Thoughts to, from and during FEW, the 42nd Fuel Ethanol Workshop, Carbon Capture Summit and Sustainable Fuels Summit

June 26, 2026

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by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Sometimes you just need a road trip, some thousands of miles on the roads to see the world as it really is, to meet people in different environments and ecologies. From a renewable fuels standpoint, to drive through the worlds of different feedstocks.

Along with Advanced Biofuels USA co-founder and treasurer Bob Kozak, I attended the 42^ndFuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) and the co-located Carbon Capture Summit and Sustainable Fuels Summit in St. Louis, Missouri this June.

Kozak, with an extraordinary team, developed the Atlantic Biomass enzymatic hydrolysis conversion technology, and was coming out of stealth mode to speak about their latest developments at the Sustainable Fuels Summit. I moderated a panel at the Carbon Capture Summit.

Advanced Biofuels USA has been a media partner of FEW for many years and this was my first opportunity to attend, so I suggested we turn this into a road trip and extend the trip to visit family in San Antonio, TX. Thus, in addtion to attending the "largest and longest-running ethanol conference in the world," we ended up traveling a 3500 mile loop through various kinds of ‘corn and bean’ fields, rice paddies, hardwood forests and plantation pines (the first part of the life cycle analysis of renewable fuel) with a constant search on Gas Buddy for E15 for our 2019 soul red Mazda 3 hatch.

First, Feedstock

Heading West from the office in Frederick, Maryland, the corn/maize and soybean fields in the rolling foothills and the Appalachian Mountains are probably destined for animal feed markets. There are no ethanol or bio-based diesel biorefineries for hundreds of miles.

Towering hardwood forests in the Maryland and Pennsylvania mountains may be used for construction and other industrial purposes. Some went to pulp and paper mills in the past; but, like the one in Luke, Maryland, they became ‘stranded assets’ long ago. Now, some may be bio-based sources for heat and power.

You don’t see many trucks pulling loads of long, straight tree trucks up here as much as you do around the plantation forests along the return stretch of the trip in Mississippi and Alabama or like we saw on a trip through the forests in Quebec a few years ago. Just think, for each of those telephone pole straight trees, there’s slash and residue that could be available for the bioeconomy.

That’s a lot of biomass. That’s a lot of CO2 captured by photosynthesis and stored, along with solar energy. Seems to me it should not be wasted, or, worse, burned just to clean the fields for the next plantings.

After the Pennsylvania Turnpike through the Appalachian mountains comes Interstate 70 through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and into Missouri through more rolling hills and flat fields planted in neat rows between stands of trees with farm houses, barns and outbuildings watching over them.

It’s not 4^th of July yet, but corn in many fields has grown far higher than knee high with tops already bending in the wind in some fields. Could this result from earlier planting dates since the old adage ‘knee high by the 4^th of July’ started?

Farms.com explains “In states across the Corn Belt—including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, and Ohio—planting progress reports and university research demonstrate a steady trend toward earlier planting windows for both corn and soybean crops, driven by improved hybrids, better seed protection, and a clearer understanding of yield response to timing.” (Midwest Farmers Continue Moving Corn and Soybean Planting Dates Earlier https://www.farms.com/ag-industry-news/midwest-farmers-continue-moving-corn-and-soybean-planting-dates-earlier-477.aspx)

What about climate change? That could have something to do with it, too, according to researchers at Iowa State University (Impacts of climate change on the optimum planting date of different maize cultivars in the central US Corn Belt https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1161030120301088) and Harvard University:

Research links warming temperatures and localized cooling to increased maize production

The researchers modeled the relationship between temperature and crop yield from 1981 to 2017 across the so-called Corn Belt: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. They found that as temperatures increased due to global climate change, planting days got earlier and earlier, shifting by about three days per decade.

(Changing temperatures are helping corn production in U.S. — for now https://seas.harvard.edu/news/changing-temperatures-are-helping-corn-production-us-now)

Joanne Ivancic, Roman Peterson
and Jeff Bonar

Presentations, Networking and Lots of Questions (the Best Part of a Conference)

FEW has become an enormous conference and expo with hundreds of exhibitors and five tracks plus two co-located summits. It’s where you can talk to the people who actually do the hands-on work of the biorefineries all along the supply and value chains, along with those providing financial, insurance, and regulatory compliance services.

I was fortunate to moderate a session that was part of the Carbon Capture Summit about capturing CO2 and converting it into marketable products, highlighting new processes and expansion of processes already being used at biorefineries such as capture and use of fermentation CO2 and capturing carbon from flue gas.

