Minneapolis, Jan 6 – Global supplier of specialty fermentation ingredients, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (LBDS), has joined the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Biofuels) as a vendor member.

“We are pleased to welcome LBDS to our growing roster of vendor members. LBDS supplies yeast, yeast nutrition and antimicrobial products to the ethanol industry,” said Tim Rudnicki, executive director of MN Biofuels.

Headquartered in Duluth, Ga., LBDS is a unit of Canada-based Lallemand, Inc.

“We are delighted to be a part of MN Biofuels. It is always good to be part of groups like these that help support and educate consumers on the importance of the biofuels industry.  We need as many voices as we can to get these messages to the local, state and federal levels to continue to drive the biofuels industry forward. We look forward to working with MN Biofuels and others to keep the message going,” said Craig Pilgrim, VP of marketing and product development at LBDS.

He said one of the company’s goals is to provide the ethanol industry with innovative fermentation technologies to optimize performance.

Among its products include its yield increasing/glycerol reducing TransFerm^® line, a liquid yeast line selected for high temperatures and alcohol concentrations to deliver faster starts, a better shelf life and easier delivery to the propagator. LBDS similarly offers cellulosic and biotech yeast strains for use in a variety of feedstocks.

He said LBDS’ value-creating approach is built upon a team of experienced technical sales and service professionals who serve as consultants to ethanol plant staff and identify specific needs and provide targeted products, training, troubleshooting and laboratory services.

Moreover, Pilgrim added, LBDS also supports the ethanol industry with value-creating technical service and education.

“Through the Ethanol Technology Institute (our educational arm at LBDS) we provide numerous education training programs such as The Alcohol School, The Biofuels Academy, Advanced Lab Training and publish The Alcohol Textbook (latest 6^th edition now available),” he said.

Learn more about LBDS here.

Picture Caption: The LBDS team at the 2019 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Indianapolis, Ind.

Minneapolis, Dec 30 – National cooperative bank, CoBank, has joined the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Biofuels) as a vendor member.

“We are pleased to welcome CoBank as a vendor member. CoBank serves as a dependable provider of credit and other value-added financial services that supports the ethanol industry,” said Tim Rudnicki, executive director of MN Biofuels.

A member of the Farm Credit System, CoBank provides financial services to 21 affiliated Farm Credit associations serving approximately 70,000 farmers, ranchers, agribusiness and other rural borrowers in all 50 states.

Established in 1989 and headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank supports the breadth and depth of the agricultural industry, including the ethanol industry and the grain sectors.

“We made our first loan in the biofuels industry in the mid-1990s, and are currently one of the largest, if not the largest, lenders to the ethanol industry,” says Tom Houser, CoBank regional vice president.

He said CoBank currently provides financing to numerous ethanol plants throughout Minnesota, and is proud to support the growth of the industry within the state.

“We’re pleased to help to advance MN Biofuel's mission to increase market access for renewable biofuels, as we do in other states across the nation, and look forward to continuing to support the industry through its economic cycles,” Houser said.

Other services the company offers include flexible loan programs, leasing services, cash management, export financing, online services and specialized financial services that meet the varying needs of the industries it serves.

Learn more about CoBank here.

Picture Caption: (from left to right) CoBank vice presidents, Kathy Frahm and Tom Houser.

Ethanol Producer Magazine

December 17, 2019

By the U.S. Grains Council

A chill in the air did not damper the excitement of a team of Peruvian buyers and nutritionists who traveled to Minnesota in November—organized by the U.S. Grains Council—to gain a better understanding of the production, quality control and usage of U.S. dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS).

The Council’s DDGS promotion efforts in Peru had previously focused mainly on the largest producers in the poultry industry and dairy producers, who have been the most frequent users of the feed ingredient. Now, the Council is expanding contact to other potential end-users representing mid-size poultry companies and the beef cattle sector to create additional demand for DDGS.

For example, one livestock producer on the team produces around 30,000 metric tons of feed per month for its own poultry, swine and dairy operations. Even a low DDGS inclusion rate of 5 percent could add 1,500 tons of monthly demand for DDGS in Peru.

