Ethanol. Right. Now.

Letter to EPA: E15 for all vehicles, proper labeling, consumer choice

Brian Jennings, the American Coalition for Ethanol's Executive Vice President, wrote to U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on 12/16/09 -- here are some key excerpts from the letter:

“While ACE strongly preferred that EPA would have announced approval of the use of E15 in all motor vehicles on December 1, we also recognize the Agency was under extraordinary pressure from special interests that oppose biofuels to reject the waiver outright. In the letter dated November 30 explaining EPA’s decision, we are very gratified that the Agency refuted these critics of ethanol, affirming ACE’s long-held position, saying that ‘it is clear that ethanol will need to be blended into gasoline at levels greater than the current limit of 10 percent.’  This statement and others contained in your response encourage us that the approval of up to E15 is inevitable – a matter of when, not if.”

“If EPA approves the use of E15 in newer vehicles by mid-year 2010, it will be a step in the right direction, but ACE will continue to note that the data supports the use of E15 in all vehicles. It has been pointed out that the data available to date does not contain any ‘showstoppers’ regarding the use of E15 in vehicles older than the 2001 model year. Surely we can all agree that if the data supports the use of E15 in all vehicle engines, than dividing the vehicle fleet will only cause unnecessary confusion for motorists and complications for petroleum marketers."

“It is ACE’s strong contention that E15 should not be the highest and final mid-level blend of ethanol permitted to be used in the motor fuel supply,” ACE stated.  “Ultimately we need to provide a range of choices for consumers.  Lurching from the E10 blend wall to the E15 blend wall to the next blend wall is unintelligent and unsustainable.  Instead, ACE advocates for consumers to be able to use E10, E15, E20, E30, E85 or ‘ethanol-free’ gasoline, and we believe that when consumers are finally given these meaningful choices through blender pumps, they will select the fuel that works best in their vehicles.”

Read the full ACE letter here

What does the EPA announcement on E15 mean for ethanol?

From Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE)

On December 1, the U.S. EPA announced its plan to take more time to study the data concerning our industry’s E15 waiver request, and to prepare for a final decision around June of this year.ACE views this as a “glass half-full” circumstance.  We would have strongly preferred that EPA approve the use of E15 in all cars now, yet we recognize the Agency was under pressure from special interests to reject the waiver. 

It is inescapable – approval of E15 is certain this year, and three encouraging details in EPA’s announcement give us clues to the direction they are heading.

First, in the letter explaining its decision EPA acknowledged “it is clear that ethanol will need to be blended into gasoline at levels greater than the current limit of 10 percent.”  They don’t simply mean E85; EPA recognizes for the first time that midlevel blends are necessary.

Second, EPA indicates that “our engineering assessment to date indicates that the fuel, engine, and emission control systems on newer vehicles (2001 and newer model years) will likely be able to accommodate higher ethanol blends such as E15.”  EPA cannot gracefully backpedal from a statement like that.

Finally, EPA announced plans to establish a working group, which ACE will participate in, to address retail labeling issues.  Again, this signals that EPA recognizes that E15 and other midlevel blends are bound to happen so they want to prepare retailers and consumers for the eventuality.

Between now and mid-year EPA plans to examine the catalyst durability data in a dozen cars and they indicate that based on the results of that data, the Agency may be in a position to approve E15 for newer cars (2001 or newer) by June.  This is directionally encouraging, but ACE will continue to make the case that the data supports the use of E15 in all vehicles, and we cannot be satisfied with E15 as the final move.

Further, it is ACE’s strong position that ultimately we need to shift the power to decide what fuels motorists use away from government agencies and oil companies and to the consumer.  We believe in maximum consumer choice to use E10, E15, E20, E30, E85, or “ethanol-free” gasoline, and ACE believes that when consumers are finally given these choices, they will select the ethanol-blended fuels that work best for them. 

