Posts

March 29, 2013

+

3:25 PM | Nice summary of the RFS (and a new blog to follow!)

For those who are confused about RFS, RINs, and other acronyms in my last post, I found a great summary on a new blog that we’ll add to our blogroll. Seems like he is making some nice posts of the … Continue reading →

March 22, 2013

+

3:05 PM | post about RINs, ethanol, etc

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

+

3:05 PM | Corn, ethanol, RIN prices, and the blend wall!

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

February 24, 2013

+

4:15 PM | The blend wall and what we will do will all the cellulosic ethanol

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

+

4:15 PM | The blend wall and what we will do with all the cellulosic ethanol

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

February 21, 2013

+

8:45 PM | Has biofuels led to major land use changes in the US?

And is the land that is being converted from grassland to corn and soy the “marginal land” that people take about growing dedicated bioenergy crops? A new article in PNAS this week seems to answer “yes” to both these questions. … Continue reading →

Wright, C. & Wimberly, M. (2013). Recent land use change in the Western Corn Belt threatens grasslands and wetlands, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215404110

Citation

February 07, 2013

+

7:41 PM | updates on the court challenge to the RFS: minimal long-term impact

I like how this post by Judy Endres explains the recent court ruling “overturning part of the RFS”. The devil is in the details: Although the court rejected EPA’s approach favoring overestimation of projected cellulosic biofuel production, the RFS itself, … Continue reading →

February 05, 2013

+

4:00 PM | The RFS- basket case, or just a few years ahead of it’s time?

When Congress established the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) through the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, one of the primary goals was to grow the fledgling cellulosic ethanol sector from laboratory scale up to an industry surpassing corn ethanol, via … Continue reading →

February 01, 2013

+

5:49 PM | comparing original RFS volumes with revised volumes (some perspective)

Today the EPA released revised mandated amounts of biofuel to be blended under the RFS legislation. To put these numbers in perspective I have taken the original requirements for cellulosic in the 2007 law and compared to the revised amounts … Continue reading →

January 28, 2013

+

4:00 PM | Colorado goes cellulosic!

Via Paul, and article in Biofuels Digest highlighting how our local corn ethanol plant (Front Range Energy in Windsor, CO) will soon be transitioning to cellulose-derived sugars for a fraction of its feedstock: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/01/16/sugar-rush-sweetwater-front-range-ink-100m-cellulosic-biofuels-deal/ This is a very exciting development! … Continue reading →

December 13, 2012

+

4:04 PM | thoughtful opinions on the major questions w/ the future of biofuels..

Some insightful and honest opinions about some of the major questions about the future of biofuels. Def worth the 5 min read.. http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/12/13/15-burning-questions-and-answers-for-biofuels-in-2013/

September 28, 2012

+

5:37 PM | policy: is RFS and CAFE going to crash into eachother?

ruh roh… Gevo might be in trouble…. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-24/gevo-shifting-production-to-ethanol-at-minnesota-biofuel-plant and perspectives on the future of the RFS…. I cut and paste the best sections below since that article is long and some of it is not that good.. http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/09/28/when-will-i-be-loved-supporters-of-the-us-renewable-fuel-standard-begin-to-rally/ At the … Continue reading →

August 27, 2012

+

2:55 PM | will suspending the ethanol mandate actually affect corn prices?

Two recent economic analyses support the conclusion that waiving or modifying policy that encourages ethanol production from corn would have little impact on corn prices. There have been calls to waive or modify the RFS due to the massive drought … Continue reading →

August 14, 2012

+

4:47 PM | Are blenders really paying $6.8 million fines for fuel that doesn’t exist?

In the last couple weeks I’ve seen several claims that fuel refiners are paying $6.8 million fines for “blending nonexistent cellulosic fuel”, and even filing a lawsuit against the EPA for this! Before I present all the details, I’ll get … Continue reading →

August 06, 2012

+

5:36 PM | bioenergy companies flip strategies to lure investors

In what seems to be the beginning of a trend, some early stage bioenergy companies are shifting their focus and their feedstocks away from biomass and towards really really cheap natural gas (thanks to fracking). The first example was Sundrop … Continue reading →

February 01, 2012

+

4:31 PM | Paths to meeting 36 billion gallons of fuel by 2022

A hopeful perspective on how we might be able to meet the targets set in RFS2 by 2022 without building a ton of infrastructure: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/02/01/a-low-cost-low-risk-path-to-meeting-us-biofuels-targets/ What do you think? If we start producing all this biobutanol will the market become … Continue reading →