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AGRO Biotechnology to build a 68 Mgy biodiesel in Malaysia

In Malaysia, AGRO Biotechnology Technovation announced that it is building a 68 Mgy biodiesel plant, at a project cost of $281 million. The plant will open in March 2010. The company said that it expects to sign a $2.5 billion off-take agreement with Habib Oil of Uganda, associated with Tamoil East Africa, the Libyan state oil company.

GreenHunter Biofuels signs 25 Mgy biodiesel processing agreement

In Texas, GreenHunter BioFuels announced that it has signed a 2-year, 25 Mgy biodiesel processing agreement for the company’s plant in Houston. The company expects to commence operations next month at its 105 Mgy faciliity, and will produce B99.

Biofuels Digest Index drops 4.58 percent on bad reaction to ADM working capital equity raise

The Biofuels Digest Indexâ„¢ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, had a shock drop of 4.58 percent to 111.81 as investors reacted to a potential drop in earnings per share at ADM after a $1.75 equity offering, combined with overall weakness in ethanol stocks. For the day, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) fell 4.98 percent to close at $39.86, while Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) fell 12.86 percent to close at $3.59.

Among small caps, Xethanol (XNL) fell 6.02 percent to close at $0.47. Overall, declines and advances were even for the day.

Central Ohio Transit Authority abandons B10 blend, citing biodiesel costs

In Ohio, the Central Ohio Transit Authority has discontinued a two-year program of blending biodiesel, due to high prices. COTA executives said that a two-year agreement for biodiesel at $2.40 per gallon has expired and the organization is facing new spot prices of $4.44 per gallons, and said that COTA was better off using conventional diesel at $3.81 per gallon and using the difference to put more buses on the street. COTA said that it would carry 22 passengers per hour, and the resulting increase in bus service would take vehicles off the road.

Bipartisan Senate group, the Ethanol Six, denounces Grocery Manufacturers “smear campaign” against biofuels

A bipartisan group of six US Senators held a press conference yesterday to denounce the Grocery Manufacturers Association for engaging what they termed a “smear campaign” against ethanol, and called on the association to cease funding a campaign aimed at fostering a “global center-left coalition” against biofuels. “They need to blame someone for high grocery bills,” said Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), while Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) added “someone decided to add ethanol to the members of the axis of evil.” Senators Kit Bond (R-MO), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), John Thune (R-SD) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) also participated in the news conference. The audio from the news conference is available here.

Sen. Grassley recently posted documents from the Grocery Manufacturers Association anti-ethanol story on his website. The documents are the original request for proposal from the lobbying group, and the response by Glover Park. The Grocers hired Glover and Dutko Worldwide for $300,000 to create a public perception of a link between biofuels and rising food prices.

Documents obtained by and published in Roll Call identify that the Grocery Manufacturers Association has launched a massive, global PR campaign, pledging to assemble a “global center-left coalition” including hiring “trusted third-party experts” to link ethanol mandates to global hunger, food industry job losses and inflation.

“GMA has concluded that rising food prices … create a window to change perceptions about the benefits of bio-fuels and the mandate,” said the organization’s Request for Proposals sent to PR firms.

The firm eventually hired by the GMA, Glover Park, said that it would employ an “urgent and remedy-based messaging strategy” to convince lawmakers that food prices is a “‘Now’ issue that is fast reaching crisis proportions for American consumers,” and said it would produce an “online, viral campaign” to link ethanol and food prices.

The GMA issued the RFP in March to, quoting from the RFP, “build a groundswell in support of freezing or reversing some provisions of the 2007 Energy Bill and for the elimination/reform of ethanol subsidies and import restrictions.” Subsequently the Governors of two states and 24 Republican Senators, including presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, called for a freeze. The GMA is a backer of McCain’s campaign, and the two Senators who received the most financial support from the GMA’s political action committee in this election cycle are among the 24 who signed the call for a biofuels review.

The GMA hired Andy Wright, former chief of staff to Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), to oversee a grassroots program to discredit biofuels.

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Jet A-1 at $US172 gives a hell of a lot of people a hell of a lot of encouragement to get on and make it happen bloody quickly”

Air New Zealand Deputy CEO Norm Thompson: “Our goal within the organisation is certainly to get into a position where we could run if not all, certainly part of our domestic fleet on biofuels. Believe you me, this is happening quicker than we had planned. It is really advancing quite quickly and the way Jet A-1 (airline fuel) is priced at the moment, at $US172, it gives a hell of a lot of people a hell of a lot of encouragement to get on and make it happen bloody quickly.”

