In the News

Renewable Fuels Association

Feb 5, 2015

U.S. ethanol exports reached near-record levels in 2014, sending 836 million gallons of ethanol worth $2.1 billion to international markets, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) explained today in its new publication “2014 U.S. Ethanol Exports and Imports: Statistical Summary.” The publication offers a succinct overview of the U.S. ethanol export and import markets in 2014 showing the upward trend in exports and the downward trend in imports — reaching the second-lowest levels — since 2005.

The report finds that U.S. ethanol has made its way to all inhabited continents of the world, reaching more than 50 countries. The top five countries importing U.S. ethanol last year included Canada, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and India. Meanwhile, exports to the European Union remain down due to a punitive trade tariff it chooses to impose on U.S. produced ethanol.

Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, noted, “Last year U.S. ethanol producers produced a whopping 14.3 billion gallons of ethanol and nearly 6 percent was exported globally. We are working diligently to increase demand for this product abroad. It has been rewarding to see countries all over the world embrace the U.S. produced, high-octane fuel, which has also been the lowest-cost liquid transportation fuel found anywhere in the world.”

Dinneen continued, “U.S. ethanol is now exported to 51 countries across the globe, including regions that once seemed far-fetched as renewable fuel destinations such as the Middle East and North Africa. But, we will not stop here. We will keep working with others in the industry and the U.S. government to keep exploring new regions that would benefit from U.S. ethanol. Last year, RFA participated in trade missions to Panama, China, Peru, Japan, and South Korea and we will keep at it until all countries understand the value of U.S produced ethanol.”

The publication will be distributed at the 2015 National Ethanol Conference on Feb. 18–20 in Grapevine, Texas, and fits the conference theme “Going Global.” Keynote speaker Ron Kirk, the former U.S Trade Representative, will give insight into international trade relations and a panel of industry experts will discuss global ethanol markets in a session titled “Going Global: Building Ethanol Demand Internationally.”

Read the original story here : Ethanol Expands Global Reach, RFA Releases New 2014 Export / Import Publication

U.S. ethanol exports reached near-record levels in 2014, sending 836 million gallons of ethanol worth $2.1 billion to international markets, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) explained today in its new publication “2014 U.S. Ethanol Exports and Imports: Statistical Summary.” The publication offers a succinct overview of the U.S. ethanol export and import markets in 2014 showing the upward trend in exports and the downward trend in imports — reaching the second-lowest levels — since 2005.

The report finds that U.S. ethanol has made its way to all inhabited continents of the world, reaching more than 50 countries. The top five countries importing U.S. ethanol last year included Canada, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and India. Meanwhile, exports to the European Union remain down due to a punitive trade tariff it chooses to impose on U.S. produced ethanol.

Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, noted, “Last year U.S. ethanol producers produced a whopping 14.3 billion gallons of ethanol and nearly 6 percent was exported globally. We are working diligently to increase demand for this product abroad. It has been rewarding to see countries all over the world embrace the U.S. produced, high-octane fuel, which has also been the lowest-cost liquid transportation fuel found anywhere in the world.”

Dinneen continued, “U.S. ethanol is now exported to 51 countries across the globe, including regions that once seemed far-fetched as renewable fuel destinations such as the Middle East and North Africa. But, we will not stop here. We will keep working with others in the industry and the U.S. government to keep exploring new regions that would benefit from U.S. ethanol. Last year, RFA participated in trade missions to Panama, China, Peru, Japan, and South Korea and we will keep at it until all countries understand the value of U.S produced ethanol.”

The publication will be distributed at the 2015 National Ethanol Conference on Feb. 18–20 in Grapevine, Texas, and fits the conference theme “Going Global.” Keynote speaker Ron Kirk, the former U.S Trade Representative, will give insight into international trade relations and a panel of industry experts will discuss global ethanol markets in a session titled “Going Global: Building Ethanol Demand Internationally.”

- See more at: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/news/entry/ethanol-expands-global-reach-rfa-releases-new-2014-export-import-report/#sthash.CeAz7ERR.dpuf

Reuters

Feb 4, 2015

By Chris Prentice

Biofuels manufacturer Green Plains Inc said on Wednesday that ethanol demand remains robust in the United States and abroad, even as the industry faces volatile margins and pressure from lower energy prices.

The biofuels manufacturer, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said it operated close to full capacity during the fourth quarter. It reported net income of $42.2 million for the quarter, compared with $25.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2013.

