Rubber And Ethanol From Dandelion?

This is a pretty interesting story. A company called Delta Plant Technologies has been working to develop natural rubber from dandelion roots.

DPT has worked with Ohio State University Agricultural Research and Development Center the past few years to develop an alternative source of natural rubber from the root of the Russian dandelion plant Taraxacum kok-saghyz, which is native to the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The plans are to develop the process and standardize the product for possible uses in the tire industry. And they have received a $3 million grant to further their progress and to build a pilot plant.

This to me is certainly interesting as it would help to lower our petroleum consumption since according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association it takes about 7 gallons of crude oil to produce each automotive tire. But also very interesting is the fact that ethanol can also be produced from the dandelion roots.

McGee said the plan is to plant 1 million dandelion plants per acre, which will generate about 1 ton of rubber per acre. Likewise, an acre will yield about 245 gallons of ethanol.

I never would have thought that such a pesky plant could possibly provide solutions to our energy problems and petroleum dependence.

Source : Ashland Times-Gazette

Missouri Ethanol Plant To Use Landfill Gas

Mid-Missouri Energy is a 100% farmer owned cooperative located in Malta Bend, Missouri and operates a 40 million gallon per year ethanol plant. Through a deal struck with the Shawnee landfill, they will use landfill gas to power their ethanol production, offsetting more than 90% of their natural gas needs.

Source : Kansas City Business Journal

May Ethanol Production Climbs Higher

May ethanol production continued it's upward trajectory with an increase to 778,806,000 gallons. Production fell just short of 600,000 barrels per day ending up at 598,000 barrels per day.

May 2008 - 778,806,000 gallons
April 2008 - 708,456,000 gallons
March 2008 - 730,674,000 gallons
February 2008 - 631,050,000 gallons
January 2008 - 664,356,000 gallons
December 2007 - 636,762,000 gallons
November 2007 - 602,592,000 gallons
October 2007 - 588,756,000 gallons

January 2007 - 488,082,000 gallons

Source: - Energy Information Administration

Record Sized Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone Fails To Appear

For at least the second year in a row the predictions of a record sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico have failed to appear.

Researchers were predicting that the dead zone would measure 8,800 square miles this year and many articles proclaimed that the sure to be record was because of increased ethanol production. The results released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show that the dead zone measured 7,988 square miles, well below the prediction and the record of 8,500 square miles set in 2002.

Source : NOAA

What's Driving Food Prices?

The Farm Foundation published a study titled "What's Driving Food Prices?" earlier this week. The study was conducted by Purdue University economists Wallace Tyner, Christopher Hurt and Philip Abbott.

As with other recent studies, the authors found that a variety of reasons were behind recent food price increases.

Why have commodity prices gone up so much? In the debate surrounding this question some have singled out one or two factors as the primary drivers of food price increases. The real and much more complex answer involves economic growth, international trade, currency markets, oil prices, government policies and bad weather.

In other words no one factor can be blamed for all food price increases. But as we know some have tried to blame biofuels production for all food price increases. The study points to oil prices for the rise in biofuels popularity.

Crude oil’s strongest and most direct impact on food prices has been through its effect on the demand for biofuels. Policies, including subsidies and mandates, in the United States and European Union led to the development of the biofuels industry and its growing demand for corn and vegetable oils. In the last four years, most of the growing global demand for corn has come from its increased use for ethanol production. The ethanol blender credit, tariff and Renewable Fuel Standard are factors causing increased corn price, but quantitatively most of the increase has been driven by higher oil prices.

Overall the study seems well balanced and very comprehensive.

Renew Fuel Station Sells One Millionth Gallon of E85

Wisconsin Leads the Way in Biofuel Consumption
7/23/2008

Renew Fuel Station Sells One Millionth Gallon of E85

MILWAUKEE – Last week, the Renew Fuel Station in Howard, Wisconsin became the second station to sell one million gallons of E85, a fuel containing 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Renew has offered E85 at its Howard station since it first opened in February 2006.

