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 DTN Ethanol Blog
| Ethanol in Other Media |
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 Want to know what media across the country are saying about ethanol today? Read DTN's Ethanol Blog.
Each day DTN's newsroom, led by ethanol reporter Todd Neeley, surveys media outlets across the country and provides summaries of stories. We also offer background and context for the most interesting stories.
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DTN Ethanol Blog |
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October 16, 2008
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October 15, 2008
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October 14, 2008
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October 13, 2008
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October 10, 2008
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October 9, 2008
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October 8, 2008
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October 7, 2008
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October 6, 2008
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October 3, 2008
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October 2, 2008
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October 1, 2008
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October 16, 2008 10/16/08 10:45:31 AM
Ethanol Passes Key Transportation Test
"Houston pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Energy Partners signaled progress Wednesday in addressing a key hurdle to widespread distribution of renewable fuels in the U.S. The company said it completed a test in Florida that moved ethanol safely through an existing gasoline pipeline and is performing similar tests with biodiesel fuel blends," the Houston Chronicle said. "The tests could be important for a U.S. biofuels industry that now transports fuel only by truck, rail car and barge, and will require more efficient transportation options as it grows. Kinder Morgan and other pipeline companies are still in the early stages of testing. Huge investments will be needed if the companies decide to ready more assets to handle biofuels, and upgrades could take years. Yet Kinder Morgan's moves suggest a willingness to explore the idea further. Pipeline operators have been reluctant to run ethanol in pipelines because it absorbs debris, rust and water, can damage components and taint petroleum fuels that share the lines. They have balked at biodiesel because of uneven quality and a residue that can damage jet fuel if it follows biodiesel through a pipeline. Kinder Morgan spent 18 months on the ethanol pipeline test in Florida and made more than $10 million in upgrades to a segment that connects Tampa and Orlando, said Jim Lelio, director of business development and national biofuels manager for the pipeline firm. The segment was ideal for the study because it was fairly new, situated on flat land and carried only one product, gasoline, Lelio said. But upgrading it wasn't simple. First, the company had to replace a number of parts, including seals, gaskets and other components. Then, it cleaned the pipeline with a device called a 'pig' that ran through the line and scoured the interior with brushes and chemicals. Finally, Kinder Morgan ran a 5,000-barrel batch of ethanol through the pipeline earlier this month with good results, Lelio said. The company is still modifying the pipeline but expects to be transporting ethanol for customers by mid-November."
(Houston Chronicle, Oct. 15, 2008)
DTN: The cost to build dedicated pipelines for ethanol is probably the biggest barrier standing in the way to making it happen. By most estimates it takes between $1 million and $5 million to lay just one mile of pipeline. Right now companies like Kinder Morgan are looking at smaller-scale projects to test the merits of the idea. Magellan Midstream Partners LP based in Tulsa, Okla., is partnering with Pennsylvania-based Buckeye Partners LP to explore a potential $3-billion-plus investment to lay a 1,700-mile ethanol-dedicated pipeline that would carry about 250,000 barrels, or about 10 million gallons, of ethanol a day from northwest Iowa to the New York harbor. Unpredictability in federal ethanol policy has made it risky for companies to plan large capital projects. Companies like Magellan need a guarantee on their investments. (Todd Neeley)
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McCain Says Would Eliminate Ethanol Tariff
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Wednesday that if elected he would eliminate the tariff on sugar cane-based ethanol and cut a number of subsidies for ethanol. 'I would eliminate the tariff on imported sugar cane-based ethanol from Brazil,' McCain said in a televised debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama," Reuters said. "McCain also said, that unlike Obama, he opposed subsidies for ethanol because they distort the market and could lead to inflation. U.S. President George W. Bush also opposes the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports that Congress extended this year until 2010. The tariff has limited U.S. ethanol imports from countries with extensive biofuel programs such as Brazil, which produces 27.5 billion liters (about 7.2 billion gallons) of ethanol annually."
