In the News

Bio-Fuels International

March 21, 2019

Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (LBDS), the renewables division of Canadian firm Lallemand, announced that it has signed an agreement with car manufacturer Toyota.

The agreement regards the production and marketing of Toyota’s XyloAce yeast strains for cellulosic ethanol production in the US.

Lallemand describes XyloAce as ‘highly efficient’ at fermenting xylose and arabinose, whilst also being highly resistant to fermentation-inhibiting substances such as acetic acid. Lallemand continues to claim that the strains have achieved some of the highest ethanol fermentation density levels in the world.

“Adding the Toyota XyloAce product line to our portfolio will allow our customers to choose from the very best cellulosic yeast strains available,” said LBDS president Angus Ballard.

“We are proud to be working with Toyota and look forward to driving increased profitability for cellulosic ethanol producers throughout North America.”

Read the original article: Toyota to Launch Yeast Strains for US Cellulosic Ethanol

Senator Amy Klobuchar

March 13, 2019

Press Release

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the following statement after today’s release of a proposed rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow for the year-round sale of E15—gasoline with 15 percent ethanol.

“Allowing for the year-round sale of E15 will give us cleaner, more affordable fuel choices—it will bring down prices at the pump, strengthen our homegrown energy economy, and decrease our dependence on foreign oil. I have been fighting for years to allow for the year-round sale of E15 and this announcement is a positive step for consumers, farmers, and the environment. However, the rule also proposes changes to the trading market and credits used to track compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard. If it is determined that these provisions will delay or restrict E15 from getting to the market, I will work with my colleagues to ensure that those policies don’t harm consumers.”

For years, Klobuchar has led a bipartisan push for the EPA to allow for the year-round sale of E15, including letters to the Administration urging them to expand waivers for the sale of E15 in the summer months. Klobuchar is an original cosponsor of the bipartisan Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, which would amend the Clean Air Act to allow for the year-round sale of E15. She has also been a leader in the fight to strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to support American jobs and decrease dependence on foreign oil. Klobuchar and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have led bipartisan letters calling for a strong RFS as the EPA has worked toward finalizing its rules on biofuels volume requirements. Last March, Klobuchar and Grassley led a bipartisan group of 13 senators urging the Administration to cease issuing small refinery waivers and reject changes to the RFS that would upend stability and predictability for small businesses, and rural communities.

Read the original release: Klobuchar Statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Newly Proposed E15 Rule

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

Ethanol Producer Magazine

March 8, 2019

By the Renewable Fuels Association

U.S. exports of distillers grains (DG)—a high-protein co-product of dry mill ethanol production used in feed for livestock and poultry—were the second-highest on record in 2018, totaling 11.88 million metric tons (MMT), according to a summary of 2018 ethanol co-product trade data published today by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).

An estimated 31 percent of U.S. DG production was exported in 2018, meaning nearly one out of every three tons produced was exported to 50 countries on six continents last year. Mexico remained the top destination for U.S. DG, representing 17 percent, followed by Vietnam (11 percent), South Korea (10 percent), Thailand (9 percent) and Turkey (7 percent). Compared to 2017, Vietnam and the United Kingdom saw the most growth in U.S. DG exports, increasing by 306 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

However, U.S. DG exports to China continued to see a significant drop since 2016, when the country imposed punitive anti-dumping and countervailing duties against U.S. product. “Exports to China fell further after plunging 84 percent in 2017 due to the imposition of duties; it ranked 17th in 2018, accounting for only 2 percent of U.S. exports,” the summary noted.

“As this summary highlights, distillers grains and other co-products are a vitally important part of the global feed market and a growing number of countries and regions are relying on U.S. DG exports, including Mexico and Southeast Asia,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “However, once again China’s protectionist actions have effectively closed off U.S. DG exports, preventing the country’s livestock and poultry feeders from accessing a low-cost, high-value source of nutrition. We will continue to work with U.S. government officials and industry partners to address this barrier and ensure free and fair trade between our two countries.”

