Domestic Fuel

The 2008 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) has debuted the new 6.2L V-8 Camaro flexible fuel engine. The new Camaro is the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Concept, which was actually produced with input from Jr. himself. He is a vintage Camaro enthusiast and adding the higher octane of E85 to this vehicle will give an extra boost to horsepower. According to 4WheelsNews, the base car is a Camaro SS tuned use the higher octane fuel, E85.

“The new Camaro is a 21st century sports car for the young and young at heart,” said Ed Peper, GM North America vice president, Chevrolet. “Wherever your automotive passion lies, the Camaro complements it with world-class design and an exciting driving experience. The concepts unveiled at SEMA accentuate those qualities and trigger the imaginations of countless enthusiasts.”

The exterior of the vehicle is a nostalgic gray-over-white paint scheme with 21-inch five-spoke wheels, a dovetail spoiler and other Chevy Accessories exterior modifications.

Currently, General Motors has the most E85 compatible vehicles on the road than any other automobile manufacturer.

Monsanto is moving into the sugarcane seed business.

The company has announced that “in the face of long-term changes driving greater global demand for food and biofuel sources” they are investing in sugarcane “to diversify its existing core crop portfolio and to leverage its experience in bringing innovations to the agricultural marketplace through breeding and biotechnology.”

Monsanto will be acquiring Aly Participacoes Ltda., which operates the sugarcane breeding and technology companies, CanaVialis S.A. and Alellyx S.A., both of which are based in Brazil.

Carl Casale, executive vice president of global strategy and operations for Monsanto, says this will allow them to combine breeding expertise. “Our goal with this approach is to increase yields in sugarcane while reducing the amount of resources needed for this crop’s cultivation, just as we’re doing now for corn, soybeans and cotton,” Casale said. “We view this as a significant opportunity over the longer term to supplement our ongoing commitment to corn as an ethanol feedstock, diversify our crop technology portfolio and provide innovations to such a vital crop as sugarcane.”

Casale says they hope to bring new trait technologies for sugarcane to market by 2016.

In this “Ethanol Report” podcast, Matt Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association talks about why it is important for the industry to be involved in the political process and why every needs to get out and vote. No endorsements from the RFA on who to vote for, by the way, just vote because elections on both the state and national level are important for the ethanol industry.

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here:
ethanol-report-20.mp3

Or you can subscribe to this podcast by following this link.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.6MB)

The sun may be going down on one major ethanol producer, but a nice little 100 million gallon per year plant is just taking off in Indiana.

Cardinal Ethanol in Randolf County, Indiana officially started grinding corn on Saturday in a very low key event, according to the Muncie StarPress.com.

Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, local politicians, members of the press and a small group of Cardinal Ethanol officials were on hand for Saturday’s start-up, which involved the click of a computer mouse. The first drops of ethanol from the first corn that hit the grinder on Saturday should make their appearance on Election Day as the fermentation process takes about 60 hours.

It was no surprise that VeraSun, one of the nation’s largest ethanol producers, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 on Friday. The move has been expected as the company’s position continued to worsen after taking a fall on pricey forward corn contracts. The company was put on the market in September and Morgan Stanley was hired as an adviser.

According to the company, “The filing was precipitated by a series of events that led to a contraction in VeraSun’s liquidity, impairing its ability to operate its business and invest in production facilities. The Company suffered significant losses in the third quarter of 2008 from a dramatic spike in its corn costs, reflecting in part costs attributable to its corn procurement and hedging arrangements, and historically unfavorable margins. Beginning in the third quarter, worsening capital market conditions and a tightening of trade credit resulted in severe constraints on the Company’s liquidity position.”

VeraSun officials say they will maintain operations at their 16 production facilities in eight states.