by Susanne Retka Schill and Ann Bailey (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Ethanol Producer Magazine provides an update on 10 cellulosic ethanol projects around the world striving for continuous, large-scale production.  —  Some things have changed in the …

(Donald Danforth Plant Science Center)   The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, one of the world’s largest independent plant science institutes, today announced a three-year $6.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to …

by Nat Williams (Illinois Farmer Today)  A handful of farmers are not just raising the crops that can be used as biofuels. They’re also working on producing the fuel itself.  A Minnesota-based company is in …

by Tom Polansek (Reuters)  The U.S. Department of Agriculture will pay more than $7 billion of taxpayers’ money to farmers this fall to keep them afloat in the face of low crop prices, agency officials said …

by Dennis O’Brien (USDA Agricultural Research Service/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  An Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist has developed new genetic resources that allow the breeding of sorghum varieties with higher grain yields and greater resistance to diseases and pests.
The …

by Susan van Dyk and Stephen Schuck (IEA Bioenergy Task 39 and Bioenergy Australia)  …  While Australia has large energy resources, it is a net importer of crude oil and refined petroleum products. In
2013, net product imports were …

by Joanna Schroeder (Energy.AgWired.com)  A contingency of ethanol producers from Mexico recently visited the U.S. to look at the option of sorghum as an ethanol feedstock as the country’s industry continues to grow following the …

(African News Agency/Engineering News)  American and Chinese companies are set to invest R940-million in Limpopo to pursue renewable energy and ethanol profits, government and investors have announced. The United States’ Bio-Processing Innovation and the Beijing …

by Chris Cogburn (American Agriculturist/Farm Progress)   Drop in demand from China finds domestic markets stepping up, putting balance sheet back to the future  —  For years, the sorghum balance sheet never changed. On an annual …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  … “Most investors are from South Dakota by far,” he reported, but the project did attract investors from Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. “Generally, from areas where they …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  “We are a boutique technical consulting and service firm to the alternative energy and resources industry,” said the VerdeNero manifesto, adding: “We provide services in technology transfer, system analysis and integration. We operate …

by Anna McConnell (Agriculture.com)  In terms of ethanol production, corn has some competition this winter— grain sorghum. The grain, also known as milo, produces the same amount of ethanol per bushel, but uses one third …

by Nicholas Bergin (Lincoln Journal Star)  Sorghum, a grass with a colorful seed about the size of a BB, was selling at more than a dollar a bushel above corn thanks to China’s voracious appetite …

(Aemetis/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Aemetis Inc., an advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company, announced the harvesting of 12- to 15- foot tall biomass sorghum grown in Central California that was produced using proprietary Nexsteppe seed genetics. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  NexSteppe is dedicated to pioneering the next generation of scalable, reliable, cost-effective feedstock solutions for the biofuels, biopower and biobased products industries. Using advanced breeding techniques and cutting-edge analytical technologies, …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   A multitude of questions surround the challenge of bringing in the mountains of biomass needed to feed a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant: Are crop residues a reliable resource? …

by Marty McCarthy and Arlie Felton-Taylor (ABC Rural)  Could Australian agriculture help to literally fuel the United States Navy’s expansion in the Asia-Pacific? — That is the question a Queensland researcher is trying to answer, as …

by PJ Griekspoor  (Agri-View)  St. Joseph, Mo., pilot plant completes tests of making cellulosic ethanol that also yields value-added co-products — The prospects for profitable cellulosic ethanol just got a little brighter with the completion of two …

by Arlie Felton-Taylor (ABC Rural)  The ethanol debate has heated up in Queensland again after Katter’s Australia Party put an increased mandate back on the agenda.  The party said it will pull support for the Palaszczuk …

