Category: Biofuels

U.S. ethanol makers are banking on export markets as they grapple with Obama administration plans to cut U.S. consumption requirements, but the industry is hampered by a distribution structure built almost exclusively around the domestic market. Archer Daniels Midland Co. , Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. and other ethanol producers are trying to boost sales to Brazil, Mexico, Asia and the Middle East, in part by cutting costs to make the corn-based biofuel more price-competitive overseas. Exports could reach one billion gallons this year, increasing their share of U.S. output to 7% from 5%, as lower corn prices help producers sell ethanol more cheaply to foreign buyers, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group. But the $44 billion industry’s efforts to expand could be limited, analysts say, because the bulk of U.S. ethanol plants are located in the Midwest to be close to the corn supply rather […]

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«Study cautions on sole focus on energy crop biomass yield; perennial grasslands deliver greater ecosystems services than corn A study by a team from the DOE’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Center has concluded that focusing on the yield of an energy crop alone can come at the expense of many other environmental benefits. The study, published as an open access paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that switchgrass and prairie plantings harbored significantly greater plant, methanotrophic bacteria, arthropod, and bird diversity than corn. Although the corn biomass yield was higher, all other ecosystem services, including methane consumption, pest suppression, pollination, and conservation of grassland birds, were higher in perennial grasslands. Agriculture is being challenged to provide food, and increasingly fuel, for an […]

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Ethanol’s discount to gasoline narrowed as ice and snow are slow railroad deliveries across North America. The discount to the motor fuel tightened 2.57 cents to 71.76 cents as ethanol deliveries by rail are taking twice as long as normal, according to Chad Conn, a vice president of operations for Franklin, Tennessee-based Eco-Energy Inc. “Logistical issues are playing a role in the surprising firmness of the market,” said Sean Wever, a biofuels broker at Green Key Markets LLC in Chicago . Denatured ethanol for February delivery gained 1.2 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $1.925 a gallon on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices have dropped 14 percent in the past year. The cold snap pummeled energy infrastructure and prompted railroad companies BNSF Railway Co., Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. to warn customers earlier this week to expect delays. About 70 percent of U.S.’s ethanol is […]

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Ethanol advanced as icy, snowy conditions sweeping across the Midwest caused rail delays and terminal closures that may force companies to reduce operations. Futures rose 1 percent as Kinder Morgan Inc. said it’s working under force majeure at its Argo, Illinois, ethanol terminal. Union Pacific Corp., BNSF Railway Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. have also said their operations are affected. Rail is a virtual pipeline for ethanol in the U.S. “They’re having to dial back because they can’t move production quick enough,” said Mike Blackford, a consultant at INTL FCStone in Des Moines , Iowa . “We’ve had rail issues. With this cold snap all of a sudden you’re shutting down truck, too.” Denatured ethanol for February delivery climbed 2 cents to $1.944 a gallon on the Chicago Board of Trade. Gasoline for February delivery gained 3.26 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $2.6786 a gallon on the New York […]

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« Bosch sponsoring Driverless Car Experience at CES | Main Print this post ARPA-E piloting crowdsourced energy challenge in biofuels The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is piloting a crowdsourced energy challenge , focused on ARPA-E’s PETRO (Plants Engineered To Replace Oil) program, which aims to increase the viability of biofuels by investing in research to double the energy-capture-per-unit area from that of corn ethanol. ( Earlier post .) The challenge asks “solvers” to present a detailed description and scientific rationale for a simple, rapid, and minimally invasive method to determine the energy content of plant material. Winners could receive up to $30,000. The goal of the PETRO program is to engineer new crops to produce fuels that can be extracted from the plant itself, in contrast to traditional research in the area that focuses on breeding larger plants. To do this […]

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In an unmarked greenhouse, leafy bushes carpet an acre of land here tucked into the suburban sprawl of Southern California. The seeds of the inedible, drought-resistant plants, called jatropha, produce a prize: high-quality oil that can be refined into low-carbon jet fuel or diesel fuel. The mere existence of the bushes is an achievement. Hailed about six years ago as the next big thing in biofuels, jatropha attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, only to fall from favor as the recession set in and as growers discovered that the wild bush yielded too few seeds to produce enough petroleum to be profitable. But SGB, the biofuels company that planted the bushes, pressed on. Thanks to advances in molecular genetics and DNA sequencing technology, the San Diego start-up has, in a few years, succeeded in domesticating jatropha, a process that once took decades. SGB is […]

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&KiOR expects to produce 920K gallons of cellulosic biofuels by year end; short-term focus on economics Cellulosic gasoline and diesel company KiOR, Inc. expects that, given current and anticipated operations through the remainder of the year, its Columbus, Mississippi facility will produce approximately 410,000 gallons of renewable fuel during the fourth quarter of 2013, bringing full year production total from the facility to approximately 920,000 gallons. ( Earlier post .) The ratio between gasoline, diesel and fuel oil expected to be produced during the year is approximately 35% gasoline, 40% diesel, and 25% fuel oil. In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the 2013 percentage standards for four […]

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Biofuel consumption in Germany was 2.9 million mt in the calendar year to October, down 8.9% compared with the first 10 months in 2012, according to the most recent data released by the country’s federal economics agency BAFA. The drop came despite a 0.5% tick upwards in total road fuel consumption to 43.75 million mt during the same period, and blending rates were lower for all biofuel types, the data released Friday showed. One positive indicator for biofuel was a 9.5% increase in biodiesel consumption to 189,978 mt. ETBE usage also jumped 26.7% to 33,121 mt in the month of October, bringing the total for the year to 266,945 mt, a 2.6% rise. The total amount of biodiesel consumed in the year was 1.79 million mt, down 10.6%. Meanwhile, ethanol consumption in October was 90,438 mt, down 9.7%, and in the year to October, […]

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has invalidated 33.5 million renewable-fuel credits sold by an Indiana company for biofuel it didn’t produce, the fourth time the agency has alleged fraud in the program. The filing today follows fraud charges filed against the former owners of the Indiana-based E-Biofuels LLC in September. The U.S. Justice Department accused them of falsely claiming its products qualified under government incentives for renewable fuels. The EPA move, which was posted on its website, may further roil the market for credits used by refiners such as Valero Corp. (VLO) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to meet government renewable-fuel requirements. Before today’s action, the agency had said three companies produced a total of 140 million fraudulent Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs. The basic credit for ethanol last sold for 28 cents. At today’s value of about 40 cents each for biodiesel, the RINs affected by […]

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