The 2015 survey provides snapshot of new crop quality for ethanol production. This story appears in the February issue of EPM.
Second-generation biofuel crops like the perennial grasses Miscanthus and switchgrass can efficiently meet emission reduction goals without significantly displacing cropland used for food production, according to a new study.
UNICA, the Brazilian sugarcane industry association, has announced that with the harvest season almost finished, the sugarcane crush in the south-central region reached approximately 594.08 million tons at the end of December.
The BioAg Alliance, Novozymes' and Monsanto's collaboration to improve crop harvests through naturally-occurring microbes, recently announced results from its 2015 field trial program. Those results included a corn inoculant product.
Soft corn markets should be strengthened some by USDA lowering its national average yield by 0.9 bushels to 168.4 bushels per acres. That brings the USDA estimates for 2015-'16 corn production down by 53 million bushels.
BBI International announced the agenda for the technical sessions of the 9th annual International Biomass Conference & Expo, North America's largest and fastest growing biomass conference, taking place April 11-14 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Global Bioenergies and LanzaTech announce the signature of a new collaboration agreement to broaden the feedstock flexibility of Global Bioenergies' Isobutene process and the product-portfolio of LanzaTech's carbon capture technology.
On Jan. 4, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service published the January edition of its Grain Crushing and Coproducts Production report, showing total corn consumed for alcohol and other uses was 484.5 million bushels in November.
California Ethanol & Power LLC (CE+P) recently announced the certification of the carbon intensity (CI) pathway for its anticipated sugarcane and sweet sorghum ethanol by the California's Air Resources Board.
Net profits in the first half of 2015 held up surprisingly well, writes University of Illinois economist Scott Irwin, and, at 10 cents per gallon, were more than twice the average net profit of 4 cents per gallon from 2007-'12.
In mid-December, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is seeking the democratic presidential nomination, introduced legislation that aims to enact long-term extensions of several clean energy tax credits that benefit the bioenergy and biofuel sectors.
The USDA's Commodity Credit Corp. has announced it does not expect to purchase sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program during the first quarter of this year. The program encourages the production of domestic biofuels from surplus sugar.
A six-year Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center study on the viability of different bioenergy feedstocks recently demonstrated that perennial cropping systems can yield as much biomass as corn stover.
In November, an international consortium led by Autodisplay Biotech GmbH started Pathway EFB, a collaborative research and development project to lower cellulase cost in the production of biofuels and biobased chemicals.
The National Corn Growers Association's Corn Board, action teams and committees recently convened in St. Louis to delve into the issues and opportunities that will impact corn farmers across the country during the coming year.
Outside markets have recently had a major impact corn prices. Currencies, energy prices, and Argentine policy changes have been in the spotlight over the past few months.
The USDA has released a list of its 2015 top achievements. The list includes several achievements that have benefited the biofuel and bioenergy sectors, including funding for ethanol fuel pumps and progress with the BioPreferred Program.
The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service has published a notice announcing its intention to request a revision and extension of a currently approved information collection for a residue and biomass field survey.
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced that it will be part of a major collaborative research project to improve sorghum's productivity under resource-limited conditions. The research is funded by the the U.S. Department of Energy.
On Dec. 18, President Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill and accompanying legislative package of tax extenders into law. The legislation includes two-year extensions of several tax credits that benefit the bioenergy sector.
Joule and HeidelbergCement have announced a partnership to explore application of Joule's technology to mitigate carbon emissions in cement manufacturing. The partnership could result colocation of Joule's technology at HeidelbergCement sites.
Chempolis Ltd. has entered into partnership with Avantha Group's research wing Avantha Centre for Industrial Research & Development to offer technology to India to extract ethanol from various agricultural residues.
Federal lawmakers have released the text of a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will fund the U.S. government through October 2016. An accompanying legislative package of tax extenders aims to extend certain bioenergy tax incentives for two years.
The University of Illinois has been awarded a 3-year, $5 million grant from the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy as part of its OPEN 2015 funding initiative. The research team intends to increase the water use efficiency of sorghum.
UNICA, Brazil's sugarcane industry association, has announced rains slowed the pace of the sugarcane crush during the second half of November. The association also reported reduced demand for hydrous ethanol.
DuPont and The Dow Chemical Co. have announced plans to combine in an all-stock merger of equals into DowDuPont. The parties intend to subsequently pursue a separation of DowDuPont into three independent, publicly traded companies.
Russ Jessup, an AgriLife Research perennial grass breeder in College Station, said he is introducing a new biofuel-biomass feedstock that is a hybrid "similar to seedless watermelons, seedless grapes and other sterile triploid crops."
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has announced a genetically engineered corn developed by Monsanto for increased ear biomass is no longer considered a regulated article under certain APHIS regulations.
USDA made small changes to its corn supply and demand projections in its last monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report for the calendar year, mostly due to ethanol.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently published a patent application (U.S. 2015/0329449) from the Iowa Corn Promotion Board for a production method using corn in the industrial manufacturing of a raw material called monoethylene glycol (MEG).
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