View Issue Contents

← Go Back

Issue cover
Date Published:
22 May 2019

Volume 13, Issue 3


Part of the climate solution

Feature
US ethanol industry plans for growing market share at home and abroad are up against some stiff political headwinds — from the uncertainty and export hurdles created by trade wars to mismanagement of our nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and thel ong-awaited anticipation over whether barriers will be lifted this summer to allow access to E15 blends with no strings attached,... [read more]

Setting standards

Feature
A critical element that supports the growth of the biofuels industry is the development of accurate fuel specifications, says Kristy Moore, advisor at industry association Growth Energy. These specifications – like water content, denaturants and so forth – are important to ethanol companies across the globe because they ensure the proper characteristics of the fuel to facilitate... [read more]

Federal policies impact the US biodiesel industry

Feature
For most of 2019, advocacy in the nation’s capital has been our association’s main focus, writes Donnell Rehagen, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board. Our top priority: the reinstatement of the biodiesel tax credit. The expiration of this tax incentive is leaving a feeling of uncertainty for biodiesel workers, producers and farmers nationwide, jeopardising our industry. If the tax... [read more]

Biofuel feedstocks Trumped

Feature
Biomass-based diesel has found its pricing fundamentals once again hostage to developments outside its control across the international markets, with US President Trump’s trade manoeuvering versus China once again the culprit. Ramped up tariff blockades between the US and China briefly sent vegetable oil prices careering towards their lowest levels in over a decade, before the appalling... [read more]

Steady course

Feature
Producer margins for soy methyl ester (SME) biodiesel at US plants continue to move sharply higher amid a bulging supply of feedstock, although spot SME biodiesel prices were easing in the US midway through the second quarter, due to abundant inventory following a very cold winter that kept a lid on sales growth. Brian Milne, editor and product manager at DTN, notes that US biodiesel... [read more]

US ethanol 'roller-coaster' faces a big year

Feature
There’s really no escaping international politics in the US at present, especially for businesses with softening domestic opportunities and that had been looking towards customers in China as a good way to keep sales and prices moving in the right direction. This is certainly the case for North America’s ethanol producers, who find themselves at the front line of US President Donald... [read more]

Special requirements

Feature
Numerous biodiesel production facilities have been built in Europe over the past few years and KSB has been a key supplier, having installed several thousand pumps. The different processes employed to produce biodiesel all involve transesterification of oils and fats. In principle, the overall process for the production of biodiesel can be divided into three stages: it takes place without any... [read more]

Fuelling a circular economy

Feature
Imagine giving your living room a makeover using a bright new coat of paint – made from rubbish. As countries around the world look for ways to transition from a linear economy to a circular economy, where we reduce, reuse and recycle, one innovative Canadian start-up has come up with a revolutionary idea: to develop and commercialise a disruptive technology that uses an abundant resource... [read more]

New technologies for biowaste valorisation

Feature
In order to support the most adequate management and valorisation routes of urban biowaste, the Biomass Department of the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain (CENER) is aligned with and supports the need to move towards a circular bioeconomy, in which society is capable of valorising the wastes produced in an integral and cascade way. CENER is currently involved in four ongoing R&D and... [read more]

The key to verification

Feature
Understanding the changes to California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) verification process is important for all ethanol and biodiesel producers, even if you do not currently sell fuels in California. Several other regions around the world are in various stages of planning to incorporate carbon impact scoring into their transportation fuels legislation. As a result, awareness of the LCFS... [read more]

An open door for innovation

Feature
What do enzymes do? Why do we need them? Enzymes can be defined as any of a group of complex proteins or conjugated proteins that are produced by living cells and act as catalysts in specific biochemical reactions. What exactly are enzymes? So enzymes, despite ‘doing things’ in our process, are not living organisms, but they do come from living things.

Scaling up production

Feature
Enzymatic hydrolysis of pre-treated lignocellulosic feedstocks is one of the most complex enzymatic processes applied on production scale today. It is not the conversion of a single, well-defined substrate into a single product by a single enzyme, but the hydrolysis of multiple and variable substrates (cellulose and hemicellulose interconnected with lignin, all present in lignocellulosic... [read more]

Automated tube bundle cleaning

Feature
As the importance of safety and production in the ethanol industry is being recognised, the need for automated tooling for cleaning is in high demand. The current process of cleaning ethanol evaporators, developed around high pressure water, relies on the worker to clean by hand. This creates an extreme environment for the worker.

Optimising fermentation

Feature
First-generation ethanol production has exhibited stable compounded annual growth for the last two decades, exemplified by the tenfold growth in production and fourfold expansion of production plants in the US, and primarily prompted by a sharp increase in oil prices during the first decade. By the middle of that decade, the world turned its attention towards cellulosic biofuels, due to... [read more]