“This milestone shows that Wisconsin is leading the way with biofuel consumption,” said Joshua Morby, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance. “We are proud that this is the second time that a Renew station has sold one million gallons of E85, a clean, renewable fuel that will help improve our environment, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and build our economy.”

Complete story

Utica Energy is leading the way with responsible ethanol pricing. They are one of only a handful of companies that are blending and marketing their own ethanol fuels.

Renew Homepage

Time For Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone Predictions

About this time every year the predictions for the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone are made. This year they are predicting a record large dead zone. And just like last year they blamed what was predicted to be a record large dead zone on ethanol.

This year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to be the largest on record and growing U.S. corn production is a primary cause of the worsening conditions, federal and state scientists said Tuesday. (Source)

This year they are predicting the dead zone to equal 8,800 square miles which is larger than the record of 8,500 square miles recorded in 2002.

Last year the experts were predicting that the dead zone would measure 8,543 square miles, a new record and claimed that it would reach this new record because of increased ethanol production. They were wrong it ended up measuring 7,900 square miles.

So the record was set in 2002 when ethanol production totaled 2.13 billion gallons. Last year when 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol were produced the predicted record sized dead zone failed to appear.

But one good prediction deserves another and I am predicting that if this year's dead zone isn't a record there won't be any media coverage to speak of telling us all that the prediction was wrong. Instead everyone will be left with the impression that the dead zone just keeps growing and that it is all because of ethanol.

Gov. Perry's Links To Pilgrims Pride Deepen

The Houston Chronicle is reporting today that in addition to the $100,000 donation that Lonnie Pilgrim, CEO of Pilgrims Pride, made to the Republican Governors Association that Texas Governor Rick Perry chairs, Pilgrim also paid for airfare for Perry and three aides to attend a news conference promoting the waiver request from federal ethanol mandates. The news conference was set up by the PR firm that represents Pilgrims Pride.

Pilgrim also made a $25,000 donation to Perry's political committee about a month after the waiver request was made.

Source : Houston Chronicle

Biodiesel Next Smear Campaign Target

Starting next year the Renewable Fuels Standard requires petroleum retailers to blend 500 million gallons of biodiesel into the fuel supply. And the same groups going after ethanol are gearing up to fight the biodiesel mandate as well.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which has been leading a lobbying campaign against ethanol, has commissioned a study on the economic impact of the biodiesel mandate. Vegetable oils used to make biodiesel are key ingredients in a wide variety of processed foods, including salad dressing, crackers, bread and soup. - Source

Most biodiesel in this country is made from soybean oil. Soybeans are about 20% oil and 80% meal. Soy meal is a high protein food component normally used as livestock feed. So if the demand for soybean oil from biodiesel production causes more soybeans to be grown, more food becomes available in the form of more soy meal.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Plans To Close Six Large Refineries Under Way

This is the first year in recent memory that high gasoline prices aren't being blamed on limited refinery capacity. In years past gasoline demand was higher than the amount of gasoline that refineries could put out especially during the summer driving season. This limited refinery capacity helped to boost gasoline prices and allowed refiners to run higher margins.

According to the EIA the refinery margin for gasoline in May 2008 was 10%. Compare that to 27.9% for May 2007 and 21.9% for May 2006.

As you can see limited refinery capacity helped push up prices in the past and now the opposite is true. Refinery margins are down and have been below historical standards for some time.

It is easy to see why the oil companies and refiners would want to lower the amount of fuel on the market. And closing the equivalent of six large refineries would certainly help boost refinery margins and gasoline prices.

This would be a good move for the oil companies, but bad for consumers.

But the situation is more complicated than some oil company executive deciding to close down some refineries. Instead to be able to close these refineries they need your help to do it. That is because these refineries aren't oil refineries and don't produce gasoline, instead they produce ethanol.

