donate now
Truly Sustainable Renewable Future
March 17, 2009 – 10:42 am | One Comment

Advanced Biofuels are high-energy liquid transportation fuels derived from: low nutrient input/high per acre yield crops; agricultural or forestry waste; or other sustainable biomass feedstocks including algae.  The key word is “sustainable.”
A technical definition that …

Read the full story »
Business News/Analysis

Federal Legislation

Political news and views from Capitol Hill.

More Coming Events

Conferences and Events List in Addition to Coming Events Carousel (above)

Original Writing, Opinions Advanced Biofuels USA

Sustainability

Home » Archive by Tags

Articles tagged with: corn

Agronomist Fights for ‘Truths’ about Ethanol Industry
February 7, 2012 – 5:10 pm | No Comment

by Barry Amundson  (Tri-State Neighbor)  Gregg Carlson doesn’t like to hear the negative comments about ethanol.
The SDSU Extension farm precision agronomist has been telling farmers at crop expos this winter and others he talks with that …

Biodiesels Pollute More than Crude Oil, Leaked Data Show
January 31, 2012 – 1:42 pm | No Comment

(EurActiv)  Greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels such as palm oil, soybean and rapeseed are higher than those for fossil fuels when the effects of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) are counted, according to leaked EU …

Texas Farmer Wades into ‘Feed versus Fuel’ Battle
January 24, 2012 – 9:18 am | No Comment

(National Corn Growers Association)  Ongoing media coverage on corn usage tends to sensationalize trends by pitting demand from the ethanol industry against that from livestock, but Corn Board member Wesley Spurlock, a Texas farmer, has …

US a Cereal Offender on Ethanol, Says UN
January 23, 2012 – 9:28 am | No Comment

by Rudy Ruitenberg (Sydney Morning Herald)  The US policy to produce ethanol biofuel from corn is raising prices for the grain across the world, said Jose Graziano da Silva, the new director-general of the United …

Good Digestion: It’s Been a Bumpy Road to Full-Scale Adoption of Anaerobic Digestion Technologies at Ethanol Plants
December 29, 2011 – 5:51 pm | No Comment

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Despite the promise of methane from anaerobic digestion technology, low natural gas rates and other factors have kept ethanol producers from jumping in with both feet.
…On top of the …

From Farm to Biorefinery: Ethanol Production Efficiency Improves
December 29, 2011 – 10:25 am | No Comment

by Geoff Cooper (Renewable Fuels Association)  …According to a landmark study by the Keystone Alliance (a group including both farm groups and environmental organizations, such as Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy) the amount of …

To Survive, Some Biofuels Companies Give Up on Biofuels
December 23, 2011 – 4:11 pm | No Comment

by Kevin Bullis (MIT Technology Review)  Gevo, a prominent advanced-biofuels company that has received millions in U.S. government funding to develop fuels made from cellulosic sources such as grass and wood chips, is finding that …

Are Biofuels the Best Use of Our Limited Land Resources?
December 23, 2011 – 10:18 am | No Comment

by Tyler Hamilton (OilPrice.com)  …This isn’t just about corn; it’s also about how we choose to use agricultural residues, municipal organic waste, wood waste, algae biomass, and non-food crops.
Does it make sense to just burn …

Corn Gene Boosts Biofuels from Switchgrass
November 21, 2011 – 12:02 pm | No Comment

(Science Daily)  …Unlike the starch sugars in grains, the complex polysaccharides in the cellulose of plant cell walls are locked within a tough woody material called lignin. For advanced biofuels to be economically competitive, scientists …

UPDATE 2-Booming Ethanol Biz Alters Corn Use Patterns-USDA
October 28, 2011 – 9:06 am | No Comment

by Julie Ingwersen (Reuters)  USDA says ethanol boom creating new patterns in corn use
* Gov’t unsure why feed use falls late in marketing years
* Reports blamed for wild swings in CBOT grain prices
* Industry barbs come …

Spain’s Abengoa to Build Ethanol Plant in Uruguay
October 19, 2011 – 7:10 am | No Comment

