Domestic Fuel

The key purpose for the 2012 Export Exchange was for buyers and sellers to meet and establish important relationships. The event sponsored by the US Grain Council and Renewable Fuels Association focused on getting answers, making contacts and building business. During the conference I had the opportunity to talk with Tom Sleight, President & CEO of the US Grains Council, about what this event means for the DDGS and the worlds grain supply.

“What we’re telling customers around the world is how the US producers will be there for them. The US farmers will be there for them now and in the future. Yes, we have droughts, thats a problem we have, but for the future the US has always responded to production challenges with more acres, greater production. Our message to the international community is that the US farmer is there in the international market for keeps.”

“I think out biggest thing is being all around, having boots on the ground, representatives that are selling these grains, bringing the buyers in. That’s what we are doing today with over 200 buyers from around the world. Bringing them in, making contacts and making sales. It is a different kind of business and it takes being there and extending your influence and representing producers interest all around the world. That’s what US Grains Council is doing.”

Listen to my entire interview with Tom here: Tom Sleight at Export Exchange

The US Grains Council also announced the official approval of the Syngenta corn variety MIR 162 Agrisure Vipterra in the European Union. This opens the way for exports of US corn co-products, including DDGS and corn gluten free.

Cary Sifferath, USGC senior regional director based in Tunis, said “This approval is a great success as it opens the window of opportunity for U.S. products, including DDGS and CGF, to enter the EU market. This is especially attractive in big markets like Ireland, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. Their ability to import these high-protein feed ingredients is critical at a time of crop shortage in Europe and high prices. Everyone is looking for alternatives,”

You can find photos from this years Export Exchange here: 2012 Export Exchange

A highlight for the 2012 Export Exchange was Dr. Joe Glauber’s comments on the supply and demand of the United States and worlds coarse grains. Dr. Glauber is the Chief Economist for the United State Department of Agriculture. Attendees from across the world listened as he discussed the aftermath of the US drought and the goals for price moderation worldwide.

“No surprise I talked about the drought and the effect on corn and soybeans primarily. This was a global conference so wheat, as well. Clearly the drought was a the big story this summer. It certainly affected prices. As we look forward I think the key thing in terms of price moderation is the world is now turning to the South American soybean crop and we should have more information on that in the next couple months. The real issue will be what it means for spring planting here in the United States. I think given these prices we are going to see strong acreage again for corn and soybean. Hopefully we’ll see better yields and some rebuilding of stocks and some moderation of prices because the livestock side of the sector has been hit pretty hard.”

Listen to my interview with Dr. Glauber here: Joe Glauber Interview

Of particular interest to the ethanol industry, Dr. Glauber spent several minutes of his presentation discussing how the drought, corn prices and other factors have influenced ethanol production this year, as well as some insight on the blend wall and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Listen to that portion of his remarks here: Joe Glauber ethanol comments

Listen to Dr. Glauber’s entire presentation here: Joe Glauber at Export Exchange

You can find photos from this years Export Exchange here: 2012 Export Exchange

Attendees for the 2012 Export Exchange were the audience for Geoff Cooper of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). Cooper, who serves as RFA’s Vice President for Research and Analysis, spoke to over 500 of the worlds feed producers, marketers and buyers. He explained that distillers grains and other ethanol co-products have become a tremendously important component of the global animal feed market.

“The American ethanol industry produced nearly 39 million tons of nutrient-dense animal feed in the 2011/12 marketing year, meaning the ethanol industry has surpassed the U.S. soybean crushing industry in terms of feed production,” Cooper said. “The feed produced by the ethanol industry is nourishing beef, dairy, swine, poultry, and fish around the world. About one-quarter of the feed co-products generated last year were exported to more than 50 countries.”

