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Ethanol industry improves product, publicity effortsOMAHA, Neb. (AP)--Ethanol producers are revolutionaries challenging the current reliance on oil while taking on a smear campaign against their product, the president of an ethanol trade group said Aug. 13. "Today, we face strong opposition, and their weapon primarily is the press," Bob Scott, president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, told hundreds of producers gathered in Omaha for the group's trade show. It comes less than a week after the Environmental Protection Agency gave the industry some good news by refusing to cut the federal ethanol mandate. But the ethanol industry has been hurt over the past year by criticism that linked the corn-based fuel to rising food prices. Food companies, cattle organizations and others have suggested that ethanol production was the main reason for higher corn prices. Scott said the truth supports the ethanol industry's view that the recent spike in energy prices is the biggest factor in food price increases. To help the ethanol industry fight its critics, the coalition plans to launch a new social networking website so ethanol producers can share information. And the trade group will also offer a package of proposed state laws that ethanol producers can try to get enacted in their home states. Wyoming is among the states with ethanol plants. Robert Brummels, who serves on the board of Nebraska ethanol company Husker Ag LLC, said he thinks the industry's public relations problems will pass. "It's a temporary problem and, ultimately, the truth will prevail," said Brummels, of Plainview, Neb. Ethanol producers, such as Poet LLC, are working on developing cellulose-based forms of ethanol to supplement corn-based ethanol. Poet said Aug. 13 that its new pilot cellulosic plant should begin producing fuel from corn cobs and fiber by the end of the year. Groups such as the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center are also helping test new feedstocks that can be used to create ethanol. Stephanie Regagnon said her test plant at Southern Illinois University's Edwardsville campus has experimented with barley, corn stover and even candy corn as possible sources of ethanol. Companies can hire the university lab to test their methods. "We know that cellulose to ethanol works. It's a cost issue right now," Regagnon said, so an economically viable cellulosic ethanol plant is likely still several years away. The energy bill passed by Congress last year requires 9 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended into gasoline this year and about 11 billion gallons next year. The mandate requires refiners to use 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. To meet the lofty federal goal, industry experts agree that corn-based ethanol will remain part of the equation, and some presentations Aug. 13 focused on ways to improve corn-based plants. VeraSun Energy Corp.'s Rob Nelson said corn-based ethanol plants can now extract corn oil while making ethanol. The oil can then be used to make biodiesel fuel or further refined for food oil uses. Plus, Nelson said, ethanol plants can become more efficient by using some of their waste steam to generate electricity or by adding an anaerobic digester to generate power for the plant from manure or other biomass. Andy Zurn, who oversees engineering for an ethanol plant in Benson, Minn., said the co-op that runs his plant has developed products besides ethanol to boost revenue. Zurn said Chippewa Valley Ethanol launched a grain alcohol division that sells alcohol used to extract food flavorings and as part of aromatherapy products and hairsprays. The company also distills an organic vodka that's sold under the "Prairie" brand. 8/25/08 Date: 8/20/08
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