That is why ACE will continue to work aggressively over the next several months to enact legislation introduced in the U.S. Senators Harkin (D-IA) and Lugar (R-IN) to provide incentives for the installation of blender pumps and to require the production of more FFVs.  Their legislation, S. 1627, the “Choice Act,” will be one of ACE’s top legislative priorities for 2010.  We encourage you to ask your Senators to cosponsor this bill.

EPA makes progress toward the approval of E15

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made an announcement today on the E15 waiver request, stating that it should be in a position by mid-2010 to approve E15 for vehicles model year 2001 and newer.

 

“While we would have strongly preferred that EPA approved E15 today for all vehicles, we’re pleased that progress is being made toward this goal,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE).  “We are confident that in the long run the data will demonstrate that E15 and higher ethanol blends such as E20 and E30 can effectively be used in all vehicles.”

 

ACE is the nation’s largest ethanol advocacy association with nearly 1500 grassroots members nationwide and was one of the ethanol groups to submit the original waiver request on March 6 of this year. 

 

The EPA letter stated, “it is clear that ethanol will need to be blended into gasoline at levels greater than the current limit of 10 percent.”  The full letter can be read here.

 

“EPA’s recognition that ethanol will need to be blended at levels greater than 10 percent is significant,” said Lars Herseth, President of ACE.  “We look forward to the approval for E15 being granted mid-year, and we fully expect the testing to support the use of E15 and even higher blends in all passenger vehicles on America’s roads today.”

 

The EPA letter stated: “Although all of the studies have not been completed, our engineering assessment to date indicates that the robust fuel, engine, and emissions control systems on newer vehicles (likely 2001 and newer model years) will likely be able to accommodate higher ethanol blends, such as E15.”

 

EPA said it is waiting for the full results of long-term testing by the U.S. Department of Energy on 19 vehicles, and although these tests are not expected to be done until August 2010, the agency expects to have a “significant amount” of the total data by mid-June.  “Should the test results remain supportive and provide the necessary basis, we would be in a position to approve E15 for 2001 and newer vehicles in the mid-year timeframe,” EPA stated.

 

EPA says it will be creating a working group to address the issues of fuel pump labeling, and ACE will be in contact with the agency to participate in this process.

 

“ACE has worked with America’s petroleum marketers for a decade to answering their questions about offering ethanol blends, and we look forward to working with EPA to help implement the use of E15 at gas stations nationwide.  The Blend Your Own Ethanol campaign is a perfect fit to help carry out this change,” said Ron Lamberty, Vice President / Market Development for ACE.

 

ACE’s market development program has worked with petroleum marketers for 10 years, and in August the “Blend Your Own Ethanol” (BYO) campaign was launched as a partnership between ACE, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and leading corn-producing states.  “BYO” works to show gas station owners the benefits of blending ethanol and of using blender pumps, a single pump that uses two underground tanks to blend fuels from E10 to E85 and anything in between.

  

“EPA has acknowledged that we need to use higher ethanol blends, yet given EPA’s delay of the decision on E15, it is more important than ever that Congress enacts the Harkin-Lugar ‘Choice Act,’ S. 1627, which promotes flexible fuel vehicles, blender pumps, and ways for fuel retailers to economically add more options for their customers,” Jennings said.  “Ultimately we need to shift the power to decide what fuels motorists use away from government agencies and oil companies and to consumers.  We support maximum consumer choice for motorists to use E10, E15, E20, E30, E85, or ethanol-free gasoline, and we believe that when consumers are finally given these meaningful choices they will select the ethanol-blended fuels that work best in their vehicles.  Senate Bill 1627 will be one of ACE’s top legislative priorities for 2010.”

 

ACE will sponsor a grassroots “fly-in” to Washington, DC in March to lobby Congress to support the “Choice Act” legislation for blender pumps and FFVs and extension of tax credits for ethanol.  More details will be provided soon on the opportunities to participate in the grassroots “fly-in.”

