Southern Minn

March 14, 2019

By Anna Vangsness

Farmers and local agriculture businesses in Steele County are cashing in on a winning hand: renewable energy and ag.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, wind, solar and biomass energy can be harvested forever, providing farmers with a long-term source of income. Renewable energy can be used on the farm to replace other fuels or sold as a “cash crop.”

One organization in Steele County that has figured out the winning combination has been at the forefront of the renewable energy game since 1995. Al-Corn Clean Fuel in Claremont grinds 44 million bushels of corn and produces 130 million gallons of ethanol annually. The plant also produces 310,000 tons of high protein livestock feed and 28 million pounds of corn oil. The majority of these co-products are consumed by refiners, livestock feeders and biodiesel producers throughout Minnesota.

“When the plant was built in 1995, it was designed to be a 10 million gallon plan,” Al-Corn CEO Randall Doyal said. “Now we’re producing at 13 times bigger than it was built for.”

The reason behind such an impressive growth is that there was a very local market for corn growth in southern Minnesota that didn’t exist prior to Al-Corn.

“As farmers have gotten more efficient, they can produce more and more corn from every acre,” Doyal said. “Our industry has consumed it and given it a place to go. We’re turning into valuable products and, in turn, it’s raised their corn price.”

Ethanol is the gift that keeps on giving because now farmers don’t have to ship their product as far as they used to.

“That alone saves transportation costs, so they get more value,” Doyal said. “When farmers here decided to do this, their hope, their dream, was to get an extra 25 cents a bushel for their corn. The farmers that invested in our plant and delivers here, they got the value of processing. For 20 years, we’ve averaged 75 cents a bush of corn.”

By processing the corn in Minnesota and taking off the starch and carbohydrates, which they don’t need, Al-Corn is able to take the carbohydrates and convert it to ethanol. The rest of the corn is concentrated and made into a feed. That allows Al-Corn to reduce the cost of transportation and decrease the need for livestock feed because it’s produce right in Minnesota.

“In this case, we generate an industry and money that stays at home,” Doyal explained. “That’s what we’re seeing in local communities and states across the midwest.”

Doyal said many people don’t know it, but they, too are using corn-made ethanol every day.

“If you’re running gasoline in your car, you’re burning at least 10 percent ethanol or better,” he said. “In Minnesota, we use about 13 percent ethanol.”

While there is limit to how much ethanol can be produced, Doyal said that number isn’t going to be reached soon. What he sees for the future is ethanol being in more countries that are waking up to the benefit of the renewable energy.

“We’re starting to see blending happening around the world,” he said. “We produce it in the United States cheaper than anywhere in the world.”

Though Al-Corn doesn’t directly ship internationally, Doyal anticipates that some day they may due to the leaps in energy efficiency and productivity.

“The goal when I started was to get two and one half gallons of ethanol from every bushel of corn we ran,” he said. “Today, we’re producing three gallons of ethanol. With the way we use energy in the plant, we’ve decreased our energy consumption over one-third. We’re finding different ways to use energy more efficiently with heat exchange and just finding better ways of doing things, farmers are doing the same.

With other forms of renewable energy, Doyal said the benefit is the ability to reuse it over and over again.

Also working to reuse as much renewable energy as they can is the Steele-Waseca Co-Op Electric (SWCE) said General Manager Syd Briggs.

SWCE buys power wholesale and distributes it to homes, farms and businesses. Briggs said the cooperative encourages members to do whatever it takes to save money and use renewable energy.

“We help with rebates, help assist with distraction energy resources, if you want to put in wind, solar or turbines, we’ll work with you on that, too,” he said.

If a home, farm or business has a renewable energy form working, SWCE will even trade for it. Meaning, if they use 1,000 hours of electricity but they’ve also generated 1,000 hours of electricity, they won’t have to buy it from SWCE. As a bonus, if someone generates more than 1,000 hours of electricity, SWCE will pay them a retail rat for it.

“We have 60 people out of 11,300 doing that, but that number will go up,” he said. “Just this year we had 20 people come on.”

Briggs said in the long run, renewable energy works to cutdown harmful emissions, especially carbon dioxide. Whether producing it from solar or wind, it’s that much more renewable and carbon free.

