In the News
Oct 28, 2021
President Biden and Congressional leaders on Oct. 28 released a proposed Build Back Better budget reconciliation framework that includes nearly $1 billion for biofuels infrastructure, a four-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit and a new tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
One section of the nearly 2,500-page proposed bill allocates $960 million through Sept. 30, 2031, to provide competitive grants to install, retrofit, or otherwise upgrade fuel dispensers, storage tank components and other infrastructure required to supply fuel ethanol blends of greater than E10 and biodiesel blends of greater than B20. The funds can also be used to retrofit certain distribution systems for these fuels, including rail lines and home heating oil distribution centers. Fueling stations, convenience stores, fleet facilities, terminal operators, mid-stream partners and heating oil distribution facilities are among the entities eligible for the grant program.
The bill also currently includes extensions of the biodiesel and renewable diesel tax credit and the second-generation biofuel production tax credit. In addition, the legislation creates a new tax credit for SAF. The SAF credit begins at $1.25 per gallon with an extra 1 cent per gallon for each percentage point by which the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction percentage with respect to such fuel exceeds 50 percent.
Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, issued a statement touting the biofuel provisions included in the proposed package. “Not only does the Build Back Better Act represent the largest investment in clean energy and combating climate change ever – it also confirms that my colleagues have listened to my central argument in our clean energy discussions: biofuels can and should be a part of our fight against climate change,” Axne said. “For months, I have been helping members of the administration, the Senate, and my own colleagues in the House understand the key advantages of biofuels – from the fact that it’s been proven to be more than twice as clean as fossil fuels to how much it can help the economies of states like Iowa. And now I will continue working to get these investments to the President’s desk.”
Growth Energy has issued a statement in support of the bill’s biofuel infrastructure provisions. “President Biden’s proposal to invest $1 billion in biofuels infrastructure is a welcome acknowledgment from this administration that access to higher blends of biofuels at the pump makes a real difference in decarbonizing transportation,” said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy. “Recent research shows that a nationwide E15 standard would reduce CO2 emissions by more than 17.62 million tons – the equivalent of taking 3.85 million cars off the road each year. Investing in fuel infrastructure that allows more American drivers to fill up on low-carbon biofuel blends, like E15, is crucial to helping our nation achieve our clean energy goals today.”
Read the original story here.
Oct 26, 2021
Novozymes is introducing Innova Quantum, a new addition to its powerful Innova yeast platform. The robust new yeast enables ethanol plants with longer fermentation times of more than 60 hours to realize higher ethanol yields and processing efficiencies than ever before. And, most importantly, plants can achieve this industry-leading yield without trade-offs which put their operation at risk.
“Innova Quantum is the most advanced yeast available and sets a new industry benchmark for the highest yielding, most robust yeast to maximize producer yield and fermentation reliability,” says Rene Garza, Novozymes’ Vice President for Agricultural & Industrial Biosolutions, North America. “With its launch, we are redefining fermentation and operational performance, as new yeast strain and enzymatic developments unleash additional performance capabilities. Our primary goal is to help our customers protect their plant while enabling the highest level of conversion – and Innova does not require this trade-off.”
A boost for ethanol producers
Innova Quantum has significant robustness and works particularly well under differing processing conditions. This means that ethanol producers can maintain consistency in challenging conditions, maximize the fermentation process towards optimal starch conversion, and achieve the highest ethanol yields in the industry.
Producers can increase ethanol yield by 2-3% with the new yeast, which for a 100MGY plant translates to an additional $1-2 million in revenue. Designed to operate in fermentations >60 hours, Quantum with new strain development is capable of converting the most sugar to ethanol while significantly lowering fermentation by-products such as glycerol up to 40% – all without the trade-off and risk of robustness loss experienced with competing yeasts. And, Quantum expands plant flexibility fermenting to >16% w/v ethanol concentrations, while eliminating the need for expensive nutritional supplements.
“Innova Quantum is a boost for ethanol producers that enables them to realize greater profitability without trade-offs that rob plants of reliability and consistency. Quantum delivers higher ethanol yields without risking robustness,” adds Garza. “They can pursue greater yields while safeguarding their plant, yields, and profit.”
A platform for growth and protection
Novozymes’ Innova platform is already the most robust yeast in the industry. Within three years of its emergence on the market, nearly half of North American ethanol is produced using Innova yeasts, indicating how the platform fulfils a significant market need for groundbreaking bioinnovation that makes a real, tangible difference for producers.
Based on customer needs and Novozymes’ commitment to a better tomorrow, the launches of Innova Quantum and Element fermentation solutions, the Fortiva Hemi liquefaction solution, and Fiberex F2.5 for fiber-to-low-carbon ethanol production, together deliver the industry’s most holistic, sustainable, and advanced approach to ethanol production.
