Category Archives: Fuels

National Biodiesel Conference 2012

Check out this video segment. I think this update gives some perspective of where the biodiesel industry has come from over the past couple of years and how it continues to try and get tax credits implemented again. Renewable Fuels Standards are helping ease the pain in 2012.  2011 was a good year for biodiesel…

Rush Samples

Around the holidays, clients consistently need rush analysis. Today, I received a call from a client who needs analysis records for an important business transaction tomorrow.  At Midwest Laboratories, these type of requests are pretty regular. It is for this reason that our company does not take an extended vacation time. Companies rely on the…

Voila Crude Corn Oil

Poet has a patent process which creates voila.  The  Voila Corn Oil has a lower fatty acid profile. This is great for biodiesel producers because less waste is produced in the production. The corn oil is being looked at for other uses in addition to biodiesel. In addition, the process of producing higher quality DDGs….

Ethanol Lab Managers

Welcome Ethanol Lab Managers to the 2011 Fuel Ethanol Laboratory Conference, sponsored by Midland Scientific. It is great to see lab managers from different Ethanol Producers come to Omaha to discuss ways to keep the quality of ethanol high and continue to market renewable fuels to a country in need of independence from oil.  The…

Some Answers to Treating Diesel Fuel

We receive a lot of questions regarding diesel fuel and bacteria and quality. Currently, for contamination, Midwest Laboratories offers a Fuel Fingerprint analysis, $90.00  which looks at 22 different diesel contaminants and compares the diesel sample to a matrix of different contaminants to look for the presence of these contaminants in the diesel sample. In…

Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles

CNG This type of vehicle is becoming very popular in the Omaha-metro area. Yesterday, I heard that a company was going to purchase three vehicles for local deliveries in the Omaha Area. The price of natural gas is a fraction of the cost of today’ petroleum costs. According to the Metropolitan Utilities District website livegreenthinkblue.com…

Food and Fuel Debate

Food and Fuel are final products in the Ethanol Process I think it’s always good to have some numbers to look at when looking at this debate. Check out the numbers that were highlighted in this video. One bushel of grain produces 2.8 gallons of ethanol – using starch and 18 pounds of  livestock feed…

Diesel and Biodiesel Celebration

Rudolf Diesel – Discovered Diesel and Biodiesel   Today, we look back on the work of Rudolf Diesel, who was born on this date, March 18, 1858.   Rudolf’s initial conception and patents were used to create the first combustible diesel engine. In addition, Rudolf introduced biodiesel, a fuel made out of peanut oil at…

Ethanol Lab Conference

Ethanol Conference This conference is going strong and really focuses attention on the laboratory testing  aspect of Ethanol Production.  It’s a great conference that has really grown in numbers over the last three years. Lots of new items to discuss. Recent discussion has occurred on the roll-out of E-15.   Lots of great speakers have been…

Happy Birthday | Rudolph Diesel

Today, March 18, 2010 is the birthday of Rudolph Diesel. He designed the first diesel engine to run on peanut  oil.  Today, thanks to his discovery, we have all types of diesel engines for automobiles and trains. It is kind of ironic that Rudolph Diesel was really interested in designing a car that would run…