Syngenta makes $340K donation to ethanol’s Prime the Pump Fund
In Minnesota, Syngenta has made a donation of $340,000 to the Prime the Pump Fund to help make higher ethanol blends more widely available and help grow demand for American ethanol. Prime the Pump is an ethanol industry initiative created to help the early retail adopters of high-level ethanol blends by awarding grants to reduce their initial investment in infrastructure.
According to Growth Energy, the vehicles that E15 is approved for account for more than 87 percent of all vehicles on the road. And, nearly 20 million vehicles are approved for any blend of ethanol up to 85 percent ethanol.
The Syngenta donation is part of an ongoing commitment to support the ethanol industry that, in addition to helping fund retail partnerships, includes new technologies to enhance ethanol production. Through Enogen® corn enzyme technology and Cellerate™ process technology, Syngenta is dedicated to helping make corn growers and ethanol producers more successful.
“For our industry to enjoy sustainable success, there needs to be an increase in ethanol demand,” said Ray Defenbaugh, chairman, Prime the Pump Fund. “As the ethanol blend wall has dramatically slowed demand, many steps have been taken to increase ethanol’s availability in the U.S. market. Most notable was when the EPA allowed the use of gasoline blends containing as much as 15 percent ethanol in vehicle models from 2001 and newer. But the approval of E15 was just the first step.
“That’s why the Prime the Pump Fund was formed. The Syngenta donation supports our strategy of aiding high-volume, progressive-minded, industry-leading fuel retailers, who will demonstrate the performance, cost savings and profit opportunity of marketing higher ethanol blends, such as E15,” Defenbaugh added.
Ethanol has an octane rating of 113, making higher-level ethanol blends ideal for fueling high performance vehicles. As automakers move to smaller, higher compression, direct injection engines in order to meet the more stringent greenhouse gas and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, they need higher octane fuels to operate efficiently.
Category: Fuels
