Improving the efficiency of ethanol plants is critical for a number of reasons, but especially in light of high corn prices that are cutting into margins for producers.
POET has been working on improving the efficiency of their plants for years now according to President and CEO Jeff Broin (pictured here on the left with Nathan Schock, director of public relations for POET).
“We’ve been developing technology for many years that lower water usage, lower energy usage, increase through-put,” Broin said at the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop. “As we’ve developed these technologies they’ve allowed us to be a little more efficient than the average guy. As with any industry, the low-cost producer is going to survive long term.”
POET’s plant in Ashton, Iowa received an Energy Star Combined Heat & Power Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the FEW this year. “The Ashton plant actually takes the steam not just to power the plant but then uses that same steam to run the turbine,” said Broin. “So that co-generation is a double use of that same steam which is highly efficient.”
POET currently has 23 plants in operation producing about 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol and they have three more plants under construction in Ohio and Indiana.
Listen to an interview with Jeff Broin from the 2008 FEW here:
“All three of us have a roll to play in this industry,” Nuernberg says. “We are looking at all the initiatives under way by the different organizations, how we can work together, and make sure we’re not duplicating effort.”
EPIC’s main focus is to drive demand with consumers, while RFA’s role is to protect and promote policy in Washington DC, and ACE is the grassroots organization dedicated to expansion of ethanol production.
Because of the three different roles, Nuernberg says all three groups should be supported by the industry. “It’s all equally important and will benefit plants long-term,” she says.
EPIC has just started a major national advertising campaign, which also includes three syndicated radio programs - The Wall Street Journal, NPR Car Talk and Bill O’Reilly. Nuernberg says they are very pleased to have the support of O’Reilly in the effort.
Listen to an interview with Toni Nuernberg from the 2008 FEW here about the ethanol industry’s promotional efforts:
Buttons of many colors can be seen on hundreds of name badges walking around the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop creating a positive mantra for the ethanol industry.
The “Yes Ethanol” buttons are the creation of Lanser Public Affairs, an agency in New Berlin, Wisconsin that specializes in helping ethanol plants with site approval and community relations.
The husband and wife team of Mary Claire Lanser and Al Ogorzalek were handing the buttons out and promoting their services at the expo and trade show.
So far, Lanser has helped about a dozen ethanol plants in Wisconsin, Illinois, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Appropriate public affairs strategies have assured approvals, prevented costly delays, and improved the public image for their clients.
Visitors to the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop this week in Nashville had a chance to meet Indy car champion and Team Ethanol car owner Bobby Rahal of Rahal Letterman Racing in an appearance sponsored by ICM, Inc.
With a model of the Number 17 Team Ethanol car behind him, Rahal chatted with ethanol industry representatives about the season so far and the talent of driver Ryan Hunter-Reay.
“This year he’s been very strong,” said Rahal. “I’m very enthusiastic about our chances and I couldn’t be happier with the kind of work he’s doing for us.”
Rahal is looking forward to the Iowa Corn 250 this weekend and thinks they have a good shot. “It’s going to be an interesting race but with each race Ryan’s getting more confident and so I expect we’ll be competitive.”
Rahal says ethanol has been great for the Indy Racing League and he thinks there is a lot of misinformation out there about the fuel. “Hopefully we are helping to dispel many of the myths and misinformation exists,” he says. “Ethanol is a credible solution to a large part of the problem that we face and the truth will reign out in the end.”
Listen to an interview with Rahal from the 2008 FEW here:
Moving beyond ten percent ethanol offers both opportunities and challenges for the industry.
On a panel addressing the issue at the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Tuesday was Robert White with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). White has spearheaded the nationwide pump branding and E85 program for EPIC and he talked about some of the success stories they have seen just recently.
“An E85 station recently opened in metro Atlanta,” said White. “The station has been opened about five weeks and as of Saturday they were selling 1800 gallons of E85 a day, compared to 1750 gallons of regular unleaded a day.”
EPIC helped to open the station, made sure it was branded, held a pump promotion and grand opening event with state officials, and send notifications out to fleets in the area. “One station that has been opened five weeks has the potential of selling 650,000 gallons of E85 a year,” White said. “That’s amazing.”
