Clean Tech: Creating a Win-Win Situation
January 15, 2025 A year ago, New Energy Blue, a clean-tech company that uses crop residues like corn stalks to supply biomass refineries for the production of renewable fuel and chemicals, announced the formation of New Energy Farmers LLC, which is jointly owned by Iowa farmers and New Energy Blue with the goal of building biomass refineries in Iowa and throughout the Midwest.
In June, New Energy Blue announced a partnership with construction firm ARCO/Murray to build the first refinery, the New Energy Freedom Biomass Refinery, located in Mason City, IA, which is expected to be online in 2026.
The partners’ long-term plans are ambitious: 15 biomass refineries operating by 2030, 150 by 2040, and 500 by 2050 — generating an annual total of 21 billion gallons of 2G ethanol from leftover stalks and straws as well as perennial energy grasses like miscanthus, according to a press release.
New Energy Farmers LLC will be “majority-owned and managed by the corn growers who have already committed to supply their excess corn stover as a feedstock to the Freedom biomass refinery,” explained a press release from New Energy Blue. Cash is paid for every dry ton bale of corn stalks, while farmer-members also “own a stake in the business based on acreage, receive new farm equipment for harvesting and aggregation, and share in the annual profits of their own company.”
Meanwhile, Big Oil is betting big on biofuels. Major players including BP, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, and Eni have announced 43 biofuel projects that are either already operational or are targeted to start up by 2030, according to research firm RystadEnergy. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) make up most of the projected biofuel production.
Nonetheless, a recent conversation with Lance Gunderson, President of Regen Ag Lab, prompted me to think about potential undesirable consequences of collecting biomass from farms to feed the renewable fuel pipeline and how that might impact soil health.
It turns out, other people have similar concerns.
Researcher Tiziano Gomiero points out that biofuels have poor energy performance compared to fossil fuels, and therefore require significant subsidies to support production. Biofuel production can also have detrimental impacts on soil, water consumption, and the environment, in general.
What’s more, with the world population expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, coupled with the effects of climate change, the stability of the global food system is facing serious challenges, he states.
Gomiero acknowledges that we “clearly have to invest in the development of more renewable energy carriers able to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and reduce GHG emissions,” but “biofuels may not fit such call.”
I believe it’s possible to have both, i.e., a renewable energy sector that continues to evolve — responsibly and sustainably — helped by new technologies while simultaneously avoiding negative environmental impacts, and expanding opportunities for farmers, from financial incentives related to biomass to ongoing resources and support for improving soil health and water conservation.
It’s a new year.
Let’s get growing!
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