Cooper also explained that the U.S. ethanol industry has responded to the historic drought of 2012 by curtailing its consumption of corn. “There is a false notion out there that the ethanol industry is somehow insulated from the effects of the drought and high corn prices because of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS),” Cooper said. “That simply isn’t true. As crop conditions deteriorated in July and August and corn prices increased, corn use for ethanol dropped by almost 15 percent. That means the ethanol industry reduced its corn consumption by about 600-700 million bushels on an annualized basis in less than two months’ time. Without a doubt, the ethanol industry has not been spared from the effects of the drought.”

Listen to Geoff’s comments here: Geoff Cooper Comments

You can find photos from this years Export Exchange here: 2012 Export Exchange

The nextgen conference is set to take place in UK’s Stoneleigh Park on October 10 and 11, 2012. Unique to the event that showcases emerging renewable energy technologies, attendees can meet with industry experts during a series of drop-in clinics. The clinics are geared for those developing green energy projects or for those already involved in renewable energy production. Visitors will have the ability to learn in more detail about planning, operations and legal frameworks as well as learning the practical steps a business will need to take to achieve its goals.

One-to-one sessions are being offered by Ofgem, the National Farmers Union (NFU), The National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC), Agrii, and National Grid.

“At nextgen, the one-to-one clinics are another way for visitors to get the latest policy and technical advice from renewable energy specialists and plug into world leading industry expertise, products and investment opportunities,” commented Lucy Pitt, group marketing manager of Nextgen Media.

In addition to the clinics, event attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from the Environment Agency about environmental regulation, planning policies and development procedures when seeking permits and consents for renewable energy technologies. The clinics are just one aspect of the show that also offers a trade show area with more than 200 exhibitors and conference sessions. Click here to learn more about nextgen and to register.

Today is the last day to register for the Advanced Biofuels Markets conference at the discounted rate in San Francisco taking place on October 29-31, 2012. There are more than 30 CEOs of advanced biofuels companies from around the world scheduled to speak. The focus will be on how to scale up to commercial production levels while tapping into the multi-billion dollar oil market.

Topics of discussion include scaling from pilot to commercial level, how to secure investments, how to identify strategic partnerships, how to improve feedstock economics and the logistics of integrated supply chain delivery networks.

Here is a sampling of speakers:

• Fred Cannon, President and Chief Executive Officer, KiOR
• Patrick R. Gruber, Chief Executive Officer, Gevo
• Jonathan Wolfson, Chief Executive Officer, Solazyme
• Guido Ghisolfi, Chief Executive Officer, Beta Renewables
• Daniel J Oh, President and Chief Executive Officer, Renewable Energy Group
• John Nichols, President and Chief Executive Officer, Codexis
• Philippe Lavielle, Chief Executive Officer, Virdia
• Ed Dineen, Chief Executive Officer, LS9
• Richard Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer, Ceres
• Dan Simon, Chief Executive Officer, Heliae  
• Tom Buis, Chief Executive Officer, Growth Energy

Minneapolis, Minnesota is the home of the Export Exchange 2012 on October 22-24, 2012. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Grain Council and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), past events have attracted nearly 400 people from more than 30 countries ranging from domestic industry leaders to international buyers.

There will be many topics of discussion including a big picture overview of key factors that will drive global food and agriculture over the next decade. Other topics will include a review of U.S. and global supply and demand outlook for coarse grains in the coming year. The presentation by Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Dr. Joe Glauber will touch on the 2012 harvest and its potential impact on world and domestic consumption and trade patterns.

Along with Dr. Glauber, Carl Casale, CEO of CHS will be the keynote speaker giving a global market outlook, RFA Present and CEO Bob Dinneen will discuss U.S. agriculture and energy policy, and Dr Michael Boland, Director of the Food Industry Center at the University of Minnesota will discuss the economic characteristics of the agrifood supply chain.

Registration is currently open. You can learn more about the conference and register online by visiting the Export Exchange 2012 website.