 

ACE has researched the issue of higher blends for several years, data which was included in the E15 waiver request.  In 2006 a fuel economy study of blends between unleaded and E30 was conducted, plus the tear-down of a non-flex-fuel Chevrolet Tahoe that drove 100,000 miles almost exclusively on E85. In December 2007, ACE was the first biofuels advocacy group to bring the issue of midlevel blends to Capitol Hill with the unveiling of its “Optimal Blends” study which showed the potential of blends beyond E10 in standard vehicles and served as a catalyst for further study.  Just days before the E15 waiver request was filed in March, ACE brought 30 of its grassroots members to DC for a "fly-in" and met with Members of Congress and EPA Administrator Jackson to communicate the importance of moving beyond the E10 “blend wall.”  Nearly 7,000 people signed ACE’s pro-E15 petition, signatures which were submitted to EPA during the public comment period. 

 

ACE members include farmers, ethanol producers, industry suppliers, rural electric co-ops, the agriculture community, and others supportive of ethanol.  Learn more about ACE at www.ethanol.org or about the BYOethanol campaign at www.byoethanol.com.

Flex-fuel SUV vs. gas-electric hybrid: the surprising oil comparison

In any conversation about efficiency or energy consumption, few would believe that a sport utility vehicle could be considered superior to a gas-electric hybrid car.  If your goal is to burn less oil, however, you should choose the SUV – specifically a flex-fuel model running on E85.

To travel a year’s worth of miles, a Prius, for example, may consume 300 gallons of gasoline (15,000 miles @ 50 mpg).  To travel that same year’s worth of miles, a Tahoe, for example, may consume 1000 gallons of fuel (15,000 miles @ 15 mpg) – but if the SUV runs on E85 for those miles, it consumes only 150 gallons of actual gasoline (15% of the fuel is gasoline, 85% is renewable ethanol).  The hybrid car in this example consumes twice as much oil as the ethanol-powered SUV.

The future will likely hold a variety of ways for all of us energy-consumers to cut our fossil fuel habit, but here is an important point that often gets overlooked – ethanol is here today as a clean replacement for gasoline from petroleum, and higher ethanol blends like E85 are the fastest way to slash the oil consumption in your daily driving.  

NREL tests higher ethanol blends: "Cars don't seem to mind"

A sub-heading in a news report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) sums up recent testing there on blends of ethanol beyond 10 percent -- the cars don't seem to mind.  

The vehicles used in the lab's tests on E15 and E20 represent a cross-section of cars currently in use, 16 vehicles ranging from model years 1999 through 2007 with odometers reading from 10,000 to 100,000 miles.

"So far nothing has jumped out at us and vehicles don't show a significant impact with ethanol blends of 15 and 20 percent," said Keith Knoll, senior project leader for NREL's Fuels Performance Group.

Testing shows that as ethanol content increases, tailpipe emissions stayed largely the same, with carbon monoxide emissions declining for all of the ethanol blends.

The article states that, generally, the tests have shown no big surprises or short-term effects when using greater blends of ethanol in existing cars.

The full article is available at this link: http://www.nrel.gov/features/20090918_ethanol.html

Brazil's sugarcane industry rep speaks at ACE ethanol conference

Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in North America for Brazil's sugarcane industry association (UNICA), told ACE conference attendees that the U.S. and Brazil agree on 99 percent of things.  "We believe in the power of farmers and agriculture to solve many of these problems," Velasco said. 

Forty-six percent of Brazil's total energy use is considered renewable, he noted, and sugarcane makes up about 16 percent of the country's entire energy matrix.  Thanks to co-generation at the mills from burning the bagasse, sugarcane makes 3 percent of the country's electricity demand - and that may climb to 10 percent in the near future.  They don't have distillers grain to sell, but they have electricity to make, Velasco said.

Half a billion tons of cane were grown last harvest, making 7 billion gallons of ethanol.  This equals 31 billion metric tons of sugar.  Brazil's sugar output for food is up by 20 percent, responding mainly to India's shortfall in sugar production.  Velasco noted that India has shunned biofuels and now is short on sugar for food.