“Innova Quantum is our latest way of providing producers with peace of mind to convert at the highest level, while reducing plant risk,” says Rene Garza. “We aim to make a significant contribution to the ethanol production industry and support producers as they grow and protect their plants.”
Learn more here
Oct 12, 2021
The USDA maintained its forecast for 2021-’22 corn use in ethanol in its latest World Agricultural Demand and Supply Estimates report, released Oct. 12. Estimated 2020-’21 corn use for ethanol production was reduced slightly.
The USDA said the current 2021-’22 U.S. corn outlook is for slightly higher production, increased exports, lower feed and residual use, and larger ending stocks.
Corn production is forecast at 15.019 billion bushels, up 23 million on a marginal increase in yield to 176.5 bushels per acre. Corn supplies are forecast up 72 million bushels from the September WASDE on slightly higher production and increased beginning stocks based on the Sept. 30 Grain Stocks report.
Exports are raised 25 million bushels reflecting larger supplies and expectations of reduced competition from other major exporters. Projected feed and residual use is lowered 50 million bushels based on indicated disappearance during 2020-’21.
The USDA maintained its forecast for 2021-’22 corn use in ethanol at 5.2 billion bushels. Estimated 2020 -’21 corn use for ethanol, however, was revised down slightly to 5.032 billion bushels, down from the estimated 5.035 billion bushels included in the September WASDE. Corn use for ethanol was at 4.857 billion bushels in 2019-’20.
Corn ending stocks for 2021- ‘22 are raised 92 million bushels due to expected increases in supply and lower forecasted use. The season-average corn price received by producers is unchanged at $5.45 per bushel.
Foreign corn production is forecast essentially unchanged as increases for the EU, Canada, Venezuela and Serbia are largely offset by declines for Ukraine, Russia and Guatemala. EU corn production is raised reflecting increases for Poland and Romania more than offset declines for France and Bulgaria. Corn production in Canada is higher reflecting favorable yield prospects for Ontario. Projected corn yields for Russia and Ukraine are lowered based on reported harvest results to date.
Corn exports are raised for India, the U.S. and the EU, with partly offsetting reductions for Ukraine, Russia and Vietnam. For 2020-’21, corn exports for Brazil are lowered for the local marketing year beginning March 2021, based on shipments through the month of September. For 2021-’22, corn imports are lowered for Vietnam, Chile, Algeria, Israel, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, but raised for Bangladesh. Foreign corn ending stocks are higher, mostly reflecting increases for China and Mexico, with a partly offsetting reduction for Ukraine. Global corn stocks, at 301.7 million, are up 4.1 million.
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Oct 20, 2021
U.S. fuel ethanol production soared to a near-record high of 1.096 million barrels per day the week ending Oct. 15, up more than 6 percent from the previous week and tied for the third highest production level on record, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Oct. 20. Ethanol stocks were up more than 2 percent.
The 1.096 million barrels per day of ethanol production reported for the week ending Oct. 15 was up 64,000 barrels per day when compared to the previous week, and the highest level reported since June 2019. Production was only 12,000 barrels per day below the record 1.108 barrels per day of production set the week ending Dec. 1, 2017, and tied with the 1.096 million barrels of production reported for the week ending June 7, 2019. The second highest production level currently on record was 1.1 million barrels per day reported for the week ending Aug. 3, 2018. When compared to the same week of last year, production for the week ending Oct. 15 was 183,000 barrels per day.
Weekly ending stocks of fuel ethanol reached 20.08 million barrels, up 233,000 barrels when compared to the 19.847 million barrels of stocks reported for the previous week. When compared to the same week of last year, stocks for the week ending Oct. 15 were up 359,000 barrels.
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Oct 12, 2021
Argonne National Laboratory’s Systems Assessment Center on Oct. 11 announced the 2021 release of the suite of GREET models, an analytical tool that stimulates the energy use and emissions output of vehicle and fuel combinations.
Major expansions and updates included in GREET 2021 include those related to corn starch ethanol, corn fiber ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and a variety of other biobased fuels.
For corn starch ethanol, the updated model accounts for data showing that corn grain yields have increased in recent years while fertilizer inputs per acre have remained constant. In addition, the model reflects updated data showing that corn grain ethanol yield and reductions in energy use have reduced the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per megajoule (MJ) of corn grain ethanol produced and used. The updated GREET model also includes a reconfigured corn fiber ethanol pathway that links grain ethanol with corn fiber ethanol interactively.
Argonne updated and expanded the biodiesel (BD) and renewable diesel (RD) pathways in GREET 2021, and added carinata to BD/RD, palm fatty acid distillate to BD and tallow to RD pathways. Feedstock production data for soy oil and canola oil have also been updated.