U.S. ethanol margins have been "volatile" so far in 2015, but domestic and export demand remains "robust," the company's president and chief executive officer, Todd Becker, said in a statement.

Revenue was $829.9 million for the quarter, compared with $712.9 million a year earlier, the company said.

The jump in earnings came in a quarter when ethanol producers boosted output due to high margins. Those margins have since come under pressure due as ethanol prices have fallen since early December, under pressure from a slide in crude oil prices.

Read the original story here : Ethanol Demand Remains "Robust," Margins "Volatile" - Green Plains

Star Tribune

By David Shaffer

Feb 2, 2015

Some ethanol makers are cheering a new biotech corn engineered strictly to produce biofuel.

Six Midwestern ethanol plants now use the hybrid called Enogen, the first corn genetically enhanced for ethanol production. Seven other ethanol makers, including Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. in Benson, Minn., are trying it out.

“Enogen technology is truly a unique advancement in our industry,” said Mick Miller, general manager of Denco II, a farmer-owned ethanol plant in Morris, Minn., that did a trial run with the ethanol-tailored corn.

Scientists for seed giant Syngenta altered the corn to produce — within the kernel — an enzyme needed to refine biofuel. Ethanol plants using Enogen say its embedded enzyme works better than enzymes purchased separately — producing more ethanol per bushel of corn and using less energy to do it.

Jack Bernens, who heads the marketing of Enogen out of Syngenta’s regional headquarters in Minnetonka, said ethanol plants using the hybrid see a 2 to 6 percent gain in ethanol yield per bushel.

“So the plant with no additional bricks and mortar can produce more ethanol,” Bernens said.

Most of the nation’s 200 ethanol plants haven’t tried Enogen, although Syngenta is ramping up production and marketing. If the biotech corn can further boost the industry’s efficiency, it would give corn ethanol a better carbon footprint. Yet that seeming benefit is unlikely to sway environmental critics who oppose expansive corn planting as unsustainable.

“It may very well improve corn ethanol production somewhat,” said Doug Gurian-Sherman, director of sustainable agriculture at the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Center for Food Safety. “I am skeptical that it is going to be a net, significant plus.”

Enzyme companies are not idly watching as corn begins sprouting enzymes. Industry leader Novozymes reported a 19 percent boost in biofuel-related sales last year, thanks partly to its yield-enhancing Avantec enzyme introduced in 2012 and used by a third of North American ethanol plants. The Danish company says it will launch new technology this year to further increase corn-ethanol yields.

Corn Strictly For Fuel

Farmers in Minnesota, Iowa and other states are growing the new enzyme-exuding corn hybrid.

The appeal is a guaranteed extra payment for each bushel. In return, farmers must follow special procedures designed to keep Enogen out of the food supply. But not all farmers need to grow Enogen to serve their local ethanol plants.

Only about 15 percent of corn fed into an ethanol plant needs to be Enogen for the enzyme embedded in the kernels to do its job — breaking down starch for fermentation. Ethanol plants using this biotech corn no longer need to purchase the enzyme, called alpha amylase, from biochemical companies.

Six ethanol plants in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Ohio have signed deals with Syngenta for commercial use of the corn, including a Central City, Neb., plant owned by Omaha-based Green Plains, the nation’s fourth-largest ethanol producer. Syngenta said a deal is pending with a seventh plant.

“It does work more efficiently,” said Jeff Briggs, Green Plains’ chief operating officer, who added that Enogen will be tried at two other of the company’s plants.

At the Denco plant, 160 miles northwest of Minneapolis, Enogen corn did such a good job of increasing throughput that the plant’s existing equipment couldn’t handle it, Miller said. So a modest equipment upgrade is needed before trying Enogen again, he added.

Ethanol maker Lakeview Energy has successfully tried Enogen at ethanol plants in Ohio and Iowa. Chief Operating Officer Eamonn Byrne said a midsize ethanol plant ordinarily would spend $300,000 to $350,000 a year to buy alpha amylase from an enzyme company. Yet the purchased product isn’t as efficient as the enzyme bred into Enogen corn, he said.

When ethanol plants shift to Enogen, they are in effect paying farmers instead of a chemical company for the enzyme. It’s a form of buying local that appeals to Mike Missman, an Enogen farmer and seed dealer in Woden, Iowa.

