Benson, Nov 1- Twenty students from Benson High School toured the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company (CVEC) plant today to get a better understanding of how clean homegrown renewable energy is produced.

During the tour, the students learned about the different stages in ethanol production including incoming grain grading, grain handling, fermentation, grain storage, dried distiller grain production and storage, ethanol storage and shipment.

“We were delighted to host Benson High School at our facility and provide them with a first-hand look at the benefits ethanol brings to our community, consumers, local producers and environment. We appreciate the students taking time out of their schedule to learn more about biofuels and the advantages they provide as a source of fuel,” said Chad Friese, CEO of CVEC. 

The students, all eighth graders, were from Benson High School’s Ag Exploration Class.

The tour was organized by the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Biofuels). CVEC, which has an annual production of 50 million gallons of ethanol, is a member of MN Biofuels.

CVEC commenced operations in 1996 and currently has 50 employees. It has hosted many tours over the years for high school students, 4-H’ers, and local agriculture and science programs.

“We organize these tours to show students how a homegrown renewable ingredient is converted into a clean fuel that continues to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions,” said Tim Rudnicki, MN Biofuels’ executive director.

Nancy Loen, an agricultural science teacher at Benson High School, accompanied her students during today’s tour.

"This tour was so important for my students to further learn about the various aspects of agriculture and how it affects them both directly and indirectly, as well as a great exposure to career opportunities," Loen said.

Energy.AgWired.com

October 30, 2018

By Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol Producer Magazine

October 24, 2018

By Erin Voegele

On Oct. 24, Novozymes released third quarter 2018 financial results, reporting a significant growth in sales for its bioenergy segment. The company said strong growth in demand for enzymes in the conventional biofuel market helped drive the increase.

Overall, Novozymes reported 5 percent organic sales growth for the third quarter, when compared to the same period of last year. For the first nine months of the year, sales grew by 4 percent organically.

“We delivered solid earnings and organic revenue growth of 5 percent in the third quarter and 4 percent after the first nine months,” said Peder Holk Nielsen, president and CEO of Novozymes. “This is overall satisfactory, and we increase the outlook for net profit growth. Despite recent challenging markets in the Middle-East, we maintain our 4-6 percent organic revenue growth guidance, albeit with the likelihood that we will close the year toward the lower part of the range.”

For the first nine months of the year, Novozymes reported flat sales for its household care division. Sales for the food and beverages division grew by 4 percent. Sales in bioenergy were up 14 percent, while sallies in agriculture and feed increased by 5 percent. Sales in the technical and pharma division, however, fell by 7 percent.

Bioenergy accounted for 19 percent of the company’s sales during the first three quarters of 2018, with household care, food and beverage, agriculture and feed, and technical and pharma accounting for 32 percent, 29 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Within the bioenergy segment, Novozymes reported sales grew by 14 percent during the first three quarters of 2018 and 15 percent during the third quarter. The company attributed the increase to strong growth momentum within enzymes for conventional biofuels.

“Sales of enzymes for conventional biofuels benefit from Novozymes’ strong technology base and innovative product portfolio,” said Tina Sejersgård Fanø, executive vice president of agriculture and bioenergy at Novozymes. “And our recently launched yeast product, Innova Drive, is increasingly contributing to growth. In early October, we launched yet another yeast technology, Innova Lift, and this offering strengthens an already broad product portfolio.”

Sejersgård Fanø said U.S. ethanol production grew by an estimated 2 percent during the third quarter, but noted trends with elevated inventories and tight margins for ethanol producers are unchanged. She also noted that the Latin American market is performing well, with Brazilian producers expanding into corn ethanol production. “A number of plants are operating—with more expected to come onstream over the next few years,” Sejersgård Fanø said.

She also addressed progress with E15 in the U.S. “We are happy to see that E15 in the U.S. now appears more likely to be implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency; there are still some legislative hurdles to be overcome, but longer term this is a good supportive measure for the U.S. ethanol industry, for Novozymes, and for the environment,” Sejersgård Fanø said.

Moving forward, Novozymes indicated that it expects organic sales growth in the bioenergy segment to be driven primarily by new product launches, increased penetration from innovation, and growth from outside the U.S. market. The company said it expects U.S. production for 2018 to be up slightly from 2017.

Read the original article: Novozymes Reports Sales Growth For Bioenergy Segment

The Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association provided the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with comments on the proposed SAFE Rule. The 515 page proposed rule, using fundamentally flawed assumptions, is aimed at rolling back progressively higher mileage and lower GHG tailpipe emission standards.

Minneapolis, Oct 26 - Fourteen students from Minnesota State University, Mankato toured Guardian Energy yesterday to get a closer look at clean renewable energy production.

During the tour, the students learned several components of ethanol production including incoming grain grading, grain handling, fermentation, grain storage, dried distiller grain production and storage, ethanol storage and shipment.

Yesterday’s tour was the second time students from Minnesota State Mankato have toured Guardian Energy this month. On Oct 11, students from the university’s Biological Engineering Analysis class visited Guardian Energy. The students who participated in yesterday’s tour are from the university’s Agroecology class.