In addition, the updated GREET 2021 model includes eight new SAF production pathways. Argonne also added a new coprocessing module to GREET 2021 that is intended to examine the impact of coprocessing biobased feedstocks in petroleum refineries.
Additional information, including a 58-page summary of 2021 updates to the GREET model, is available on the Argonne website.
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Oct 14, 2021
U.S. ethanol production expanded by nearly 6 percent the week ending Oct. 8, surpassing 1 million barrels per day for the first time in more than two months, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Oct. 14. Ethanol stocks fell slightly.
U.S. ethanol production averaged 1.032 million barrels per day the week ending Oct. 8, up 54,000 barrels per day when compared to the 978,000 barrels per day of production reported for the previous week. When compared to the same week of last year, ethanol production was up 95,000 barrels per day.
Weekly ending stocks of fuel ethanol fell to 19.847 million barrels, down 84,000 barrels when compared to the previous week. When compared to the same week of last year, ethanol stocks were down 161,000 barrels.
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Oct 12, 2021
The FIA has announced it is targeting the wholesale use of synthetic fuels by 2025. Last year, the FIA announced the use of E10 biofuels in Formula 1 beginning in 2022.
F1 has partnered with both manufacturers and energy companies to develop and mass produce biofuels that will contribute to F1’s net-zero carbon emissions target by 2030. These fuels will be manufactured with techniques that incorporate carbon capture, municipal waste or biomass methods in their production, offsetting some the carbon emitted when burnt inside an F1 power unit.
F1 estimates this will reduce emissions by up to 65%, with other carbon offset projects making up the rest of Formula 1’s net-zero 2030 target. The fuel will be ‘drop-in’, meaning that engines require no specific modifications in order to be compatible, while also matching the energy density of today’s high-octane racing fuels.
The FIA governing body’s in-house research team has already developed a carbon-neutral biofuel that meets the F1 engine specifications. The first barrels were sent to engine suppliers for initial development and testing in 2020, but the job now is creating scale, which will cover usage across F1 and eventually the logistics that go with it.
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Oct 7, 2021
[ST. PAUL, MN] – Today, Governor Tim Walz directed state agencies to explore ways to reduce climate change impacts from transportation fuels. Led by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Minnesota Department of Transportation, the process will engage a broad cross-section of stakeholders statewide to identify shared goals and opportunities that will help to inform a new Clean Fuel Standard in Minnesota. The agencies will provide a report summarizing the results and recommendations in February 2022.
“Minnesota can lead the way in addressing climate change in a way that supports new jobs, reduces pollution, and helps ensure our children have clean air to breath and clean water to drink ,” said Governor Walz. “That’s why our Administration will work with private, non-profit, and government partners and Minnesotans to address climate change while creating jobs across the state.”
“Minnesota has a long history of working together to tackle big challenges,” said Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. “More collaborative and creative solutions are needed to reduce future impacts of climate change on Minnesota communities. Listening to and learning from stakeholders and affected community members is key to our continued success. If we do this right, we can grow our economy while reducing climate impacts to future generations.”
“Transportation is the largest contributor to climate pollution in Minnesota and the United States. A Minnesota Clean Fuels Standard could reduce more than 50 percent of climate pollution from the transportation sector by 2050 ,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Margaret Anderson Kelliher. “Minnesotans want the cleanest fuels available, and a Clean Fuels Standard will help drive innovation and create new economic opportunities while supporting our state’s climate goals.”
“We have tremendous agricultural and forest resources and potential for renewable energy in Minnesota that could benefit from new market opportunities that a Clean Fuels Standard would bring,” said Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen.
This Clean Fuel Standard is part of a broader climate effort that includes achieving 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040, improving soil health, planting 12 million trees, expanding energy efficiency, providing more opportunities for people to bike, walk and use transit, helping farmers and fuel retailers provide more biofuels, and building resiliency in Minnesota communities and landscapes.
Read the original press release here.
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Oct 5, 2021
U.S. ethanol exports in August saw substantial improvement from the prior month’s slump, expanding 56% to 80.48 million gallons (mg). Canada was the top destination for the fifth straight month with imports of 33.9 mg, the largest volume since March (representing 42% of the August U.S. ethanol export market). Given that former key destinations Brazil, China, and India were again nearly absent from the market, the scope of U.S. ethanol exports extended to a broader range of customers than has been the norm. Larger markets included South Korea (9.9 mg, up 86%), the United Kingdom (up fivefold to a two-year high of 6.7 mg), Peru (6.2 mg, up from zero), Nigeria (5.0 mg, up from zero), the Netherlands (4.9 mg, up 22%), and Mexico (4.0 mg, up 83%). Shipments over the first eight months of the year were 796.3 mg, down 10% from the same period in 2020.