With the ongoing drought in the United States, the ethanol industry is learning how to adjust in unforeseen conditions.  While the industry is facing much criticism for being a cause of rising food prices affecting livestock producers and food manufactures alike, the industry needs to be armed with the right information to fight back. One place to get this information is during the upcoming  F.O. Licht’s World Ethanol & Biofuels event that is taking place in Munich, Germany on November 5-8, 2012.

Topics that will be discussed include:

• What impact will this have on your business?
• How high are corn prices expected to rise to?
• What is expected to happen with sugar, wheat and molasses prices?
• Globally, what impact will the drought have on ethanol trade flows, production and policy?
• How can the biofuels industry better protect itself from this renewed negative onslaught from the media and the food and feed lobby groups?

There will be more than 700 attendees and 70 speakers from around the world. Some key presentations will be given by:

Chrysler sees great value in ethanol. James Frusti, Chrysler Group manager of Fuels, Energy and Regulatory Affairs, presented the company’s ethanol strategy as part of the auto industry’s greater efforts of collaboration during the 25th Annual Ethanol Conference.

Fursti said that center stage of bringing any technology to market is the customer and the technology must provide value to the customer. “Whether it be for vehicle technology, a new energy source, or a new fuel source, to us that’s all technology,” he said. Ethanol is one of these technologies.

At Chrysler, Fursti explained that they are trying to make the internal combustion engine as efficient as possible given the challenging fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas requirements. To do this, they are looking at ethanol and biodiesel. But in order for Chrysler to invest in the development of ethanol engine technology, several things need to happen.

1)   More flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) need to be sold.

2)   Customers need to understand the value in ethanol. When this happens they will buy FFVs so they need to be more broadly available in the retail market.

3)   Automakers need to be able to obtain greenhouse gas credits and improve their ability to comply with challenging requirements. The soon to be published 2017-2025 Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Rules by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will explain how this will work and it is believed automakers will receive greenhouse gas credits for FFVs.

The next step, said Fursti, is that they need to know with certainty when there is going to be enough mid-level blends of ethanol available at the retail level for them to invest in redesigning their engines.

To succeed, there will need to be effective collaboration between the industries. There will also need to be more communication with the customer and legislators, said Frusti. Stealing a quote from UDSA Ag Secretary Vilsack, you’ve got to tell the story to the customer and you’ve got to tell the story to the legislatures.

You can view James Frusti’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: James Frusti Tells the Ethanol Story

There are many biorefining innovations taking place in the ethanol industry. During the 25th Annual Ethanol Conference, three company representatives discussed the research and technologies they were implementing or studying to increase the value of the ethanol production process.

Steve McNinch with Western Plains Energy said his company is looking at how to move into the advanced biofuels category of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). The biorenfinery, which produces ethanol from sorghum (milo), is currently installing technology to produce methane. His plant is also researching anaerobic digestion technologies that convert waste to energy. In addition, the plant is adding methane technology that will allow the plant to stop using natural gas as its electricity source and improve the ethanol’s carbon intensity score.

You can view Steve McNinch’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: click here: Ethanol and AD Integration to
Produce Advanced Biofuel

There are several ways you can make your biorefinery more efficient whether you operate a corn ethanol plant or a milo ethanol plant.  Dough Rivers with ICM presented one way you can get from first generation corn to second generation cellulose while using the same biorefinery infrastructure. The first way to get from a dry grind plant is to start doing some things to recover more of your starch to convert more of your targeted end product. ICM has developed a Selective Milling Technology that bolts onto the current plant and increases both ethanol yield and corn oil yield. The company is also developing a fiber separation technology. From here you can start thinking about converting fiber to ethanol and collecting cellulosic RINs (Renewable Identification Number). Today ICM is testing its technologies in its pilot plant and expects to be offering the ethanol industry bolt-on cellulosic technologies soon.

