News : Corn can fuel your car or fill your mug

A craft beer made from corn grown on the Lillibridge farm north of Vinton.

Lance Lillibridge of Vinton, is the current State President of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Lance and his wife Heidi farm north of Vinton and both are passionate about farming and are always willing to share their love of farming with others.

Lillibridge spoke to the Vinton Noon Kiwanis club on Tuesday. As president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, he explained that the Iowa Corn Growers is made up of two different Boards. The Iowa Corn Growers Association handles all of the legislative issues. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board promotes the use of corn. The two boards work together, but because of the way that Iowa law is written, the promotion board cannot lobby in Des Moines or in Washinton D.C. The Corn Promotion Board handles the penny check-off, which is a penny from each bushel of corn that is sold, this money is used to promote corn.

The membership in the Corn Growers Association is 7,000+ members strong across Iowa. Lillibridge said that he has a direct link to Governor Kim Reynolds and every other elected official from Iowa in case there are issues that need to be handled.

In one bushel of corn, there is 1.6 pounds of Crude Corn Oil, 13.5 pounds of corn gluten feed, 2.6 pounds of corn gluten meal, 31.5 pounds of starch, which can be modified to produce about 33 pounds of corn sweetener or 2.7 gallons of ethanol. A bushel of corn can produce 8 pounds of beef, 15.5 pounds of pork, and 21 pounds of chicken.

51% of corn in Iowa goes into ethanol production. Corn is the most efficient source of ethanol, and sugar would be second.

Benton County makes up approximately 716 square miles with a population of 25,827 and produces 37 million bushels of corn. 2.5 billion bushels of corn are grown in Iowa and approximately 15 billion bushels across the United States. If Iowa were a country, we'd be the 3rd largest corn-growing country in the world.

Lillibridge talked about ReUnion Brewery in Coralville, a microbrewery. They took some of Lillibridge's corn and turned it into a beer. The company plans to release the amber beer in the spring and it will have an Iowa Corn Growers label on the can.

Asked about legislation, Lillibridge spoke about the biofuels in Iowa. The latest ethanol bill will allow Iowans to buy E15 and B20 (diesel) year around in Iowa.

There was some confusion around this bill. Lillibridge explained that several retailers were not happy with this bill. They feared that it would put them out of business because of infrastructure changes that they would need to make in their stations. Lillibridge said it is a myth.

The bill includes that if it will cost more than $71,000 for infrastructure the retailer is exempt. He also said that if they have to tear up concrete the retailer is exempt. The RFIP (Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program) has had a 1 million dollar budget to help gas stations upgrade their infrastructure, and the Corn Growers have been lobbying to get that raised to 5 million. The Governor is proposing 10 million. Lillibridge said that chains like Casey's haven't been too opposed to the idea, but smaller stations have been scared of this proposal. He said that stations that have taken advantage of the RFIP funds have had major benefits because of the upgrade.

The topic of electric vehicles came up in discussion. Lillibridge said there is a lot of push to go electric. He explained that 96% of the minerals needed for the vehicles are controlled by China. He said that there aren't enough rare earth minerals available to make them feasible for a very long time.

A start-up company near Chicago called ClearFlame Engine Technologies is currently working to develop a way to convert diesel engines to operate on 100% ethanol without a loss of power or the functions of engines. Ethanol-only fuel would run cleaner and eliminate a lot of the pollutants and emissions. Right now, ethanol is being imported by India and China to combat pollution. Lillibridge said that his farm is operating at a -.01 carbon index score. His carbon footprint is non-existent. With the production of ethanol and its use, the emissions around the world could become far less.