News
U.S. ethanol stocks at more than six-month high
U.S. ethanol stocks climbed higher last week while production declined, reflecting the slow demand as COVID-19 continues to restrict travel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the domestic supply was at 23.504 million barrels, the largest since mid-May, up 335,000 on the week and 2.47 million on the year.
Production averaged 934,000 barrels a day, falling 41,000 from the previous week and 132,000 barrels below a year ago, partially due to a slowdown for the holidays, but also that reduced demand because of less travel.
The Renewable Fuels Association says ethanol refiner and blender inputs and the amount of gasoline supplied to the market were above the prior week, but still much lower than this time last year.
There were no ethanol imports reported.
The USDA’s next corn for ethanol use estimate is out January 12th.
Ethanol is far more precious than the farmers realize — but not to burn it as a blend with gasoline in the internal combustion engine. Rather, ethanol can be used to make hydrogen to power fuel cells. Indeed, ethanol has so much hydrogen that it can be used straight in fuel cells. This allows us to make green hydrogen and simultaneously transport it as a liquid fuel across the country.
Don’t think so?
Then check out this paper in the 12/28/2020 Journal of the American Chemical Society: Atomically Dispersed Ni/α-MoC Catalyst for Hydrogen Production from Methanol/Water
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c10776