Domestic Fuel

ICM Inc. of Colwich, Kan., will design an ethanol plant in Rice County, KS between Lyons and Sterling. The plant will be capable of producing 55 million gallons per year and is being funded by an investment group that includes former Kansas Senate President Dave Kerr.

According to an article in the Hutchinson (KS) News, construction of the plant should begin in December. “We’ve worked very closely with ICM, and we’re extremely pleased to have been given a favorable start date,” Kerr said.

The alliance known as 25X’25 is gaining more visibility with its goal to have 25 percent of the nation’s energy supply come from renewable resources by the year 2025. Major organizations, congressional leaders and companies are backing the coalition and the momentum is growing.

At the Ag Media Summit in Portland this week, Chuck sat down with Mike Bowman, one of the 25x’25 Steering Committee members, and talked about their goals and how they hope to attain them.
Listen to Chuck’s interview here 25×25 Interview (8 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

All the complaining about high ethanol prices may soon come to an end. Reports are that ethanol prices appear to be leveling out and should start falling. An article in the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier today quotes Tami Foster, an energy data analyst with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Foster said high ethanol demand on the east and west coasts has stabilized. At the same time more ethanol production capacity is coming on line in Iowa and elsewhere.

That means several months of rising ethanol prices may be at an end, Foster said. And she predicts in a week or so ethanol’s price at the pump will fall back below regular unleaded.

Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol car driver Jeff Simmons finished in the top ten again Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, starting in his highest pole position at sixth and finishing ninth.

Simmons commented, “The Team Ethanol crew did a great job preparing the car this weekend. We had over best qualifying run of the year and we scored our third straight top ten despite the pit problem. I think we are working well together as a team and I feel will continue the improvement.”

Meanwhile, RLR team member Danica Patrick finished fourth in the race, amid rumors that she will bolt at the end of this season and join another team. Tony Kanaan won the race.

The state of Maryland is not towing the “Old Line” when it comes to new fuels.

Last week, the first E85 station opened in Baltimore – although it’s only for state vehicles and non-profits, according to an article in the Examiner. State officials want motorists to start thinking about using alternative fuels, said Michael Li, chief of staff at the Maryland Energy Administration.

Last month, the first biodiesel plant opened in Berlin, MD, operated by Maryland Biodiesel and earlier this month Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., outlined his plans to increase Maryland’s access to renewable energy sources and decrease its reliance on fossil fuels and natural gas.

The plan “will boost Maryland’s use of biofuels and biomass, such as animal manure and underutilized wood resources, and provide incentives for the use of renewable electricity, including solar and wind resources.”

Diversified Ethanol is establishing corporate headquarters in the “heart of ethanol country: Iowa,” according to a Business Wire release.

“We needed to be right in the middle of the Midwest ethanol plants. As we work on ethanol mergers and acquisitions, it is a significant advantage to be established within the ethanol community. Being in Iowa, it will give us first hand knowledge and information about the key players and producers within the industry. Therefore we can prepare for future trends in the ethanol industry, even before the crop reports come out. The company anticipates this strategy will enhance the company’s competitiveness within the market,” stated Taylor Moffitt, CEO.

Diversified Ethanol is a division of Chicago-based of James Monroe Capital Corporation.

Indiana-based Cardinal Ethanol has a 24-member board of directors in place and is holding public equity-drive meetings to secure the funds needed to finance an ethanol plant in Randolph County. The natural gas-fired plant is anticipated to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year, using 36 million bushels of corn. A total of 49 meetings are planned – if needed – to raise up to $82 million of the $150 million estimated cost of the project. Meeting dates and times at locations around Indiana and Ohio can be found on the website, as well as a prospectus and IPO information.

The governor of Nebraska and representatives from the Renewable Fuels Association and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council will be in “the Irish capital of Nebraska” this Friday for the groundbreaking of Holt County Ethanol, a subsidiary of Midwest Ethanol Producers.

The O’Neill plant will produce more than 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, along with 350,000 tons of dry distillers grain and will consume more than 37 million bushels of corn annually.

Midwest Ethanol has another plant in Holdrege, NE and is planning to build two other plants in the state at sites yet to be announced.

Austin, Texas now holds the distinction of being the number one city in the nation for retail biodiesel. According to the National Biodiesel Board, 19 Shell stations in the Austin area recently opened pumps that carry a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel (B20).