The U.S. imported 9.6 mg of undenatured ethanol from Brazil, along with a minimal volume of denatured ethanol from South Africa and Canada.
U.S. exports of dried distillers grains (DDGS)—the animal feed co-product generated by dry-mill ethanol plants—spiked 17% to 1.24 million metric tons (mt). This marks the highest volume of U.S. DDGS exports since Aug. 2015, with much of the growth occurring outside of our largest markets. Exports to Mexico, our top customer for the last eleven months, declined by 18% to a four-month low of 203,666 mt (representing just 16% of all U.S. DDGS shipments in August). DDGS sales to Vietnam jumped 29% to 194,667 mt, its second-largest monthly purchase to date. Exports to Turkey slowed after a large bump in July, down 43% to 86,772 mt. Substantial export volumes also landed in Canada (86,238 mt, up 23% to the largest volume in over a decade), South Korea (79,859 mt, down 10%), Indonesia (64,853 mt, down 3%), China (56,573 mt, up 61% to the largest volume in more than four years), Thailand (55,554 mt, up 153%), and New Zealand (50,000 mt, up from zero). Total DDGS exports through August were 7.73 million mt, which is 10% ahead of last year at this time.
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Oct 5, 2021
AdvanceBio LLC has been selected by D3MAX to lead the process development and design for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded project that supports the newly announced Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge.
Launched by the DOE, U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Grand Challenge represents an effort to reduce the cost, enhance the sustainability and expand the production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). D3MAX’s proposal to develop a pilot plant capable of producing SAF from corn stover was chosen as an awardee under DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office Scale-Up and Conversion funding opportunity announcement number DE-FOA-0002396, Topic Area 1b: Scale-Up – Pilot Scale for Biofuels and Bioproducts.
Based upon its extensive experience in biomass processing and process development, AdvanceBio was selected to provide process design services for development and construction of the pilot plant.
“We have worked successfully with AdvanceBio in the past and look forward to doing so again on this important project,” said Mark Yancey, chief technology officer at D3MAX. “We need to decarbonize aviation fuel and we expect that corn stover to SAF will play a major role in this effort.”
"We look forward to the opportunity to support the scale-up of such a transformative technology,” said Dale Monceaux, principal, AdvanceBio. “After literally decades of effort and billions of dollars of investment resulting in incremental improvements in biofuels technologies, National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) process offers the opportunity for the first truly revolutionary development in the quest for sustainable, cost-effective, biomass-based fuels and chemicals."
The project, called SAFFiRE (Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Renewable Ethanol), will demonstrate reliable, low-greenhouse gas (GHG) production of SAF from corn stover in a fully integrated, 10 metric ton per day pilot-scale facility. The novel process utilizes NREL’s low-temperature deacetylation and mechanical refining (DMR) pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis using Novozymes commercial hydrolytic enzymes, C5/C6 sugar fermentation to an intermediate ethanol product using commercial yeast from Lallemand and LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) process to convert the ethanol to SAF. In addition to the low cost, high titer, highly fermentable sugars produced in this reliable low-cost pretreatment, the valuable, non-condensed lignin produced will be recovered, dried and pelletized for sale as fuel pellets or sold directly for upgrading, all contributing to the lifecycle analysis (LCA).
“We identified a new process pathway that permits attainment of a negative GHG emission target. This approach is so transformative that our LCA concepts will be adopted by many entering the field from now on,” said Mike Himmel, NREL Senior Fellow.
About AdvanceBio LLC
AdvanceBio provides expert technical support for commercial fermentation and related unit operations across a range of bio-based industries. Our team of leading technologists and engineers brings over 100 years of combined experience in operations management, technology development and process design in starch, sugar and lignocellulosic-based ethanol, as well as food manufacturing. For more information, visit www.advancebio.com.
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Sep 29, 2021
Two studies conducted by Transport Energy Strategies (TES) and THiggins Energy Consulting show that gasoline blended with ethanol lowers carbon intensity (CI) even more than what is modeled today and what is shown in recent studies. A key finding in both studies is that blended ethanol not only displaces some of the gasoline but enables a reduction of aromatics in all of the gasoline in the blend. Aromatics have a high CI, and their reduction further decreases the GHG impact of the E10. This advantageous blending attribute is due to ethanol's high octane rating and has been neglected in prior literature.
"For years, the ethanol industry has touted the value of displacing aromatics with ethanol from an air pollution and public health standpoint, but no one has, to our team's knowledge, ever considered what displacement might mean for carbon intensity and for reducing GHG emissions," saidTammy Klein, founder and CEO of Transport Energy Strategies and a member of the study team. "Our findings break new ground."