(Reuters, Oct. 15, 2008)
DTN: The case has been made by the Bush administration and others that opening the U.S. market to Brazilian ethanol would help the American consumer by allowing in less expensive ethanol supplies. Groups like the Renewable Fuels Association are opposed to eliminating the tariff. They say the American taxpayer would be left funding foreign ethanol by providing the same tax credits to Brazilian producers that U.S. producers currently enjoy. (Todd Neeley)
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Cellulosic Ethanol Makers Face Tough Test
"It may be one of the biggest green gambles of the century: a national goal of converting wood, grass, corn stalks and garbage into 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels annually by 2022," Forbes said. "No commercial-scale refineries exist, researchers have yet to agree on the best technology for fuel conversion and there is no distribution network to handle fuel once it is made. Add it all up and the country's not even close to meeting the EPA's renewable fuel standards a mere 14 years from now. 'The United States could not move that much ethanol today if it had to,' said biofuel consultant Bill Caesar, a principal with McKinsey & Co. 'There are a lot of other pieces of the puzzle which need to fall in place over time before we hit these very big numbers.' The government has ordered that 36 billion gallons of biofuel be blended into the fuel supply by 2022. Of that, 16 billion must be cellulosic ethanol. No more than 15 billion can be corn ethanol, with the rest coming from other biofuel sources, such as the residue left from sugar production."
(Forbes, Oct. 16, 2008)
DTN: Achieving the 21 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol in the Renewable Fuel Standard by 2022 is a tall order. It all comes down to just how fast cellulosic-ethanol developers can scale up their technologies. The first-generation cellulosic-ethanol plants will be on the order of 10 million to 30 million gallons each. The RFS will not be met until it is possible to build many cellulosic-ethanol plants on the order of 100 million gallons each. That next step, however, could still be at least five years away. (Todd Neeley)
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Clemson Ethanol Research Funded
"Plant-based fuels are the focus of a $1.2 million Clemson University-led bioethanol project that researchers hope will reduce the Southeast's dependence on foreign oil," according to the Greenville News in Greenville, S.C. "Clemson and the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken will collaborate on the project funded by a DOE grant awarded to Clemson, the university announced Wednesday. Researchers will assess the potential of processing switchgrass and sweet sorghum into ethanol, according to the university. The grant also will fund development of a small-scale biofuel processing plant at Clemson University's Restoration Institute in North Charleston."
(Greenville News, Oct. 16, 2008)
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Retooled Approach May Make Bio-Butanol More Competitive with Ethanol
"A modified method of producing biobutanol could make the fuel more competitive with ethanol as a clean-burning alternative to gasoline," USDA's Agricultural Research Service said. "According to Agricultural Research Service chemical engineer Nasib Qureshi, biobutanol offers several advantages. It can be transported in existing pipelines, it's less corrosive, it can be mixed with gasoline or used alone in internal combustion engines, and it packs more energy per gallon than ethanol. Until the mid-20th century, biobutanol was produced from fermented sugars such as corn glucose. But low yields, high recovery costs and petroleum's increased availability after World War II sidelined fermentation-based systems for biobutanol production. Today, petroleum price increases have rekindled interest in tapping butanol as a biobased fuel, notes Qureshi, with the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill. In 2003, he began researching the use of wheat straw to make biobutanol—drawn by the straw's abundance and promise as a lower-cost alternative to corn-glucose-based feedstocks."
(USDA Agricultural Research Service, Oct. 16, 2008)
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Spanish Company to Invest 130 Million Euros in Ethanol Production
"Spanish company Alcohespa plans to invest, as of this year, 130 million Euros (about $175 million) on ethanol production in Angola, at a factory to be built in Zaire province," according to the Macau Hub in China. "The information was announced Tuesday in Luanda by the chairman of Alcohespa at the end of a meeting with the Angolan Industry minister, Joaquim David, to present the project. According to Francisco Lopez Molina, the investment will provide an average of 500 direct jobs and guarantee yearly production of 150 million liters (or about 40 million gallons) of ethanol."
(Macau Hub, Oct. 15, 2008)
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Proposed Pennsylvania Ethanol Plant Stalled
"An ethanol plant planned for Mayfield Borough near Scranton may not get built," according to the River Reporter in Narrowsburg, N.Y. "A recent decision by the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas upheld the decisions by the Mayfield Borough zoning hearing board. The board reversed an earlier decision by the old borough council to change zoning in favor of an ethanol plant to be built by Richard Scheller of the Northeast Ethanol and Renewable Resources. Voters who were opposed to the plant because of possible environmental impacts and other concerns, and who opposed the change of zoning that would have made construction of the plant possible, ousted every member of the council except the one who opposed the plant."
(River Reporter, Oct. 16, 2008)
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