“Overall, the benefit is that it makes it a cleaner environment and makes you more self-sufficient,” he said. “In time, the third thing it will do is be cost effective. We’re not necessarily there yet, but in time it will happen.”

Read the original article: Making the Most Out of Renewable Energy

The Gazette

March 10, 2019

By Tom Vilsack

As presidential candidates make their way through Iowa and beyond, courting caucus goers and primary voters, it will be vital they include stops in rural communities contributing to America’s economy. It will be key they show up, listen, and find meaningful ways to engage our rural communities.

Rural industries are improving our energy stability and defining our transportation future. Value-added agriculture — manufacturing that makes the most out every granule of grain, waste, and grass — is a bedrock of stable, rural economies.

Right here in Iowa, biofuels have paved the way for rural economic development while making gains for our environment. Revitalizing rural communities with good-paying and high-tech jobs, they’re providing an additional market for our farmers and growing cleaner options at the pump across the nation.

For progressive candidates to understand all voters, they need to experience these promising innovations. Through biofuel production, rural communities are helping us achieve key progressive environmental goals to offset and neutralize carbon emissions and climate change, relieve disparate air and health conditions, and improve job security for working families.

Biofuel production is a sound investment in a greener future. During my time as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture we measured how effectively biofuels reduce greenhouse gases. The results are astounding. Corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 43 percent compared to gasoline and has the potential to reduce emissions by as much as 76 percent through further efficiencies, land stewardship, and conservation practices that our farmers are constantly implementing.

Iowa biofuels are not only delivering cleaner, low carbon fuels today, they are driving investment in biomass and switch grass, which can lower GHG emissions more than 100 percent. Recent biofuel innovations from the fields of Iowa are unleashing the potential for ultralow carbon fuels from recycled waste. Each innovation leads to more jobs and economic growth in America’s struggling rural communities.

As Americans continue to choose ethanol, they’re helping to offset toxic, cancer-causing chemicals that come with petroleum-based fuels. Reducing and replacing these chemicals lowers asthma rates and urban smog. These incredible biofuel benefits are not even the tip of the iceberg.

Stability in this market comes from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) support — that support drives investors and innovation. Candidates interested in supporting a greener solution to our transportation needs would do well to support year-round E15 — a fuel made with 15 percent biofuel — and commit to ending handouts to oil industry giants via small refinery waivers.

Iowans and rural Americans across the country know these value-added benefits open endless opportunities. The common-sense practices from the farm to the pump are employing rural Iowans, greening our environment, and saving consumers costs at the pump. Iowa’s rural communities are prime real estate for America’s clean energy future. As we continue to innovate biofuels and invest in our growing wind generation, we can show the world a greener future beyond air pollution and offshore drilling.

To truly understand the innovations taking place and the industry impact, I encourage 2020 candidates to visit rural Iowa and these innovative industries. When you meet with rural Iowans, you find people working hard to make the world a better place. What starts in the field results in cleaner air for all of us and good jobs in communities that need them.

Successful campaigns have been able to find ways to attract rural voters around kitchen table issues. In 2007 and 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama spent 89 days visiting Iowa homes and businesses, powering him through the caucus and to the White House. The best way to win is to start the conversation. Because what gets discussed around kitchen tables in Iowa ends up feeding and fueling the world.

Tom Vilsack is a former Democratic governor of Iowa and served as U.S. secretary of agriculture under President Barack Obama.

Read the original column: Candidates Must Engage Rural Communities

Renewable Fuels Association

March 6, 2019

News Release

New government data released today show that U.S. ethanol exports achieved a new record in 2018, as an astonishing 1.70 billion gallons of ethanol were shipped to more than 80 countries around the world. The 2018 export total beat the previous export record set in 2017 by 25%, and the data show that nearly 11% of total U.S. ethanol production was exported last year.

Brazil was the leading destination for U.S. ethanol exports, receiving 513.2 million gallons (mg), or 30% of the total. Canada was the second-leading market with 349.6 mg, followed by India at 156.8 mg. Together, the three countries accounted for 60% percent of total ethanol exports. The European Union, South Korea, and the Philippines were other top markets in 2018. Export volumes to nine of the top 10 destinations saw increases over 2017 volumes, with Brazil, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Colombia showing the largest gains.

