The Missouri Corn Crowers Association (MCGA) is citing ‘political schemes’ are the root of talk that may remove the statewide ethanol standard. This removal, they say, “will sharply increase prices to consumers, drain dollars from already tight household budgets and play directly into the hands of foreign oil cartels.”

“By utilizing corn-based ethanol in gas pumps throughout the state, Missouri consumers have earned bragging rights for having the cheapest gas in the nation,” states MCGA CEO Gary Marshall. “By design, the use of ethanol as required by the Missouri Renewable Fuel Standard works only to lower the cost to consumers. The law is written with a price trigger that if ethanol is ever priced higher than gasoline, marketers are not required to use the high performance fuel.”

Missouri state farmer owned cooperatives are now selling ethanol at more than a dollar under regular unleaded gasoline. Marshall noted that it is the only cost-effective substitute in today’s tight market, and that removing the ethanol requirement in Missouri would only increase prices at the pump for already hurting consumers.

At the national level, corn-based ethanol production represents 7 percent of the gasoline supply. A recent analysis by Merrill Lynch shows that gasoline prices would be 10 to 15 percent higher without the ethanol supply in the marketplace. That translates into ethanol helping hold down gasoline costs to American drivers by 60 to 70 cents per gallon.

Currently, with the ethanol standard, Missouri has the lowest cost of gasoline at the pump than any other state.

The USDA Planted Acreage report out Monday was good news, although it does not yet reflect the damage from Midwest flooding.

Corn planted area is reported to be 1.31 million acres more than was estimated in the March intentions report at 87.3 million acres, down just 7 percent from last year. That is the second highest since 1946, behind last year’s total of 93.6 million acres. If it were all to make it, growers would harvest 78.9 million acres for grain, down 9 percent from 2007 and the second highest since 1944.

Putting the acreage report in context with respect to America’s ethanol industry, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen said it shows how American farmers are capable of meeting the growing demand for feed, food, fiber and fuel.

“This report once again demonstrates that together with agriculture, American ethanol producers can help lead this nation in new, renewable energy direction,” said Dinneen.

National Corn Growers Association chairman Ken McCauley says his corn in Northeast Kansas looks good right now and it’s important to remember that there is plenty of corn being grown outside of Iowa.

“I tell you what, everybody is going to produce some corn,” McCauley said. “Iowa will produce a lot of corn and when you get down to it we’re gonna have a good corn crop and it could even be one of the better one or two or three.”

Listen to an interview with Ken here:

Besides those out working in the industry we also heard from some university students today at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference. Lance Andrew Stewart is a grad student at the University of Tennessee. He did a very technical presentation on locating ethanol plants.

His work focused on the location determinants that attract potential plants in certain areas. He says that factors include, access to feedstocks like corn and locating away from an existing plant. He also made a point of saying that although plants can be very helpful to a rural community they must have enough infrastructure to support one.

You can listen to my interview with Lance here:

You can also download the interview using this link (mp3).

Transition To A Bio Economy Photo Album

One of our speakers here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference brought the discussion down to the farm level. John Miranowski, Iowa State University, spoke about the impact of biofuels on the rural economy and the farm structure.

He says that their numbers indicate that increasing biofuels production will have a positive impact on rural communities and farm structure up to a point but that it could have some negative impacts. One thing is certain, he sees an uncertain future for biofuels.

However, even with the uncertainty, he thinks the industry will make a go of it because of an increased demand for fuel. As far as where we’re going, he sees a bigger role for corn and corn stover fuels given the RFS and that this is one area where we have an ability to increase productivity while decreasing environmental impact concerns.

You can listen to my interview with John here:

You can also download the interview using this link (mp3).

I’m also uploading pictures to a photo album which you can feel free to use if you’d like: Transition To A Bio Economy Photo Album

Monsanto was represented at this morning’s ethanol press conference at the Iowa Speedway by Troy Hobbs, Corn Biofuels Strategy Lead. He started his comments explaining that the company’s mission is to drive productivity in the agricultural sector. He spoke to how quickly they’ve been able to increase the per acre yield in corn with their research on seed and traits.

With their Processor Preferred program they’re working with ethanol plants to make sure they’re getting the corn that is best suited to their production. He also made a good point about how ethanol production is helping keep American dollars in America which is good for our economy.

You can listen to Troy’s comments here:

Iowa Corn Indy 250 Photo Album

Just a few minutes ago I got interviewed by one of the journalists here and he asked what I had heard from corn growers who are at the track. I told him they’re very proud to be growing the fuel that’s being used in the IndyCars out here and that they’ll recover from the flooding problems they’ve been having.

Representing the Iowa Corn Growers Association at this morning’s ethanol press conference was their CEO, Craig Floss. They’re one of the main sponsors of this weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 250. Craig said he had a chance to fly over the state yesterday and he was not prepared to see how much water is still standing in fields. However, he also had to say that he saw a lot of corn growing in areas outside of the river bottoms. He thinks they’ve still got a good opportunity to produce a good crop this year.