(Argus Media)  Spain’s Abengoa is building a 70mn l/yr (1,200 b/d) ethanol plant in Uruguay under a $120mn contract with ALUR, which is 90pc owned by the country’s state-controlled energy company Ancap.
The plant, to be …

Map Identifies Potential Areas for Boosting Biofuel Crop Yield
October 11, 2011 – 3:06 pm | No Comment

(EnvironmentalResearchWeb.org)  A global map that identifies areas of low-yielding biofuel crops whose productivity could be increased through intensification has been produced by researchers in the US.
…”The US biofuels target for 2022 is 136 billion litres,” Matt …

Ethanol: One Market for a Growing Corn Supply
September 29, 2011 – 9:18 am | No Comment

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …According to the USDA, corn farmers produced an average yield of 152.8 bushels of corn per acre in 2010, up 30 percent from the average 20 years ago. Most …

Crop Performance Matters When Evaluating Greenhouse Gas Emissions
September 12, 2011 – 9:55 am | No Comment

(Science Daily)  Measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from croplands should take into account the crops themselves.
That’s the conclusion of a study in the Sept.-Oct. issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality, which examined the …

A Decade of Ethanol
August 24, 2011 – 4:06 pm | No Comment

by John Maday (Drovers CattleNetwork)  This probably doesn’t surprise you, but growth in ethanol production since the year 2000 contributed to dramatic shifts in U.S. agricultural production, according to a new report from USDA’s Economic Research …

Elusieve Process Removes Fiber From Corn
August 24, 2011 – 8:33 am | No Comment

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  A new way to remove fiber from corn has been discovered by a professor from Mississippi State University (MSU). He calls his process Elusieve and has filed for a patent. The process was …

Water Intensity of Corn-Based Ethanol Needs to Include DDGS Credit
August 22, 2011 – 5:14 pm | No Comment

by Gouri Shankar Mishra and Sonia Yeh (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Study recalculates water consumption with expanded system boundaries and coproduct credit
Recent studies have estimated the “consumptive water use,” “water embodied,” and “water footprint” of corn-based …

Corn for Hydrocarbons
August 17, 2011 – 9:10 am | No Comment

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Add-on technology developed for corn ethanol plants
Rather than retrofitting a corn-ethanol plant to produce i-butanol, n-butanol or use other novel fermentation technologies, three companies are collaborating to turn a …

3 Things You Need to Know about Biofuels
August 10, 2011 – 10:41 am | No Comment

by Maggie Koerth-Baker (BoingBoing)  …In a nutshell, that’s why liquid fuel is so valuable. So far, it’s the clear winner when we need energy for transportation—especially air transportation and heavy, long-distance shipping—because it allows you …

Technique Measures Ethanol Isotopes from Vehicle, Plant Emissions
August 9, 2011 – 10:25 am | No Comment

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Researchers at the University of Miami Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science recently developed a technique to measure ethanol isotopes and discovered that the ethanol found in urban …

Hankinson Ethanol Plant Installing Demo-Scale Anaerobic Digester
August 1, 2011 – 8:10 am | No Comment

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Hankinson Renewable Energy LLC, a 120 MMgy ethanol plant in Hankinson, N.D., is in the process of starting up an anaerobic digester to produce 54 MMBtu of biogas a …

Building on the Success of Corn Ethanol to Corn Hydrocarbons
August 1, 2011 – 7:40 am | No Comment

by Holly Jessen (DomesticFuel.com)  Although the U.S. corn ethanol industry is frequently misunderstood and misrepresented, it’s the only domestic renewable fuel industry to reach significant scale and make a measurable impact on the U.S. fuel …

New Study Finds U.S. Ethanol Production Growth Has Not Triggered Indirect Land Use Change
July 28, 2011 – 9:56 am | No Comment

(PR NewsWire/– Prior studies failed to compare land use predictions to historical data
A new study published in the July 2011 Biomass and Bioenergy Journal on indirect land use change (ILUC) due to biofuels production indicates that the …

Analysis: Ethanol to Edge Pigs for Corn Use, but Not Quite Yet
July 19, 2011 – 2:33 pm | No Comment

by Charles Abbott and Karl Plume  (Reuters)  Ethanol appears almost certain to win the food-versus-fuel contest in the United States. But not just yet.
The Agriculture Department forecast that a tad more corn will be used to make …

