The executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says he supports a new statewide law backing ethanol‑powered ag equipment.
Monte Shaw tells Brownfield that Governor Kim Reynolds recently signed a bill creating an excise tax break for E85 used in ag equipment.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement that you could have a tractor that runs on basically denatured ethanol, which is something we produce a lot of here in Iowa that has good power and torque.”
He says John Deere has been a leading supporter of the bill and has been working to develop ethanol-powered tractors.
“Ethanol does not have as many BTUs per gallon as diesel, so there working through some of those things. But so far the farmers I’ve talked to that have driven the prototypes have loved it. Particularly with diesel prices very expensive right now, it would be an incredible cost savings.”
John Deere’s prototype is an E98 8R tractor, which has been developed to run entirely on 98% ethanol blends instead of diesel.