GREET assessments, along with a study for the US Department of Agriculture and the current values used by the California Air Resources Board, yield an average CI for ethanol that is 40.4% below the value for petroleum gasoline. A recent study led byHarvardpresents a deeper reduction. Using the 40.4% ethanol advantage, and assuming a CI of 93 g/MJ for gasoline, the CI of ethanol is estimated at 55.5 g/MJ.
Displacement of petroleum gasoline to form E10 offers direct benefits from the low CI of the ethanol. In Well-to-Wheels Carbon Intensity for Ethanol Blended Fuels, the TES study team found that when both direct displacement and reduction of aromatics in the blend are attributed to ethanol as the enabling additive, a "reduced blending CI" (BCI) of 43.4 g/MJ is found for ethanol when it is used in E10. Similarly, for anticipated market blending, the BCI for E20 is 44.8 g/MJ, a greater reduction than the 55.5 g/MJ from unblended ethanol. If the 52.4 g/MJ CI for unblended ethanol from the GREET estimate alone is used, the BCI for ethanol in E10 is about 40 g/MJ.
Refinery modeling, economic considerations, availability of feedstocks and examination of gasoline properties supported the conclusion in Quantifying Ethanol CI Benefits in Gasoline Composition that as ethanol is blended into gasoline, so aromatics are reduced to maintain a constant octane rating. "The primary refinery option for lower octane is through lower severity or throughput for the gasoline reformer," saidTerry Higgins, president of THiggins Energy Consulting. "This, in turn, reduces both gasoline aromatic content and carbon intensity. When blended in gasoline, ethanol offers higher GHG benefits than well to wheels studies recognize for pure ethanol."
Transport Energy Strategies (http://www.transportenergystrategies.com) is a consultancy that provides market and policy intelligence, research analysis and strategic advice to clients on a range of global transport energy issues. THiggins Energy Consulting is a consultancy that provides refinery modeling providing energy consulting services to the petroleum and related industries with a primary area of focus on the impact of fuel quality trends on refining and application of new refining technology.
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Sep 28, 2021
WASHINGTON –Today,Congresswomen Cheri Bustos (D-IL-17), Cindy Axne (D-IA-03), Angie Craig (D-MN-02)andSenator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)led a bicameral group of Congressional members spanning seven states in a letter urging the Administration to increase biofuels usage and reject any reduction in biofuel blending requirements.
After recent reports that the Administration may be considering lowering the Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs), the group raised serious concerns about the harm a reduction in biofuels usage could cause to the Administrations clean energy goals and economic stability of the renewable fuels marketplace.
“We have strong reservations about the potential for the Administration to destroy over 5 billion gallons of biofuel volume from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 RVOs. This action would directly undermine your commitment to address climate change and restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS),”the letter states.“Every gallon of biofuels that is blended into our nation’s fuel supply displaces a gallon of oil and cuts carbon emissions…Reducing biofuel blending requirements will increase greenhouse gas emissions.”
“Rather than exempting refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act, we urge the Administration to provide additional certainty and stability to the renewable fuels marketplace by issuing strong RVOs for 2021 and 2022, and declining to remand any gallons from the 2020 RVO. These actions will create jobs, drive American investment, and cut carbon emissions from the transportation sector.”
The letter was also signed by Reps. Mark Pocan, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Bobby Rush, David Scott, Tim Ryan and Ron Kind, and Senators Dick Durbin, Tammy Duckworth, Tina Smith, Tammy Baldwin and Debbie Stabenow.
In June, Bustos, Axne, Craig and Klobuchar also led 12 bicameral colleagues in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Economic Council (NEC) expressing concern about reports that the agencies were considering exempting oil refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Text of the letter is below:
September 27, 2021
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
The Honorable Gina McCarthy
National Climate Advisor
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Biden and Ms. McCarthy:
Thank you for your work to decarbonize our nation’s transportation sector and help the United States achieve a clean energy future. Your efforts are critical to maintaining U.S. competitiveness across the globe while bolstering good-paying, union jobs here at home.
We write today with serious concern about recent reports that the Administration is considering a significant reduction to the annual biofuel blending requirements known as the Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs). Specifically, we have strong reservations about the potential for the Administration to destroy over 5 billion gallons of biofuel volume from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 RVOs. This action would directly undermine your commitment to address climate change and restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The RFS was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the vehicle transportation sector, diversify our fuel supply, strengthen our national security, and drive economic opportunity. When allowed to function as Congress intended, the RFS has delivered on these goals while serving as the economic engine behind a burgeoning bio-based manufacturing sector across rural America and a biofuel industry with a 100-percent U.S. supply chain and a higher union density than the national average.