“We invited poultry and beef producers with very limited knowledge of DDGS and who had never used the feed ingredient in their operations,” said Ana Ballesteros, USGC marketing director for the Western Hemisphere, who accompanied the team. “Because these end-users have less knowledge, creating awareness is an important initial step for them to consider purchasing U.S. DDGS in the future.”

The mission included a DDGS nutritional short course at the University of Minnesota, visits to two ethanol plants, a feed plant producing DDGS for poultry and turkey rations, trading operations and corn farms, including the farm of USGC Secretary-Treasurer Chad Willis. At these meetings, attendees discussed corn and ethanol production in addition to how the quality of DDGS is controlled from the receiving of grain at the ethanol plant through the final loading into railcars and trucks.

“The team learned how DDGS has evolved as a product and how corn, poultry and livestock production and ethanol production are carefully linked and support each other in the U.S. corn belt,” Ballesteros said. “They also gained an understanding of how U.S. farmers produce corn with their families and the role that cooperatives and associations play in supporting that work.”

The Council will continue to follow-up with the Peruvian companies that have participated in activities like this trade team as well as seek out new potential end-users and influencers, including independent consultants and formulation companies.

“Educational efforts have proven to be effective for building knowledge and confidence among users,” Ballestros said. “The program accomplished its immediate and desired outcome of creating awareness of U.S. DDGS and an understanding of its production and usage in livestock diets.”

Read the original article: USGC: Peruvian Team Braves Minnesota Cold to Learn About US DDGS

The EPA's final RVO for 2020, which does not fully account for gallons that will be lost to the issuance of small refinery exemptions, has been met with stinging criticism from the ethanol industry and its advocates. Minnesota's senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, along with Rep. Collin Peterson, issued the following statements.

Bloomberg

December 2019

By Jennifer Dlouhy

The Trump administration on Thursday set relatively flat quotas for plant-based fuels in 2020, rebuffing ethanol and biodiesel allies who said the targets don’t do enough to support the industry.

The Environmental Protection Agency will require refiners to use 20.09 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2020, a 0.85% increase over the 2019 requirement for 19.92 billion gallons, largely tracking a proposal released in July. The agency is also sticking with its plan for adjusting blending requirements to offset waivers exempting some refineries from the mandates, despite criticism from biofuel allies in politically important farm states that the approach is inadequate.

EPA officials say that with those adjustments, the agency’s plan effectively lays out a 2020 target for 15.8 billion gallons of conventional renewable fuels, including corn-based ethanol, with that translating to 15 billion gallons once refinery waivers are factored in. A senior EPA official said the strategy allows the agency to better ensure targets are actually met while still giving small refineries relief from the requirements when appropriate.

“President Trump committed to our nation’s farmers that biofuel requirements would be expanded in 2020,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a news release. “At the EPA, we are delivering on that promise and ensuring a net of 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuel are blended into the nation’s fuel supply.”

Shares in biofuel producer Pacific Ethanol Inc. pared gains after the announcement, as did corn futures in Chicago.

Under the EPA rule, refiners are expected to use 5.09 billion gallons of advanced biofuel, including 590 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel. And in 2021, refiners and fuel importers will be required to use 2.43 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel made from soybeans and waste cooking oil -- identical to the 2020 target.

For weeks, biofuel producers, farmers and politicians from the U.S. Midwest unsuccessfully implored administration officials -- including President Donald Trump himself -- to alter the EPA’s approach so that it better assures biofuel quotas aren’t undermined by refinery waivers. They say the EPA measure falls short by basing adjustments on a three-year average of Energy Department recommendations on those refinery waivers -- rather than the higher number the EPA has actually granted.

“EPA is playing games and not helping President Trump with farmers,” said Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. “No matter what EPA says about the impact of its waivers to oil companies making billions in profits, farmers and biofuels producers know and feel the negative impact of the agency’s actions.”