"There is no correlation between deforestation - it exists in Brazil, and it's a tragedy - but it has nothing to do with growing cane in Brazil or growing corn here in the U.S.," Velasco said.

In Brazil, the "gasoline" is actually E25.  Ethanol competes with gasoline and keeps gas prices in check.  "Gasoline in Brazil is now the alternative fuel," he said.

"The flex-fuel car has been very, very successful in Brazil," Velasco said, noting that General Motors does not offer a single car in Brazil that's not flex fuel today.  The Honda Civic can run on pure ethanol and meet all emissions standards in Brazil, the U.S., and in Europe.

Velasco says that Brazil supports the move to E15 in the U.S.  In UNICA's official comments to the U.S. EPA, they noted that throughout all of Brazil's many fuel changes over the years with different blends of ethanol, there were very, very few incidents with engines.  "We believe the technology is all there," he said, noting that if they could do it with 1970s automotive technology, it's probably ok today. 

Leading ethanol companies are making cellulosic ethanol happen today

Three leading companies spoke at the ACE Ethanol Conference during a panel discussion on cellulosic ethanol.  Range Fuels was represented by Bill Schafer, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Government Affairs.

Range Fuels was formed in July 2006 by Khosla Ventures and broke ground in November 2007 at its cellulosic ethanol facility in Soperton, Georgia.  This month, the company expects to be 50 percent done with construction. Construction is expected to be complete during the first quarter of next year, and they will be producing cellulosic ethanol at a commercial scale in 2010.

The Soperton facility is permitted to up to 100 million gallons of ethanol per year.  Range Fuels' technology converts the biomass into syntehsis gas, and in phase two the gas is cleaned up and converted into ethanol.  They also have a module for the co-generation of power, which Schafer noted has a pretty dramatic impact on your lifecycle GHG emissions.

Range Fuels uses a thermochemical process rather than a biochemical process because it's more flexible on feedstocks, yields are better because there's no lignin separation, and it presents a lot of product options because of the syngas.  Range Fuels is using wood as its source of biomass, a commodity they believe offers superior price stability.  Their location is in the middle of the timber belt and study as shown it is a good location because it will have minimal impact on existing indutries and supplies.  In phase 1 the company will use pulpwood and mill residuals, in phase two pre-commercial thinnings and in-forest residue, and eventually in phase 3 herbaceous energy crops.

"There are a lot of moving parts out there and it's difficult to get that legislative clarity today that we'd like to get, but what isn't in doubt is that there's a huge push behind this," Schafer said.  "The benefits that can be realized through this industry are in high demand."

Doug Berven, Director of Corporate Affairs for POET, spoke about his company's efforts to integrate cellulosic technologies with existing corn-based technologies. 

"We've been making excellent progress," Berven said.  "We're very excited about the future of cellulosic biomass."

This year POET is planning 25,000 acres of corn cob harvest to meet the needs of Project Liberty, its cellulosic biorefinery being added to its existing corn-based ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.  They are working with ag equipment companies and with farmers on adding cob collection to the farmers' annual corn harvest.  This year four cob harvesting methods will be unveiled.  Next year 100,000 acres and 70,000 tons of cobs will be collected.

POET is producing cellulosic ethanol today at its pilot plant in Scotland, South Dakota.  By June of this year they report achieving a five-fold reduction in enzyme cost, putting the current total process cost at one dollar per gallon greater than that of the company's corn-based ethanol.

"The thing that stands in the way more than anything else is market development," Berven said.  "We are in total agreement with what Brian (Jennings) said the other day that blender pumps are the future in this country.  The blend wall is holding up potential investment in cellulosic ethanol."

TMO Renewables Inc. of the United Kingdom was represented by Associate Director of Engineering Jason Robinson.  The company has designed and built the UK's first demonstration facility for cellulosic ethanol and aims to license its technology and process to the U.S. market.  TMO's platform is a flexible and scalable industrial system, low energy costs, low enzyme requirements, short process times (hours, not days), and an operational demo facility with a fully integrated process.

