biomass processing equipment is nearly installed.
Saccharification, fermentation tanks are complete.
Equipment installation and pipe work is ongoing.
Cooling tower construction is underway.
Underground utilities are nearing completion.

About 300 workers are on the site daily, making preparations for the early 2014 start.

The most recent construction photos are available on POET-DSM’s Flickr site.

Cellulosic, Ethanol, Ethanol News, POET

Ethanol to Save World 100 Mil Tons of GHGs in 2013

John Davis

GRFA1The expected 20 billion gallons (85 billion liters) of ethanol production this year will keep 100 million tonnes of green house gas (GHG) emissions out of the environment. That’s the forecast from the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA).

“This years forecast shows that even in the face of a difficult global economy, demand for biofuels is growing. This is excellent news but demand and production need to continue to grow to further reduce our reliance on crude oil,” said Bliss Baker, spokesperson for the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance.

More positive news from this global growth is that ethanol production in all parts of the world, including the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe are forecasted to increase, with the United States and Brazil continuing to be the largest producers.

“Perhaps the best news of all is that Europe is forecasted to increase ethanol output by over 3% in 2013 as biofuels continue to be in demand and the industry continues to grow in the face of political wrangling and economic hardship,” stated Baker.

Removing 100 million tonnes of GHGs is the equivalent of taking 20 million cars off the road… as many as all the registered cars in Portugal and The Netherlands.

Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, International