Soy Chemicals: A Global Strategic Business Report – New Market Report Published
July 19, 2011 – 7:05 am | No Comment

(PR-Inside.com)  The global soy chemicals market is forecast to reach over $13 billion by the year 2017, spurred by the anticipated high demand from bio-diesels market and growing adoption of alternative renewable sources of energy. …

Debate over Corn Use Estimates Shows Need for Solid Ethanol Data
July 15, 2011 – 11:30 am | No Comment

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The latest USDA World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates marked a milestone of sorts for the ethanol industry. For the first time, the USDA predicts that more corn will …

At the Capitol: Alternative Energy Can Be Found Right Here in Illinois
July 12, 2011 – 12:10 pm | No Comment

by Rep. Jim Sacia  (Journal-Standard)  …Ethanol is another source of alternative energy that has established a foothold in America, and we can be very proud of our own Adkins Energy ethanol plant in Lena.
One of …

The New “30 Years War”
June 29, 2011 – 12:53 pm | No Comment

by Michael T. Klare  (CBS News)  …Over the coming decades, we will be embroiled at a global level in a succeed-or-perish contest among the major forms of energy, the corporations which supply them, and the countries …

Agrivida Teaches Biofuel Crops to Self-Destruct
May 23, 2011 – 9:10 am | No Comment

by Martin LaMonica (CNET)  … Agrivida is using genetic engineering and other techniques from the biotech industry to create proteins with specific traits designed for rapid, and cheaper, biofuel production from sorghum, switchgrass, and corn stover, the …

Mexican Biofuels Seen Meeting 3% Blending Target In 2012
May 3, 2011 – 2:09 pm | No Comment

by Ivan Castano  (Renewable Energy World)  ”I think it can be done,” says Raul Felix, climate change and renewable energy practice coordinator at Baker & McKenzie in Mexico City. “However, Pemex is going to have to pay …

GasHole: Dirty Oil and the Biofuel Myth
May 2, 2011 – 3:33 pm | No Comment

by Allison Kilkenny (Huffington Post)  This week marked the world premiere of GasHole, a new documentary film (narrated by Peter Gallagher) about the history of oil prices and the future of alternative fuels.
Biofuel gossip has been …

The Impact of Ethanol and Ethanol Subsidies on Corn Prices: Revisiting History
April 28, 2011 – 12:22 pm | No Comment

by Bruce A. Babcock, Jacinto F. Fabiosa (Iowa State University)  The rapid rise in corn prices that began in the fall of 2006 coincided with exponential growth in U.S. corn ethanol production. At about the …

Franken Tours Poet Ethanol Plant
April 28, 2011 – 9:34 am | No Comment

(AlbertLeaTribune.com)  Get ethanol at the pumps.
That’s what the farmer owners of the Poet Glenville ethanol plant told Sen. Al Franken they would like to see. The comments came during a meeting Wednesday at the plant.
“We …

Is More Really Less? Overfertilizing Can Degrade Quality
April 27, 2011 – 3:09 pm | No Comment

by Morgan Gallagher (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …Rather than look at only the total mass yield of either the corn grain or the crop residue, we took a different approach. We measured the mass yield of …

Knocking Natural Gas Off Its Throne
April 27, 2011 – 2:45 pm | No Comment

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   Although natural gas is king of power generation at ethanol plants, there’s increasing interest in renewable energy technologies that could help ethanol plants someday produce a domestically grown …

Lawsuit: Ethanol Production Threatens America’s Vanishing Grasslands
April 27, 2011 – 12:20 pm | No Comment

by Kathleen Ryan  (Public News Service)  The search for ethanol is devastating one of America’s vanishing ecosystems. That’s the claim in a new lawsuit filed by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). It accuses the U.S. Environmental …

Cornoil – A Growing Feedstock for REG
April 27, 2011 – 12:02 pm | No Comment

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  The synergies between the biodiesel, ethanol and advanced biofuels industries are growing. One of the things that’s been happening over the past few years is the ethanol industry creating a new …

