Ag News for America
One of Nebraska’s longest-operating ethanol plants is shutting down for good.
Ag Processing Inc (AGP) says it will permanently close its ethanol plant in Hastings. The plant had been on extended shutdown since the first of February this year amid challenging economic conditions.
The ethanol plant began operations in 1995.
AGP’s soybean processing plant at Hastings will continue to operate.
The ethanol industry appears to be back on its feet after hitting a rough patch earlier this year.
Nebraska Ethanol Board administrator Todd Sneller says the ethanol profitability picture has improved considerably in the past five weeks. Sneller says there are a couple of reasons for that.
“One is that there is a pretty good demand for ethanol at this point—and so we hope to continue that demand,” Sneller says. “We’re also seeing a number of companies that have adopted technology that’s helped them. In some cases, corn oil extraction has been a very important addition to their product stream and their revenue stream.”
Sneller says most of the ethanol plants that were temporarily idled earlier this year are now back in production.
Sneller spoke with Brownfield Thursday morning, just prior to the start of the Nebraska Ethanol Board’s Emerging Issues Forum in Omaha. He says the main topic of discussion at this year’s forum is the Renewable Fuels Standard.
On an 18-17 vote, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology has voted to report a bill which directs the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a scientific assessment on how gasoline with 15 to 20 percent ethanol may impact gasoline engines and related equipment.
Introduced by Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner in February, HR 875 would halt the sale of E15 and give the Academy 18 months to analyze tailpipe and evaporative emissions, impact on OBD (on-board diagnostics) systems, materials compatibility and fuel efficiency.
The bill would also require an independent panel to evaluate the misfueling mitigation plans approved by the EPA and determine the best methods to prevent consumers from mistakenly using E15 in engines not approved for using the fuel.
The bill must still be approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee before going to the full House.
Read the bill here:
Iowa farmers are being encouraged to use biodiesel in their farm equipment this spring—if it’s available to them.
And if it’s not, Iowa Biodiesel Board executive director Randy Olson says they may have to “demand” it from their local fuel distributor.
“We see only about 30 percent of Iowa’s distributors offering biodiesel on the farm,” Olson says. “So we’re asking farmers this spring season to consider asking their distributor for biodiesel blends to be delivered for their spring fill.
“It’s really a win-win all the way—and there are positive blending economics.”
Olson says part of the problem is that some distributors are not as “up to speed” on the various tax credits and pricing mechanisms available for biodiesel.
“Each situation is a little bit different,” he says. “We see pockets in the state that have very progressive distributors that have been blending biodiesel—and we have pockets of the state that maybe we’ve been caught in some old habits or just haven’t taken a look at the current economics of biodiesel today.”
A new report from the Iowa Department of Revenue shows biodiesel sales in the state rose more than 60 percent in 2012. Olson says that while over-the-road usage of biodiesel is strong, there is plenty of room for growth in the ag sector.
An agreement to keep working on biofuels for use in the aviation industry has been extended by U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Vilsack says there are a lot of benefits to using renewable feedstocks for airplane fuel. He tells reporters Monday, “I AM positive that consumers benefit from this. I AM positive that hundreds of thousands of jobs are connected to this industry. And, I AM positive that it’s helped stabilize farm income.”
Vilsack says airlines are faced with a number of international regulations and biofuels will help them meet those environmental standards, “And as far as renewable fuels is concerned, I think, even the petroleum industry has to recognize that there are octane benefits from biofuels which they will have a hard time replicating.”
The new agreement with the FAA continues the Farm to Fly initiative.
AUDIO: Tom Vilsack, Ray LaHood – provided by AgWired (7:00 mp3)
U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood signed an agreement Monday extending the effort to develop biofuels for aviation for another five years. The initial “Farm to Fly” initiative implemented in 2010 between the USDA and Federal Aviation Administration launched the effort with the ultimate goal of producing 1 billion gallons of aviation biofuel by 2018.
