Panda sells Hereford ethanol plant

Panda Ethanol's Hereford facility which filed for bankruptcy in January, has been sold for $25 million to it's creditors. The plant is in the final stages of construction.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas-Dallas Division finalized the sale of the plant to senior lenders of the company for $25 million in credit.

The sale price represents about 12% of the cost to construct the plant.

Source : Amarillo.com

American Coalition For Ethanol's E15 Petition

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) has set up an online petition to show support for raising the ethanol content in gasoline to 15%.

A waiver is being considered at the U.S. EPA to allow up to 15 percent ethanol per gallon of gasoline, raising the now 30-year-old limit on having only 10 percent ethanol per gallon. ACE wants to gather as many signatures as possible to demonstrate to Congress, the White House, EPA, and the media that Americans want more ethanol.

Please help demonstrate America's grassroots support for ethanol by signing the petition today.

E15 Petition

Producing Ethanol And Cleaning Waste With Duckweed

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that a tiny aquatic plant can be used to clean up animal waste at industrial hog farms and potentially be part of the answer for the global energy crisis. Their research shows that growing duckweed on hog wastewater can produce five to six times more starch per acre than corn, according to researcher Dr. Jay Cheng. This means that ethanol production using duckweed could be "faster and cheaper than from corn," says fellow researcher Dr. Anne-Marie Stomp.

"We can kill two birds – biofuel production and wastewater treatment – with one stone – duckweed," Cheng says. Starch from duckweed can be readily converted into ethanol using the same facilities currently used for corn, Cheng adds.

Large-scale hog farms manage their animal waste by storing it in large "lagoons" for biological treatment. Duckweed utilizes the nutrients in the wastewater for growth, thus capturing these nutrients and preventing their release into the environment. In other words, Cheng says, "Duckweed could be an environmentally friendly, economically viable feedstock for ethanol."

Source : NCSU Press Release

Congressional Budget Office Studies Ethanol's Contribution To Last Years Food Price Increases

The Congressional Budget Office has just released a report on ethanol's contribution to last years food price increases.

CBO estimates that from April 2007 to April 2008, the rise in the price of corn resulting from expanded production of ethanol contributed between 0.5 and 0.8 percentage points of the 5.1 percent increase in food prices measured by the consumer price index (CPI). Over the same period, certain other factors—for example, higher energy costs—had a greater effect on food prices than did the use of ethanol as a motor fuel.

So they concluded that ethanol was responsible for 10 to 15 percent of the overall increase in food prices during the period studied. The other 85 to 90 percent of the overall increase came from other factors, such as increased energy costs, the strength of the dollar and increases global consumption of meat.

Source : The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions (PDF)

January Biodiesel Production Falls Sharply

January biodiesel production fell sharply to about 33.4 million gallons, the lowest monthly total since April 2007.

January 2009 - 33,394,510 gallons
December 2008 - 48,584,837 gallons
November 2008 - 62,218,170 gallons
October 2008 - 61,718,000 gallons
September 2008 - 64,134,000 gallons
August 2008 - 66,696,000 gallons
July 2008 - 67,410,000 gallons
June 2008 - 63,378,000 gallons
May 2008 - 52,500,000 gallons
April 2008 - 52,836,000 gallons
March 2008 - 49,056,000 gallons
February 2008 - 43,260,000 gallons
January 2008 - 50,736,000 gallons

2007 - 489,804,000 gallons

Source : U.S. Census Bureau