Minneapolis, August 27 - Moisture technology provider, MoistTech Corp, has joined the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Biofuels) as a vendor member.

“We are pleased to welcome MoistTech to our growing roster of vendor members. MoistTech provides moisture measurement for online process and laboratory moisture instrumentation using near infrared (NIR) technology,” said Tim Rudnicki, executive director at MN Biofuels.

Headquartered in Sarasota, FL, MoistTech specializes in NIR technology and manufactures non-contact online sensors with hundreds of measurements per second for thousands of applications in the animal and human food, chemical, mineral, paper, renewable energy, textile, tobacco and wood industries.

In the ethanol industry, MoistTech has provided its technology for dried distillers grain (DDG) production where moisture measurement and control are important to ensure product quality and reduce waste.

“Moisture content is an essential aspect when conditioning feeds. When conditioning, the most common target moisture contents at conditioner discharge is between 15 percent and 17 percent. Too much moisture can plug the pellet mill,” said Sarah Hammond, marketing coordinator at MoistTech.

She said pellets need to achieve a final moisture content of under 13 percent for safe storage and proper conditioning prior to storage has benefits such as increased durability index, increased starch gelatinization and protein structures. This, she said, improves the binding of the ingredients, potential pasteurization and the destruction of some insect eggs.

“MoistTech has developed the IR-3000 Moisture Sensor which is ideally suited to measure the moisture levels in DDG production processes while improving a manufacturer’s product quality and lowering their energy costs,” Hammond said.

She said MoistTech’s moisture sensors provide continuous, reliable readings with zero maintenance and a one-time calibration with a non-drift optical design allowing operational personnel to confidently make immediate process adjustments based on real-time measurements.

“MoistTech decided to join MN Biofuels to enhance the awareness and availability of moisture measurement and control within the process of DDG production. Our goal is to assist in increasing production efficiency for the ethanol plants while providing state of the art technology for enhanced end user results,” Hammond said.

Learn more about MoistTech Corp here.

Picture Caption: MoistTech's IR-3000 moisture sensor for DDG production.

The Gazette

August 20, 2019

By James Lynch

Democratic U.S. Reps Abby Finkenauer and Dave Loebsack are calling for a review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s granting of waivers that exempt small oil refineries from complying with the nation’s biofuel law.

Finkenauer and Loebsack want the Government Accountability Office to investigate how the waiver program is being applied under the Renewable Fuel Standard, which generally requires refineries to blend renewable sources — including corn-based ethanol — into the nation’s fuel supply or to buy credits instead.

“Our concerns stem from the economic consequences to our rural communities created by exempting nearly 4 billion gallons of fuel from the RFS, a standard intended to expand the nation’s renewable fuels sector,” they wrote in a letter to Gene Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general. “By 2016, the ethanol industry has grown to support over 339,000 U.S. jobs and driven $41 billion in economic activity by supporting corn and soy markets and reducing gasoline prices.”

Finkenauer, Loebsack and other members of the bipartisan House Biofuels Caucus, including Iowa Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, have joined Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst in criticizing the waivers they say hurt the renewable fuel industry in the state.

“They screwed us,” Grassley said last week when asked about the latest round of waivers — 31 — granted by the EPA. In addition to the number of waivers, “it’s that it is being granted to people that really aren’t (experiencing) hardship, and that is where it ought to be identified.”

The fuel standard allows the EPA to provide waivers to small refineries that demonstrate compliance with the rule would create significant economic hardship for the facility. Between 2013 and 2015, the EPA granted no more than eight waivers in a year, according to Loebsack and Finkenauer. But the EPA retroactively approved 19 waivers for 2016, then proceeded to grant 35 waivers in 2017, which is equal to removing a total of 1.82 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2017 alone.

“With the recent approval of 31 waivers for 2018, it is imperative that we fully understand how EPA is reaching these conclusions despite (the Department of Energy’s) viability analysis,” wrote Finkenauer, who represents the 20-county northeast Iowa 1st District. Loebsack represents the 24-county southeast Iowa 2nd District.

Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth asked the inspector general’s office to launch an independent investigation into whether top EPA officials violated the law by inappropriately exempting a number of oil refineries from having to use legally required levels of biofuel.

In granting waivers, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has suggested that the EPA follows the recommendations of the Energy Department. However, a letter from the department to Grassley admitted that the EPA granted at least one waiver in conflict with the agency’s recommendation.

Due to the process used by the EPA to review waiver applications, it’s unknown how many of the recent 31 exemptions are being granted to large and profitable oil companies.

