Domestic Fuel

Oakhurst Dairy, based in Maine, has announced the conversion of their delivery trucks to a biodiesel blend.

Oakhurst credited tax incentives for driving the decision to convert 90 percent of its vehicles, making it the largest private biodiesel fleet in New England. Biodiesel is produced in Maine from waste vegetable oil. Except in the coldest weather, the delivery trucks will use a blend that’s 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel. Officials say the ratio reduces air pollution without requiring engine modifications.

Every month there’s a new record set for ethanol production and the bar has now been raised to 333,000 barrels a day. That’s a 55,000 barrel per day increase since the beginning of the year, according to the latest figures released by the Renewable Fuels Association.

RFA says demand for ethanol remained strong in September at 380,000 b/d.

General Motors won the Green Car design contest at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week with the “Hummer O2.”

According to CNN, this fuel-cell powered Hummer would produce oxygen. Agae-filled body panels could break down C02, a greenhouse gas, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. When parked, body panels would fan out to catch more light, speeding the process. The 02 would be constructed from 100-percent post-consumer recycled aluminum.

Check out all the entries in the Green Car Contest here.

This article from the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star and accompanying comments illustrates the myriad of opinions about ethanol that stem from partial truths and speculation.

The article is basically a tirade against ethanol by commodity broker Douglas Carper, with the headline “Ethanol Skeptic Sees Painful Realities Ahead.”

As far as Carper is concerned, there is no constructive purpose to putting so much emphasis on ethanol as an answer to shrinking energy resources.

His reasons are:
“Even if every bushel of corn in the United States were turned into ethanol, it wouldn’t make much of a dent in overseas oil dependence”

Beyond that, he sees so much emphasis on ethanol leading to higher food prices. He sees what he called a tremendous negative effect on the state’s cattle feeders, possible disruption in the food distribution system and some substantial portion of new ethanol plants failing to make a go of it as profit margins inevitably narrow.

The article offers the defense of ethanol to Don Hutchens with the Nebraska Corn Board, who rebutts Carpers contention that hunger will be a result of a food or fuel fight with, “Is it the responsibility of the Nebraska corn farmer to keep prices as low as he possibly can so no one in the world has food availability issues?”

Over 40 readers offered comments on the article, with a pretty even balance between those who agreed with Carpers and those who disagreed. Of those who agreed, many seem to think that ethanol is a “scheme” between agriculture and the government, demonizing agricultural producers with comments like “farmers are not the stewards anymore, they will sellout their own children and grandchildren for a few more dollars.”

Others defended the opportunity for growers to make a living. “Ethanol is the farmers chance to market a much higher level of prices and not have to depend on taxpayers every year to bail out.”

Here’s a story out of Malaysia on using sap from “nipah,” or mangrove palm, to make an ethanol-like biofuel.

The substance is similar to ethanol from Brazil’s sugar cane or Europe’s sugar beet but nipah would have higher yield per hectare.

The state government, after studying a proposal from a KL-based company on Wednesday, agreed to allow the company to extract “nira” or nipah sap from 10,000ha of nipah area along the state’s coastal area.

A plant to be built in Malaysia would be the first in the world to produce ethanol from palm.

Read more.

The Associated Press reports that corn prices are at their highest levels in a decade and growers are looking at planting as much as 10 million more corn acres next year, according to Chris Hurt, a Purdue University agricultural economist.

“It’s a wonderful time for corn producers. They’re extremely excited, but they’re also apprehensive because they’ve seen booms before and they don’t last,” he said.

The average price of a bushel of corn has increased about $1.00 since September and is now about $3.45.

Former National Corn Growers Association president Ryland Utlaut of Missouri is a producer who is definitely happy to see prices higher for a change.

“I started farming 40 years ago and corn prices were $2.00,” said Utlaut. “Last year, we were $2.00 again.”

Utlaut says the 1995 “Freedom to Farm” bill helped to encourage farmers to develop more markets for corn. “And we’ve done it in big fashion with ethanol,” he said. “We haven’t seen much change in livestock use or exports, the new dynamic is the ethanol industry.”

Utlaut, who is the chairman of Mid-Missouri Energy in Malta Bend, firmly believes that the corn industry can meet the demand for ethanol and still meet the needs of livestock producers and exporters, and biotech corn will help do the job. This year’s average corn yield is estimated at over 151 bushels per acre, up almost ten percent compared to the “unprecedented” average of 138 in 2001.

Listen to an interview with Ryland about how he thinks biotech varieties will help meet demand for corn.
Ryland Utlaut (4 min MP3)

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