The EPA plan left both sides unhappy Thursday. In addition to the refinery waiver change, biofuel boosters had unsuccessfully sought more aggressive quotas to drive production. Meanwhile, oil companies broadly argued the measure will spur imports of foreign biofuel and complained the EPA’s reallocation plan forces larger refineries to bear an unfair burden as blending requirements are raised for those non-exempted facilities.

Oil industry leaders vowed to challenge the rule in federal court, with the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers calling the measure an “unprecedented overreach.” “There is no basis to consider forcing non-exempt refineries to subsidize their competitors,” the group said in an emailed statement.

The EPA said it will more closely adhere to Energy Department recommendations for refinery exemptions in the future, and a senior EPA official told reporters the agency will demonstrate that commitment with the next batch of waiver decisions, expected in early 2020.

But Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, stressed that voters in her state are hesitant “to trust the word of EPA to actually follow through on that commitment,” even though “President Trump wants to do right for the biofuels community.”

Biofuel advocates demonstrated their skepticism Thursday. The National Corn Growers Association said farmers were “underwhelmed” by the final rule, because of the risk future refinery waivers will exceed the EPA’s adjustments. And the National Biodiesel Board said the EPA’s approach “does not provide assurance to the biodiesel and renewable diesel market” because “there is nothing in today’s rule to ensure that the agency will get these exemptions under control.”

The National Farmers Union accused Trump of breaking his “promise to rural America,” with group vice president Rob Larew saying the administration wasn’t doing enough to “make amends” for years of refinery waivers.

Other biodiesel leaders struck a more hopeful tone, still buoyed by an agreement between the White House and Congress to retroactively renew a lapsed $1-per-gallon tax credit that helps the fuel compete against petroleum-based diesel. Gene Gebolys, chief executive of biodiesel producer World Energy Alternatives LLC, said he was encouraged “the president now recognizes the damage done and has committed to stopping it from happening again.”

Read the original article: Trump Rebuffs Corn Farmers With Status Quo on Biofuels

Ethanol Producer Magazine

December 16, 2019

By Green Plains Inc

Green Plains Inc. and Novozymes today announced an exclusive partnership and commercialization agreement for biological solutions in the production of high protein ingredients. The partnership will be aimed at aquaculture, pet food, as well as novel ingredients to be used in the global protein markets.

The collaboration will utilize the biorefinery footprint, process know-how, and global distribution capabilities of Green Plains together with Novozymes’ vast expertise in microbiology to create a diverse range of value-added products resulting in functional proteins. Specifically, the biological solutions of Novozymes will be combined with Green Plains’ first high protein production facility and Optimal Aquafeed’s aquaculture laboratory in Shenandoah, Iowa, with the intention to create one of the leading end-to-end innovation platforms in the world for aquaculture nutrition.

“This exclusive technology partnership is another step in the transformation of Green Plains to a world class protein provider,” said Todd Becker, president and CEO of Green Plains. “By partnering with Novozymes, we believe we will be able to increase the value of the products we produce every day and together provide solutions for our nutritional partners in the aquaculture, animal feed, and companion animal food markets worldwide.”

“We are really excited to further utilize advanced biology to unlock additional commercial opportunities in protein production in biorefining together with our customers,” said Brian Brazeau, Novozymes’ vice president for bioenergy commercial and president of North America. “In line with our updated strategy, the partnership with Green Plains is yet another example of how we use enzymatic and microbial solutions to help bring biological answers to the challenge and opportunity of growth in global protein demand.”

Novozymes’ existing suite of biotechnology will help Green Plains achieve higher concentrations of protein. As part of the agreement, Novozymes will dedicate research and development resources to also look at new molecules and yeasts to test in Green Plains processes to further enhance protein products and ultimately create different, higher value outputs from Green Plains’ biofuels production facilities.

“As we continue to roll out high protein nutritional solutions for our customers, we expect to create a company with predictable and growing earnings and become much less dependent on our traditional business structure,” added Becker. “This is a continuation of the transformation of Green Plains to a leading nutritional and ag-tech company focused on developing value-added products for animal feed and aquaculture customers globally fully utilizing the production capabilities we have in place today.”

