Danforth Center to Lead Research on Sorghum for Bioenergy

Cindy Zimmerman

The Danforth Plant Science Center with principal investigator Andrea Eveland will lead a multi-institutional project to study sorghum as a versatile bioenergy crop, and its response to drought. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Genome-Enabled Plant Biology program supports the three-year $2.7 million project for the Determination of Gene Function program.

Sorghum is the fifth most widely grown cereal crop worldwide and the third largest in the U.S. It has natural resilience to drought stress and excessive heat, which is attractive for developing bioenergy feedstocks for production on marginal lands. Eveland’s project explores the gene networks underlying this remarkable stress resilience in sorghum and seeks to define the functions of critical genes and how they are regulated. Drought tolerance is a complex trait and understanding its regulation in the broader context of the whole plant and its environment will require advanced approaches in genetics, genomics, phenotyping and gene editing.

bioenergy, biofuels, Research, sorghum

Truth About Ethanol and Carbon Emissions

Cindy Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper sets the record straight on ethanol and carbon emissions in a commentary on the RFA Blog

There’s been a lot of talk—and a lot of confusion—recently about corn ethanol’s carbon footprint. Before being retracted due to “flawed interpretation of data” and “inaccurate estimates of carbon emissions,” a September 8 Reuters article initially asserted that the carbon emissions related to making ethanol are worse than the emissions from making gasoline.

How could that be? How could Reuters possibly reach that initial conclusion before withdrawing their story? What’s the truth?

Unfortunately, Reuters took the same flawed and misleading approach to examining ethanol’s carbon footprint that many other biofuel critics and opponents have taken in the past. Like other erroneous attacks on ethanol’s carbon benefits, the Reuters article failed to look at the full carbon lifecycle for ethanol, while also failing to make appropriate comparisons amongst different fuel types.

Read the entire commentary.

Commentary, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA

Ethanol Top Priority for New NCGA President

Cindy Zimmerman

Minnesota farmer Tom Haag is the new president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), starting his term on October 1. Haag farms corn and soybeans in Eden Valley with his son Nathan and has been farming for over 40 years. He has has served on the Minnesota Corn Growers Association board since 2010 and on the NCGA board since 2016.

One of Haag’s biggest priorities as NCGA president is advancing higher ethanol blends through legislation like the Next Generation Fuels Act, which is in both the House and Senate. “So the ball is rolling and I think there’s a great opportunity for that,” said Haag. “If we can get a 30 percent blend (and) use the science behind our technology, I think we can compete with electric vehicles.”

Haag touched on multiple topics important to the nation’s corn growers during a news conference Tuesday, including ethanol, crop insurance, exports, transportation, and negotiations on the next farm bill.

New NCGA President Tom Haag 23:06

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NCGA

Gilbarco Veeder-Root Adds New Features to Encore® 700 S

Cindy Zimmerman

Gilbarco Veeder-Root has added two new premium features for the Encore 700S Series: 6-Grade Select option and the 15.6” touchscreen. These features are designed to provide convenience store operators with enhanced flexibility and an improved customer experience.

As the alternative fuels market grows towards biofuels and other blended fuel types, adding a 6th-Grade Select empowers retailers to leverage those trends by enhancing their own blending strategies. The 6-Grade Select allows retailers to blend any two of four inlets, with up to four hoses and six fuel grades at the same fueling position – allowing the most fuel flexibility possible. Examples of how retailers may implement this feature include blending ethanol fuels with gasoline for FlexFuel grades or offering additional variety such as ethanol-free fuel along with diesel and traditional grades.

Both premium upgrade options will be available to order October 7th.

Biodiesel, biofuels, blends, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Retailers

Renewable Diesel Projected to Boost US Biofuel Growth

Cindy Zimmerman

A new report from the CoBank Knowledge Exchange indicates the surge of investments in renewable diesel production capacity is becoming a turbo-charged game changer for the U.S. biofuels industry.

“The outlook for biofuels is favorable as the U.S. and other leading developed countries embrace renewable liquid transportation fuels as a solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Kenneth Scott Zuckerberg, lead grain and farm supply economist for CoBank. “Renewable diesel offers the most intriguing opportunity in the biofuels space, given the extraordinary growth potential.”

As major oil companies have begun embracing renewable diesel, U.S. production is expected to increase exponentially. Several industry stakeholders have announced plans for new soybean crush and refinery facilities over the last two years. Soybean oil is the feedstock most commonly used for producing renewable diesel. Combined, the proposed crush and refinery projects would increase U.S. renewable diesel production capacity six-fold by 2030 to 6.5 billion gallons annually. However, the expected growth in soybean oil-based renewable diesel requires considerably more soybean bushels for domestic crush. CoBank estimates that U.S. soybean acreage would need to increase by 17.9 million acres to fill the supply gap created by the additional crush and refinery projects that have been announced. Additionally, the U.S. would need to stop exporting whole soybeans.

Alternatives to a massive shift of acres from corn to soybeans would include growing other oilseeds like canola and sunflower on a larger scale, importing other vegetable oils, or using other feedstocks such as beef tallow to produce renewable diesel fuel.

Biofuel production has grown nearly 8% every year over the past 15 years, driven by tax credits and targeted government programs, including the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will increase usage of renewable energy in general, and biofuels in particular.
Biodiesel and renewable diesel are 50%-55% less carbon-intensive than traditional petroleum diesel. Although renewable diesel and biodiesel have similarly low carbon scores, renewable diesel offers the additional benefit of being used as a “drop-in” fuel. That means it does not require additional blending with petroleum diesel, which is required before biodiesel can be used by commercial engines. As a drop-in fuel, renewable diesel does not require any modifications to older engines, a key attribute for increased adoption.

Read the full report.

