Friday, August 31, 2007

Missouri Biorefinery makes food and fuel

This ST. Joseph Missouri biorefinery is a good example of efficient grain processing--providing both food and ethanol. -- Jeff G.
Cattle Network - Connecting The Beef Industry Worldwide: "This new generation ethanol facility features a mill in the front of the plant that separates the corn kernel into its component parts. This technique enables increased utilization of the starch within the kernel. The resulting higher quality starches will be used for food customers whereas the lower quality starches will be used to produce ethanol."

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Hot compost bugs could be better for cellulosic ethanol

This British company believes their new bacteria will make cellulosic ethanol more feasible. -- Jeffrey Goettemoeller
Hot compost bugs promise greener car fuel | Environment | Reuters : "'We believe what we've found is not far from the silver bullet, and our demonstration plant will be about showing that,' Curran told Reuters during a visit to the group's laboratories in Guildford on Wednesday."

Thursday, August 23, 2007

UF chooses Florida Crystals for ethanol plant

This commercial scale cellulosic ethanol biorefinery will apparently use bagasse as a feedstock. Bagasse is the portion of the sugar cane left over after extracting the sugar. It will be available without extra transportation expense as with many other potential feedstocks. -- Jeffrey Goettemoeller
UF chooses Florida Crystals for ethanol plant - South Florida Business Journal:

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Food & Fuel: Biofuels Could Benefit World's Undernourished

Farmers around the world finally have a chance to sell their goods at a profit. -- Jeff Goettemoeller
Food & Fuel: Biofuels Could Benefit World's Undernourished :
RenewableEnergyAccess.com -- Aug 21, 2007
"The increase in world agriculture prices caused by the global boom in biofuels could benefit many of the world's rural poor. This is one conclusion of a new 450-page book, 'Biofuels for Transport: Global Potential and Implications for Energy and Agriculture,' authored by the Worldwatch Institute and published by Earthscan."

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

New reports examine corn, ethanol, food price connection

Ethanol and corn prices have just a tiny effect, if any, on food prices. The bigger effect is from oil prices, especially for transportation. Jeff G.
New reports examine corn, ethanol, food price connection
Southeast Farm Press -- August 9, 2007

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Tennessee biorefinery will turn switchgrass into cellulosic ethanol

The University of Tennessee is partnering with Mascoma to build a biorefinery in Tennessee that will turn switchgrass and woodchips into cellulosic ethanol. -- Jeff Goettemoeller
Monroe County Online information
by Melissa Kinton, the Monroe County Advocate -- Aug 13, 2007
"Biofuel Company Selects Vonore Site"

Friday, August 10, 2007

DOE to Provide funding for increasing efficiency of FFV's, E85 Ethanol

This is certainly a step in the right direction for ethanol. These technologies will allow vehicles to go more miles on fewer BTU's from ethanol. The lower cost of E85 could reflect a real savings when fueling these new ethanol-optimized vehicles. This will also effectively improve rthanol's net energy balance because a given amount of ethanol will do more work. -- Jeff Goettemoeller
Department of Energy - DOE to Provide up to $21.5 million for Research to Improve Vehicle Efficiency:
DOE press release -- August 7, 2007
"Seven of the eleven projects selected total up to $15.3 million in DOE funding and will focus specifically on improving flexible-fuel engines and light-duty vehicles that operate on ethanol-gasoline blends up to 85 percent ethanol by volume (E-85). Research will seek to take advantage of favorable properties of ethanol blends without diminishing gasoline fuel efficiency. "

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Gulf Ethanol Plans to make ethanol from super-tall sorghum

Gulf Ethanol Corp. Advances Production Plans for Sorghum Ethanol Plant Along Texas Gulf Coast:
Grain Net -- Aug. 7, 2007
"Houston, TX--Gulf Ethanol Corporation, (OTC:GFET), has advanced its plans for an enhanced ethanol production facility along the Texas Gulf coast that could use the new sorghum plant developed by Texas A&M as its primary feed stock"

Senators urge blender pumps for ethanol

A group of senators is urging UL to approve "blender pumps" that would allow the customer to choose the percentage of ethanol. This would allow selling various ethanol belends with just two storage tanks--one for ethanol and one for gasoline. The two would be blended at the pump. If we would go a step further and remove the prohibition-era requirement for denaturing ethanol, expenses at ethanol biorefineries could be reduced. Currently, most ethanol producers use gasoline as the denaturant. They need tanks and infrastructure for blending at the biorefinery that would not be needed if the requirement for denaturing were removed. -- Jeff Goettemoeller
Obama Works to Expand Use of Biofuels Nationwide | U.S. Senator Barack Obama:
March 17, 2007
"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ben LaBolt
Urges Underwriters Laboratories to certify 'blender pumps' to make E85 fuels more accessible to motorists across the country"