ExxonMobil and Chevron are among those that received these economic hardship exemptions.

Read the original article: Finkenauer, Loebsack Call for Probe of EPA Biofuel Waivers

Bloomberg

August 23, 2019

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Mario Parker

President Donald Trump, seeking to tamp down political fallout in U.S. farm states essential to his re-election, has ordered federal agencies to shift course on relieving some oil refineries of requirements to use biofuel such as corn-based ethanol.

Trump and top cabinet leaders decided late Thursday they wouldn’t make changes to just-issued waivers that allow small refineries to ignore the mandates, but agreed to start boosting biofuel-blending quotas to make up for expected exemptions beginning in 2021. The outcome was described by four people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named before a formal announcement could be made.

The decision was reached after a flurry of White House meetings this week on the issue, which divides two of Trump’s top political constituencies: rural Americans and the oil industry. With the move, Trump is largely siding with farmers, ethanol producers and political leaders in Iowa that have accused the president of turning his back on the industry.

But the administration’s shift risks blowback in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, where blue-collar refinery workers have held rallies to push for relief from U.S. biofuel quotas they say are too expensive. The largest coalition of U.S. building trades unions on Thursday warned Trump that changing course on exemptions would betray the president’s “campaign promise to protect every manufacturing job.”

“President Trump is committed to ensuring our country not only continues to be the agricultural envy of the world, but also remains energy independent and secure,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

Iowa-based biodiesel producer Renewable Energy Group Inc. climbed as much as 4.5% on the news, and traded up 5.5% to $11.64 at 1:50 p.m. in New York. Pacific Ethanol Inc. and Green Plains Inc. briefly gained before resuming losses as the U.S.-China trade war showed signs of deepening with the latter announcing plans to levy additional tariffs on American-made goods and Trump promising to respond.

Administration officials agreed to the broad contours of a renewable fuel plan, including further moves to encourage the use of E15 gasoline containing 15% ethanol, beyond the 10% variety common across the U.S. E15 could be dispensed alongside conventional ethanol blends at filling stations, under the drafted changes.

Under the tentative plan, the Environmental Protection Agency also will give a 500-million-gallon boost to the amount of conventional renewable fuel, such as ethanol, that must be used in 2020. A separate quota for biodiesel, typically made from soybeans, would get a 250 million gallon increase.

Additionally, the administration will enhance a program meant to expand U.S. fueling infrastructure and get more ethanol into the system. The EPA will adopt an Agriculture Department assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with renewable fuel, and will expand environmental credits encouraging automakers to produce “flex-fuel” vehicles that can run on high-ethanol gasoline.

The EPA has drawn intense criticism for its Aug. 9 decision to exempt 31 refineries from 2018 biofuel-blending requirements. Although federal law authorizes the waivers for small refineries facing an economic hardship, the number of those exemptions has surged during the Trump administration, and biofuel producers say they are being handed out too freely.

The backlash has been most severe in Iowa, the nation’s top producer of ethanol and the corn used in its manufacture. It is also critical for Trump’s re-election; the state twice voted for Barack Obama before voting to send Trump to the White House in 2016.

Trump’s Democratic challengers have seized on the issue, with frontrunner Joe Biden accusing the president of lying to farmers and abandoning a campaign promise to “unleash ethanol.”

However, EPA officials and oil industry leaders say the waivers haven’t harmed domestic ethanol demand and blame a glut of the product for suppressing prices. Trump’s trade war with China has exacerbated the industry’s economic challenges. As with U.S.-grown agricultural products, including soybeans, ethanol faces retaliatory tariffs in China.

Against the backdrop of tariffs, the exemptions delivered another blow to the U.S. Midwest, where guaranteed domestic ethanol demand helps provide a floor of support for corn farmers and buttresses swings in commodity prices. Ethanol refining accounts for about 40% of U.S. corn consumption.

American “agriculture has a problem if ethanol doesn’t do well,” Green Plains Inc. chief executive officer Todd Becker said in a telephone interview on Thursday. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company created a political action committee last month, and Becker told analysts in May that Green Plains plans to “engage” 2020 U.S. presidential candidates on ethanol policies.

Becker said he “can’t fault” Trump for getting tough on China, but the combination of the trade war and small refinery exemptions was causing too much pain. “You don’t fight China and then give out SREs,” Becker said. “Farmers are furious now.”

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue had urged the White House to rescind some of the recently issued waivers -- at least those for refineries tied to “big” oil companies -- according to an Aug. 20 memo obtained by Bloomberg.

EPA officials successfully argued that would be illegal.