“We were pleased to welcome another Minnesota State Mankato class to our plant to learn about locally produced biofuels. Tours like this are an opportunity for students to engage with our employees on the facility’s efficiency and production processes and to highlight ethanol’s many benefits,” said Jeanne McCaherty, CEO of Guardian Energy.

The tour was organized by the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Biofuels). Guardian Energy is a member of MN Biofuels.

“These tours provide students a better understanding of how a homegrown ingredient is converted into a clean fuel that has been reducing and continues to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, saves consumers money at the pump and makes America more energy independent,” said Tim Rudnicki, executive director at MN Biofuels.

Minnesota State Mankato biology professor, Christopher T. Ruhland, who accompanied his students for the tour, said his students had previously learned about starch extraction and ethanol conversion.

“My students were able to observe how starch is converted to ethanol in a step-by-step process. From the minute that the corn kernels leave the truck to seeing the finished product loaded into rail cars, the entire cycle is covered in this tour,” Ruhland said.

In fact, Ruhland anticipates some of his students will pursue careers in biofuels at an advanced level.

“It is one thing to talk about biofuel production in the classroom and the lab, but seeing how benchtop science is scaled-up to industrial production is obviously very important and the students are always very excited to see how things they learn about in a classroom setting are actually performed in a local agribusiness,” he added.

The Hill

October 23, 2018

By Jim Talent

Congressman Ruben Gallego

October 16, 2018

Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Danny Davis (D-IL) led a letter signed by 17 of their colleagues to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressing concern over the Trump Administration’s widespread issuance of waivers to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

With transportation emissions representing the bulk of U.S. greenhouse emissions, the decision to flout RFS standards could have a devastating impact on our climate and public health outcomes and result in higher prices for consumers at the gas pump.

“With the technology for cleaner, safer, and more economical fuels available, there is simply no reason not to continue our progress and commitment to renewable fuels,” said Rep. Gallego. “The Trump administration’s decision to abandon RFS goals has already set back our progress by 5 years. We are urging the EPA to reverse this harmful decision.”

The signed letter can be found here.

Read the original press release: Dems Ask Trump Administration to Honor Renewable Fuel Standard Commitments

D3MAX

October 17, 2018

Press Release

Combining both D3MAX and Whitefox Technologies, the Stanley ethanol plant is expected to become one of the most efficient ethanol facilities in the world.

D3MAX, LLC and Ace Ethanol, LLC announced they have started construction of the first D3MAX facility at Ace Ethanol’s facility in Stanley, Wisconsin. Ace Ethanol will be the first ethanol plant to integrate the patented D3MAX technology with its existing corn dry mill. Earlier this year, Ace Ethanol received approval from its board of directors and members to proceed with the design and construction of the corn kernel fiber-to-ethanol plant and now they have started construction of the D3MAX facility. “The team at D3MAX along with the Ace Ethanol team, is extremely excited to start building the first commercial-scale facility,” says, Mark Yancey, chief technology officer at D3MAX. The integrated facility will also employ membrane-based ethanol recovery technology supplied by Whitefox Technologies, resulting in significant energy savings for the integrated facility. Fagen Inc. is the contractor who was selected to build the new D3MAX facility.

The companies working on the D3MAX detailed design and build were selected earlier this year by the planning team. “We have assembled the best team with the best technologies to build the first commercial-scale D3MAX plant,” says Yancey. “We are employing a fully integrated design at the Ace plant which will make the facility one of the most energy efficient ethanol plants in the US with the highest ethanol yield per bushel. The combined facilities will be so efficient that the energy use of the new integrated facility will be approximately the same as the current Ace ethanol plant. We are very excited to make this announcement and begin the construction of what we believe will be the new benchmark for the industry.”

According to Yancey, the D3MAX process is the only corn kernel fiber-to-ethanol process that will not require an independent engineer to validate the cellulosic ethanol production every 500,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol produced. With the D3MAX process, cellulosic ethanol gallons can be measured directly avoiding the cost of re-certification required by EPA for co-processing and in-situ corn kernel fiber processes. Currently, all other corn kernel fiber technologies require costly re-certification every 500,000 gallons.

To learn more about D3MAX visit: www.D3MAXLLC.com.
To learn more about Ace Ethanol visit: www.aceethanol.com.

About D3MAX LLC:
D3MAX is a technology company formed by BBI International to license our patented cellulosic ethanol technology to dry mill ethanol plants in the US and Canada. Our cutting edge technology converts corn fiber and residual starch in distillers grains to cellulosic ethanol. This is a 1.5 billion gallon per year market and we intend to capture a significant portion of the market by licensing our D3MAX technology to existing ethanol plants.

About Ace Ethanol LLC:
Ace Ethanol LLC, is an ethanol production facility built by local investors in Stanley, Wisconsin. Each year the facility takes in more than 17 million bushels of corn, resulting in an output of approximately 50 million gallons of ethanol, 118,000 tons of DDGS, 8,000 tons of distillers corn oil, and 65,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The facility has a storage capacity of two million bushels on site.

Contact Information
Mark Yancey
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
701-738-4924