Bioethanol News

The closure of a US ethanol plant in Minnesota is set to carry on until at least the end of the month. Heron Lake Bioenergy LLC announced that the facility in Huron Lake, Minnesota, will remain shut due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The company said it will re-evaluate the situation at the end of the month, which could result in the idling of the plant being extended. The steep fall in…
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced more details surrounding the application process for its higher blends Infrastructure Incentive Programme (HBIIP) that makes available $100 million (€91 million) in competitive grants. The grants are for activities designed to expand the sale and use of renewable fuels, $86 million (€78 million) of which is reserved for higher blends of…
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Clariant has announced that its first quarter operation sales of CHF1.02 billion (€964 million) were lower than the CHF1.16 billion (€1.1 billion) revenues in the same period of 2019. The company was confronted by a lower demand environment in the first quarter of 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a mild winter season. Efforts to minimise the impact of the pandemic were fully in place…
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The UK government has announced that 2,351 million litres of liquid biofuels were used in transport last year, which was an increase of 24% on the year before. In 2018, 1,899 million litres were consumed. The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTCO) put up the percentage of biofuel production for transport fuel produces from 7.25% in 2018 to 8.5% last year. According to the latest statistics…
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Copa and Cogeca have expressed their concerns about the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on the vegetable oils, biodiesel, rapeseed and ethanol sectors in a letter to the European Commission. Faced with falling European production and social distancing measures in the EU and worldwide due to the pandemic, protein-rich plant by-product markets risk entering into a phase of greater instability…
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BBI International has announced that the 2020 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo, the ethanol industry's largest conference, has been put back due to the global pandemic. Originally scheduled for mid-June in Minneapolis, the event is now rescheduled to take place on 24 August to 26 August in Omaha, Nebraska. Tom Bryan, president at BBI International, said: “Based on the most…
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Two more bioethanol plants in Iowa and Nebraska are to close as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit the biofuels industry. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor said the facilities will go offline as ‘ethanol production hits a record-breaking low, even as stockpiles hit a new record-breaking high’. She said: “The evaporation of fuel demand due to COVID-19 has been a knock-out blow to biofuel…
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The German Bioethanol Industry Association (BDBe) has released market data for the production and consumption of certified sustainable bioethanol for the last year. It revealed that German bioethanol production fell last year to 542,699 tonnes – which is 12.8% less than in the previous year. Sales of bioethanol were roughly the same with the previous year, with the market share of Super E10…
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering whether to let oil refineries stop adding ethanol to their fuels. Oil prices have been falling steadily amid a number of Trump administration efforts to ease financial pressure on the industry. Ethanol producers, however, say they have likewise been affected as its economy suffers due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the EPA,…
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The Biofuels International Conference and Expo that was due to take place in October has been moved to a the new date of 23 and 24 March next year due to the global pandemic. It is hoped that life and business will have returned to some sense of normality by the originally slated date, but there is no guarantee of this. Some organisations may still have travel restrictions on staff and a…
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Royal Dutch Shell has revealed the oil and gas sector’s extensive strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, stating its plans depended on its customers also mitigating emissions. Oil and gas producers have announced spending cuts as oil prices have hit 18-year lows and drastic restrictions on movement to slow the spread of the new coronavirus have destroyed…
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Worldwide soybean output is expected to increase to a record high, according to the International Grain Council (ICG). The ICG estimates another bumper crop in Brazil, a standard US crop and production increases in smaller soy-countries will assist the market in 2020/21. After the almost one-fifth decline in production in the past season, the IGC estimates a rebound in US soybean production for…
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European renewable ethanol producers have asked the European Commission to consider addressing challenges that have arisen from shifting market conditions as a result of the Covid-19 health crisis. In a letter sent to several Commissioners, ePURE (the European renewable ethanol association) highlighted the conditions facing the European industry as demand has shifted from fuel to industrial…
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US-based Valero Energy Corp has revealed it has temporarily idled eight of its ethanol plants and is reducing production at its remaining six ethanol plants following the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the fall in demand, Valero explained that this together with the decline in the price of crude oil has resulted in a significant decrease in the price of the refined petroleum products manufactured…
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