You can view Doug River’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: click here: ICM Pathway from Gen 1 Ethanol to Gen 2 Ethanol

Highwater Ethanol is one of the last ethanol facilities built in the U.S and the biorefinery is looking at moving into advanced biofuels via isobutanol (biobutanol). CEO Brian Kletscher discussed the current challenges and opportunities with isobutanol. Today ethanol plants have financial pressures, marketing challenges and a cap on first generation ethanol in the RFS2. The industry needs a solution and Highwater Ethanol believes isobutanol is one solution. That is why they signed on as an early adopter with Butamax. Isobutanol has several advantages over ethanol: attractive gasoline blending opportunities; it enables the refineries to increase the use of gasoline out of a barrel of oil up to three percent; it also has some advantages in its molecule. Now that Highwater Ethanol is on board with the technology, its next step is to pursue permitting and begin retrofitting in 2013.

You can view Brian Kletscher’s presentation here and also listen to his remarks: click here: Highwater Ethanol Review of Isobutanol

Recently the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) celebrated its 25th Annual Ethanol Conference. One of the things ACE knew 25 years ago was that they needed to work with the people who distributed fuel. Ron Lamberty, Senior Vice President and guru of market development, was one of those retailers with whom ACE worked. Twelve years later, Lamberty’s “gig” became full time.

During some remarks he gave before a question and answer session, Lamberty noted that what the industry has to do is what is right for retailers because they are the ones who eventually will make ethanol successful.

“A program that we used to do and are heading back to now is called “Do the Math”. We’d go to petroleum shows and we’d try to explain to them the octane value, the blending value and the price value of E10,” Lamberty reminisced. “Interestingly enough we’re kind of back in that same realm with E15.”

ACE has been and continues to educate mechanics and station owners about ethanol. Today ACE has plans to expand the effort. They also continue to work with the BYO program that helps station owners install pumps to sell ethanol.

Lamberty believes that E15 is going to be a good driver for the ethanol industry. “It’s going to be something that convinces petroleum marketers to spend the money on the pump because the math works for them. We have to be able to show that this is a value proposition for retailers.” And it is he says.

As oil companies sell their stations, the number of single station owners is increasing. Lamberty said these are the type of owners who like ethanol because it helps their business. They make more money and its something they can sell that they’re competitors are not selling. As a result, ACE continues to reach out to these station owners to educate them about ethanol.

In closing, Lamberty reminded everyone that ethanol is the right thing to do. “We’re going to continue to work to find more people to sell more ethanol.”

To listen to Ron Lamberty’s full remarks, click here: Do The Math

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking into the fraudulent sale of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs). These are generated when a gallon of biofuel is produced and most often “sold” with the gallon of biofuel. But is some cases RINs can be sold and bought without the biofuel attached.

What’s the big deal? RINs are used by the EPA to track compliance of biofuel use as part of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). The sale of fake RINs hurt the biofuel companies who are producing the fuel and if enough are sold, would keep obligated parties from legally achieving compliance.

According to OPIS who is hosting the 4th Annual RFS2, RINs & Biodiesel Forum being held October 18-19, 2012 in Chicago:

• Obligated parties have had to pay approximately $200 million in fines so far as a result of EPA’s “buyer beware” enforcement policy.
• A Maryland man now faces 32 years in prison for selling more than 32 million fraudulent biodiesel RINs.
• Marketers across the country are worried that there is no good way to make sure their RINs are “clean.”

EPA regulations and RIN compliance are just a few of the topics that will be discussed during the conference. Click here to learn more and to register.

News just in to Domestic Fuel this morning: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will be the keynote speaker for the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) conference, August 8-10, 2012 in Omaha, Nebraska.

“The Secretary has been the most effective spokesperson for ethanol in the administration,” Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President for ACE, told me in an interview, previewing the 25th anniversary of ACE’s conference. The theme this year is “Proud History, Bright Future.” He said they will be talking about some of the timely topics affecting ethanol producers, especially the issue surrounding E15 this summer. There will be at least two sessions dedicated to E15 on Thursday, August 9th. “We’ve got one of the best experts in the country right in our office to do that, [Senior Vice President] Ron Lamberty, who owns two gas stations himself.”