The extension builds upon the work of the USDA Regional Biomass Research Centers working with industry partners to produce energy-producing feedstocks in different regions and developing multiple feedstock supply chains.
Secretary LaHood says the alternative fuels will reduce carbon emissions, create jobs and help airlines save money on fuel.
Badger State Ethanol of Monroe, Wisconsin has joined the Renewable Fuels Association. BSE has been an innovator in the ethanol industry including the 2005 introduction of SmartStation, a 24/7 credit card blend pump offering 10, 25 and 85 percent ethanol fuels. RFA president and CEO Bob Dineen welcomed BSE as a strong partner in the effort to achieve energy independence, improve the environment and create jobs in rural America.
Badger State Ethanol employs 47 people and produces more than 57 million gallons of ethanol and 128,000 tons of dried distiller’s grains per year.
USDA is accepting applications for Rural Energy for America program, or REAP, funds to help with the installation of gas and ethanol blender pumps. The pumps allow retailers and consumers to choose the blend of ethanol they want mixed in their gasoline from no ethanol to 85 percent ethanol. For those not so hot on grant writing, the American Coalition for Ethanol and the Renewable Fuels Association offer free grant writing services. The organizations call it their Blend Your Own, or BYO, Ethanol Campaign. Spokesmen for the organizations say the grant writing assistance can ultimately help the nation achieve renewable energy goals.
Applications for the grant program are due on April 30th.
The NAFB News Service contributed to this article.
A public-private collaboration between the USDA and DuPont Pioneer sets up voluntary standards for harvesting corn stalks and other plant material used to make ethanol. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack signed an agreement last week with company officials of DuPont Pioneer at their Johnston, Iowa research headquarters. The venture creates opportunities in conservation as well as in local and regional markets beyond corn, said Secretary Vilsack.
“You’re creating an ingredient where before that, it was just something that was part of replenishing the soil, as important as that is,” said Secretary Vilsack, at the signing on Friday. “But now you’ve created a value to it, an additional value, an added value.”
The company is using hard science to keep topsoil in place while working on energy solutions, according to Jim Borel, executive vice president of DuPont Pioneer.
“Breaking down cellulosic materials, converting them to sugars, and then converting them to fuel, and doing that at costs and economics that work is a challenge,” said Borel, during the signing. “We sure didn’t want to solve one problem and then create another one, which is why we designed the program to be sustainable from the very outset.”
USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service will work with farmers to voluntarily come up with a plan to protect topsoil and yield while removing some of the material that traditionally stays in fields.
Tireless work went into creating a viable farm-to-fuel system for the long haul, said Borel.
“We’ve worked to prepare the ability to bring about 600,000 bales of stover to our facility every year,” said Borel. “That’s about one per minute.”
Thanks to scientists, said Vilsack, the biobased economy will extend beyond what happens just with fuel.
“They’re going to discover other products,” said Secretary Vilsack, “they’re going to create other inventions, they’re going to create new machinery, they’re going to patent new ideas; and that’s going to create a whole new set of industry.”
The first plant involved in the agreement is near Nevada, Iowa, where DuPont is building a 30-million gallon a year cellulosic facility.
Reporter Dar Danielson of Radio Iowa contributed to this article.
Last week’s stocks and planting intentions reports from USDA pushed corn prices down on the Chicago Board of Trade and that could be a real shot-in-the-arm for ethanol. Bloomberg reports the cheaper corn widened the price gap between ethanol and gasoline to 72.69 cents per gallon in New York on Monday morning.
The price for May-delivered denatured alcohol dropped 6.4 cents to $2.369 on the Chicago Board of Trade. The April contract which expires Wednesday fell 4 cents to $2.411 a gallon.
The increased profitability of ethanol should prompt companies to restart at least some of the more-than-20 ethanol plants that have been idled around the country. On March 22nd, Valero announced they were going to restart their Linden, Indiana plant.
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