Domestic Fuel

Dyadic International, Inc. is working to make ethanol production more efficient. That’s just one of the uses this Florida-based company has found for biological products such as proteins, enzymes, polypeptides and other such things in the agricultural, industrial, chemical and biopharmaceutical industries. For example, they actually pioneered the stone-free method used to make “stone-washed” blue jeans. Instead of tumbling them in the washer with pumice stones, manufacturers use a cellulase enzyme isolated from a fungus to selectively modify the fabric surface. For real! Now they are redesigning the enzyme to “make ethanol quicker, better and cheaper,” according to Dyadic CEO Mark Emalfarb. Chuck interviewed both Mark and Dyadic Chief Science Officer Glenn Nedwin at BIO 2006, and it is a very interesting conversation about how this fungus-derived enzyme can help to make more ethanol from corn and also bring down the cost of making ethanol from other sources. Listen to it here: Dyadic Interview (8:00 MP3)
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The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has joined the CityHome™ program, a major national clean air initiative designed to create a better quality of life for city residents by improving urban air quality. According to a news release from the O2Diesel Corporation,

By embracing the CityHome challenge, EPIC can continue to show that the benefits of ethanol are not limited to gasoline. Making diesel fuel perform as efficiently as possible, while being good stewards of the environment, are critical goals for industry and government. It is a natural fit for EPIC to support the CityHome initiative using O2Diesel™, a cleaner burning ethanol diesel blend.

It looks like the program is currently operating in Nebraska and the whole effort is to use this O2Diesel in municipal buses. According to the CityHome website, CityHome officially launched March 10, 2005 in Lincoln, Nebraska with its StarTran system. StarTran is the first municipal transit system in the U.S. to convert its bus fleet of 67 vehicles to O2Diesel’s cleaner burning ethanol diesel blend. The program will expand very quickly over the next 12 months to other cities, primarily in the Midwest, California, Texas and East Coast.

Three industry leaders will be holding a media conference on Tuesday to “separate fact from fiction on the myth of ethanol’s role in rising gas prices.” The three are American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen, and National Corn Growers Association vice president Jon Doggett. Farm Bureau is coordinating the telephone conference call for reporters because “of all the factors influencing increasing gas prices, the use of ethanol as a fuel additive is having the least effect, but yet is being reported as the main contributor. In reality, the phase-out of MTBE, high crude oil prices and the petroleum industry’s pricing tactics are the true culprits hiking gas prices.”
Okay, even as a farm media person I have to say it would be a lot better if they got someone a little less biased to vouch for them. How about a private sector economist or industry analyst? Someone not on the corn/ethanol payroll, in other words. I’m on your side, folks – just trying to help here.

Choosing ethanol at the pumps just got easier for motorists fueling up at Sioux Valley Coop (SVC) in Watertown, S.D. The coop recently installed blender pumps which will allow customers to essentially blend their preferred level of ethanol fuel.

SVC in partnership with Glacial Lakes Energy, LLC ethanol plant is hosting a “Yellow Dime” promotional event Friday to officially launch the blender pump offering. Motorists who chose ethanol-blended fuels during the promotion will receive one yellow dime back for every gallon of ethanol they purchase. The yellow dimes handed out during the event will circulate throughout the community, showing the impact of corn and ethanol production on the local economy.

That’s a neat promotion, which is being sponsored in part by the South Dakota Corn Growers Association.
(Read the full release here)

Senator John McCain was in Iowa today – the largest ethanol producing state – doing a little back-peddling on his previous strong opposition to ethanol as being too costly to produce, but still taking a strong stand against subsidies. According to the Des Moines Register, McCain said ethanol should have to compete without government help. “I think if ethanol is a viable option, it can compete, as it certainly can with $70-a-barrel oil. I think it ought to be something that ought to be carefully examined.”
McCain has not decided yet if he will run for president again in 2008.

Minnesota – US BioEnergy Corporation announces plans for a 100 million gallon per year (mgy) ethanol plant near Springfield, Minn. (Yahoo press release)

Kentucky – Bluegrass BioEnergy LLC, developers of a $95 million ethanol plant in Fulton are hoping to start construction next month on the facility that would begin production 14 months later. (AP/Duluth News Tribune)

Iowa – Tama will be the site of a new ethanol plant built by Alpha Holdings. (Marshalltown Times-Republican)

An Australian company has patented a way to make sugarcane plants that can produce more ethanol. Farmacule BioIndustries says the key component in producing the new plants is a “patented gene activation technology, INPACT (‘In-Plant Activation technology’),” according to a company release.

According to Mel Bridges, Farmacule Chairman, the Company’s research team successfully modified sugarcane plants using the INPACT technology (and cellulases in the plant) to enable highly efficient conversion of cellulose into fermentable sugars after crushing. The remaining sugars can then be used efficiently to produce bioethanol, leaving the sucrose untouched and available for the consumer sugar market.

Farmacule announced the new technology at BIO 2006 this week.