Instead, Trump directed the agency to increase biofuel quotas to make up for the exemptions, a so-called “reallocation” that will effectively boost the burden for larger refineries that are not eligible to win waivers. The EPA will start incorporating expected exemptions into annual biofuel quotas beginning with 2021.

Oil industry leaders blasted the tentative agreement on Friday, saying it would do little for U.S. farmers while hurting domestic refiners.

“Reallocation would be a major hit to fuel manufacturers in Pennsylvania and Ohio -- and refinery workers across the country -- with zero benefit to ethanol,” said Derrick Morgan, a senior vice president with the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. “Those celebrating will ultimately be foreign biofuel producers whose biodiesel is being imported to help meet mandates.”

The EPA typically sets each year’s biofuel blending requirements by Nov. 30 of the preceding year, except for biodiesel quotas, which are set two years in advance. Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard program, there’s a specific mandate for biodiesel, but the soybean-based product can also be used to satisfy an implied 15 billion gallon quota for conventional renewable fuel.

Frank Macchiarola, a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, called the drafted plan a “rushed, arbitrary policy.”

“We hope the administration walks back from the brink of a disastrous political decision that punishes American drivers,” Macchiarola said. “Bad policy is bad politics.”

Although the tentative plan was meant to assuage biofuel allies, it’s not clear it was having the intended effect Friday, amid industry skepticism the EPA will follow through on the agreement. Iowa officials are preparing to visit Washington for a formal rollout of the policy changes.

Biodiesel industry advocates say they can produce more fuel -- and the Trump administration needs to take that into account.

“With a level playing field in biodiesel trade in 2018, domestic producers increased output by several hundred million gallons,” said National Biodiesel Board spokesman Paul Winters. “We can continue to do so -- as long as EPA stops using RFS waivers to destroy demand and put biodiesel producers out of business.”

Read the original article: Trump Orders Biofuel Boost in Bid to Temper Farm State Anger

Reuters

August 21, 2019

by Humeyra Pamuk and Jarrett Renshaw

The agriculture and biofuel industries and their U.S. congressional allies ramped up pressure on the Trump administration on Wednesday over the relief he has given oil refiners from rules requiring use of biofuels.

Long-suffering American farmers, a constituency President Donald Trump is counting on in his campaign for re-election in 2020, have seen prices for crops hit hard by his trade war with China. This month, farmers also complained that a government crop report did not reflect damage from historic flooding this spring.

Farmers have been infuriated at the administration’s decision to grant waivers exempting 31 oil refineries from rules requiring them to blend corn-based ethanol into gasoline.

National and state trade groups along with their political allies delivered letters to the White House over the past 48 hours detailing the damage the waivers have caused the biofuel industry.

Democratic presidential hopefuls have used the refinery issue as a cudgel, echoing farm groups who say Trump has betrayed them by siding with Big Oil. Alarmed, the Republican president ordered his cabinet to find ways to boost biofuel demand.

The Iowa Soybean Association’s letter to the White House said the refining exemptions were forcing biodiesel producers to shut plants and lay off workers. Soybeans are a feedstock for biodiesel, so growers have been hurt.

“It’s becoming more difficult to understand why your administration is choosing to support higher profits for oil companies instead of providing some stability for farmers,” said the letter, signed by Lindsay J. Greiner, president of the state’s soybean association.

Iowa, the largest U.S. producer of corn and ethanol, is a swing state won twice by Democrat Barack Obama. The state switched to the Republican candidate in 2016, in part because Trump promised to support ethanol.

Cindy Axne, a Democrat who represents Iowa’s third district, wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging its independent watchdog to investigate the small refinery waivers granted between 2016 and 2018.

“What we’re seeing with this administration is a dogged approach to allow the biggest fossil fuel players an opportunity to put more money back in the pockets of their large shareholders and take that money out of the pockets of hardworking farmers right here in Iowa,” Axne said at a news conference.

Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a Trump political ally, along with the state’s head of agriculture, said in a letter to the EPA that rural families have borne the brunt of the trade war and are now being pinched by the refinery waivers.

“Ethanol consumption fell for the first time in 20 years, commodity markets are depressed, and many biofuel plants, including several in Iowa, have already slowed or halted production,” the letter said.

The battle between Big Oil and farmers over the U.S. biofuel policy has been a headache for Trump, who campaigned in 2016 as a champion for ethanol.

U.S. regulations require refiners to blend biofuels into the nation’s gasoline pool or buy credits to fund those refiners who can. Small refiners can get exemptions from the EPA if they prove compliance causes them hardship.