(USDA Agricultural Research Service/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  USDA scientist is providing much needed guidance to sorghum farmers in the Texas High Plains who are trying to save water by using less-than-optimal amounts of it.
Farmers in the area …

by Amy Bickel (Kansas Agland/The Garden City Telegram)  The wheat field here is shaved down to a schoolboy’s haircut, but Courtney Wilson’s harvest is just beginning.
“I sometimes feel like a door-to-door salesman,” the man admitted as …

by Kelli Fulkerson (Ethanol Producer Magazine/National Sorghum Producers)  Producers work to expand markets for sorghum distillers and oil.
While exports are undeniably the hottest market for grain sorghum right now with China set to buy over …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Australia, the Queensland state government has released the Towards a clean energy economy: achieving a biofuel mandate for Queensland discussion paper, which outlines key issues associated with the proposed mandate …

by Kayla Wilkins (High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal)  Strong demand from both domestic and international markets is sending strong signals to growers, indicating it is prime time to increase grain sorghum acres. This strong demand established …

by Loretta Sorensen (Midwest Producer)  … Kansas Corn CEO Greg Krissek said there is some slowing of ethanol production on the eastern and western edges of the cornbelt. But ethanol industry leaders are responding to market …

by Megan Durisin, Jeff Wilson, Lydia Mulvany (Bloomberg)  … A kernel-yielding stalk that’s native to Africa, sorghum has three things going for it right now: it’s cheap to plant; it holds up better in drought-like conditions than …

(Chromatin, Inc.)  Chromatin, Inc., an agriculture technology company, announced today that its newly introduced hybrid sorghum seed products have achieved unprecedented yields in East Africa.
Chromatin introduced the new hybrids at a grain sorghum workshop it …

by Chris Woolston (Bioenergy Connection)  With its crown of pink blossoms, the humble seashore mallow may look unassuming, even delicate. But when it comes to brutal environments, this seaside shrub is no pushover.  Seashore Mallow …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  POET-DSM, Abengoa, Enerkem, GranBio, Raizen plant openings lead the list; REG’s M&A campaign, EPA’s RFS debacle, are other key trends.
They said that cellulosic fuels were “five years away, and always …

by Nicholas Gergin (Lincoln Journal Star)   … The ancient grain, also known as milo, is enjoying some time in the limelight thanks to strong demand from China and low corn prices.
…
Milo takes less water to …

by Joshua Lucero  (Portales News-Tribune)  More than two years after the Abengoa plant went off-line, Houston, Texas, based Natural Chem Group is looking to acquire the plant and resume operations.
Roosevelt County Community Development Corp. Director …

by Tim Unruh (Salina Journal)  Grain sorghum could be among the keys to reducing the massive mining of water in western Kansas, once it’s deemed economically desirable.
Long an ugly stepcousin in the family of Kansas …

by Reed Fujii (Recordnet.com)  State energy officials awarded Pacific Ethanol Inc. $3 million to help develop grain sorghum as a low-carbon feedstock, replacing some of the corn traditionally used, at its plants in Stockton and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … NSP is focused on several items at the moment: successful advanced biofuel RFS2 pathways for grain sorghum oil to biodiesel and sweet sorghum to ethanol, a cellulosic RFS2 pathway …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … To Aemetis, a route to improved margins that will also help the environment. Here’s how.
News arrives from Aemetis, via its latest SEC filings, that the company has “entered into …

(Abengoa/GlobeNewswire)  U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Kansas Senator Pat Roberts offer remarks during on-site event commemorating landmark occasion for advanced biofuels industry.
Abengoa’s proprietary enzymatic hydrolysis technology turns crop …

by  Katie Fletcher (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Many dedicated energy crops hold promise as feedstocks for next-generation ethanol. Extensive R&D is still needed, however, to overcome the challenges in making these plants viable for commercial applications.
…
This year, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The migration from first-gen to next-gen biofuels is becoming less ‘Invisible’ — and the new landscape is not, by anyone’s estimation, an ‘Ordinary World’.   If Aemetis’ latest earnings hadn’t rocked …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that 9 biobased ventures raised $391 million in new capital in Q1 2014, while 8 biobased ventures raised $128.6 million in Q4 2013. This compares …

by Brent Erickson (Biotechnology Industry Organization/National Geographic Magazine)  …Biotechnology companies today are working to develop cyanobacteria, algae, and even municipal waste as feedstocks for advanced biofuels. But these promising abundant non-food sources lack either the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Biobased investing continues surging, both direct and via strategics.  The Digest has the data and the scoop in our 5-Minute Guide.
In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that 9 biobased ventures raised …

