America’s Cultivation Corridor recently hosted a webinar on advances in renewable fuels innovation, moderated by Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.
Naig said that the state of Iowa is a leader in the production of both ethanol and biodiesel, as well as a leader in developing the feedstocks for those fuels. In the U.S., Iowa ranks No. 1 in corn production and No. 2 in soybean production, he said.
“I like to say innovation is in our DNA,” he said. “For as long as we’ve been farming, we’ve been innovating in big and small ways.”
The panelists were:
- Paul Nees, global book lead, renewables and carbon, Chevron Supply & Trading
- Kendall Palmer, senior director, biofuels, Corteva Agriscience
- Lisa Schulte Moore, Charles F. Curtiss distinguished professor in agriculture and life sciences and co-director, Bioeconomy Institute, Iowa State University
The following is edited excerpts from the conversation:
Naig: What happens when you take away crops from feed production? What can we do to sustainably meet that fuel-food-feed-combination?
Palmer: It’s really important for us to be able to meet all the needs for food, feed and fuel. … One of the biggest things we continue to work on is genetic improvement of crops and seed trait development. You know, the advanced breeding systems we have available today are allowing us to create high yielding hybrids and varieties that thrive under drought, heat, insect and disease, pressure, and by being able to develop and protect those high yielding genetics from these environments, we continue to increase the yield on every acre and creating additional feedstock on that same production acre.
And if you look at the genetic gain of corn, and in 1926 when we started, it was around 26 bushels an acre. And those genetic improvements, seed trait development, today, the estimates [are] 188 bushels per acre on a national average this year. So we think there’s an incredible opportunity to continue to increase productivity on the same acre that we’re growing today. And if you look at the record high yield in corn from I think it’s 2023, it was 623 bushels per acre. So I don’t know if we want to go back and look at how that was grown, but there’s incredible upside continuing to drive productivity for our core crops. So we think genetic improvement, seed trait development will continue to help us push there.
Naig: How [can] the energy sector and the ag sector work together to find solutions? … What more could be done … for each sector to align so that we can really work together?
Nees: There are so many connections between biofuels and agriculture. And really … our biofuels industries spun out of the agriculture industry. Now it’s created this neat intersection of agriculture and energy is where this biofuels industry lives now, and it requires a lot of important partnerships. … What Chevron does really well, as to low carbon intensity feedstocks, renewable feedstocks, and make them low carbon fuels, distribute it to our customers. But there’s a lot of other players in the value chain that need to participate in that, and so we need all those partners to make that successful. …There’s a lot of policy that drives the production and the margins and the growth in biofuels. And what I like to say is biofuels policy is ag policy. And we’ve [had] a lot of volatility at different times in the agriculture industry and pricing, certainly with the soybean export situation to China, it’s been a big issue in front of us this year. And so anytime I think that we can grow demand for biofuels in this degree, we’re going to grow demand for bio-feedstocks, which is going to increase demand for the products that American farmers grow. And so I think that’s really important. I think we can do a better job of sharing that connection and really getting others to understand the link in the value chain and how important biofuels [are] back to the products that farmers produce.
Naig: What’s the bioeconomy in Iowa?
Schulte Moore: We’re trying to unlock energy potential that’s provided through the sunlight and … harness our soil resources, take advantage of our agricultural innovation capacity to not only meet the demands for food for our world, but also for those energy and other molecules that we use in our everyday lives. So the bioeconomy is fundamental to our society. I wanted to bring it up because I think we need to say that word more often. Because people need to understand how fundamental the bioeconomy is to our everyday lives and our prosperity…. We’re all in this together, and by advancing the bioeconomy, we’re moving forward faster in innovating both for people and the planet.
Naig: What would be the opportunities, potential roadblocks for advancing ethanol and other renewable fuels specifically related to a sustainable aviation fuel?
Schulte Moore: I think a big ingredient in this equation is trust. Trust for those certifications, and trust that the people’s investment in maybe the higher-value fuel is going to result in the benefits that they’re thinking are there. Just one example, my family, we were fortunate enough to go to Europe a couple summers ago, and was purchasing that plane ticket. I had an opportunity to check a box, and pay more for that flight, and to try to help reduce the carbon intensity of that flight, and I didn’t do it, even though I’m really passionate about this area. And if I’m not willing to check that box, how can I expect other people to do that? But I think in addition to the policy, people, consumers, have choices like that, which is fantastic, but what is it going to take for people like me and other people to be willing to invest in lowering the carbon intensity of the fuel? So I think, there’s an opportunity for education that comes along with some of these certification[s] … that allow people to make choices.