TMO's demonstration plant has been operational since June 2008, and it's fully staffed running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"You can't just offer the industry a tin can of organisms or a portion of the process.  You really need to offer the client a fully integrated process," Robinson said.

They report having achieved a higher amount of dry solids, which translates into much lower energy costs.  TMO's process can fully utilize the biomass' sugars in less than 8 hours, unlike the 50-70 hours common in other processes.  The organism they use for conversion is "thermophilic" - it likes heat - and can convert the biomass to sugar quickly without contamination issues.  Also, no antiobiotics are added to the process.

Robinson says the company is looking at "captive" feedstocks like distillers grain or corn fiber, which can take harvesting and all the transportation issues out of the mix. 

 

ACE, RFA, Corn Growers announce national blender pump campaign

Today the American Coalition for Ethanol, the Renewable Fuels Association, and leading corn-producing states announced an innovative, unprecedented "Blend Your Own Ethanol" campaign uniting the resources and expertise of the groups in an effort to seed 5,000 blender pumps nationwide in three years.

 

In a press conference this afternoon, Ron Lamberty (ACE Vice President / Market Development), Robert White (RFA Market Development Director), and Darrin Ihnen (National Corn Growers Association First Vice President and farmer from Hurley, South Dakota) spoke on the importance of educating America’s petroleum marketers on the opportunities of retailing ethanol through blender pumps.

 

Lamberty emphasized that the “BYOethanol” campaign will provide petroleum marketers with the facts on how blender pumps are an excellent business strategy – station owners can be ready for future fuel blends while giving their customers more choices at the pump today.  White explained how the campaign will use an expanded Web presence and interactive features, a new and informative magazine, educational opportunities at petroleum marketer events, and more.

 

According to Ihnen, growing blender pump infrastructure benefits motorists, petroleum marketers, and corn growers as growing efficiencies in corn production provide for greater opportunities to supply a growing network of ethanol producers and consumers.  Ihnen said that the "corn growers are proud to be part of this campaign" that unites the "true expertise of ACE and RFA."

 

Read the full press release here: http://www.ethanol.org/pdf/contentmgmt/BYOethanol_final_press_release_8112009.pdf

Americans back to spending $1 billion a day on gasoline

One billion dollars a day is an astronomical figure -- and it's the amount Americans are spending every single day to gas up their vehicles.  Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told the New York Times recently ("High Gas Prices Could Slow Recovery") that in January, consumers were spending about $600 million per day on fuel for their vehicles, but now that figure is back up to around $1 billion per day.  The article says, "The national jump in prices, far larger than the normal seasonal increase, is pulling billions of dollars from the pockets of drivers. It threatens to curtail a modest recovery in consumer spending on items like apparel and electronics."

Oil and gasoline prices are on the way back up, and this underscores the importance of having a cost-effective alternative like ethanol.  For example, the Nebraska Ethanol Board recently did an analysis that showed Nebraska drivers have already saved more than $4.5 million this year by choosing E10 at the pump.  And, they say, if all the fuel sold in the state in the past five years was E85, Nebraskans would have saved $2.6 billion. 

Let's not spend $1 billion a day on a non-renewable, often imported fuel.  Ethanol is a cost-effective, homegrown alternative that can keep money circulating in our nation's economy and give it the boost that it needs.  The EPA allowing up to 15 percent ethanol per gallon would be a good start.

E15 petition gathers more than 5,500 signatures from all 50 states

The American Coalition for Ethanol is hosting a petition on its website, Ethanol.org, for those in favor of the EPA approving up to 15 percent ethanol per gallon of gasoline.  In just over a month's time, the petition has gathered more than 5,500 signatures, with all 50 states and 3 countries represented on the list. You can view or sign the petition at www.ethanol.org/petition. 

On March 6, the ethanol industry brought a formal waiver request to the Environmental Protection Agency, asking for an allowance for up to 15 percent ethanol per gallon of gas.  Since the 1970s, the amount of ethanol for standard (non-flex-fuel) vehicles has been capped at 10 percent.