“That is a positive for our community and our environment,” Missman said. “That, to me, is a no-brainer.”

Keeping It Out Of Food

Although federal regulators say Enogen isn’t a risk to the food supply, some critics aren’t convinced.

Syngenta acknowledges that the enzyme-laden corn, if mistakenly shipped to a food processor, could affect some foods’ texture and other properties. But the company insists there is no safety risk — and federal regulators agreed after completing reviews in 2011.

Flour mills and others in the food industry have worried that small amounts of Enogen could get mixed with corn sent to food processors. Their concern is not about food safety. But the enzyme in Enogen kernels breaks down starch, and foods like tortilla chips, for example, need starch for their texture.

“We expressed our concerns to the USDA,” said James McCarthy, CEO of the North American Millers’ Association. “Now it is sort of wait-and-see mode.”

To address such concerns, Syngenta set up an online tracking program to watch that ethanol-only corn is separately planted, harvested, stored and shipped from other corn. Farmers who grow the hybrid are obliged to follow rules to keep Enogen out of food corn.

The Center for Food Safety, a group that opposes genetically altered foods, says Enogen’s enzyme still could be a potential food allergen.

“This is an industrial product that is not intended to be in the food or feed supply,” said Gurian-Sherman, the group’s senior scientist.

Syngenta’s Bernens said the enzyme is found in human saliva, has passed tests for allergic reactions and was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Ethanol plants that use Enogen must sign contracts with Syngenta agreeing to pay farmers 40 cents per bushel more for the special corn, which can mean an extra $80 per acre. The payment also is an incentive to farmers to sell Enogen only to ethanol makers because no one else would pay that premium.

“They are really watching that you take care every step of the way,” said Kevin Lundberg, a farmer in Murdock, Minn., who grows Enogen and intends to plant 500 acres this year.

Syngenta doesn’t charge farmers extra for Enogen seed. Ethanol plants also pay nothing to Syngenta, but must pay the premium to farmers for Enogen corn. Syngenta is looking for market share. To get the extra 40 cents per bushel, Enogen farmers must plant other Syngenta seeds on additional acres.

Teeing up cellulosic ethanol?

The first ethanol plant to use Enogen, in 2013, was Quad County Corn Processors, a farmer-owned operation in Galva, Iowa.

In a coincidence that became an opportunity, the plant separately developed technology to extract ethanol from otherwise untappable parts of corn kernels like the shell. The process, trademarked Cellerate and generically known as corn fiber extraction, requires extra equipment and special yeasts to ferment sugar from fibrous parts of plants.

Quad County Corn Processors Chief Executive Delayne Johnson said Cellerate is producing 6 percent more ethanol at his plant. That is expected to climb another 5 percent after certain yeasts win regulatory approval and can be used, he said. Federal regulators have certified the extra output as low-carbon biofuel, similar to cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs.

Johnson said using Enogen and Cellerate technologies together allows both to work better. “The two combine quite well and become more efficient,” he said. So the small Iowa co-op and the giant seed company signed a deal last year.

Now Syngenta is marketing Cellerate in tandem with Enogen. So far, no other ethanol plants are using the corn fiber technology, but it has generated industry buzz. Curious ethanol executives are making pilgrimages to Galva, which is 50 miles east of Sioux City, Iowa.

“We anticipate many tours,” Johnson said.

Read the original story here : Ethanol Industry Gets Its Own Biotech Corn

 

Agrinews

Feb 2, 2015

By Tom Doran

Chicago has a history of being proactive in moving toward environment-friendly fuel offerings and the city council will consider another step in that direction this year.

The council’s Committee on Finance passed an ordinance last month that would require filling stations within the city to provide an E15 blend fuel option. It is anticipated the ordinance will go to the full council this spring.

The effort began last March when Alderman Ed Burke reached out to the industry and worked with Growth Energy and its CEO, Tom Buis.

Finance committee members adopted an ordinance that requires all stations that sell more than 850,000 gallons annually to provide E15 as an option at the station.

Twenty-three of the council’s 50 members have signed on as sponsors of the ordinance.

“It’s not requiring customers to purchase it but it is requiring the retail station to make it available for the customer,” said Rodney Weinzierl, Illinois Corn Growers Association executive director.

“There are about 200 to 240 stations in the city of Chicago that would qualify. If stations have underground tanks that are not compatible they’re exempt from the ordinance.”

