At the American Coalition for Ethanol annual conference this week in Nebraska, presenters highlighted new markets for products from ethanol plants. VeraSun touted the extraction of corn oil, while Chippewa Valley ethanol touted its food flavoring s extract alcohols, aromatherapy products, hairspray and “priairie” brand organic vodka.
Brent Searle, economist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture: “We’re kind of at the stage with biofuels where we were in early computers. They were big. They were clunky. They weren’t as efficient as we’d like them to be. Looking back, they looked pretty silly compared to what we have now … (but) you gotta start somewhere with this stuff.”
An editorial in the Rapid City (SD) Journal: “The corn model for producing ethanol has become so successful it has become a victim of its own success. While low corn prices mean profits for the South Dakota ethanol industry, increasing demand for corn drives prices higher and ethanol profits lower. Cellulosic ethanol will be the next frontier for ethanol. But the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol is in its infancy. The 21 billion gallon federal requirement is more than aggressive — it’s unrealistic — primarily serving as a notice to investors and developers that the market will be there when the product is.”
In Malaysia, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said that the lowered price of crude palm oil made it possible for the country’s 15 biodiesel plants to resume full production at full capacity and make a profit. The government, he said, would buy 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel in the next year and would distribute a B5 biodiesel blend. The minister said that if crude palm prices decrease further, the country would consider a B10 mandate.
In Kenya, an article in IRIN highlighted the struggles of the newborn local jatropha industry. The industry profile highlighted the impact of rising diesel costs, and a 500 percent increase in the price of jatropa seeds from $15 per kilo to $92 per kilo. Test planting results have shown that local jatropha would take up to four years to reach maturity and that colder weather impacted projected yields.
In Thailand, General Motors announced an agreement with state oil company PTT to support research into cellulosic ethanol, expend biodiesel sources, develop alternative fuels including compressed natural gas, as well as expand R&D for hybrid and fuel cell engine technologies. GM also announced a partnership with the Thailand Automotive Industry Association that would propose an alternative energy strategy for the Thai automotive industry. The announcements tied in with a new $445 million diesel engine production plant that GM will undertake in Thailand.
Researchers at Ames Lab are reporting that they have developed metallic alloy-based mesoporous nanospheres, akin to microscopic sponge balls with thousands of channels running though them, to increase the surface area of syngas catalysts by 100 times. The research team had previously found that ethanol yields from syngas can be increased if the surface area of catalysts, which activate carbon monoxide molecules, could also be increased to increase CO adsorption on the catalyst surface.
In related news, researchers at Oxford Catalysts have developed a cobalt-based catalyst that can increase yields from the Fischer-Tropsch biomass-to-fuel process. Fuel yields from the F-T process have typically been in the 42 gallons per tonne of biomass range, making F-T uneconomic in many cases.
The International Herald Tribune published a useful comparison of the energy policies of Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, including comparisons on offshore drilling, the strategic petroleum reserve, windfall profits tax, alternative energy, speculation on futures markets, nuclear power, gas tax holiday, climate change, oil use, the arctic national wildlife refuge, energy research, vehicle fuel economy and electricity.
In Georgia, John Deere announced that it would integrate the AGRIS V9 business system, used by agribusiness and biofuels plants, with the RINSTAR system for generating Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) and reports to meet requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard. The partnership will provide users of AGRIS V9 with a simplified means of managing RIN compliance, and Clean Fuels Clearinghouse said that the agreement would result in more certified RINs and more transparency and confidence in renewable fuel transactions.
The Biofuels Digest Index™ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, fell 0.84 percent yesterday to close at 76.64 as large cap jitters offset a recovery by Biofuel Energy (BIOF). For the day, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) fell 0.02 percent to close at $26.88, while BIOF moved up $0.32 to close at $1.25. Among small caps, Panda Ethanol (PDAE) rose 14 percent percent to $0.80. Overall, advances led declines 3 to 2 for the day.
Biofuels Digest added 12 new stocks to the Biofuels Digest Index this week, reflecting changes in the industry since the Index debuted last August.