You can also register on location the days of the conference, but there is a discount for registering early. He adds that while so much is done online these days, this conference is a good opportunity to get some face-to-face time with an informal agenda and feel to the conference.

Cindy will be providing coverage from the conference. See you in Omaha!

Listen to my interview with Brian here: Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President, ACE

There is a new conference on the block – the 2012 Collective Biofuels Conference hosted by Promethean Biofuels. The event takes place at Temecula Creek Inn on August 17 – 19, 2012 and is designed for small biofuels producers with a focus on industrial scale-up production. The conference will educate the industry on biofuels basics, research, community, quality, ASTM testing, and more.

Jon Van Gerpen, PhD, a professor in the Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering at University of Idaho will be the featured speaker. Other speakers include: Don Scott, National Biodiesel Board; Dr. Virginia Gordon, Rapid Biodiesel Testing; Jeff Fetkenhour, Gorge Analytical; Rod Yawn, ALX Enterprises; Atul Deshmane, Whole Energy; and Dara Lor, National Cooking Oil Recyclers Association.

“I highly recommend attending this conference. It’s one of the best places to get such a wealth of information all in one place,” said Graydon Blair with Utah Biodiesel.

For more information about the Collective Biofuels Conference and to register, click here.

Speaking on the opening day of the 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), Austin Solar Day, Michael Kuhn, CEO of ImagineSolar, said the solar and smart grid industries are launching an expanding wave of new technologies and business models that are disruptive to the traditional energy industry.

The IEEE PVSC is the premier technical conference covering all aspects of PV technology from basic material science to installed system performance. Kuhn presented what is happening in the solar and smart grid industries, what is creating their growth, and what career opportunities are available now. He gave an overview of several solar career pathways. He also spoke about diverse career opportunities being created as the smart grid is implemented across the nation.

“There is a need for specialized training and continuing education to stay on top of this wave,” Kuhn said. “Career opportunities in this field are available to everyone including engineers, electricians, entrepreneurs, and other professionals.”

The solar industry has grown significantly over the past decade as the shift from nonrenewables is ugmented by the vision of a sustainable future in the U.S. The solar industry boasts a job growth rate of 6.8% annually, compared to the national employment growth rate of 0.7% (Source: The National Solar Jobs Census 2011).

Solar career opportunities include installation, production, design, sales, marketing and more. The smart grid offers new career avenues for those in information technologies, software, energy, wireless/telecom, finance, contracting, and consumer products. A CABA research study projects that by 2015, the smart grid will be approaching a $10 billion industry in North America. In 2010 it was worth only $5.6 billion. High-tech training in these clean energy careers is paramount.

View Michael Kuhn’s entire presentation.

During the opening session of the 28th Annual International Fuel Ethanol Workshop, Bob Dinneen, President & CEO, Renewable Fuels Association, addressed producers. Bob highlighted the challenges facing the ethanol industry in the near future and also the importance of maximizing demands. Sporting a “Don’t Mess with the RFS,” button Bob stressed the importance of RFS and what he is doing in Washington, D.C. to keep it in place.

“There are marketplace challenges because margins are tight right now but those are temporary and this is a commodity market selling into a commodity market so that doubles the challenges today. But with the crop that is expected I think most of the people around this room are fairly optimistic that we will get through those.”

“You got to have a button, that’s what makes a campaign, but it also reflects the seriousness with which we take this. RFS has been a tremendous success. When the first Renewable Fuels Standard was enacted in 2005 we were 60% dependent on foreign oil and liquid transportation fuels and today we are 45% dependent. That is a consequence of the growth in ethanol, a result of Renewable Fuels Association and because the people in this room who produce ethanol day in and day out have been successful.”

Listen to my interview with Bob here: Interview with Bob Dinneen

Listen to Bob’s complete keynote address here: Bob Dinneen's Keynote Address

2012 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Photo Album