He also talked about the importance of moving toward blender pumps, which can offer a variety of blends between 10 and 85 percent ethanol. “Our recent research found that 45 percent of Americans are seeking out alternatives, they want choices, and specifically they’re looking for ethanol,” said White.
He noted that E85 and mid-level blends give consumers choices, help retail fuel stations offer customers something new, and help ethanol plants sell more product.
The ethanol industry honored two of its own Tuesday for excellence in research and promotion during the 24th annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Nashville.
The annual “High Octane Award” was presented to David Kolsrud, president and CEO of DAK Renewable Energy in Brandon, SD.
“He is an advocate for this industry,” said BBI International president Mike Bryan in presenting the award. “He was doing ethanol before ethanol was cool.”
“I am extremely honored,” said Kolsrud. “One of the greatest pleasures I have had is meeting thousands of farmers across the United States and our passion is trying to get farmers to invest in their own futures in ethanol plants and letting them take control over their own destiny.”
The Award of Excellence for ethanol research was presented by Dr. Kevin Hicks with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service eastern research center. This year the award went to Dr. Jay Shetty, senior director of global applications and grain processing for Genencor, a division of Danisco.
The Award of Excellence recognizes an individual who has made significant research, technical advisory and development contributions in the industry.
Two ethanol plants were honored by the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday with the Energy Star Combined Heat & Power Award. POET Biorefining in Ashton, Iowa, and East Kansas Agri-Energy, LLC in Garnett, Kan., were recognized with the award for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
In April 2004, POET began full production at an ethanol plant in Ashton. Electricity is generated by a natural gas-fired turbine, which requires approximately 16 percent less fuel than typical on-site thermal generation and purchased electricity. Based on this comparison, the system reduces carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 18,900 tons per year, which is equivalent to removing the annual emissions from 3,100 cars or planting 3,900 acres of forest.
The East Kansas Agri-Energy dry mill ethanol plant in Garnett, Kan., began production in 2005. The steam turbine system generates approximately one-third of the facility’s electrical demands. It requires approximately 23 percent less fuel than typical on-site thermal generation and purchased electricity. Based on this comparison, the plant reduces carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 14,500 tons per year, which is equivalent to removing the annual emissions from 2,400 cars or planting 3,000 acres of forest.
The ENERGY STAR award recognizes projects that reduce emissions and use at least five percent less fuel than state-of-the-art comparable separate heat and power generation.
Ethanol is now the fuel of choice in Brazil, while gasoline is the alternative, and one advocate believes that with one simple law passed by Congress the same thing could happen in the United States.
According to Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of “Energy Victory,” who was the keynote speaker at the opening session of the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Tuesday in Nashville, mandating that all new vehicles sold in the U.S. be flex fuel would effectively break the economic stranglehold the oil cartel has on the country and the world.
Zubrin made his point by using the analogy of a card game where there is a trump suit that defeats all others and the strategy is for your side to hold most the cards in that trump suit. “It’s the same way in energy,” Zubrin said. “There’s four suits, there’s oil, coal, natural gas and biomass. And right now oil is the trump suit.”
That’s because right now there is mainly one way to power vehicles and that is petroleum products. The key is to change that trump suit, he says, and biomass is the best alternative. The question is how to change the trump suit and Zubrin contends that the answer is to mandate the sale of flex fuel vehicles, which would cost at most $100 per vehicle. “If we had a standard that all new cars sold in this country had to be flex fuel, within three years we’d have 50 million cars on the road in the United States capable of running on alternate fuels,” and Zubrin says that would ultimately result in flex fuel vehicles being sold all over the world.
The reason Zubrin is so passionate about this simple idea is because he believes, and can back up with facts, that we are being held hostage by OPEC countries and are funding terrorism by our daily habit of foreign oil. “We have to win,” he says. “Let’s knock ‘em flat!”
To find out more about Zubrin’s book “Energy Victory,” go to energyvictory.net.
Listen to Zubrin’s address to the 2008 FEW here - it’s 45 minutes long but guaranteed to fire you up!:
“In the beginning of February of this year, ethanol consumption surpassed that of gasoline,” Joel Velasco of the Brazilian Sugar Cane Industry Association said during an update on Brazil’s ethanol industry at the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Nashville Tuesday. “My friends, that is a big victory. The oil company now is in a corner.”