The panelists were:

Dr. Jeff Bonar, founder of CapCO2 Solutions who talked about on-site conversion of fermentation CO2 into next-generation low-carbon fuels like e-methanol that can be used not only as chemical building blocks, but also for marine fuel and to make methanol-to-jet aviation fuel. We got insights about what they are learning at the CapCO2 Solutions demonstration plant in Luvern, Minnesota.

and

Roman Petersen from ANDRITZ Separation who gave a history lesson -- from conceptual design years ago for a bespoke system for old Dow Chemical through the current work refining that large-scale project for smaller scale execution. This cutting edge ANDRITZ equipment captures carbon in post-combustion gas rather than the carbon from fermentation. However, discussion during the Q&A included considering this carbon capture equipment for use at ethanol refineries. Essentially, this space-saving device based on a centrifugal force design intensifies the absorption process of CO2 as part of, for example, power plant flue gas treatment.

Before the presentations, I asked who in the audience worked in biorefineries. I was surprised that the answer was ‘none’ or no one wanted to admit it. Those in attendance worked with not only biorefineries, but indicated a much broader interest in carbon capture, utilization and storage for a range of interests.

As one of the plenary speakers noted, FEW stands for Fuel Ethanol Workshop and 40+ years ago, that was the tenor of the initial gatherings. That historic foundation was still alive in the Q&A at this panel with insightful comments that sparked interesting conversations; and post-presentation gatherings where the discussions continued.

The same was true at the other sessions I attended. One of the values of attending conferences in-person are these opportunities to meet people you might not otherwise have the chance to know; and to have hallway conversations that informally expand on the information and issues raised by speakers. Or, just to enjoy the company of people with whom you have something in common—in this case, the world of renewable fuels.

Kozak and I carried that feeling with us as we continued our trip, with heightened consciousness of the roles played along the countryside as we continued our travels.

More Feedstock: Missouri’s Bootheel

After the conference, the segment of the drive along Interstate 55 South of St. Louis, pretty much parallel to the winding Mississippi River, featured a different kind of corn and bean farming, along with rice fields.

Bounded in the west by the forested Ozark Escarpment and in the east by the Mississippi River, Interstate 55 was first carved from the sandstone hills. After that, it seemed like you could see across miles and miles of flat, rich, ancient river bottom land planted in crops for animal feed and biofuels. In places, corn and soybeans and, later, rice, stretched as far as the eye could see with tiny pickup trucks and farm equipment kicking up dust in the far distance.

Hardly a farmhouse or barn/outbuilding was to be seen in the middle of the fields along the Mississippi--very unlike what we saw North and East of St. Louis. I got the impression that many of these hours of driving, dozens of miles of thousands of acres were part of a different business model, more likely leased farmland or enormous corporate holdings with people working full time at specialized jobs rather than communities where farmers often also hold non-farm jobs. We recalled that Missouri's Bootheel has a history of cotton, hemp and tobacco being farmed by enslaved people with owners living far away, too.

Water as a Feedstock—Upstream and Further Down

As we passed by, we think we saw evidence of not only clearly above-ground irrigation, but also of the drip irrigation mentioned by May Wu during her discussion of a revised Argonne National Laboratory’s study on water use in the US during a Sustainable Fuels Summit session.

Wu wasn’t the only one bringing up that topic. The importance of water, irrigation and the plethora of good reasons to be concerned about growing demand for that mixture of hydrogen and oxygen surfaced repeatedly during the conference.

Concerns were raised not only regarding the Ogallala aquafer during one of the plenary sessions, but also as a factor in assessing locations for processes that include preferably green hydrogen obtained from electrolysis of water. This came up during our Q&A about CapCO2’s process to make methanol from biorefinery fermentation CO2 and green hydrogen. Water consumption also came up in discussions on the Expo floor about biorefinery efficiency and possible lack of water availability as motivation for farmers to switch crops to sorghum or grasses.

When we turned Right onto Interstate 40 at Memphis, we travelled through more undulating forests and fields. In Texas, they eventually featured cattle on land that could support pasture, but not row crops.

Farmland segued into never-ending suburbs, billboards, and towering cities from outside Dallas to our destination in San Antonio along Interstates 30 and 35 with the exasperating stop-and-go (mostly stop and go very slowly) traffic to go with it.

Search for E15

We were in Texas and clearly out of the Midwest where, even in Missouri, Gas Buddy identified stations that sold E15 and E85, local biofuel products.

