Ethanol: Corn Hits New High, Verenium Wins Grant

Today's biggest stories surrounding the sector:

1) Uh-Oh! March Corn reached a new all-time high today as it shot up 18 1/4 cents to $5.43 1/4 per bushel. The rise was due to a record setting rally by both gold ($975 per ounce) and oil ($102.59 per barrel) as the U.S. dollar fell to a record low against the Euro. Ethanol on the CBOT managed to rise 3.9 cents to $2.359 per gallon. After today's trading, ethanol's crush spread has fallen to $1.17.

Date	CBOT ethanol price	CBOT corn price	Crush spread
February 28th	$2.36	$5.43	$1.17
January 2nd	$2.42	$4.62	$2.15
December 18th	$2.13	$4.32	$1.66
December 15th	$2.08	$4.38	$1.44
November 19th	$1.81	$3.94	$1.12
October 16th	$1.61	$3.74	$.77
September 1st	$1.54	$3.69	$.62

2) Verenium Corporation (VRNM) was awarded today one of the four grants available by the U.S. Department of Energy to "develop improved enzyme systems to convert cellulosic material into sugars suitable for the production of ethanol." Verenium will receive a nice slice of the $33.8 million available. Earlier in the year, Pacific Ethanol received a similar grant of up to $24.3 million to build a small-scale demonstration plant that will make ethanol out of wood chips.

Comments

[Buster Barks:]

Coskata is the answer to ethanol production. Check out their website.
They can produce ethanol out of anything that is carbon based, such as garbage in landfill sites, used tires, switchgrass, ect. Coskata states corn is for cows.

2008 Feb 29 10:58 AM

[wheels14:]

Could someone give me a defenition of "Crush Spead?" Does it include the sale price of the biproducts. If corn is going up in price then Distiller's grain has to go up in price.

2008 Feb 29 12:54 PM

[Tom Caracciolo:]

BlueFire Ethanol Fuel (BFRE) will start construction of their cellulosic ethanol plant this coming April next to a land fill in California that will provide the material from which the ethanol will be produced. The facility will be like the cellulosic plant they have in operation in Izumi, Japan producing ethanol from cellulose since 2002. A by-product of their process is butanol that will provide 70% of the energy needed to produce the ethanol. This, plus making ethanol from material we throw away, is a win-win situation for every land fill in the U.S. The process is proven commercially viable.

2008 Feb 29 09:47 PM

[Greg Pinelli:]

Earth to Konrad! Earth to Konrad! What you just did was an infommercial..do you have ANY investment ideas?? Or are you just happy Mom sees your pic?

2008 Mar 01 08:57 PM

[BullMania:]

Thanks for the updates...It seems that corn prices are still to high to make an investment in ethanol.

2008 Mar 02 04:19 PM