In the last, but certainly not the least, of our posts from the recent 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC) in Atlanta, we hear from Steffen Mueller, principal research economist at the University of Illinois-Chicago Energy Resources Center.
Mueller did two presentations at the CUTC, both related to the increasing efficiency of ethanol production that continues to improve its carbon footprint under life cycle analysis. For one, Mueller says, the more useful co-products that can result from ethanol production, the better its carbon footprint. “With corn ethanol you also produce an animal feed product simultaneously, to which you have to assign a co-product credit, meaning you subtract the emissions to produce that feed product from the life cycle of corn ethanol,” Steffen explains in an interview. “Now, we’re also looking at other co-products. For example, a lactate which is a solvent that can substitute for petroleum-based solvents in the marketplace.”
Mueller also presented his findings from a recent study showing how ethanol plants are improving in efficiency. “We did a large survey of corn ethanol plants and assessed the energy consumption and showed that the thermal and electric energy that plants require to turn bushels of corn into corn ethanol has decreased by 30 percent over the last eight years,” he said. (read about that survey here)
Mueller says there is a lot of updated industry data coming together that shows that corn ethanol is becoming more efficient, which should help when it comes to regulations for low carbon emissions on both the national level and in states like California.
Listen to an interview Chuck Zimmerman did with Steffen Mueller at CUTC here:
Download the interview here: Steffen Mueller Interview
Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association took part in the event and chaired one of the technical sessions. Geoff used to work for the National Corn Growers Association, so he has been involved in this conference before, and he says it has definitely changed over the years. “Five or six years ago if you had come to this conference, you would not have heard many mentions of greenhouse gases and carbon footprint and things like that, but those issues are front of mind with the industry today and those themes really permeated a lot of the sessions this year,” he said.
Cooper says there was also some discussion at the conference about an environmental group lawsuit over the Renewable Fuel Standard that claims EPA did not account for the “Global Rebound Effect.” “In essence, what the theory suggests is that by using more biofuels in the United States, we’re driving down oil consumption, which results in oil prices decreasing, and because oil prices are lower then people in other parts of the world start using more oil,” Geoff said. “So they’re suggesting that would occur as a result of the RFS 2 and that those emissions should be attributable to biofuels like ethanol.” Since the goal of the RFS2 is to reduce oil consumption, Geoff says they “find it a little questionable that now they would be suggesting that it’s a bad thing that we’re reducing our oil consumption in the U.S. as a result of that policy.”
The theme of the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was “Corn: America’s Renewable Resource” and Geoff says since this year’s crop is expected to be another big one, increasing markets continues to be important. “Corn is a great crop with a lot of utility, let’s put it to work,” he said.
Listen to an interview Chuck Zimmerman did with Geoff Cooper at CUTC here:
When it comes to efficiently producing corn, water is a very important factor. So water usage was the topic of the concluding session at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. One of the presenters during the session was Derrel Martin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His presentation was titled, “Impact of Irrigation Efficiency & Farming Practices on Ag Hydrology and Economics.”
Derrel says that since Nebraska is the state with the most irrigated land this has been a very important subject for his research and work. He says that farmers are being challenged by water limitations and to meet the bottom line while optimizing the use of ground water resources. He says that contrary to what some people may think about the aquifer going dry, it’s not. There’s plenty of water there. But states are looking at water a lot more critically and that’s putting pressure on farmers to make more efficient use of it. He says they’ve been looking at crop water use efficiency for quite a while.
When it comes to irrigation efficiency he says “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Technology today makes that pretty easy to do though. He says about 80 percent of the irrigated land is done with center pivots which can be very efficient but they need to be managed to make sure they’re working properly. He also cautions farmers to be careful about irrigating too early in spring and too late in the fall. Interestingly, Arkansas is the fourth largest irrigated state. He says irrigation is moving east.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Derrel here:
Bill Holbrook, The ProExporter Network, had an interesting task at the Corn Utilization Technology Conference. He had to explain, “Congressional Language, EPA Interpretation and the Future of American Biofuels.” Now that’s more than a mouthful!
Bill says he sees lots of contradictions in the legislation and rule making for biofuels between states like California and EPA and they need to be better defined, further defined and will lead to a lot of uncertainty in the market until they are resolved. He says there are efforts to move regulation of things like green house gas emissions back into a mechanism, like Congress, where they would be slowed down and allow more people to have input into them.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Bill here:
The Land Use Conundrum . . . Corn, An Advanced Biofuel? That was the title of one of the sessions at the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference that was moderated by Jamey Cline, NCGA. One of his panelists was Adam Liska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His remarks were on “Uncertainty in Indirect Land Use Change Emissions from Biofuels.” Adam has focused his work on the life cycle efficiency of producing ethanol.
Adam says that there has been increased agricultural production worldwide due to increased demand and it seems like attributing some of that to increased biofuels production makes sense. However, he says that quantifying the emissions related to agricultural production due to biofuels use is very uncertain because it’s done “as a projection into the future.” The bottom line is we don’t know what will happen in the future. He says “it’s nearly impossible.” He says that there are estimates for corn ethanol but they get smaller and smaller with more research and information. He says that they’ve started to do some research on the indirect effects of gasoline production and figure they’re roughly equivalent to that of ethanol. He also points to the impact of changes in livestock production as a result of higher grain prices and says it may have more impact than land use changes. Seems like there is a huge amount of variability in how you look at the future when it comes to biofuels production and especially corn ethanol.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Adam here:
One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the Corn Refiner’s Association and greeted people in their booth.