“This will extend Novozymes’ reach into the agricultural supply chain as our biological solutions will touch a much larger portion of the animal feed market,” finished Brazeau. “The collaboration will enable better business for our customers and help meet the need for evermore protein.”

The companies plan to begin implementation of the partnership in the first quarter of 2020.

Read the original article: Green Plains, Novozymes Partner on Protein Production

Bloomberg

December 17, 2019

By Shuping Niu, Steven Yang, Miao Han, and James Mayger

Further details are emerging on how China would increase imports from the U.S. by as much as $200 billion over the next two years in order to meet its commitments under the phase one trade deal announced last week.

That accord, yet to be officially signed, includes reaching purchases of $40 billion to $50 billion per year in agricultural commodities, a level some analysts have doubted is feasible. To help attain that figure, Beijing plans to restart purchases of ethanol by lifting or waiving trade war tariffs on the fuel, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing the plans.

In addition, China is considering re-routing trade that currently passes through Hong Kong to mainland ports, the people said. That could enable around $10 billion a year in goods transshipped there from the U.S. to be directly booked in the mainland, boosting the tally. The U.S. does not count shipments that go through Hong Kong as part of its trade with China.

Leaders are carefully weighing how to approach addressing the so-called entrepot trade via Hong Kong, as it would be a further blow to the city’s embattled economy and risks worsening political tensions there, one of the people said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to a fax seeking comment.

China will also grant more regular waivers on retaliatory tariffs to local buyers of U.S. farm products including soybeans and pork, the people said. In November, China lifted its ban on U.S. poultry shipments as part of trade negotiations, with the U.S. estimating exports would top $1 billion a year.

Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said the Chinese made detailed commitments on agriculture that would see them purchase at least an additional $16 billion annually in commodities on top of the pre-trade war level of $24 billion and endeavor to buy as much as $50 billion annually. But detailed purchase targets on each commodity won’t be made public, he said.

Importing corn-based ethanol from the U.S. would help China make up for a slowdown in domestic production and meet a goal of expanding the blending of the cleaner fuel into gasoline in the world’s largest car market.

China imported about 200 million gallons of U.S. ethanol in 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but that door was shut in 2018 when taxes on imports were raised to around 70% because of the trade dispute. The U.S. exported a total of $2.4 billion of ethanol in 2017, a report by the Renewable Fuels Association showed.

Read the original article: China Plans to Buy Ethanol, Count Hong Kong Trade in U.S. Pledge

Ethanol Producer Magazine

December 2, 2019

By Matt Thompson

A recently released report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service says that while Thailand has relied on domestic ethanol production, the country could benefit from importing ethanol and other biofuels.

While the country allows imports of ethanol for industrial use, the country does not import ethanol for use as a transportation fuel. Traders of ethanol in Thailand are required to receive a permit from the country’s Ministry of Energy; however, “to date, the MOE has never approved any imports of fuel ethanol due to sufficient supplies of locally produced ethanol,” the report says.

But the report says the country could benefit from allowing fuel ethanol imports. Feedstocks for domestic ethanol production in Thailand are sugar cane, molasses and cassava. Because of shortages of those feedstocks, Thailand “will be forced to temporarily lower biofuel use targets or price surges when weather-related feedstock shortages occur,” and the country’s lack of ethanol imports will prevent it from meeting higher ethanol-use targets. It is also likely to see higher greenhouse gas emissions from land use change, the report said. “Permitting some role for imports unlocks the full positive potential contribution biofuels can make.”

And the country is set to lower it’s consumption goals for 2037. The report says a new 20-year Alternative Energy Development Plan was approved in April, and “the government is in the process of reviewing ethanol and biodiesel consumption targets.” Those targets are expected to be lower than the targets set out in the 2015 plan, due the concerns over feedstock supply. The new targets are expected to lower the consumption target in 2037 to 2.4 billion liters. That’s 41 percent below the target set out in 2015.