The stocks have been tracked on the website for some time, but today is the first day they have officially figured in the Index.
Joining the Index are Algodyne Ethanol (ADYN.PK), Biofuel Energy (BIOF), British Petroleum (BP), Cosan (CZZ), Gushan Environmental Energy (GU), Momentum Biofuels (MMBF.OB), Pure Biofuels (PBOF.OB), Panda Ethanol (PDAE.OB), Raven Biofuels (RVBF.OB), Sustainable Power (SSTP.PK), Syntec Biofuel (SYBF.OB), and Tiger Ethanol (TGEI).
A number of readers have asked how the Index is calculated, and that has changed effective this month as well. Previously, the Index used a market cap-based system; over time, it has become apparent that the Index is too dependent on a few “sector giants” for its vulation using this method.
Instead, the DIgest has moved to a weighted average system. In this approach, stocks are averaged based on price, but each stock is “weighted” to make sure that the Index does not swing based on the volatility of a few thinly-traded smallcap stocks.
Here are the components and weightings of the Index: new stocks are marked with an asterisk.
Archer-Daniels-Midland 1.00
* Algodyne Ethanol 0.10
The Andersons 0.33
Aventine Renewable Energy 0.33
Bluefire Ethanol 0.25
* Biofuel Energy 0.25
* British Petroleum 1.00
* Cosan 0.33
Earth Biofuels 0.10
Environmental Power 0.10
GreenShift 0.10
Green Plains Renewable Energy 0.10
Green Energy Resources 0.10
* Gushan Environmental Energy 0.20
MGP Ingredients 0.10
* Momentum Biofules 0.10
Nova Biosource Fuels 0.10
* Pure Biofuels 0.10
* Panda Ethanol 0.10
Pacific Ethanol 0.33
* Raven Biofuels 0.20
* Sustainable Power 0.10
* Syntec Biofuel 0.10
Texcom 0.10
* Tiger Ethanol 0.10
Verasun Energy 0.33
Xethanol 0.10
Some notes on the new additions:
Algodyne Ethanol
Algodyne was added as both an ethanol and biodiesel producer, although primarily to represent waste-vegetable oil biodiesel.
Biofuel Energy
Biofuel Energy was added as the largest publicly-traded ethanol stock not already in the Index. The company operates two 115 Mgy corn ethanol plants in the Midwestern US.
British Petroleum
BP was added to represent oil majors moving into biofuels. It has a butanol venture with DuPont, a joint venture in jatropha biodioesel with D1 Oils, and invested $90 million in cellulosic ethanol technology company Verenium.
Cosan
Cosan is the largest ethanol producer in Brazil, where it competes with Petrobras and a number of smaller or privately held ventures.
Gushan Environmental Energy
Gushan was added to represent China, where it is the largest developer of biodiesel capacity.
Momentum Biofuels
Momentum was added to represent th biodiesel segment, and is active in the Texas market where it has a 20 Mgy plant.
Pure Biofuels
Pure was added to represent the international segment and biodiesel. Pure has been active in developing biodiesel from plam and jatropha in Peru.
Panda Ethanol
Panda, active primarily in the Texas area, was added to represnet to waste-to-ethanol branch of advanced biofuels, gasifying manure and other livestock residues into ethanol.
Raven Biofuels
Raven was added to represent advanced biofuels, in this case the furfural biofuel market which we have covered more than a few times in the Digest. Furfural is an aromatic aldehyde, produced from crop residues.
Sustainable Power
Sustainable Power was added to represent the biocrude segment. The company is active in the US, Asia and Latin America, using the Rivera process (a catalyst-based form of pyrolysis) to produce a crude oil equivalent from soy hulls, algae and waste biomass.
Syntec Biofuel
Syntec was added as both a Candian stock (its research unit is based in Vancouver), and to represent the BTL (biomass-to-liquid) segment, in this case using a gasification technology.
Tiger Ethanol
Tiger was added to represent the growing Asian market, using sugar beet as an ethanol feedstock in its China-based operation.