John caught my attention during his presentation when he said that all the negative information you’ve heard about high fructose corn syrup is completely wrong. Whoa. All of it? Yep. There is a huge amount of factual and scientific information on the subject. He calls it a mythology that has taken hold that wants to portray HFCS in a bad light. It is basically the same as regular sugar. Plain and simple. People just want to find something to blame for weight issues and the reality is that they’re consuming more of everything. You can’t lay the blame on HFCS.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with John White here:
Find good information on HFCS on Twitter: SweetFacts
One of the sponsors for this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was Monsanto. Besides sponsoring and exhibiting, Monsanto also had Dr. Robert Reiter, Vice President of Breeding Technology, on the program. His presentation focused on improving the efficiency of corn.
Monsanto has a goal of helping corn growers double their yield by 2030. Reiter says their biotechnology pipeline is helping make this a reality. His team is working on improving corn water use or as he puts it, “getting more crop per drop.” He says the amount of money being invested in these technologies is unprecedented.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Dr. Reiter here:
If you ever get a chance to watch a presentation by Fred Below, University of Illinois, then you should do it. You’ll not only be entertained and informed but come away energized. He is passionate about his work and you will have no doubts about that when he’s done. He says his work mainly consists in figuring out how to sustainably reach a 300 bushel of corn per acre yield.
At the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference his topic was “Genetic and Agronomic Contributions to More Efficient Corn Production.” One of the messages he wanted to impart was that due to improvements in corn genetics some of the standard use factors for nitrogen are a little high. He urges producers to look very carefully at their use of fertilizer because they can find ways to save which will benefit them financially while improving environmental impact. He thinks this efficiency will continue to improve too. So even as corn yields increase the amount of fertilizer and energy input will go down. This also helps those involved in ethanol production because it shows the EPA that “We actually produce ethanol with a lot less environmental impact.”
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Fred here:
You may be interested to know how grain quality affects ethanol production and DDGs. If so, then you would interested in Leland McKinney’s presentation at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. I spoke with him to learn about his research on this topic. Leland is Extension State Leader in the Dept. of Grain Science at Kansas State University.
To start with he says that getting information presented a challenge since there’s not a lot of it publicly available. So, without much data to work with he visited personally with industry representatives to find out their thoughts and put together an overview presentation on the subject. He says moisture and how it impacts grinding efficiency and water balance in an ethanol plant were mentioned as well as quality attributes like fermentable starch and test weight. When it comes to the DDGs he says mycotoxins came up frequently as a concern. The bottom line though is that there needs to be research on how grain quality effects the production of ethanol. Hopefully that will be done before another CUTC!
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Leland here:
When it comes to creating new uses for corn, Chad Ulven, North Dakota State University, is one of the researchers leading the way. During the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference he did a presentation titled, “Development of DDGs as Reinforcement in Polymers.” So what does that mean? To find out I interviewed him.
He’s looking at a variety of different agricultural by-products like DDGs to make them into plastics. He calls them bio-composites. Although there would be many types of products these could be used for he’s most interested in using them for farm implements like tractor shrouds or sprayer booms. He says the fibers he creates can add additional stiffness for example. He’s got a foundation of research completed after 5 years but now he’s trying to bring some of his creations to market. To do that he’s talking with several companies.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Chad here:
In the last, but certainly not the least, of our posts from the recent 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC) in Atlanta, we hear from Steffen Mueller, principal research economist at the University of Illinois-Chicago Energy Resources Center. 
Indirect land use change and DDGs quality were two of the ethanol-related topics that were featured at the recent 
When it comes to efficiently producing corn, water is a very important factor. So water usage was the topic of the concluding session at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. One of the presenters during the session was Derrel Martin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His presentation was titled, “Impact of Irrigation Efficiency & Farming Practices on Ag Hydrology and Economics.”
Bill Holbrook, The ProExporter Network, had an interesting task at the Corn Utilization Technology Conference. He had to explain, “Congressional Language, EPA Interpretation and the Future of American Biofuels.” Now that’s more than a mouthful!
The Land Use Conundrum . . . Corn, An Advanced Biofuel? That was the title of one of the sessions at the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference that was moderated by Jamey Cline, NCGA. One of his panelists was Adam Liska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His remarks were on “Uncertainty in Indirect Land Use Change Emissions from Biofuels.” Adam has focused his work on the life cycle efficiency of producing ethanol. 
One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the 
One of the sponsors for this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was Monsanto. Besides sponsoring and exhibiting, Monsanto also had Dr. Robert Reiter, Vice President of Breeding Technology, on the program. His presentation focused on improving the efficiency of corn.
If you ever get a chance to watch a presentation by Fred Below, University of Illinois, then you should do it. You’ll not only be entertained and informed but come away energized. He is passionate about his work and you will have no doubts about that when he’s done. He says his work mainly consists in figuring out how to sustainably reach a 300 bushel of corn per acre yield.
You may be interested to know how grain quality affects ethanol production and DDGs. If so, then you would interested in Leland McKinney’s presentation at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. I spoke with him to learn about his research on this topic. Leland is Extension State Leader in the Dept. of Grain Science at Kansas State University.
When it comes to creating new uses for corn, Chad Ulven, North Dakota State University, is one of the researchers leading the way. During the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference he did a presentation titled, “Development of DDGs as Reinforcement in Polymers.” So what does that mean? To find out I interviewed him.