The price of oil rose more than 100% during the past year, but gasoline is up less than 50%, with refiners absorbing the difference in the form of lower margins. The addition of ethanol into the fuel supply has contributed to weak gasoline margins. Mandated ethanol use in the U.S. is now almost 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is about 6% of gasoline demand or the equivalent of about six large refineries' gasoline output. (Source)

If the attacks on ethanol succeed in limiting ethanol production you can bet that we will miss it's contribution in lowering gasoline prices.

OPEC President Predicts Oil Prices Will Go Higher

Chakib Khelil, president of OPEC predicted that oil prices will continue to rise.

'The price of oil will rise again in the coming weeks.

And he should probably know whether or not oil prices are going to rise. Looking at the oil market chronology, every time the price of oil starts to decline OPEC lowers production and sends prices skyward again.

But he contends that OPEC supply isn't the cause of high oil prices but instead blames it on factors outside of OPEC's control.

'I believe 60 percent of the rise in the oil prices is due to the fall in the exchange rate of the dollar and to geopolitical problems, and 40 percent to the intrusion of bio ethanol on the market,' he said.

I find his choice of words curious. It sounds like he is trying to say that this is their market and how dare ethanol intrude on their market.

But I really can't see any logical reason as to how ethanol could cause a rise in oil prices. Actually the opposite should be true since increased ethanol production means that less petroleum is needed lowering demand.

Of course he could be trying to say that the 40% is a punishment for trying to lower our dependence on petroleum through the production of ethanol.

Either way I figure that anything that intrudes on OPEC's market is a good thing.

Gov. Perry : Will Fight Ethanol For Food Money

The Houston Chronicle is reporting today a connection between the waiver to the Renewable Fuels Standard files by Texas Governor Rick Perry and a $100,000 donation by Pilgrims Pride.

Gov. Rick Perry's request for a waiver of federal corn-based ethanol production mandates was prompted by a March meeting he had with East Texas poultry producer Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, who six days later gave $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association chaired by Perry.

In the three weeks following that donation, Perry's staff began preparing to submit the renewable fuel standards waiver request to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, according to 596 pages of records obtained from the governor's office by the Houston Chronicle under the Texas Public Information Act.

The case is further strengthened by the fact that the Governor's office coordinated with a public relations firm representing Pilgrims Pride.

Perry's staff coordinated preparation of the waiver request with Pilgrim's Pride lobbyist Gaylor Hughey of Tyler and Cliff Angelo with Public Strategies, the firm handling a public relations campaign against ethanol for Pilgrim's Pride and a coalition of meat producers.

Talking points prepared for Pilgrim's appearance before the Republican governors were almost identical to ones Public Strategies gave reporters in advance of a June 24 news conference the firm organized for Perry at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

It is not often that a company is able to hire a spokesman that is able to petition the EPA.

April Ethanol Production Continues To Increase

April ethanol production continues to increase reaching 562,000 barrels per day compared to 561,000 barrels per day in March. The total for the month ended up lower since April has only 30 days compared to 31 in March.

April 2008 - 708,456,000 gallons
March 2008 - 730,674,000 gallons
February 2008 - 631,050,000 gallons
January 2008 - 664,356,000 gallons
December 2007 - 636,762,000 gallons
November 2007 - 602,592,000 gallons
October 2007 - 588,756,000 gallons

January 2007 - 488,082,000 gallons

Source: - Energy Information Administration

The Number Of E85 Stations Top 1600

The number of stations across the country selling E85 topped 1600 for the first time in June, reaching 1627 by months end. For the month 48 new location were added.

July 1, 2008 - 1627
June 1, 2008 - 1579
May 1, 2008 - 1560
April 1, 2008 - 1521
March 1, 2008 - 1501
February 1, 2008 - 1475
November 9, 2007 - 1378
May 7, 2007 - 1200

The current number plus the locations of all E85 stations can be found at the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.