Local fuel in Texas is petroleum, of course, and E15 was as scarce as hen’s teeth. Although with San Antonio’s Valero, the second largest corn ethanol producer, you would think their stations would sell their own product. You would be wrong.

THIS is what we were looking for.
Found it in Virginia, but not Texas.

Past the St. Louis area, Gas Buddy couldn’t identify any sources of E15 for us. There were occasional E85 pumps and we could have pretended we were in California or other parts of the West and self-splash-blended, as we hear some scofflaws are wont to do.

That said, we think we found a camouflaged source of E15 at some Love’s truck stops, although Gas Buddy didn’t list it and it isn’t promoted as Unleaded 88. In any case, we tried to patronize Love’s since even if it wasn’t sold at a particular station, it was better than Valero and Marathon who own and operate ethanol biorefineries, but weren’t selling the stuff beyond E10.

As executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA, I try to use as much renewable fuel as possible. Years ago, we converted our 2002 Ford Focus to use E85. With the 2019 Mazda out of warranty, we consider doing the same, but have hesitated due to its being the first model to use an innovative engine that can switch from Otto to Atkinson cycle and back again. So, we’ll rely on E15 for the time being.

With the high price of gasoline, many around the world are looking to convert to use kits to convert to E85.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia: Plantation Pine through Grasses to Animal Fat

After visits with family and friends, the return trip took us through Houston. Southeast Texas featured better farmland and pasture until we got to heavy oil/gas country where miles of refineries took over the scenery.

Some of them looked ready for repurposing as biorefineries. Maybe if the right feedstock, biocrude, precursors or intermediates can get there economically, it could happen. Some renewable activity is taking place in Texas and Louisiana oil/gas country. It’s a start.

SiriusXM’s Bluesville got us through Mississippi; Oulaw Country through Tennessee (along with 60s Gold, Deep Tracks and Little Steven’s Underground Garage). Driving on Interstates 75 and 40 reminded me of past road trips.

One trip years ago from Maryland to New Orleans included a stop at Genera in Vonore, Tennessee, when they were still trying to figure out the mystery of making fuel from grasses. Outside the headquarters you could tour an exhibit of plots of various non-corn/non-soybean feedstocks, a variety of beautiful grasses. Now they make other ‘cool stuff with grass’ such as compostable packaging and other non-wood pulp and bioproducts.

Visits with them to growers providing switchgrass and other advanced feedstocks for the pilot and demonstration processes made a lasting impression. The growers offered candid observations and insights.

Another trip to New Orleans to visit a board member at the time resulted in driving through sugarcane fields on the way to covering the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. That experience reinforced the value of transitioning to sustainable, renewable fuels and chemicals, of the need to replace the whole barrel of petroleum.

Feed stock coming from the Southwest Virginia highlands of rolling hay fields and cow pastures might contribute animal fat to a biodesel market, but since there are no such biorefineries in the area, that’s less likely. So, we just enjoy the scenery.

Caveat and Lignin

Summer is road rebuilding season. Google Maps and other services prove their worth over and over with alerts about construction delays, as well as about crash backups, debris in the road and speed traps.

You don’t complain about the lengthy construction inconveniences after you drive through states like Indiana with horrible road conditions (confirmed in this crossing of the southern part as well as a trip across the ‘top’ of the state on I-90). And, you know why Gretchen Whitmer got elected Governor of Michigan with the campaign slogan, “Fix the Damn Roads!”

Indiana and Louisiana need a Gretchen Whitmer. A monster pothole East of Indianapolis destroyed our driver side front tire and we missed a day of the conference getting it fixed. For all the anti-government talk in Alabama and Mississippi, the highways were in surprisingly good condition there, and, thus, what did bother us was that it’s apparently old fashioned or passé to put up signs at the start of the construction delays that inform drivers, “Your Taxes at Work!”

And what does this have to do with biofuels or the bioeconomy? Lignin. The part of plant cells that make trees and grass stand up straight. In some biofuel and bioeconomy processes, it’s a co-product that can be turned into asphalt used to build roads and for other purposes. Genera sells lignin syrup for a variety of uses.

It’s nice to see the asphaltasaureses scraping asphalt from road surfaces so it can be recycled. When there’s a need for new paving material, let’s see more bioasphault at those construction sites.

In-Person Is Important

Yes, it’s important to take a road trip once in a while to see the reality of what we read about in books, hear about in conferences, see in the movies. Without driving through hours of planted forest from seedlings to trees ready for harvest to piles of slash in plowed up fields, I’d have less appreciation of trees as a versatile crop, a big one that takes years to mature.

