In Nebraska, Brownfield Ag News reports that the head of Nebraska’s ethanol industry expects more shutdowns of ethanol plants to come, following a swath of closures announced over the past two weeks on the back of more demand destruction from the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent approval of 31 small refinery hardship waivers. If the market […]
In New York state, biochemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered two ways that autophagy, or self-eating, controls the levels of oils in plant cells. The study, published in The Plant Cell on April 29, 2019, describes how this cannibalistic-sounding process actually helps plants survive. It also provides mechanistic details […]
In Vietnam, the Government Inspectorate has looked into why three ethanol plants built with state resources of $242 million underperformed from their expected 100 million liter each nameplate capacity. One of the three plants, the first to begin construction in 2009, was halted in 2011 and was never completed. Investigators found that construction costs for […]
In California, Fulcrum Bioenergy says it is planning to develop eight of its MSW-to-biofuel facilities by 2022, including its first 11 million gallon facility that is under development near Reno, Nevada that will be online during the second half of 2018. Those new facilities, five of which will be developed by United Airlines as part […]
In the UK, scientists led by the University of Cambridge and the University of Melbourne have identified new steps in the way plants produce cellulose, the component of plant cell walls that provides strength, and forms insoluble fiber in the human diet. The findings could lead to improved production of cellulose and guide plant breeding […]
In Illinois, the state’s agriculture department is leading a trade mission across the state with more than 30 international buyers hailing from Mexico, Ecuador, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam that will include stops at two ethanol plants: Marquis Energy’s 140 MMgy ethanol plant in Hennepin that also produces 330,000 tons of hi-protein bio-energy feed […]
In Ethiopia, the country blended 12.5 million liters of ethanol in 2014, saving $10.2 million in gasoline imports. Two sugar mills are currently producing ethanol while another six are meant to come online in the next year. The Wonji Cooperative Union of Sugar Cane Plantations announced it wants to build an ethanol factory using the […]
Across Europe, March is maintenance season which means that many ethanol producers are expected to go offline temporarily, providing a respite to the market that may result in higher prices for a short time. Some producers may consider early or prolonged maintenance closures in an effort to remove more ethanol from the market and potentially […]
In Minnesota, older and smaller ethanol plants are struggling to survive because the economics don’t pan out when compared to larger plants, leaving them to either expand or innovate into other products in order to keep operating. The threshold appears to be at 40 million gallons, with anything producing below that level suffering from lack […]
In Minnesota, Highwater Ethanol’s CEO has called out to the new cellulosic ethanol plants that have opened this year, saying that if they run into rail delays this winter as many Midwest plants did last year, to reach out to their fellow ethanol plants for help. With everything from backlogged rail cars keeping ethanol from […]