Super Corn Sought to Limit Nitrogen Use, Pollution
April 18, 2011 – 5:12 pm | No Comment

by Jon Birger (Bloomberg)  …Other than water and sunlight, there’s nothing more important to growing corn — the most-valuable U.S. crop, worth $66.7 billion in 2010 — than nitrogen. Generous applications of nitrogen fertilizer are …

Sovereign Focuses on Delivering Ethanol’s Message
April 18, 2011 – 4:50 pm | No Comment

by Jean Caspers-Simmet  (AgriNews.com)  Dave Sovereign tries to help people see the benefits ethanol brings to the economy.
…It frustrates Sovereign when people bash ethanol.
“After 9/11 the president and Congress asked all Americans to do what they …

Ethanol Groups Unite in Response to Anti-Ethanol Policy Forum
April 15, 2011 – 5:57 pm | No Comment

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Food and environmental lobby groups took their anti-ethanol message to the Capitol Visitors Center April 14, staging a “Corn Ethanol Policy Forum” that included planned remarks from several legislators …

Ethanol’s Overlooked Source of Food Supply
April 12, 2011 – 5:11 pm | No Comment

by Gavin Maguire   (Commodities Now/Reuters)  Ethanol producers often get much of the blame for driving the price of corn to its current multi-year high levels due to that industry’s strong usage of corn to make …

USDA Changes Corn Wording after Ethanol Makers Complain
April 11, 2011 – 1:24 pm | No Comment

by Charles Abbott and Christopher Doering (Reuters)  The government introduced new wording on corn use on Friday following complaints from ethanol makers that they were not getting credit for the corn byproducts that are fed to livestock.
Instead …

Harvesting, Storage and Transfer Technology Update
April 11, 2011 – 1:05 pm | No Comment

by Maynard Herron and Bob Matousek   (Kansas Alliance for Biorefining and Bioenergy)     AGCO (Hesston, KS) received an award for biomass feedstock supply demonstration as a partial match of a $5 million renewable …

Ethanol: Pros, Cons Fuel Debate over Its Worth
April 4, 2011 – 11:38 am | No Comment

by Tyler Ellyson  (Columbus Telegram)   Robeson, general manager of Frontier Co-op in Brainard, considers the corn-based fuel to be the crutch that the Midwest and Nebraska economies leaned on during the recent recession — keeping …

Saint Michael’s Receives $766,000 NSF Grant as Part of Plant Genome Project
March 24, 2011 – 7:45 am | No Comment

(VermontBiz.com)  Saint Michael’s College biologist Dr Mark Lubkowitz and his students join a team of researchers from the University of Missouri, University of Florida, Purdue University and the University Nebraska-Lincoln, on a five-year project to …

Logos and EdeniQ Receive Department of Energy Funding for Corn-to-Cellulosic Pilot Biorefinery
March 23, 2011 – 4:10 pm | No Comment

(Logos Technologies)  DOE commits full $20.5 million to retrofit and build pilot plant in Visalia, CA
Logos Technologies®, Inc. and EdeniQ, Inc., announced U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approval to fully fund $20.5 million in federal …

Whole New World of Corn
March 23, 2011 – 12:50 pm | No Comment

by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com)  Everything you ever wanted to know about corn is contained in the latest edition of the World of Corn from the National Corn Growers Association.
This year’s publication, available online now, highlights the wide …

Companies to Produce Edible Ethanol Co-Product
March 23, 2011 – 12:34 pm | No Comment

by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com)   …Prairie Gold (PGI) of Bloomington, and GTL Resources USA of Itasca, Illinois have agreed to collaborate on the construction of a zein protein production plant. Zein is a high valued co-product …

Governors Call for Improved Corn-for-Ethanol Reporting
March 17, 2011 – 10:30 am | No Comment

(Western Farm Press)  A coalition of 34 U.S. governors from Washington to New York to Texas have called on U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to alter the way his department reports the use of corn …

Swazi Biofuels Strategy Complete, Awaiting Cabinet Approval
March 17, 2011 – 8:21 am | No Comment

by Winile Mavuso  (The Swazi Observer)  …Director of Energy Henry Shongwe said the document was basically a policy which would guide companies which want to venture into the bio fuels industry. Such companies include among …