Austin Biofuels, a biodiesel distributor and marketer, teamed up with Triple S Petroleum, a local petroleum distributor, to bring B20 to the Shell-branded “Signature Austin” convenience stores.

“It’s an exciting time in Austin,” said Jeff Plowman, president of Austin Biofuels. “As the city is pushing to become the Clean Energy Capital of the World, being a part of the clean energy growth is very fulfilling.”

Michigan-based retailer Meijer opened its first E85 ethanol fueling station this week in Warren, MI. According to a company release, the pump is one of 20 which will be installed at Meijer gas stations across the state before the end of this year.

In April, Meijer, General Motors, CleanFUEL USA and the State of Michigan announced a collaborative partnership to increase awareness and use of the ethanol based fuel. As part of the partnership, local GM dealers will help promote the new refueling stations when customers purchase its FlexFuel vehicles.

“Michigan is home to one of the largest concentrations of GM’s E85 flexible fuel vehicles in the country, with more than 140,000 in use — many by GM company vehicle drivers working right here at the GM Technical Center,” said Elizabeth Lowery, GM Vice President of Environment and Energy.

Meijer operates more than 175 stores in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky

Demand for ethanol is shifting Midwest acreage away from soybeans and into corn, according to a University of Missouri agricultural economist.

“Ethanol has major implications for corn acreage,” Pat Westhoff with the MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute said in an MU press release. New FAPRI projections indicate fewer acres planted to soybeans and wheat as more acres are planted to corn to meet ethanol demand.

“Ethanol production has doubled in the last four years and is projected to double again over the next four years,” Westhoff told the annual Breimyer Seminar on the MU campus this week. The theme of the agricultural policy discussion was “BioFuels: An Agricultural Revolution?”

Westhoff’s power point presentation can be viewed on the FAPRI website.

I just finished up a day at Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. in Raleigh, NC. Although I blogged the event on AgWired I did run into an interesting story about ethanol. Syngenta is developing an amylase enzyme trait into corn which they hope to have on the market by 2008. In this picture a Syngenta scientist is conducting a simple iodine test for starch. That’s because the amylase enzyme speeds up starch conversion to sugar.

Currently ethanol plants have to add the enzyme to the mix during processing of corn into ethanol. By creating a corn plant with the amylase already in it they can shorten the process and eliminate a whole step. They also hope it will bring a premium for corn growers.

The head of marketing for Syngenta Seed is Bruce Howison. I interviewed him this afternoon. He talks about the process and what this new enzyme trait will mean to ethanol plants and growers. I also asked him about the concerns some people have over the whole food vs. fuel issue. He says Syngenta is committed to making crop acreage more productive to feed the world but believes there’s room for a fuel business too.

Here’s an excerpt from my interview with Bruce: Bruce Howison Interview (4 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.1MB)

Xethanol Corporation has announced plans to construct a 50 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant in Augusta, Georgia which would begin producing ethanol by mid-2007.

According to a company release, the plant will be constructed on the site of a Pfizer pharmaceutical manufacturing complex that Xethanol will be closing on within 30 days.

Christopher d’Arnaud-Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Xethanol, says the plant “is being designed to run on a variety of feedstocks and we are already securing the necessary feedstock streams from the forest products industry to run at capacity when we begin production by mid-2007.”

Soybeans for both food and energy will be discussed at the 2006 Soya Summit, September 18-20 in St. Louis.

The energy track presents leaders from Washington State University, Toyota, Dupont, Pioneer, the National Biodiesel Board, New Energy Finance and Sigma Capital along with consultants such as Scott Susich, K. Shaine Tyson and Bill Hudson, to provide a unique, clear-eyed look at the current and future biofuels industry. A companion workshop will show potential investors how to evaluate biofuels opportunities.

Click on the link for more information.

USDA’s Agricultural Research Service says switching to switchgrass would make sense to make ethanol. A report in this month’s ARS magazine says “this deep-rooted carbon-storing perennial has great biofuel production potential.”

This native perennial has been shown to store more soil carbon than the major U.S. farm crops. They found that switchgrass stores most of its carbon deep underground….The reason for this depth advantage lies in the fact that switchgrass has an extensive root system—with some roots as long as 8 feet—so much of the plant’s carbon is in its roots and the belowground crown tissue just above them.