Farmers' Support

ICGA President Kenny Hartman and Vice President Jeff Jarboe attended hearings on the issue and submitted witness slips to testify. They were joined in submitting testimony by past ICGA Presidents Len Corzine and Garry Niemeyer. Other farmers also attended and submitted witness slips.

ICGA and other supporters delivered a petition with 7,673 signatures to the committee in support of the ordinance.

More than 20 representatives from the oil industry were on hand to testify against the plan.

As Weinzierl anticipated, the full council did not take up the issue at its Jan. 21 meeting “because it is now caught up in the mayoral election that is in February.

Media Battle

The proposal has drawn the media’s attention where supporters and opponents are wrestling for print space and air time.

“There has been over $1 million committed from the ethanol side of the industry just in dealing with the media and what’s going to be happening over the next few months,” Weinzierl said at the recent Illinois Farm Bureau-hosted agricultural legislative roundtable.

“It’s quite a big battle. It’s really shifted from the D.C. area into Chicago.”

In preparing for the possibility the ordinance is approved, the ethanol industry has committed $10 million to pay for retailers’ retrofit costs. The funding is available through the Prime the Pump program that pools industry resources to expand E15 and higher blends by offering grants to interested retailers.

“The Illinois Corn Marketing Board has committed $1 million also if stations want to move up and put in either E85 pumps or higher blend pumps and we have another program with the largest pump manufacturer that will cost share additional costs if stations want to do that,” Weinzierl said.

“So, there are a lot of resources going into this effort.

Chicago was the first city to ban leaded gas (1984) and also the first city in the nation to ban the methyl tertiary butyl ether additive (2000).

“So, this is not out of realm of the city moving forward in trying to do something,” he said.”

“Depending how that goes, there may be a runoff and that will pretty much determine the timeline on when that’s going to happen with this ordinance.

The mayoral election is Feb. 24 and the next city council meeting is March 18.

Read the original story here : Windy City Weighs Ethanol Ordinance

Renewable Fuels America

Jan 29, 2015

In a paper written for World Resources Institute, Tim Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich re-hashed their already disproven theories of “food vs. fuel” and “Indirect Land Use Change,” and repeated the years-old claim that bioenergy benefits from a “carbon accounting error.” Their original papers, published in 2008 & 2009, have been roundly rejected and criticized by the scientific community and disproven by the empirical data. Bob Dinneen, the Renewable Fuels Association’s president and CEO, released the following statement on the new Searchinger paper:

“Providing a cursory update of a failed theory is not science and does nothing to enlighten the debate about biofuels. For the better part of a decade, lawyer-activist Tim Searchinger has been promoting the flawed notion that increased biofuel use places unnecessary constraints on finite agricultural land resources. But, the "land use change" and "food vs. fuel" arguments are as wrong today as they were seven years ago when Searchinger first gained notoriety with his doomsday predictions. As passionate as he is in promoting his agenda, the truth cannot escape the fact that real-world data conclusively show reduced deforestation, reduced global hunger, and deceleration of cropland expansion during the biofuels era. In fact, Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development put this issue to bed last November, finding that ‘…the primary land use change response of the world’s farmers in the last 10 years has been to use available land resources more efficiently rather than to expand the amount of land brought into production.’”

Read the original story here : A Cursory Update Of A Failed Theory

Read the RFA's response by its senior vice president, Geoff Cooper here : Debunking Searchinger's Doomsday Theories ... Again

In a paper written for World Resources Institute, Tim Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich re-hashed their already disproven theories of “food vs. fuel” and “Indirect Land Use Change,” and repeated the years-old claim that bioenergy benefits from a “carbon accounting error.” Their original papers, published in 2008 & 2009, have been roundly rejected and criticized by the scientific community and disproven by the empirical data. Bob Dinneen, the Renewable Fuels Association’s president and CEO, released the following statement on the new Searchinger paper:

“Providing a cursory update of a failed theory is not science and does nothing to enlighten the debate about biofuels. For the better part of a decade, lawyer-activist Tim Searchinger has been promoting the flawed notion that increased biofuel use places unnecessary constraints on finite agricultural land resources. But, the "land use change" and "food vs. fuel" arguments are as wrong today as they were seven years ago when Searchinger first gained notoriety with his doomsday predictions. As passionate as he is in promoting his agenda, the truth cannot escape the fact that real-world data conclusively show reduced deforestation, reduced global hunger, and deceleration of cropland expansion during the biofuels era. In fact, Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development put this issue to bed last November, finding that ‘…the primary land use change response of the world’s farmers in the last 10 years has been to use available land resources more efficiently rather than to expand the amount of land brought into production.’”

