Ethanol Week - October 24, 2016

White House OMB reviews 2017 RFS rule On Oct. 19, the U.S. EPA delivered its proposed rule to set renewable fuel standard (RFS) volume standards for 2017 and biobased diesel standards for 2018 to the White House Office of Management and Budget. READ MORE SHARE
Biofuels finance conference meets in Minneapolis There is some optimism for the biofuels industry in the nation’s capital, in spite of the current election environment, attendees of the Christianson Biofuels Finance Conference learned in Minneapolis on Oct. 18. READ MORE SHARE
	USGC: Ethanol, DDGS exports up during the 2015-’16 marketing year The U.S. Grains Council has announced U.S. feed grains in all forms during the 2015-’16 marketing year reached 100.5 million metric tons (3.96 billion bushels), up more than 300,000 metric tons from the previous marketing year. READ MORE SHARE
Studies on extinguishing ethanol tank fires refines foam methods Researchers working on the Etankfire project have completed a number of tests aimed at developing firefighting tactics for large ethanol tank fires. The research has been led by Henry Persson from the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden. READ MORE SHARE
USDA solicits REAP applications On Oct. 18, the USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service announced it is accepting applications for the Rural Energy for America Program, which can help agricultural producers and rural small businesses install renewable energy systems. READ MORE SHARE
BIO asks Congress to extend biofuel tax incentives On Oct. 18, the Biotechnology Industry Organization sent a letter to several congressional leaders calling for the extension of renewable energy tax credits that are currently set to expire at the end of the year. READ MORE SHARE
CropEnergies reports increased ethanol production volumes CropEnergies AG has announced ethanol production increased during the first half of the 2016-’17 financial year, reaching 450,000 cubic meters (118.88 million gallons), up from 422,000 cubic meters during the same period of prior year. READ MORE SHARE
Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol. READ MORE SHARE
RFA: Record corn harvest sets tone for Export Exchange With U.S. farmers anticipating a record corn harvest and U.S. ethanol producers expecting record production of animal feed co-products, the timing could not be better for Export Exchange 2016, scheduled for next week in Detroit. READ MORE SHARE
RFA, RFF to offer National Ethanol Conference scholarships For the eighth year, the Renewable Fuels Association is partnering with the Renewable Fuels Foundation to offer scholarships to students who are interested in attending the National Ethanol Conference, scheduled for Feb. 20–22, 2017 in San Diego. READ MORE SHARE
Researchers develop instrumentation to study plant cell walls Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory will be developing new instrumentation aimed at determining the chemical and structural makeup of plant cell walls to better understand how to convert plant material into bioenergy. READ MORE SHARE
NHREG High School students visit Guardian Energy Thirty-five students from NRHEG (New Richland, Hartland, Ellendale, Geneva) High School recently visited Guardian Energy to gain a better understanding of clean Minnesota-produced renewable energy. READ MORE SHARE
UAI: EPA emails show oil industry helped design test fuels The Urban Air Initiative has discovered that the U.S. EPA relied heavily on the oil industry to help design test fuels used for the EPAct Study, which erroneously shows that blending ethanol into gasoline increases pollution. READ MORE SHARE
ORNL researchers unravel the science behind biomass breakdown Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered the chemical details behind the process to more easily deconstruct biomass in order to more easily produce biobased fuels and chemicals. READ MORE SHARE
RFA: Data show the so-called “blend wall” is crumbling Gasoline supplied to the U.S. market last week contained an average of 10.4 percent ethanol, according to data U.S. Energy Information Administration data. It was the second time in the last four weeks that the ethanol blend rate topped 10 percent. READ MORE SHARE
‘Super yeast’ has the power to improve economics of biofuels Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. READ MORE SHARE
RFA hosting ethanol safety seminars in Ocala, Florida The Renewable Fuels Association is hosting free ethanol safety seminars in Ocala, Florida. The Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 seminars at Florida State Fire College will be each held from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. ET. Certificates of completion will given to attendees. READ MORE SHARE
NCBiotech awarded grant for sorghum initiative The North Carolina Biotechnology Center, aided by a $1.87 million federal grant, has embarked on a three-year project to study the production of sorghum as biomass for fuel and high-value chemicals in the Mid-Atlantic region. READ MORE SHARE