Velasco says they have achieved that milestone by consumer choice. “Ninety percent of all the new vehicles today are flex fuel in Brazil, in fact, we are now up to 25 percent of our fleet is flex fuel.”
Because the price of ethanol is substantially lower than gasoline, Velasco says Brazilian consumers are choosing to put 100 percent ethanol in their tanks and “saying forget about gasoline.”
Several thousand ethanol industry representatives were urged Tuesday to fight back against the attacks on ethanol in two ways.
“One, would be to take pen to paper and write your own op-ed to your local paper and let them know what ethanol means to your company and your local community and begin to fight back,” said Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen during the opening general session of the 2008 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop.
The second thing Dinneen urged the industry to do was to comment on the request to the Environmental Protection Agency by Texas Governor Rick Perry to waive 50 percent of the Renewable Fuels Standard.
“The comment period on that waiver request ends next Monday and I would ask each one of you to file a comment,” Dinneen said. He directed them to the RFA website, www.ethanolrfa.org, to find out how to file a comment to EPA.
Dinneen gave a rousing pep talk to the industry, urging them to persevere. “This is going to be a difficult summer, but we’re going to get through it, and we are going to come out of this a stronger industry.”
“You are the strength of this industry, you are the reason we will get through it, but we have to come together, we have to use our strength, we have to write op-eds, we have to comment to EPA, we have to let our members of Congress know that vilifying America’s farmers and America’s only domestic renewable fuel doesn’t make sense,” Dinneen said passionately.
After his address, Dinneen was presented with a special award by BBI International president Mike Bryan for 20 years of unwavering service to the ethanol industry.
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POET has been working on improving the efficiency of their plants for years now according to President and CEO Jeff Broin (pictured here on the left with Nathan Schock, director of public relations for POET).
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“All three of us have a roll to play in this industry,” Nuernberg says. “We are looking at all the initiatives under way by the different organizations, how we can work together, and make sure we’re not duplicating effort.”
EPIC’s main focus is to drive demand with consumers, while RFA’s role is to protect and promote policy in Washington DC, and ACE is the grassroots organization dedicated to expansion of ethanol production.
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Buttons of many colors can be seen on hundreds of name badges walking around the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop creating a positive mantra for the ethanol industry.
The “Yes Ethanol” buttons are the creation of 
With a model of the Number 17 Team Ethanol car behind him, Rahal chatted with ethanol industry representatives about the season so far and the talent of driver Ryan Hunter-Reay.
On a panel addressing the issue at the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Tuesday was Robert White with the 
The annual “High Octane Award” was presented to David Kolsrud, president and CEO of 
The Award of Excellence for ethanol research was presented by Dr. Kevin Hicks with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service eastern research center. This year the award went to Dr. Jay Shetty, senior director of global applications and grain processing for 
In April 2004, POET began full production at an ethanol plant in Ashton. Electricity is generated by a natural gas-fired turbine, which requires approximately 16 percent less fuel than typical on-site thermal generation and purchased electricity. Based on this comparison, the system reduces carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 18,900 tons per year, which is equivalent to removing the annual emissions from 3,100 cars or planting 3,900 acres of forest.
The East Kansas Agri-Energy dry mill ethanol plant in Garnett, Kan., began production in 2005. The steam turbine system generates approximately one-third of the facility’s electrical demands. It requires approximately 23 percent less fuel than typical on-site thermal generation and purchased electricity. Based on this comparison, the plant reduces carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 14,500 tons per year, which is equivalent to removing the annual emissions from 2,400 cars or planting 3,000 acres of forest.
According to Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of “
“In the beginning of February of this year, ethanol consumption surpassed that of gasoline,” Joel Velasco of the Brazilian Sugar Cane Industry Association said during an update on Brazil’s ethanol industry at the 2008 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Nashville Tuesday. “My friends, that is a big victory. The oil company now is in a corner.”
“One, would be to take pen to paper and write your own op-ed to your local paper and let them know what ethanol means to your company and your local community and begin to fight back,” said 