You can listen to Craig’s comments here:

Iowa Corn Indy 250 Photo Album

One of the speakers at the ethanol industry press conference here at Iowa Speedway this morning was Mike Sobestski, Vice President/COO, LifeLine Foods. Besides talking about the company he also explained how they use various parts of a corn kernel to make food and fuel.

An interesting point he made was that the part they use to make ethanol is the undesirable part that’s not good for much else. He even brought along some jars of product to show reporters the different elements of corn they use. The company and their methods are a great example of how much is being done by ethanol producers today to make their operations more sustainable while helping meet our energy demands.

You can listen to Mike’s comments here:

Iowa Corn Indy 250 Photo Album

While Cindy and thousands of people involved in ethanol production are attending the FEW in Nashville, I thought I’d share an interview I did at the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. While we’re focused on ethanol as a fuel and that seems to be its primary use, some research is being done on other products ethanol can be used to produce.

Carl Lira, Michigan State University, spoke on “Reactive Distillations for Chemical Products from Ethanol.” Carl says he’s looking at methods to diversify the ethanol production platform. For example, he’s looking at new products that can be made from ethanol so that producers can diversify and react to the market in different ways. He’s trying to get them to think with more of a bio refinery philosophy. From a product standpoint, he’s using ethanol as a reagent to produce high quality chemicals. He says they’ve done some economic analysis which is available from the National Corn Growers Association and that it looks very attractive.

You can listen to my interview with Carl here:

In celebration of the Iowa Corn Indy 250, E85 will be sold at a discount at 25 location on Thursday, June 19. This promotion will take place at 15 Kum & Go stations and 10 additional stations throughout the state.

Kum & Go will discount E85 at the following locations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

2801 13th Ave., Ames
1910 SW White Birch Circle, Ankeny
2905 4th Ave., S Clear Lake
1950 Princeton Dr., Grimes
715 Long Creek Ave, Grinnel
6130 NW 86th Street, Johnston
2091 E Main St, Lamoni
1920 South Federal Avenue, Mason City
29356 298th, Neola
2991 Sunset Drive, Norwalk
2508 North Court St, Ottumwa
5970 Morning Star Court, Pleasant Hill
141 S. Jordan Creek Parkway, West Des Moines
822 1st Avenue, Coralville
1206 Guthrie Street, De Soto

E85 will be sold at a $1.85 discount at the following stores from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Eastern Iowa Propane & Petro, 4540 Lincolnway Street, Clinton
Lakeside Ampride, 4040 S. Expressway, Council Bluffs
Madison Avenue Ampride, 1836 Madison Avenue, Council Bluffs
Big 10 Mart, 2100 JFK Road, Dubuque
Riverside Sinclair, 102 Central Ave., Estherville
218 Fuel Express, 68 Monroe St, Floyd
New Century FS, 1017 Ogan Avenue, Grinnell
County Line Mart, 609 East Broadway, Keota
Casey’s General Store, Hwy 141, Mapleton
Prairie Gas, 4300 South 22nd East, Newton

The state of Iowa currently houses 90 E85 fueling stations.

The ethanol plant of the future will produce both fuel and food with new technology from ICM, Inc.

“ICM has been working on this technology for the last 3-5 years,” said ICM president Dave Vander Griend. “We felt that this was a good time to roll it out in light of the food and/or fuel controversy.”

Vander Griend says their technology can literally help to feed the world. “There’s been a lot of talk about the global need for grain, but in fact, the global need is really for protein,” he said.

Vander Griend says the dry fractionation component of ICM’s six-part “Food AND Fuel” (TM) technology package can be installed in existing ethanol plants as early as the fourth quarter of this year, with production coming on line by the second quarter of 2009.

The process separates the corn kernel into its three main components - endosperm, germ and bran. Optimizing the whole kernel allows for the production of a number of food and feed grade co-products as well as another alternate fuel source to power the plant itself.

ICM installed their first “Food AND Fuel” technology package at LifeLine Foods in St. Joseph, Missouri. “They’re doing the first two steps,” said Vander Griend. “LifeLine Foods is a partnership between ICM and 700 farmers and we made that decision about two and a half years ago because this was a place where we could demonstrate all the technologies that we were working on.” They are in the process of installing the single-cell protein and the oil recovery component and they hope to have all the parts of the process commercially running at LifeLine by next summer.

Vander Griend explains the process in this interview done at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Nashville:

Download broadcast quality interview here:
Dave Vander Griend Interview (15:00 min MP3)

2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Photo Album

Thanks to the Renewable Fuels Association for helping to sponsor our coverage of FEW. More coverage of the conference is available on Good Fuels.org.