According to the report, the country’s ethanol and production rates are expected to increase in 2019, but not as quickly as they once had. In 2017, the country saw its highest ethanol consumption growth rate in 2017 at 12 percent. In 2019, ethanol consumption is expected to increase by 6 percent over 2018 levels. The reduced rate of ethanol production and use in the country, the report says, is “due to the delay in the cessation of Octane 91 E10 sales.” That cessation was scheduled for Jan. 1, 2018.

Despite the delay, the report says ethanol-blend levels in the country have reached 13.5 percent in this year as a result of strong E20 sales.

Read the original article: Report: Thailand Could Benefit From Ethanol Imports

EurActiv

By James Cogan

December 10, 2019

Transport accounts for a quarter of climate-harming greenhouse gas emissions and, at a glance, a quarter of COP25 talks are about cutting transport emissions. They’re the hardest kind to cut, writes James Cogan.

James Cogan is a policy advisor to Ethanol Europe.

The issue is the sheer size of the world’s still-growing fleet of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and how electromobility and modal shift – no matter how optimistic the forecasts for transition – will take a couple of decades yet to develop into even a modest “significant” portion of transport supply.

The world is so heavily invested in oil, roads and rubber that there seems to be no scenario under which a big enough and early enough shift will happen.   It’s the ultimate example of the slow-to-turn supertanker.

Transport industry analysts estimate that it will likely be 2040 before “peak ICE” is reached and 2050 before ICE-mobility dips back down to today’s levels, reaching parity with electromobility and other fossil-free modes.

COP25 isn’t celebrating this clearly.   It is grappling with the big questions of how to cut carbon emissions when much of the world’s population is only now joining the urban car-owning classes, when many developed countries are still holding off on embracing low carbon transport and when the conditions of affluent early-adopter regions like California and Norway aren’t readily transferring to the rest of the world.

Nobody at COP25 disagrees with electromobility, cycling, modal shift and fossil-free fuels as the key measures for cutting emissions.  It’s about the mix, the timing, who pays, and voter and political appetites.

One engineer in Madrid said that since gasoline and diesel are the culprits then the first thing political leaders should do is cut back on gasoline and diesel.   With oil so cheap and abundant, she said, there’s no compelling reason for engineers to design down the amount of it they incorporate into their systems.

Vehicles are getting more efficient but they’re also getting bigger, and numbers are growing.  A 30% cut in transport emissions in ten years will require – as any engineer worth her salt will tell you – an annual decrement of three percent per year.

Society’s engineers will find ways to achieve it, using a mix of solutions, looking in parallel at long term measures, things they can do now and at the relative costs and barriers.  But someone has to tell them to go ahead and do it, she said.

Ethanol falls into the category of fossil-free, quick, economical, works-in-the-current-fleet and compatible with the do no harm principle of Ursula von der Leyen’s European Green Deal.   Ethanol hasn’t the curb appeal of a Tesla or single-speed bike, but it doesn’t require consumer behavioural change either.

Gasoline vehicles account for a third to a half of transport energy demand in most countries.  Ethanol could displace a fifth of that gasoline, and this would give the climate engineer two of the ten decrements she seeks.

The other eight decrements, plus any more on top (the EU is considering a whopping 50% GHG cuts by 2030), will be found in electromobility, cycling, other fossil-free fuels, public transport and more efficient mobility patterns.  The ethanol two will be the easiest two, by a long shot.

Ethanol is already fuelling the equivalent of a hundred million cars worldwide, blended into the gasoline supply of a half a billion vehicles at rates of 3% to 100%.   Thanks to the boxes it ticks, a dozen countries are introducing higher blends of it this year.

Much of Europe uses E5 or E10 (5% or 10% ethanol blending), the USA is rolling out E15, the average blend rate in Brazil is about 30% while France is developing E85 across its retail network.

Climate action doesn’t stop when everybody goes home from Madrid.  COP26 in Glasgow will be the “COP of specific solutions”.

Between now and next December, climate policy engineers everywhere will be doing the math to see just how they’ll get 30% of the GHGs out of their transport systems in just ten years.  COP26 will be the engineer’s COP.

Read the original article: COP25 – Ethanol Brings Welcome Contribution to Transport Climate Action