One of the many contests at the BIO 2006 trade show was a 2 year lease on a Ford F150 that’s E85 capable.

The lucky winner is Kyle Beery, ADM, who I just happened to run into while I was wandering around the trade show area. He is one happy camper.

I also got to interview Ford’s Midwest Public Affairs Manager, David Reuter. He talks about the latest E85 vehicles offered by the company and their support for the continued growth and development of alternative fuel availability.

You can listen to my interview with David here: David Reuter Interview (5 min MP3)

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US BioEnergy Corporation will soon be the sole owner of Val-E Ethanol near Ord, Nebraska. According to a company release, they have entered into a letter of intent with the minority owners of Val-E to acquire the remaining ownership interest of the company. Last month US BioEnergy announced its intention to acquire the majority ownership of Val-E and Platte Valley Fuel Ethanol, LLC. Val-E Ethanol has an expected completion date of summer, 2007.

Xethanol Corporation is setting its sites westward. According to a company release, they have hired a west coast venture capitalist to explore strategic growth opportunities for Xethanol in the large and expanding California ethanol market. Christopher d’Arnaud-Taylor, Xethanol’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, says they are currently focused on the company’s east coast regional roll out (see previous post), but they want to be ready to tackle the California market when the time comes. “California’s demand for ethanol is about one third of the current US market. Almost all of the 900 million gallons of ethanol consumed in California in 2004, equal to more than $1.3 billion, was imported by rail or ship, mainly from Corn-Belt ethanol producers. California presently hosts production of only 8 million gallons per year at two small-scale operations, although there are ambitious plans to build several more plants that will primarily use corn as feedstock. We expect that California will be a huge opportunity for us to deploy cutting edge technologies for the conversion of low cost biomass and other waste streams to ethanol.”

Ethanol plants are popping up like prarie dogs in Nebraska.

Coming up April 24th, Mid America Agri Products/Horizon will host a ground breaking ceremony for a plant in Cambridge. According to this Grainnet report, the first phase of the two-phase project will cost $70 million and produce 44 million gallons a year. It’s the second Nebraska project for Mid America Bio-Energy & Commodities of North Platte, the other is in Madrid, due to start up in December 2006.

Also this week, Phelps County Ethanol, a subsidiary of Midwest Ethanol Producers, Inc. announced plans to build an 100 million gallon/year ethanol plant near Holdrege, according to this news release. MEPI is also currently in the permitting stages for a 100 MMGY Plant in O’Neill.

Thanks to our friend Erick Erickson of Holdrege for passing along those stories.

Illinois farmer, banker, ethanol plant CEO and RFA board member Ray Defenbaugh was one of several people who spoke to a group of visiting agricultural journalists during a media reception sponsored by the US Grains Council and Illinois Corn Growers at the BIO 2006 conference in Chicago that concludes Thursday. Chuck interviewed Ray after his presentation and you can hear that conversation here: Defenbaugh (2:45 MP3)

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The media has been sounding the alarm about higher gas prices today, following the release of the Energy Information Administration’s latest forecast. What’s interesting is that the report shifts the blame for the rising prices from ethanol to the oil industry, which the Renewable Fuels Association was quick to point out in a press release.

EIA Administrator Guy Caruso said consumers can expect gasoline prices to be 25 cents higher on average this summer. Caruso attributed 19 cents of that increase (or 76%) to high world oil price and said that the increased use of ethanol would affect gasoline prices by “just a few pennies.”
“Today’s report from EIA is a much more accurate reflection of what is going on in the gasoline and ethanol markets as refiners voluntarily eliminate MTBE from the nation’s gasoline supply,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. “Were it not for the tremendous growth of the U.S. ethanol industry and the availability of ethanol, refiners’ decisions to eliminate MTBE this spring would send gas prices through the roof.”

RFA also sent out a Fact Sheet about ethanol and gas prices that seems to have been heard by the media, as most articles have either not mentioned ethanol at all or just briefly in reference to the MTBE transition. AAA blamed it all on the government, according to CNN Money, quoting spokesman Geoff Sundstrom. “The refining industry has had to go on a crash course conversion to ethanol, and of course it’s coming at the worst possible time,” he said. “It seems the whole process could have been managed better by the federal government.”

The latest “Fill Up, Feel Good” podcast from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is about Jeff Simmons, new driver for the #17 Team Ethanol Honda/Panoz/Firestone Indy Car (see previous post). The podcast features comments from both Jeff and EPIC executive director Tom Slunecka discussing the future for Team Ethanol and how Paul Dana’s legacy will live on in the IRL.
The “Fill up, Feel Good” podcast is available to download by subscription (see our sidebar link) or you can listen to it by clicking here. (5:00 MP3 File)

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It wasn’t real easy but I was able to ask llinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich, a quick question after he cut the ribbon prior to the trade show here at BIO 2006.

I asked him about agriculture since I only had one question and in his answer he mentions renewable energy and corn and soybeans.

You can listen to his answer here: Governor Blagojevich (1 min MP3)

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