Biodiesel, biofuels, renewable diesel, Soybeans

Iowa On-Farm Biodiesel Program Funding Triples

Cindy Zimmerman

Funding has more than tripled for Iowa’s new statewide On-Farm Biodiesel Credit Program to give back to farmers using biodiesel on their farms.

The program, launched in August by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, refunds farmers up to 50 cents per gallon for buying biodiesel blends. Originally funded at $10,000, the Iowa Soybean Association and Iowa Biodiesel Board have joined as partners, providing another $10,000 to the program. In-state biodiesel producers Western Iowa Energy, Western Dubuque Biodiesel and Chevron Renewable Energy Group have each contributed $5,000, bringing total available funds to $35,000.

Under the program, farmers can earn 25 cents-per-gallon for filling up with B11 (11 percent biodiesel) and 50 cents-per-gallon with B20 (20 percent biodiesel), up to a maximum credit of $500.

To be eligible, farmers must purchase blends for an on-farm tank in Iowa actively used for an agricultural operation.
The groups note that the majority of farm equipment manufacturers support up to B20 biodiesel blends while some manufacturers, such as John Deere and Caterpillar, support up to B100 depending on the model year of the equipment.

Program funding is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Program eligibility and rules can be found here.

Biodiesel, Farming

Reuters Withdraws Ethanol Plant Emissions Story

Cindy Zimmerman

It is pretty rare for a national news outlet to ever completely retract a story, but on September 26, Reuters withdrew a controversial story released on September 8 regarding carbon emissions at U.S. ethanol plants, a story that was immediately rebuked by the ethanol industry for its faulty conclusions.

Reuters said the story comparing carbon emissions at U.S. ethanol plants and oil refineries has been withdrawn “because of flaws in its interpretation of data that led to inaccurate estimates of pollution at individual ethanol plants.”

According to the retraction:
The errors stemmed in part from a misinterpretation of Environmental Protection Agency data that included emissions from non-fuel products produced by the ethanol plants, such as alcohol for beverages or sanitizer.

Three of the plants named in the story as top industry polluters – owned by Golden Triangle Energy, Central Indiana Ethanol and Green Plains Inc (GPRE.O) – produced mostly non-fuel products, according to the companies. That made the article’s comparison of their emissions to oil refineries inappropriate.

In addition, the emissions estimate for another plant, owned by Marquis Energy, was inflated because Reuters used data on fuel capacity to derive an estimate of plant emissions per gallon of fuel production. The estimate was overstated because the Marquis plant’s actual production was substantially higher than its stated capacity in the data set.

Data on actual production at ethanol plants is not publicly available.

Folks, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

RFA Elects New Board Leadership at Annual Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association held its annual membership meeting this week in Milwaukee and elected new board leadership. Erik Huschitt, CEO of Badger State Ethanol, was elected Chairman of the organization, replacing Jeanne McCaherty of Guardian Energy Management.

Huschitt, of Monroe, Wisc., has been with Badger State since January 2002 and currently serves as president of the Wisconsin BioFuels Association. He also has spent years on the board of the Wisconsin Agri-Business Association, which plays a vital role in Wisconsin’s feed and grain industries.

RFA’s board also elected Jeff Oestmann, CEO of Granite Falls Energy, as Vice Chairman. Before becoming CEO of Granite Falls in May 2021, he served as head of biofuels operations at Syngenta and was previously CEO of East Kansas Agri-Energy.

“Erik Huschitt and Jeff Oestmann have proven themselves time and again as thoughtful and strategic leaders deeply committed to the role ethanol can play not just in the communities they serve, but also across our nation and around the world,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “This is a critical and exciting time for the ethanol industry. We know Erik and Jeff will provide outstanding leadership and guidance to the association and the entire industry as we face the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in 2023.”

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA

Iowa Biodiesel Board Elects New Chair

Cindy Zimmerman

The Iowa Biodiesel Board has elected Nathan Nolte, biofuels sales manager for Ag Processing Inc., to serve as the chair of the Iowa Biodiesel Board.

AGP, a prominent farmer-owned cooperative, is the largest soybean processor west of the Mississippi and is a leading biodiesel producer. The Omaha-based company operates three biodiesel plants, two of which are in Iowa. They are AGP Algona and AGP Sergeant Bluff, which the company says was first commercial scale biodiesel plant in the nation. AGP employs about 640 people companywide. Nolte, who has worked for AGP since 2010, grew up on a farm in southeast Nebraska.

“I’m passionate about the benefits biodiesel can deliver to society, and the value it adds to the business of farming,” Nolte said. “I look forward to the challenge of taking over as chair during a pivotal time in Iowa, as the state implements some of the most comprehensive pro-biofuels state legislation anywhere in the country.”

The Biofuels Access Act, led by Governor Kim Reynolds and passed earlier this year, expands incentives for biodiesel production and encourages the use of ever-higher blends. It is the first piece of legislation passed in the U.S. to incentivize 30% biodiesel (B30).

Biodiesel, biofuels

Fuel Tax Credit Retroactively Extended for Propane Vehicles

Cindy Zimmerman

The Propane Education & Research Council is encouraging propane autogas fleet operators to take advantage of the Alternative Fuel Tax Credit, which was included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Propane autogas fleet operators who apply for the tax credit will be able to claim a credit for every gasoline gallon equivalent of propane autogas purchased, or about 37 cents per gallon. The bill not only extends the credits through Dec. 31, 2024, but fleet owners can also apply for credits retroactively for any fuel purchases made in 2022. Tax exempt entities that use propane autogas from an on-site fueling station for a vehicle fleet also qualify for the incentive.

The new law also extends the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, which allows operators to claim up to six percent or $100,000 of the cost of installing qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property, including propane autogas refueling equipment.

Propane