It’s important to see what it takes to grow, harvest, and transport feedstock like corn, beans, sugarcane, rice and water as well as cassava, jatropha, grasses and so many other plants -- and their residues that are resources-in-waiting. It helps to meditate on the multiples of multiple purposes of this natural way of carbon capture and solar energy storage, including their use as stepping stones on pathways to renewable fuels.

It’s important to meet and talk in-person with the people doing this work and the ones creating new, more efficient, creative ways to this and other work to make the world a better place; to have spontaneous conversations, to follow up on a passing comment that sparks insights and ideas.

Attend the conferences, tell the world about your innovations and work in the grand transition from taking carbon from deep storage to recycling what we already have handy.

And, enjoy the scenery along the way.

*Joanne Ivancic serves as the executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA.

Related articles

Ethanol Takes The Stage (Ethanol Producre Magazine)
Finding Hidden Capacity for Year-Round E15 (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: The largest fuel ethanol event in the world once again lived up to its name this year, drawing almost 2,400 attendees to St. Louis, including 575 producers from around the globe, representing 167 of the 187 operating ethanol plants in the U.S., or about 91% of the nation's total production capacity.

The 42nd annual International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo was held June 2-4, featuring a full agenda, three co-located events (Ethanol 101, the Carbon Capture & Storage Summit and the Sustainable Fuels Summit), the legendary golf outing and more.

Nearly 340 exhibitors set up booths on the trade show floor, many reporting increased foot traffic from previous years and more new customer leads.

The agenda featured the relevant topics, high-impact roundtables and big industry names FEW attendees have come to expect.

Awards and Keynote
Jenny Forbes, vice president of sales and service at Phibro Ethanol, was filled with emotion as she accepted the fourth annual Women In Ethanol Award. Forbes shared that she was “beyond touched.”

Forbes was recognized for her more than 20 years of leadership, expertise and dedication to ethanol producers.

“Jenny has built a reputation as a trusted technical expert, a collaborative leader and a dedicated mentor,” said Anna Simet, director of content at BBI International. “Her impact on producers and on the people around her makes her exceptionally deserving of this recognition.”

Other honorees of the FEW’s trademark annual awards include:

• Pauline Teunissen, global application director for grain processing at IFF, received the Award of Excellence for her longstanding contributions to innovation in ethanol production.

• Jim Ramm, P.E., co-founder and former vice president of U.S. biofuels at EcoEngineers, received the Distinguished Service Award for his pioneering work in low-carbon fuel compliance and carbon markets.

• Chuck Woodside, CEO of KAAPA Ethanol LLC, received the High Octane Award for his decades of leadership and service to the ethanol industry.

This year’s keynote address was delivered by Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy, emphasizing the policy environment boosting ethanol’s potential globally, as well as the many markets ripe for its use.

“We have to introduce our molecule to completely new engines,” she said. “Long gone are the days when people thought of ethanol as just for cars and trucks. Now, we get to discuss and debate what brand new sector ethanol is going to dominate first—air travel, sea transport or heavy machinery. This is exciting. And it isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening. These sectors have made investments. They need more energy, and cleaner energy, and they need it fast.”

Policy Roundtable
The event’s traditional policy discussion, held the morning of June 3, featured Brian Jennings, CEO of the American Coalition for Ethanol; John Fuher, vice president of government affairs for Growth Energy; and Troy Bredenkamp, senior vice president of government affairs for the Renewable Fuels Association. The panel was moderated by Ben Rhodes, executive director of the Nebraska Ethanol Board.

Close on the heels of the passage of year-round E15 legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, the discussion included insight into the road ahead for passage in the Senate. Panelists agreed that the Senate will show more opposition to the bill than the House did. It will take “a little more work and creative thinking in the Senate,” Fuher said.

Jennings thanked the industry for continuing to fight for E15 over the past 15 years, with “no fatigue in advocacy.”

The panelists also addressed the record-high renewable volume obligations in the RFS Set 2 and enthusiasm for maritime market opportunities.

The 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit also was discussed, highlighting the need for guidance from USDA, U.S. DOE and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Bredenkamp echoed a shared sentiment when he said he hoped all the components will be issued “sooner than later.”

The DOE released the 45ZCF-GREET model on June 12, pleasing the ethanol industry with its removal of indirect land use change impacts in carbon intensity calculations.

But with ethanol on the national stage in so many policy discussions that could boost the entire industry, Jennings cautioned that criticism will get stronger.

“Success breeds opposition, and I think we’ll see a lot of opposition coming out of the woodwork.” READ MORE