Among other facts from the RFA report:

• U.S. DG exports had a total aggregate value of $2.47 billion in 2018, a 33 percent increase from 2017;

• The U.S. imported 317,000 MT of DG in 2017, equivalent to just 3 percent of DG exports and 1 percent of domestic DG consumption. Canada was again the top supplier of U.S. DG imports, shipping 286,000 MT to the U.S., comprising 90 percent of total imports. Brazil and China were the only other two significant DG exporters to the U.S. market in 2018;

• U.S. exports of corn gluten meal—a feed co-product made by ethanol wet mills—totaled 821,000 MT in 2018. Indonesia, Chile, and Egypt were top destinations; and

• U.S. exports of corn gluten feed—a feed co-product also from ethanol wet mills—reached 1.17 MMT in 2018, down slightly from the prior year. Ireland, Israel and the United Kingdom accounted for a combined 76 percent of total U.S. corn gluten feed exports.

This report is a companion to RFA’s 2018 ethanol trade summary, published earlier this week.

View RFA’s co-product trade summary here.

Read the original article: RFA: 2018 Distillers Grains Exports Are Second-Highest on Record

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

Biofuels International

March 1, 2019

News Article

The Local has reported that an investigator appointed by the Swedish government is to propose requiring airlines to use carbon neutral biofuels, but only expects a reduction of 1 to 5% by 2025.

Former Green Party leader, Maria Wetterstrand was tasked with investigating measures in order to promote biofuels in flights. Wetterstrand states that the report will suggest that the planned biofuels mandate needs to become stricter from 2025, so that emissions cuts can reach 30% by 2030.

“Some are going to feel that our demand is too weak, but it’s because of the limited availability of biofuels and the amount of time we feel it will take to boost the volumes. We don’t want to set demands we cannot live up to,” said Wetterstrand.

According to The Local, new government proposals in Sweden often begin with the appointment of an investigator who consults with stakeholders and proposes measures. It is then up to the government to decide whether to incorporate the recommendations into a government bill that can then go before parliament.

Wetterstrand was appointed to lead the investigation last year in January. The former green leader expects that under her proposals, by 2030 the price of a long-haul journey will increase by around 250 Swedish kronor, due to the intended increase cost of biofuels.

“If planes choose to tank up on a load of extra fuel to avoid refuelling in Sweden that would increase emissions because the planes would be heavier, so that would be extremely negative from a climate standpoint,” said Wetterstrand to The Local.

Read the original article: Swedish Government Report Concludes Airlines Should Blend Biofuels

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

Reuters

March 4, 2019

By Humeyra Pamuk

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday it had sent a draft of its proposed rule allowing year-round sales of higher ethanol blends of gasoline to the White House Office of Budget for review.

The rule expanding sales of so-called E15 was promised by President Donald Trump late last year as a way to help corn farmers, but includes measures sought by the oil industry to curb biofuel credit market speculation.

“We hope to expeditiously propose and finalize the rule consistent with the President’s direction,” EPA spokesman Mike Abboud said in an email to Reuters. Following the interagency process, the proposed rule will be published and put out for public comment before being finalized. Congressional approval is not required.

The process needs to be completed before June 1 to allow for gasoline with a higher blend of ethanol, also known as E15, to be available for summer sales when driving demand picks up.

E15 gasoline contains 15 percent ethanol, versus the 10 percent found in most U.S. gasoline. The ban over the year-round sales of the fuel had been imposed over concerns that E15 contributes to smog in hot weather.

The proposed rule was at the forefront of a brief interagency disagreement last week when Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said the EPA was not going to be able to finalize the rule on time. He walked back from his comments in a few hours, after speaking with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

The EPA had planned to release the draft rule in early February but was delayed by a 35 day-long partial federal government shutdown.

Trump said in October he was directing the EPA to allow year-round sales of E15, a victory for the corn industry. Combining the rule with Renewable Identification Number (RIN) market reforms was a concession to the rival oil industry.

Oil and corn industries have been in the opposite ends of a tug of war and Wheeler has been caught in the middle of pressure from lawmakers representing oil and corn states. Five Republican senators in a letter criticized his biofuels policy last month, briefly raising questions about his confirmation.

Wheeler, who had been in charge of the EPA in an acting capacity since last July, was confirmed by the Senate last week.

Under the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard, oil refiners have to blend increasing volumes of biofuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel each year, or purchase credits - called RINs - from those who do.

Read the original article: U.S. EPA Sends Proposed Rule for Higher Ethanol-Blend Gasoline to White House