The demise of Ethanol Tax Credits and its impact?

The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC), ceased operations on December 31, 2011. Originally set up to support the ethanol production it has now been relegated to the history books. Historically, the credit played an important role in ensuring the profitability of ethanol production, and it therefore indirectly affected corn prices as well. However, because high gasoline prices have made ethanol competitive on its own and since ethanol consumption mandates guarantee minimum production volumes, elimination of the credit is expected to have minimal impact on the production of ethanol and the demand for corn as a biofuel feedstock. Read more ...

12 million gallons of biofuel annually

POET the worlds largest ethanol producer, with its patent pending technology is expanding to a total of six plants using corn oil as feedstock, and aiming to produce 12 million gallons of biodiesel per year by the end of 2011. POET has been selling Voilà™ corn oil into biodiesel and feed markets since January, and new capacity is now coming online as the company continues to roll out the technology to more plants. "This is pretty exciting. We're producing energy as a by-product of energy," POET founder and CEO Jeff Broin said. "It's incredible to see how many different things we can get from a kernel of corn." Read more ...

Farmers in Iowa have completed 61,000 ton biomass harvest

Farmers in Iowa have just completed a 60, 000 ton harvest of corn crop residue. The bales of corn cobs and light stover are to be delivered to a biomass storage site in Emmetsburg where POET's commercial cellulosic ethanol bio-refinery will be completed in 2013. "Biomass harvesting is moving along as planned, and I'm confident we'll have a large and consistent supply of corn cobs and light stover once Project LIBERTY is running," POET founder and CEO Jeff Broin said. Read more ...