But Trump’s EPA expanded the waivers significantly, granting exemptions to refineries owned by the likes of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and billionaire Carl Icahn. This saved refiners billions of dollars, but farmers complained that it has destroyed ethanol demand and forced plants to shut down or idle. Refiners maintain the waivers have not hurt overall demand for biofuels.

Biofuel producers and farmers say increasing the annual blending obligations for 2020, to be finalized in November, is the best solution, but oil refiners oppose that.

“The president will have an opportunity to make this right in the fall,” Gene Gebolys, chief executive of biodiesel producer World Energy. The company said last week it was closing plants in Mississippi, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and putting 100 workers on furlough.

“If he doesn’t, the voters will have an opportunity to make it right next fall. He’s made a promise throughout the Midwest and he’s broken the promise,” he said.

Read the original article: U.S. Farmers, Lawmakers Dial Up Pressure on Trump Over Biofuel Policy

The Hill

August 14, 2019

By Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and former Sen. Timothy Wirth (D-Colo.)

The question of how best to address environmental challenges has increasingly become a partisan flashpoint. So, when there is a green solution on which many Republicans and Democrats see eye-to-eye, as we do, it’s worth paying attention.

It’s time to take another look at biofuels.

The economic benefits to a hard-pressed farm economy are plain as day. Renewable energy – not just biofuels, but also wind and solar – are helping farmers and the rural economy survive in a year when the weather has been unkind, to say the least.

There is a lot of talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but what’s needed are practical strategies to get there. Transportation is now the single greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, making it critical to any carbon reduction strategy. But public policy to date has put almost the entire burden of the sector’s transformation on the nation’s vehicles. Shouldn’t the fuels they burn get equal attention?

Look at the numbers: Even a rapid transition to electric vehicles will leave hundreds of millions of conventional cars and trucks on U.S. roads for the next 30 years. According to a review of the relevant studies by USDA, Ethanol reduces carbon emissions by 40 percent or more compared to gasoline. Increasing ethanol blends from the 10 percent used today by most vehicles to 15 percent, now approved by the EPA, is an important start – but we can do more.

There are also major public health benefits. Today, the octane in your gasoline is supplied by a class of toxic chemicals called aromatics, which make up roughly 25 percent of every gallon of gasoline. Breathing in these toxins from car exhaust can cause cancer. Moreover, Frederica Perera, head of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, has shown through more than a decade of research that the worst emissions from those chemicals – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs – have effects on pregnant women and small children comparable to airborne lead: low birth weight, diminished IQ and cognitive and behavioral disorders. In addition, fine particle pollution from aromatics causes thousands of premature deaths each year.

Higher ethanol blends reduce the need for aromatics in gasoline. The reason is that ethanol has higher octane than gasoline and improves engine performance – with lower emissions. NASCAR vehicles run on 15 percent ethanol. Those blends should become standard nationwide.

We should also give more attention to the potential of higher blends of ethanol for engine performance. With wider availability, automakers could tune their engines to perform even better than they do today. Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has shown that mid-level blends of 25-40 percent, despite the lower energy content of ethanol, can match the vehicle fuel efficiency of cars running on today’s blends. Indeed, a multiyear study by the Department of Energy points to such blends as the best way to optimize vehicle and fuel performance. Blends of 30 percent are being used by the city fleet in Watertown, S.D,, with great success, and Nebraska is testing them in its state fleet. In Brazil today, every vehicle on the road (along with motorcycles and off-road equipment like boats) runs on a minimum of 27 percent ethanol.

It’s still true today that America’s national, energy and economic security is tied to our economic and consumer dependence on oil imported from volatile regions of the world. Using our farm commodities and agricultural by-products – such as corn, soybeans, switchgrass and livestock waste – and capturing natural resources – such as wind – to produce homegrown renewable energy is a winning solution to address the nation’s energy and climate challenges. Despite relentless misinformation campaigns by the oil industry and its allies, ethanol should again be seen and valued for what it is – a cleaner, healthier renewable fuel produced in the USA.

Read the original article: Environmental Advocates Should Take Another Look at Biofuels

Post Bulletin

August 18, 2019

By Noah Fish

Producers of corn and ethanol say the Trump administration has bailed out refineries owned by large oil companies at their expense.

The Environmental Protection Agency granted biofuel waivers to 31 refineries on Aug. 9, displeasing the corn and ethanol industry.

Refineries are eligible for exemptions if they can prove they are in financial strife. The waivers free them from their obligation under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to blend biofuels into their gasoline or buy credits from others that do.