by David Castellon (Visalia Times Delta) When the subject of biofuel comes up, chances are you’ll think of corn converted to ethanol.
But on Wednesday, representatives from a Chicago-based seed manufacturer tried to change that way of …

by Ken Anderson (Brownfield Ag News)  Sorghum Field Days are being held at six locations in Nebraska this week.  One of the stops will be the John Dvoracek farm near Farwell, where there are more …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … “What you really are in the business of,” Aemetis CEO Eric McAfee reflects, “is capturing the arbitrage between the commodity price of your most expensive feedstock — and the price …

by Sarah-Blake Morgan (KCBD)  Good news for the Plainview economy. White Energy has announced that their Plainview Ethanol Plant will be up and running by late October, after sitting idle since January.
…”With the updating that they …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, Aemetis announced that its 60 million gallon per year capacity ethanol facility in Keyes, CA has completed maintenance and Advanced Biofuels retrofit, and is now restarting production.
Last December, …

by Andre Janse van Vuuren (City Press/Fin24)  Dormant plans to establish a local biofuel sector – earmarked to create up to 50 000 jobs and save the country at least R8.9bn in foreign exchange payments …

by Karl Plume (Reuters)  Pacific Ethanol Inc said that it is importing sorghum as well as buying the grain from domestic sources as prices for corn, the primary feedstock for the U.S. ethanol industry, hovered …

by Ken Anderson (Browfield Ag News)  A combination of dry weather and increased demand from the ethanol sector could have grain sorghum poised for a comeback in Nebraska.
Grain sorghum plantings in the state plummeted from 550-thousand …

(Chromatin)  Chromatin, Inc., a leading provider of innovative crop breeding technology, sorghum seed products and feedstocks, said today it has entered into an agreement with POET, LLC, one of the world’s largest ethanol producers, to …

by Art Hovey (Lincoln Star Journal)  …On a much brighter note, the managers of ethanol plants in Trenton and Ravenna are pushing hard to make a crop also known as milo the main ingredient in …

(Chromatin/MarketWatch)  Chromatin, Inc., a leading provider of innovative crop breeding technology, sorghum seed products and feedstocks, and Calgren Renewable Fuels, a leading ethanol producer located in Pixley, CA, announced today an alliance to develop a …

(Chromatin/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Chromatin Inc., a leading provider of innovative crop breeding technology, sorghum seed products and feedstocks, and Aemetis Inc., an advanced fuels and renewable chemicals company, have announced that they have entered into …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … As we highlighted this week in the Digest, Chromatin and Pacific Ethanol announced that they have entered into a multi-year agreement to produce, deliver and use locally grown sorghum in …

(Menafn /The Record/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)  A seed producer is recruiting area farmers to produce sorghum, a grain crop also known as milo, for use in ethanol production, including at the Pacific Ethanol Inc. plant in …

by Jim Lane (BioInvest Digest)  The technologies out there are five in number. They are all in commercial deployment now, though some are at the capacity-construction stage. Some of them vary the feedstock, some vary …

by Andrew Herndon (Bloomberg)  Aemetis Inc., a U.S. ethanol producer, idled production at its plant in Keyes, California, citing “unfavorable market conditions for corn ethanol” and will upgrade the facility to also produce fuel from …

by Stephan Nielsen (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)  Vinema Biorefinarias do Sul Ltda., a Brazilian biofuel company, plans to spend 720 million reais ($354 million) building the nation’s first six ethanol-fuel mills that use grains as raw material.
…The …

by Jim Lane (BioInvest Digest)  An obscure EPA ruling may change the economics of ethanol production, forever — who wins, who loses, what’s the investor’s bottom line?
Just before Christmas, the EPA issued a final rule, …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Sorghum is poised to come into its own as an alternative to corn. It proved its mettle in the 2012 drought, producing decent dryland yields with very little …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  If all goes as planned, a 50 MMgy ethanol plant in Oakley, Kan., will someday produce advanced biofuel from sorghum. To qualify as advanced biofuel, the company will power …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  KATZEN International chief says generation 1.5 ethanol is the key path to reaching RFS2 targets – with new feedstocks, advanced fermentation plants.
Phil Madson, President of KATZEN International, has authored a …

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 …