More information can be found here as RFA’s Senior Vice President Geoff Cooper takes an in-depth look at Searchinger’s claims and systematically disproves them with hard data and findings from the scientific community.

- See more at: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/news/entry/a-cursory-update-of-a-failed-theory/#sthash.WPfGho9s.dpuf

Agriculture.com

By Daniel Looker

Jan 27, 2015

Corn ethanol had dodged the latest bullet in Congress, but attempts to weaken or repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard are likely to be attached to must-pass legislation in Congress all year.

That’s the consensus of lobbyists and ethanol advocates who spoke Tuesday at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit near Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday.

The most recent attack was an amendment in the Senate to the stalled Keystone XL Pipeline bill. An amendment proposed by Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) to strip corn ethanol from the Renewal Fuel Standard didn’t come up for a vote. On Monday, Democrats managed to delay the bill by blocking Senate leaders’ attempts to wind down debate. 

“I think for right now, there’s not going to be an immediate vote on this thing, but we do have to work this,” retired General Wesley Clark said of the Toomey-Feinstein effort. Clark, co-chair of the ethanol lobbying group, Growth Energy, visited with Agriculture.com shortly before delivering his keynote speech to members of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

Another ethanol industry leader, Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen (who wasn’t at the Iowa meeting Tuesday) told Agriculture.com recently that he didn’t expect the Toomey-Feinstein amendment to get a vote.

“I think [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and the Republican leadership understand this is an issue that divides the caucus,” Dinneen said. Both parties have supporters and opponents of ethanol, which could make changing the RFS a challenge for opponents in the oil industry.

Yet farm group lobbyists who who spoke at the meeting Tuesday were hardly complacent about the RFS.

“For sure we will see a vote this year in the Senate on some kind of RFS reform,” predicted Amanda De Jong, senior policy adviser at the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

A bill or amendment to completely repeal the RFS would be easier to defeat than one that would weaken the RFS with some kind of reform, said De Jong, who has worked as a special assistant at USDA and as an agricultural adviser to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

“I think we’ll be able to protect that from passing in the Senate,” she said.

Others predicted an ongoing battle because amendments to kill or weaken the RFS could be attached to one of several bills Congress will need to pass this year, said Catharine Ransom of the Glover Park Group and one-time staffer for former Senator Max Baucus (D-MT).

Ransom said that not only ethanol plant owners will need to contact members of Congress. So will farmers and others in agricultural industries.

Ransom said people ask her, “Well, I’ve talked to these people for the last five years. Do I need to do it again?”

“The answer is, yes.” Ransom said.

Besides urging Congress to continue its support for the RFS, ethanol leaders Tuesday urged Iowa members of the industry to attend next year’s presidential caucuses to support candidates who back the RFS.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, urged everyone at the meeting to join a new bipartisan group, America’s Renewable Future. That organization will work to inform presidential candidates who visit the state about the importance of renewable fuels to the economy of Iowa and the nation. 

Wesley Clark left no doubt that he sees renewable fuels as the key to reviving the U.S. economy.

Clark graduated first in his class at West Point and rose to the rank of four-star general as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.

Tuesday he outlined five challenges that this nation faces that are likely to be as difficult as the Cold War: terrorism, cybersecurity, an unstable global financial system, the rising military and economic power of China, and a changing climate.

“Those five challenges all have something in common. They’re all long-term,” Clark said.

“They require leadership,” he said, adding that right now the nation is badly divided politically.

“I think the way we come together is to rebuild the American economy,” said Clark, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2003.

Clark cited several ways to rebuild the economy, including educating more scientists and engineers. But that will take years.

“The quickest fix for the economy, believe it or not, is energy,” he said.

In 2008, America’s imports of oil contributed about $500 billion to the nation’s trade deficit, he said. This year, with falling oil prices, it will be about $100 billion.

“If we could keep that money in America’s economy, that would accelerate economic growth,” he said.

Clark is on the board of BNK Petroleum, an energy company focused mainly on shale gas in North America and Europe.

“We’re not going to be energy independent relying on oil alone,” Clark said.