In 2017, the EPA granted 35 of 37 applications it received. Both Chevron and Exxon, two of the world’s most profitable energy companies, have been granted waivers by the EPA.  

Randy Doyal, CEO of Al-Corn Clean Fuel in Claremont, said he was surprised with the number of waivers. He said the decision takes away "a big chunk of demand" in a market that's already oversupplied.

"It will depress the price of ethanol, and when you add the volatility of the corn market, it keeps pushing us in the wrong direction," said Doyal. "It's causing some definite tightness in the ethanol industry."

That could cause more plants to scale back or be put up for sale, he said, but Al-Corn is not one of them.

Doyal said he wasn't shocked by the number of applications that came in for waivers last year, because the EPA has developed a pattern of granting them. What he is startled by is the EPA not meeting its legal obligation to reallocate the lost ethanol gallons.

Despite an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals, the EPA has said it will not reinstate the 500 million gallons withheld by the agency in 2016.

If the EPA is going to waive the lost gallons, it should be properly accounted for, said Doyal.

"So they've basically thumbed their noses and said no," said Doyal of the EPA. "That's incredible to me, from an administration that says it's on the side of the farmers and is looking out for them."

A decision on the waivers was delayed for months, which made Doyal think something was being worked out between the Department of Agriculture and the EPA to reassign lost gallons.

"And then we get nothing," he said.

The difference of reassigning the gallons compared to waiving them is crucial for the health of the market, said Doyal.

"I'm scratching my head wondering where the heck the EPA thinks they're going with this," said Doyal. "And it's rather concerning because they seem to have the support of this administration."

According to National Corn Growers Association, the Trump administration has undermined the Renewable Fuel Standard, granted more than 50 waivers to big oil companies and lost the industry more than 2 billion ethanol-equivalent gallons of fuel.

The hit to ethanol demand will affect famers growing corn in the Midwest, who sell most of their corn to ethanol plants. This comes at a time when farmers are also dealing with the loss of export markets due to ongoing trade disputes.

"Actions by the EPA are now also costing corn farmers ethanol markets at home," said Brian Thalmann, president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. "The billions of biofuel gallons lost through the issuing of waivers to oil refineries only benefit big oil companies while lowering the value of our nation’s corn crop."

Read the original article: Farmers Stung by EPA's Waivers

Airline Geeks

July 26, 2019

EgyptAir took delivery of its latest Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner earlier this week, the fifth of six next-generation Boeing aircraft destined for its fleet. While EgyptAir has been taking deliveries since the beginning of 2019, this delivery flight had a twist in that it was fueled with sustainable aviation flew, making it the longest flight flown with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as it flew from Everett, Wash. to Cairo

The delivery flight inaugurated a new program implemented by Boeing to give the option of using the SAF on any delivery flight. EgyptAir chose to perform the longer than 13-hour flight home on the biofuel to demonstrate the airline’s desire for efficiency and sustainability, of which the Dreamliner is emblematic.

The Egyptian flag carrier operates a modest long-haul fleet consisting of Boeing 777 family and Airbus A330 family aircraft with the Dreamliner being the newest type to be inducted into the fleet. From its base in Cairo, the fuel-efficient Dreamliner is currently deployed on long-haul routes over 10 hours including Washington and Tokyo, some of the longest routes in the airline’s fleet.

Long-haul isn’t the only sector of which EgyptAir is looking to modernize and become more efficient as the airline’s regional brand, EgyptAir Express, prepares to take delivery of its first Airbus A220-300. The similarly economical aircraft will also serve EgyptAir’s goal of achieving efficiency and sustainability.

During the delivery festivities, Captain Ahmed Adel, chairman and CEO of EgyptAir Holding Company spoke to the crowd, “We are committed to the sustainable growth of our airline and supporting commercial aviation’s efforts to protect the environment. The 787-9 Dreamliner is a great fit for our network and provides our customers with a responsible choice for air travel”

While the Dreamliner program was designed for exceptional fuel efficiency, the added bonus of the SAF is not only in the burning performance but in weight as well. Jets like the Dreamliner typically run on Jet-A fuel, which weighs 6.8 pounds per gallon whereas SAF weighs less at just 6.6 pounds.

Though only .2 pounds, the savings is when a 787-8 Dreamliner’s fuel capacity is 33,340 gallons. The fuel composition is 30 percent sustainable aviation fuel plus 70 percent Jet-A, meaning that 10,002 gallons of the total amount is lighter than a normal fill-up. The carbon dioxide emission should also be reduced by around 80 percent during the lifecycle of the airplane when using SAF.