The value of U.S. ethanol exports was $2.7 billion in 2018, up 14% from 2017’s value and the highest on record. Undenatured fuel ethanol accounted for 51% of total exports, while denatured fuel ethanol was 43%. Denatured and undenatured ethanol for non-fuel industrial uses made up the remaining 6% of exports.

U.S. ethanol imports remained scarce in 2018, with just 78 mg entering the country. Nearly all of the imported product entered through California ports and was used to meet the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard requirements.

Reflecting on the record year, RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper stated, “One of the greatest successes for our industry in 2018 was growth in the export market, driven in large part by the sustained international market development efforts of RFA and its partners. More than one out of every 10 gallons of ethanol produced in the United States went into the international market—providing savings at the pump and cleaner air for drivers in more than 80 countries around the globe. This accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider that U.S. ethanol faced punitive trade barriers in several key markets. RFA will continue to work with its partners to break down artificial trade barriers, expand export opportunities for U.S. producers, and educate the world’s consumers on the benefits of low-carbon renewable fuels.”

RFA will issue later today its 2018 U.S. Ethanol Exports and Imports Statistical Summary.

Read the original release: U.S. Ethanol Exports of 1.70 Billion Gallons in 2018

Renewables Now

March 4, 2019

By Steve Hanson, Sean Hill

In its February 2019 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts that several recent trends in US biofuels markets will continue through 2020. In the STEO, production of fuel ethanol and net imports of biomass-based diesel stay unchanged, while net exports of fuel ethanol decline modestly. Federal mandates and state programs continue to support biofuel consumption through 2020, however, biofuels remain a relatively small share of total US liquid transportation fuels supply.

The most common biofuels consumed both domestically and globally are fuel ethanol and biomass-based diesel. Fuel ethanol is primarily blended with motor gasoline blendstock in the US to produce 10% ethanol blended motor gasoline, or E10. Biomass-based diesel, which collectively refers to biodiesel and renewable diesel, is typically mixed with ultra-low sulfur distillate fuel at varying percentages.

EIA expects that US fuel ethanol production will remain near current levels, decreasing slightly in 2019 to 1.04 million b/d and increasing to 1.05 million b/d in 2020. Fuel ethanol production is largely dependent on domestic motor gasoline consumption, which has been relatively stable in recent years, as fuel economy improvements have largely offset increases in population and vehicle miles traveled.

US ethanol exports have accounted for an increasing share of production since 2013 and have contributed to market growth. EIA forecasts net ethanol exports, which reached nearly 110,000 b/d in 2018, will fall to an average of 90,000 b/d in 2019 and 2020, driven primarily by the expectation that record levels of ethanol exports to Brazil in early 2018 will not persist.

Biomass-based diesel production—excluding renewable diesel—was about 120,000 b/d in 2018 and grows to 160,000 b/d in 2020. Total biomass-based diesel consumption will increase from an estimated 134,000 b/d in 2018 to 174,000 b/d in 2020. Growth in domestic production will continue to be supported by antidumping and countervailing duties placed on biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia that went into effect in 2017. Current import restrictions on these countries will contribute to flat biomass-based diesel net imports through 2020, with US biomass-based diesel net imports about 70% lower than the 2016 peak.

Biofuels account for a relatively small share of total transportation fuels, with consumption supported over time by the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as well as state-level biofuel programs. US consumption of motor gasoline was 9.31 million b/d in 2018, and EIA expects that it will increase by less than 1% annually to 9.36 million b/d by 2020.

Of the motor gasoline demand in 2020, domestic ethanol consumption will contribute about 950,000 b/d, corresponding to a national-level blend rate estimate of 10.2%. Limited demand and ongoing regulatory and infrastructure hurdles for ethanol blends higher than E10 (e.g., E15, E85) and lower-priced petroleum blendstocks restrict higher domestic ethanol consumption rates.

US diesel fuel consumption, which includes biomass-based diesel, is expected to increase from 3.8 million b/d to 3.9 million b/d between 2018 and 2020 in the STEO. The share of biomass-based diesel in diesel fuel increases from 3.6% in 2018 to 4.5% in 2020. Demand for renewable diesel, which includes stand-alone production facilities as well as petroleum refiners that co-process renewable feedstocks in downstream units such as hydrotreaters, is expected to grow in 2020.

Read the original article: EIA Expects Stable US Biofuels Production, Consumption, and Trade Through 2020