Every gallon of biofuels that is blended into our nation’s fuel supply displaces a gallon of oil and cuts carbon emissions. Multiple studies from academic institutions, federal agencies, and national laboratories have confirmed that corn ethanol (46 percent ), cellulosic ethanol (70 – 126 percent), and biodiesel (66 – 79 percent) are less carbon intensive than gasoline and petroleum diesel. Reducing biofuel blending requirements will increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Congress clearly intended the RFS to be a forward-looking policy to drive investments in biofuels production, lead to the next generation of advanced biofuels, and fuel a clean energy agenda for decades. Rather than exempting refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act, we urge the Administration to provide additional certainty and stability to the renewable fuels marketplace by issuing strong RVOs for 2021 and 2022, and declining to remand any gallons from the 2020 RVO. These actions will create jobs, drive American investment, and cut carbon emissions from the transportation sector.
Again, we appreciate your work to address the climate crisis, and we urge you to reject any actions that would reduce the RVOs or exempt oil refiners of their obligations under the RFS.
We look forward to working with you on this important matter.
Read the original press release here.
Sept 21, 2021
As policymakers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan consider new emission reduction initiatives to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the U.S. Grains Council is working to demonstrate the pathway for decarbonization through increased ethanol blending into local fuel supplies. Each country is focused on reducing economy-wide emissions and the transport sector remains high on the list in terms of achievable emissions reductions.
Japan’s strategic energy plan is being revised this summer and policies are in development to achieve the country’s carbon neutrality goals by 2050. Direct blending of ethanol presents an immediate opportunity for the country to further reduce transport emissions to achieve these policy outcomes. Today, Japan does not currently blend ethanol directly; it relies on pre-blended ethanol in the form of ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE) that reduces 712,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. With an average blend rate of just 1.9 percent, direct blending of at least 10 percent would drastically reduce carbon emissions for the transport sector.
Currently, the total potential U.S. market share in Japan for ethanol is up to 66 percent of the estimated demand of 217 million gallons of ethanol used to make ETBE, equal to 142 million gallons per year. Investment to reduce carbon intensity of U.S. ethanol paid off in that market where U.S. product previously had no market share for the first decade of a policy that began in 2009. Even as the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction requirement became more stringent under that policy’s revision in 2018, U.S. ethanol gained access due to carbon intensity improvements made by the U.S. industry during that time.
Much like Japan, South Korea announced a goal last fall of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and the Korean public and private sectors have prepared scenarios and implementation measures for carbon reduction, including creating its Carbon Neutrality Committee that in the future will help set carbon neutrality policies.
The council’s Korea office has been providing stakeholders information on ethanol’s contributions to these goals and helping to create an environment for expanding ethanol use by demonstrating to the government the importance of introducing a fuel ethanol renewable fuel standard. Council staff has spoken at events hosted by the Korea Biofuel Forum and the Transportation Sector Working Group of the Carbon Neutrality Committee, that focuses on the importance of a local policy in achieving 2050 carbon neutrality in South Korea. The Council will co-host the Climate Crisis and Biofuel Symposium in September.
Taiwan is the most recent entrant in the region to announce similar targets to achieve net zero emissions. Like Korea, Taiwan does not blend ethanol into fuel. In the past, Taiwan has looked to pilot programs to blend ethanol in the market, but uptake was minimal, and the programs were discontinued. The enormity of the opportunity is immediate to demonstrate the role that ethanol has in supporting these policies as the U.S. ethanol industry value chain invests further to access these markets in the long term.
Author:Brian Healy
Director of Global Ethanol
Market Development
U.S. Grains Council
202.789.0789
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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By Geoff Cooper
Renewable Fuels Association
Sep 20, 2021
Anyone who has been around the ethanol business for very long knows that one the founding pillars of our industry was the dire need for a more secure energy supply. It all started with the oil embargoes of the 1970s. President Carter, in a major televised speech on the energy crisis in 1979, vowed that “this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977—never,” and ethanol was part of the solution he presented.
Likewise, when President George W. Bush signed the Renewable Fuel Standard into law just over a quarter century later, he spoke of the role renewable fuels would play in this area. “Every time we use a home-grown fuel … we're going to be helping our farmers, and at the same time, be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.”
It was therefore understandably difficult to recently learn that President Biden was calling on the OPEC+ nations to increase oil production as a way of combatting higher fuel prices at the pump. In a letter to the president two days after this announcement, the Renewable Fuels Association made clear our position—a position that many of the president’s predecessors would agree with:
The key to cleaner and more affordable energy for American consumers lies not in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia and Russia, but in the farm fields of our nation's heartland.
We do agree with President Biden that higher gasoline prices threaten to derail our nation’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and we support the administration’s call for an investigation into the true causes of recent higher gas prices. However, rather than hoping Iraq, Iran, Venezuela and other OPEC+ countries will provide the cure to escalating gas prices in the United States, we urge the president to pursue a real and immediate solution to higher pump prices—increased production and use of low-carbon renewable fuels like ethanol. Using more domestically produced ethanol would not only result in lower fuel prices for consumers, but it would also support this administration’s goals related to clean energy, climate change, and jobs.