From The National Review: “Our church in (bitter, gun-and-God-clinging) McKeesport has an undercroft that was hand-dug by the coal miners who helped found the church. These original Carbon Americans used shovels. But today quite a few Carbon Americans use drills, harvesting carbon in liquid form (oil) or gaseous form (natural gas).  Carbon Americans power our world. The Ethanol Americans are a different breed. For these folks energy just “is.” They don’t know much about where it comes from. They don’t know anyone who digs it and they don’t see barges full of it chugging up and down their rivers. Most Ethanol Americans live on the coasts and work in clean, well-lighted offices where they read and write documents. They are venture capitalists who invest in alternative fuels. They are government planners who subsidize the venture capitalists. They are non-profit and foundation executives who fund the pro-ethanol propaganda efforts. They are the media workers who propagate the propaganda. These people are in power in our world.

Chinese researchers increase biogas yield from rice straw by 65 percent

In China, researchers say that they have developed a process to increase the conversion rate of rice straw into biogas by 65 percent. More than 230 million tonnes of rice straw are left over from harvests each year, but to date rice straw has proved resistant in the conversion process. The researchers pretreated rice straw with sodium hydroxide to increase the results from anaerobic digesters. The scientific team said that three pilot facilities have been built using the technology.
FAO officials noted in Senate testimony that rice prices are going through a bubble phase, noting also that wheat prices have dropped by 50 percent and corn was showing signs of entering a price decline phase. FAO economist Abbassian added that “Rice is an exception. Perhaps one could qualify it as a sort of a bubble. It’s a thin market. We have five exporters. Three of them don’t want to sell anything. Obviously prices go through the roof. But the moment one of them decides to open up the border, perhaps it collapses,” Abbassian said in attributing a 500 percent increase in rice prices due to hoarding.

Pure Biofuels completes expansion at 10 Mgy biodiesel plant in Peru

In Peru, Pure Biofuels said that it had completed expansion construction at its 10 Mgy InterPacific Oil biodiesel plant, and the company expects to commence operations at the expanded 10 Mgy capacity by July.

Peruvian president Alan Garcia recently said that Peru is a victim of the ethanol industry, which he said increased food prices. “It’s creating very serious problems for countries that have to import these products. We believe there are alternative energies that do not put the world’s food in danger,” said Garcia. Meanwhile, his government gave the green light to a Maple Energy ethanol project in the Peru.

Maple Energy said it intends to raise $20 million through a private placement to finance ethanol development and oil exploration projects in Peru. Proceeds from the financing, the company said, would be used to acquire an additional 3.1 percent of Aguaytia Energy and finance its proposed ethanol plant.

Peru has been a test site for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s decision-support tool to assist countries in planning their entry into biofuels production. The analytical framework allows government to assess biomass potential; biomass production costs; the economic bioenergy potential; macro-economic consequences; national and household-level impact and consequences on food security. The tool will be tested in Peru, Thailand and Tanzania – before it is is made available to the international community at large.

Pacific Ethanol capital raise clears path for completion of California corn ethanol plant, analyst says, but liquidity concerns remain

Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov released a report on Pacific Ethanol’s capital raising activities in the face of a liquidity challenges brought on by construction cost overruns and increasing costs for corn feedstock. Molchanov said that the company could be expected to use $5.75 million raised from management and insiders to alleviate working capital needs, while a $28.5 million private placement would likely be used with $83 million remaining in its construction loans to complete construction of its Stockton, CA corn ethanol plant.

Earlier this month, Pacific Ethanol reported that first quarter ethanol sales were up 63 percent to $161 million, year over year, and the company earned 6 cents per share compared to analyst expectations of a 9 cent loss. Ethanol sales were up 57 percent to 37.5 million gallons. The news sent shares of other ethanol companies up as much as 41 percent.

In Idaho, Pacific Ethanol recently commenced production at its 60 Mgy corn ethanol plant in Burley. The plant will use 21 million bushels of corn, and the company hopes to
supply the entire ethanol demand for Idaho from the plant, as well as
up to 500,000 tons of distillers grains for livestock feed.

New breakthrough on ethanol thin stillage promises savings of up to $800 million on energy and 10 billion gallons of water

In Iowa, researchers have developed a fungi-based process that could could save the ethanol industry up to $800 million in energy costs and $10 billion gallons per year in water usage. The process adds fungi to a byproduct known as “thin stillage” that allows the water content to be recycled. Previously, 50 percent of thin stillage was evaporated, primarily using natural gas. The researchers said that a 100 Mgy ethanol plant would invest $11 million to install the process but would see payback in six months.

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