Pearson Fuels Opens 300th E85 Retail Site in California
San Diego-based Pearson Fuels, the country’s largest E85 distributor, has opened its 300th retail E85 site in California. More than 200 additional E85 sites are contracted to open over the next few years with Pearson Fuels, in part thanks to funding from corn groups, some of which the American Coalition for Ethanol helped establish partnerships with. E85 has dramatically increased across California; Pearson Fuels predicts the state will set its 16th record in 17 years when the official 2022 volume data is released by the California Air Resources Board. E85 in California is typically priced at least 70 percent cheaper than regular unleaded gasoline. Visit pearsonfuels.com and download the company’s E85 Station Finder app to locate E85 stations throughout California.
“In the current state of the economy, E85 is a no-brainer,” said Pearson Fuels Managing Partner Doug Vind. “Part of our 2022 growth came from last year’s severe gasoline price spikes which saw E85 priced nearly $3 per gallon cheaper than regular unleaded gasoline. In 2022 alone, we estimate FFV owners using E85 saved upwards of $200 million at the pump. E85 is both a buffer and a bridge to California’s aggressive clean fuel policies. Electrification of California’s vehicle fleet will take many years to successfully implement. In the meantime, there are over a million FFVs on California roads capable of using E85 today.”
Cardinal Ethanol, Vault 44.01 Collaborate on CCS Project
ACE member Cardinal Ethanol LLC and Vault 44.01 Ltd. announced in January that, through their affiliate companies, they have formed a joint venture to design, implement, and operate a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and sequestration (CCS) project at Cardinal’s ethanol production facility near Union City, Indiana. The joint venture is structured with each party controlling an equal interest in a newly formed limited partnership named One Carbon Partnership LP. Cardinal’s facility produces approximately 135 million gallons of ethanol per year, which generates approximately 400,000 metric tons of CO2 as a by-product of the corn fermentation process. One Carbon Partnership plans to construct a facility to capture the CO2 generated from the ethanol production process and safely and permanently store such emissions deep underground in a secure geologic reservoir, thereby substantially reducing the CO2 emissions from the ethanol production process.
“We are committed to enhancing shareholder value through employing the latest technology in the production of clean, low carbon intensity and environmentally friendly bioethanol. Partnering with Vault 44.01 on this CCS project is another step in Cardinal Ethanol’s commitment to further lower our carbon impact and protect our environment. This partnership aligns with Cardinal Ethanol’s goals and keeps us on a path to zero emission liquid fuels,” said Jeff Painter, CEO, Cardinal ethanol, LLC.
“We are pleased to be working with the excellent team at Cardinal and are excited to have reached several important milestones in the development of this high quality, early-to-market CCS project. This project with Cardinal exemplifies our view that the lowest cost option for CCS is often to find a local solution, where that’s possible,” said Scott Rennie, CEO, Vault 44.01.
DOE Awards Funding to Lincolnway Energy and Other Biofuel Projects
The U.S. Department of Energy on Jan. 26, 2023 awarded $118 million to 17 projects to accelerate the production of sustainable biofuels for America’s transportation and manufacturing needs. The awards support the agency’s goal to achieve cost-competitive biofuels and at least a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. One project that was selected for funding was ACE member Lincolnway Energy LLC.
Lincolnway Energy was awarded $453,000 for reduced carbon intensity ethanol via biogas from stillage and other feedstocks. This project will evaluate the feasibility of deploying biogas (anaerobic digestion) technology using various forms of stillage and/or corn stover in a site‐specific design to provide an integrated analysis to scale‐up biogas technology with corn‐ethanol production. According to information provided at the announcement, the project design and learnings can be applied across the entire U.S. corn ethanol industry upon successful commercialization of this technology, as well as future ethanol derivatives like sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Biogas production within existing corn ethanol plants has the potential to reduce carbon intensity for 1st gen corn ethanol facilities and future derivatives like SAF products. Ethanol plants like Lincolnway will evaluate utilizing organic biomass to produce biogas, which is then used for process energy, which could further reduce the lifecycle carbon intensity of ethanol towards zero.