While some oil refiners continue to falsely claim the RFS somehow increases the cost of gasoline, the facts are clear. Expanded use of ethanol under the RFS has lowered gasoline prices by an average of 22 cents per gallon in recent years, saving the typical American household $250 annually. In recent weeks, gasoline containing just 10 percent ethanol (E10) has typically sold for 30-40 cents per gallon less than gasoline with no ethanol, on average. And by increasing our liquid fuel supply, it helps dampen gasoline price shocks that result from sudden oil market disruptions.
With the right policy and regulatory actions, renewable fuels can do even more to keep pump prices in check, reduce petroleum dependence, and reduce carbon emissions. We encourage the Biden administration to take three steps: Quickly finalize robust RFS volume requirements for 2021 and 2022, take action to ensure consumers have year-round access to gasoline containing 15% ethanol (E15), and work with Congress to ensure upcoming legislation includes the incentives necessary to support increased FFV production and expanded infrastructure for higher ethanol blends like E15 and E85.
U.S. ethanol producers stand ready to work with the Biden administration and Congress to deliver immediate and effective solutions to the challenges posed by high pump prices and our long history of over-reliance on petroleum. Rather than calling on the cartels of the Middle East to solve our problems at the pump, our leaders in Washington should be calling on the farmers of the Midwest.
Read the original story here.
Sep 15, 2021
Full electrification of the economy is simply not an attainable goal, former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said at an industry forum Sept. 15, as he advised policymakers and the private sector to turn more attention to low-to-no-carbon fuels and carbon-negative technologies.
"I believe when you think this through that you reach the conclusion that while electricity and electrification are the lead horse in the decarbonization race, we also need a fuel," Moniz said during a fireside chat at Siemens Energy's North America Energy Week conference.
The economy in general and particularly the hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as the transportation, industrial and agricultural sectors, will need a fuel source, and there are a number of possibilities if sufficient attention is paid to the issue, Moniz asserted.
Among those possibilities are biofuels, which Moniz said "have been a promise for a long time without fulfilling the promise," as well as newer fuel alternatives such as an emerging class of carbon-neutral electrofuels produced with hydrogen and hydrogen itself.
Renewable Fuels Association members in July pledged to President Joe Biden that ethanol would achieve a net-zero carbon footprint, on average, by 2050 or sooner. Renewable fuel producers on RFA's board further committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol by at least 70%, on average, compared with gasoline by 2030. Corn ethanol already cuts GHG emissions by about 50% compared to petroleum, according to experts at the departments of Energy and Agriculture, Harvard University, MIT and other institutions.
Deflecting from innovation needs
Moniz warned that statements about full electrification of the economy were deflecting from the need to innovate to usher in significant volumes of low-to-no-carbon fuels at a low cost.
But even with electrification and a green fuel option, the US cannot fully decarbonize the economy, he argued, insisting that direct air capture and other carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies will be necessary to eliminate carbon from dilute sources, namely the atmosphere and the upper layers of the ocean.
He took issue with "detractors who view [CDR] as a focus on offsets and ... a bad thing."
Because CO2 in the atmosphere is a cumulative issue, Moniz said "How you get to net-zero, the trajectory through 2030 and 2040 is very important." Further, "we don't want to stop at net-zero," but continue on to "an economywide negative carbon world," he said, asserting that some are getting too caught up in the net-zero emissions by 2050 mantra.
"You cannot have a net negative economy without negative carbon technologies, and so we should be working on that much, much harder than we are today," Moniz said. "And we should not equate negative carbon technologies just with direct air capture, which is getting a lot of attention and I think is very important, but there are many, many other pathways to negative carbon."
A concerted effort must be made to make those pathways "viable, starting by the end of this decade and growing to a very substantial contribution by midcentury," he said.
DOE's role
Along those lines, if he were back in office at the Department of Energy, he said a top priority, from the energy transition context, would be to steward the energy innovation agenda in the US and abroad, with an emphasis on "stimulating major international collaboration" on the three big pillars for reaching success: electricity, fuel and CDR.
Secondly, he said DOE should take a look at its large-scale demonstration projects and deployment efforts.
"Let's face it, we're fairly desperate to accelerate the pace of change," he said. So things like the DOE loan program, for example, need to play a larger role, he contended.
"Back in the earlier Obama period, one failed loan became a big fiasco," he said. "The reality is the loan program as a portfolio was extremely successful in deploying $30 billion of debt financing and doing its job, starting up some areas, bringing in private capital, and then being able to walk away from them, and letting the private sector do the job."
