BioFuels Journal

by Jerry Perkins, editor, BioFuels Journal

Newton, IA—Syngenta donated $108,000 on Friday, July, 11, to the renewable fuels industry to make higher blends of ethanol more widely available at retail fuels outlets.

The donation is part of a three-year commitment that Syngenta announced in 2013 to contribute $1 to the ethanol industry for every acre planted with the company’s Enogen® trait technology.

Syngenta also announced July 11 that it is working with Iowa FFA chapters in a collaborative effort to match those dollars through a fund-raising initiative at the American Ethanol 200, which was sponsored by Enogen on July 11 at the Iowa Speedway for the second consecutive year.

“Syngenta is pleased to continue its support for the ethanol industry by donating $1 for every acre of Enogen® seed planted during 2014 and to be partnering with the FFA to make that donation go even further,” said David Witherspoon, head of renewable fuels at Syngenta.

“Last year, the money was used to defend the Renewable Fuels Standard. The focus of this year’s donation and matching dollars will be to make flex fuels more accessible and provide consumers with a choice at the gas pump.”

Kelly Manning, vice president of development for Growth Energy, accepted the symbolic check.

Manning noted that NASCAR has chosen since 2011 to run its race cars on Sunoco Green E15, a blend of 15% ethanol in gasoline. NASCAR race cars have run more than six million miles on E15 “without one issue,” Manning said.

According to Growth Energy, more than 170 million cars manufactured since 2001 are eligible to use blends of gasoline that contain 15% ethanol (E15).

There are more than 16 million flexible fuel vehicles on the road today that can burn blends higher than E10.

Witherspoon added that helping the industry expand its flexible fuel pump footprint will enable consumers to have a choice to purchase a superior higher octane fuel and pay less.

“Clearly, we have the vehicles capable of using blends higher than E10 but consumers need greater access to stations capable of providing it and the petroleum marketing industry’s support to make that access a reality,” Witherspoon stated.

“The widespread availability of flex fuel vehicles – as well as those eligible to use E15 – demonstrates that there is a market ready for a less expensive, higher octane, more environmentally-friendly alternative fuel.”

Syngenta’s Enogen trait technology is the industry’s only corn output trait that has been bio-engineered specifically to enhance ethanol production.

Also present at the July 11 donation announcement was Delayne Johnson, chief executive officer of Quad County Corn Processors, a 35-million-gallon-a-year ethanol plant in Galva, IA. Quad County has processed Enogen corn since January 2013, when it became the first ethanol plant to commercially use Enogen corn.

Using Enogen to supply 10% of the plant’s corn processing provides all the alpha amylase enzyme that Quad County needs for its ethanol production, Johnson said.

That has saved the plant money that it has passed along to farmers in the form of a premium for each bushel of Enogen corn delivered to the plant.

Johnson also provided an update on the Adding Cellulosic Ethanol (ACE) technology developed at Quad County Ethanol that uses corn fiber to produce cellulosic ethanol.

Two weeks ago, Quad County used the technology to produce the first gallons of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol in Iowa.

It also is believed to be the first cellulosic ethanol produced in the world from corn fiber, Johnson said.

Quad County will market the ACE technology with Syngenta and its Enogen trait in a “bolt-on” process that adds the capability to convert the kernel’s corn fiber into cellulosic ethanol, in addition to traditional corn starch ethanol.

Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said at the July 11 announcement that Syngenta and Quad County Corn Processors provide a powerful combination for rural Iowa’s future, which includes higher ethanol blends and cellulosic feedstocks.

“They go hand in glove,” Shaw said. “Without higher blends like E15 and E85 you don’t need non-corn starch feedstocks (because) there’s plenty of corn.

"Yet combined, cellulosic feedstocks and higher ethanol blends can lead us to greater economic opportunities and the ability to dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

See Related Websites/Articles:

• Syngenta
• Cellulosic Ethanol Technologies and Syngenta Collaborate to Produce First Cellulosic Ethanol in Iowa

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