Biofuels are sustainable, but shale oil wells are short-lived, he said. Production from typical wells using fracking technology declines between 70% and 90% in a year, he said. As oil companies slow down drilling in North Dakota and other oil states, 12 months from now, U.S. shale oil production “should be less, a lot less,” he said.

Another big oil producer, Russia, lags in technology and capital investment. 

Clark didn’t predict how long the current low prices would last.

“The only sure thing anyone can say about the price of oil is that any prediction is going to be wrong,” he said.

Some are predicting $20-a-barrel crude.

“I think it’s possible but unlikely,” Clark said.

Clark said that part of the fall in crude oil prices “was fed by financial speculation.” Buyers of crude oil futures have been shorting the market, he suggested. 

Even though demand for oil has fallen, one of the world’s biggest importers, China, is still growing at a rate of 7.5%, Clark added.

At some point, global production will be more in line with rising demand, and prices will go back up.

"The one thing you can be sure of is that the world demand for oil will increase," he said.

Ethanol and renewable fuels can make the U.S. economy stronger in that environment, he said, if ethanol and biofuels are allowed access to the market. 

“And it starts right here,” Clark said to a round of applause.

Read the original story here : Ethanol Will Face RFS Threat

 

Ethanol Producer Magazine

Jan 27, 2015

By Erin Voegele

Protec Fuel has announced two convenience stores in the Atlanta metro area are now offering E15, including a Mountain Express-Quick Stop Food Store in Marietta, Georgia, and the Mountain Express-Food Mart in Greensboro, Georgia. The stations will also sell E85 and B20. According to Protec Fuel, eight more stations near the metro area are set to offer the fuel soon.

 

The new E15 locations are part of Protec Fuel’s recently announced E15 rollout. In September, the company announced plans to open 28 stations offering E15 and E85 in the South and Southeast regions of the country. Protec has already opened three E15 locations in Florida. In December, the company announced that fuel stations in Sarasota, Florida, and Lake Wales, Florida, had begun to offer the ethanol blend. Earlier this month, a third Florida E15 location opened in North Miami.

 

According to the Renewable Fuels Association, E15 is now available at fuel stations in 16 states. In addition to the new locations in Georgia and Florida, the ethanol blend is also available in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Arkansas.

 

We are thrilled to see E15 continue to expand on America’s eastern seaboard,” said Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the RFA. “E15’s expansion continues — reaching 16 states today — despite the misinformation being spread by Big Oil and its friends. It’s clear that gas stations in many states are embracing the true facts about E15 and ignoring Big Oil’s smoke and mirrors. We expect additional stations in more states to follow Georgia’s example and offer drivers low-cost, environmentally-friendly E15. Today is a great day for Georgia consumers.”

 

Growth Energy has also spoken out to congratulate Protec Fuel and Mountain Express on the new E15 locations. “Protec’s continual march to find new locations to offer E15 is to be commended and shows they are a leader in providing sustainable, homegrown fuel options to their consumers,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy. “Clearly there is a strong demand for E15, as we continue to see new retailers offer it. One thing is clear – when consumers are given the choice, they will choose the higher performing, less expensive fuel that is better for their engines and our environment – one that creates jobs in America and reduces our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”

 

Read the original story here : Protec Fuel : 2 Stations Now Offering E15 In Georgia

College of Science and Engineering

Jan 26, 2015

Using one of the largest supercomputers in the world, researchers led by a team from the University of Minnesota have identified material that could improve ethanol production.

In a statement from the university's College of Science and Engineering, it said it's researchers have found an all-silica zeolite that could change the ethanol / water separation process from a multi-step distillation process to a single-step adsorptive process. The team included researchers from Rice University.

Zeolites are materials used by biofuel and petrochemical refiners that act as sieves to sort, filter and trap chemical compunds, as well as catalyze chemical reactions necessary to produce and upgrade chemical feedstock from renewable and petroleum-based sources.

The all-silica zeolite used by researchers at the University of Minnesota was tested and synthesized in chemical engineering and materials science professor, Michael Tsapatis' lab.

Synthesizing zeolites in a lab can be a long and complicated process that can take months. However, researchers of the University of Minnesota and Rice University developed a complex computational screening process using a supercomputer from the Argonne National Laboratory that looked at thousands of zeolites in the virtual world and identified their performance for specific applications.

Read more here : U of M Researchers Find Materials To Improve Ethanol Production