He pointed to DOE's debt financing of the first five utility-scale solar plants in 2009 and 2010 and how that helped spur 60 or 70 more plants without government backing. "That's the kind of success story that I think we need more of."
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Sep 14, 2021
When he arrived at a start-up ethanol plant site in Portales, New Mexico, for the first day on the job as a carpenter, tools in hand, Randy Doyal didn’t know that he wasn’t being hired to build buildings, but to help build an industry.
“I went up and interviewed with the guy in this little kind of ratty trailer,” Doyal recalled. “He said yes, we’re building ethanol plants. I had no idea, And I didn’t care. Do you need a carpenter? Basically, he said yes, we do need a carpenter and we’re building eight one-million-gallon ethanol plants.”
Doyal showed up at 6:45 the next morning, lugging two big toolboxes, and was surprised to be shown all around the one plant on the site that was already operational— “It’s loud, it’s hot, and it smells funny.” And then the surprise came.
“We walked through this little building with all these tanks and pipe and odd equipment. And as we’re entering this small sort of office space that has some very rudimentary lab equipment in it, he says, OK, now go do that. I said, go do what? He said, you’re my cooker. I said no, I’m a carpenter. He goes no, you’re my cooker. I said, no, dude, I am a carpenter. What are you talking about? He said, well, I had someone quit, and they gave you to me. I need a cooker. And I said, you’ve got to be kidding. He said, do you need a job? I said OK.”
From cooking he eventually moved to distilling and then, when the second plant opened, he was on the startup crew. When the third plant was built, that was his to manage. The company was Mountain Development Corp. A short time later, Doyal learned of another, much larger (10 million gallon) ethanol project being built just down the hill in Portales in early 1985. He actually worked as a carpenter on that project and was hired to be a shift supervisor when the plant was nearing completion. It had been built by a company called Energy Fuels Development Corporation. Its president, Ben Henneke, was on the RFA board at the time.
The plant would go through changes of ownership during Doyal’s time there, and in 1995 Doyal and his family made the move a thousand miles northeast from Portales to Claremont, Minnesota, and Al-Corn Clean Fuel, becoming its general manager. Doyal continues at Al-Corn as its CEO and has been an RFA board member since 1995, serving as board chairman in 2015-2016. Last year, Al-Corn celebrated its billionth gallon of ethanol production.
Among the early challenges Doyal recalls is that the industry, in its youth, did not know how to deal with some of the coproducts of ethanol production—especially during his time at those million-gallon plants in New Mexico.
“We didn’t know what we were doing,” Doyal said, citing one example in particular. “We didn’t really have a plan for the feed that we were producing, because we didn’t think of it as feed. We called it slops. That’s not a good way to think about a feed product. We needed to learn to focus on how we could use this material for the livestock out there. There were a lot of people who could utilize it.”
In Minnesota, Doyal found an industry where plants were more numerous and in closer proximity. The nearest plant to his in Portales at that time, he said, was in Colwich, Kansas.
“When I got up here and saw the ethanol plants that existed and more being built, I thought this should be great,” he said. “But the plants were not working together. So, we started a process here at Claremont to invite all the managers and maintenance folks to look at our plant. We gave them a tour and talked about how we can work together. This was the start of the collaborative nature of much of our industry in Minnesota.”
This idea evolved from sharing spare parts with mechanical breakdowns to looking at improving ethanol marketing, and the creation of RPMG, the Renewable Products Marketing Group. Since its founding in 1996 by Al-Corn and Heartland Corn Products, RPMG now represents 19 plants across seven states.
“We thought we were doing something big with 20 million gallons to market from our two plants, and now RPMG is doing more than two billion a year,” he said. “Working together as an industry, being open and willing to share what you’re doing, so that people can look at it and see and ask questions. All of us trying to get better. It has helped everybody, and it’s continued to grow.”
His experience with RFA proved valuable in a similar way, Doyal said.
“When I got personally involved in RFA on the board was when I came up here to Minnesota. I saw it as another place where more of the industry was getting together and I got to learn about what else was going on out there, across the country, and what was possible for our industry. It was so much greater to see everybody working together, and I had opportunities to serve on different committees and to go and see what the developments were like—to see how fast all kinds of technologies were being developed. That was incredibly interesting to me.”
Having seen the industry grow over the decades he’s helped build it, Doyal rightly remains bullish on its future.
“Renewable fuels will become even more critical. I don’t consider myself an environmentalist, it’s more about stewardship. Oil is a phenomenally valuable resource that we use, and in all kinds of things, but it’s limited. Replacing that with molecules that we can produce in a sustainable renewable fashion makes perfect sense from the stewardship perspective. I hope that people get that message and understand that, especially as we continue to populate this earth. We’re going to need fuels that can be renewable, produced in a sustainable way and are better for the environment.”
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