Firm projects ethanol plants will operate at 67% capacity through 2010

Ethanol Producer Magazine April 2009
By Erin Voegele

Management consulting firm HighQuest Partners LLC is projecting that regulated parties are on track to meet the 2009 and 2010 goals of the Renewable Fuels Standard. Due to reduced ethanol production, however, those goals may be more difficult to meet in 2011.

According to Hunt Stookey, HighQuest Partners’ managing director, the U.S. ethanol fleet is expected to operate at approximately 67 percent nameplate capacity through 2010. Although ethanol producers will be manufacturing less ethanol, regulated parties will be able to continue meeting the RFS in 2009 and 2010 through the carryover of Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) from previous years. “You have to remember that the standard is not how much [ethanol] is produced,” said Stookey. “It’s for how many RINs.”

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