According to preliminary data from the federal Energy Information Administration, monthly ethanol imports to the U.S. fell 8.4% to 939,000 barrels in February, the lowest level seen since last May.

February ethanol imports averaged 31,300 barrels a day, down from 33,000 barrels a day in January.

Last May, U.S. fuel marketers were beginning to ramp up their use of the plant-derived gasoline additive.  Refiners greatly increased their ethanol use because a federal mandate for its use began and because gasoline manufacturers were ending their use of the petroleum-based additive methyl tertiary butyl ether.  Refiners greatly increased their ethanol use after a federal law was passed mandating its use.  Imports of 681,000 barrels in May, 2006 more than doubled by June and hit a peak of 3.203 million barrels in August before easing to 1.191 million barrels in January, 2007.

Most of the volume - 10 out of 14 shipments - was bound for ports in New Jersey. Three shipments went to Hawaii and one shipment of 1,000 barrels from Canada went to North Dakota. Four shipments totaling 572,000 barrels sailed from Brazil and six, totaling 212,000 barrels, came from El Salvador. Two ships came from Jamaica and the last sailed from Trinidad.

 
The number of ships is close to the Williams shipping agency’s estimate issued in late March. The Brazilian agency said 18 ships were loading ethanol in February.  Williams’ estimate for April loadings is higher, at 22 ships.

Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific research agency, have added to their team a one-armed robot, which is expected to speed up studies aimed at harnessing the power of proteins for industrial uses, such as making fuel ethanol from fibrous corn stover.

The robot is the cornerstone of an automated system called the “plasmid-based functional proteomics work cell.”  According to Stephen Hughes, a molecular biologist with the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, IL, the system is the first of its kind to fully automate several procedures that have traditionally been carried out by (human) hand, such as extracting genetic material from the cells of plants, microbes and other organisms; making DNA copies of genes; inserting the copies into Escherichia coli; culturing these bacteria so that the copies can be sequenced and their proteins identified; and inserting desirable genes into yeasts used to make ethanol.

Because of the mechanized arm’s fast, precise movements, the robotic system can carry out such tasks hundreds, or even thousands, of times faster than a human could, Hughes claims. Hughes and colleagues in the ARS center’s Bioproducts and Biocatalysis Research Unit codeveloped the system with a team from Hudson Control Group (of Springfield, NJ) in 2004.

Of particular interest is using the robotic system to genetically modify new strains of Saccharomyces yeast that can metabolize sugars locked up within corn fiber, something these microbial workhorses have so far failed to do.

Currently, only the starch from corn and other grain crops is being converted commercially into the sugars from which ethanol is derived.  With the Saccharomyces yeasts now used, this equates to nearly three gallons of ethanol from a bushel of corn. Using new strains capable of breaking down corn fiber could potentially squeeze 10% more ethanol from the grain, Hughes and colleagues estimate.

Ethanol prices in Sao Paulo inverted last week’s upward trend and began declining as the 2007 sugar cane crop starts to hit the market, putting an end to the inter-harvest period.

 
Falling prices are normal for the end of the inter-harvest period.  “Prices used to go down between 5% and 10% when the new harvest hits the market,” said Marcelo Andrade, director of Rio de Janeiro-based trading firm Ecoflex Trading.

The price for anhydrous ethanol, a gasoline additive, fell slightly from 1.071 Brazilian reals ($0.52) per liter in the week of April 1-5 to BRL1.070 in the week between April 9-13, according to the Center for Advanced Applied Economic Studies, or Cepea, which publishes local market prices each Friday.

 
The price for hydrous ethanol, a gasoline substitute, continued to fall, from its peak at BRL0.96 during the March 26-30 week, to BRL0.94 during the April 9-13 week.

Sao Paulo is Brazil’s No. 1 ethanol-producing state, accounting for roughly 60% of the country’s total ethanol production. Brazil is the world’s No. 2 ethanol producer, but No. 1 ethanol exporter.

Yesterday, Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told Brazilian sugar and ethanol business leaders that the U.S. should eliminate its tax on ethanol imports from Brazil.

“The U.S. should remove the tax on Brazil ethanol imports to really get the ethanol market moving,” Bush said of 54 cents per gallon tax.

The president of the powerful Sao Paulo Sugarcane Industry Association, Eduardo Carvalho, told Dow Jones Newswires, “It’s very important that someone like Mr. Bush has this opinion on ethanol. But there is no one person capable of removing tariffs by himself. This is a big political game.”

Bush also said the U.S. should treat ethanol as part of its energy policy, not agricultural policy. Brazil, the world’s ethanol export leader, and the U.S. account for three quarters of the world’s ethanol production.