MALTA BEND, Mo. — It’s been a difficult year for Missouri’s ethanol producers due to a number of factors.

Ethanol plants near the Missouri River bottom have weathered overall demand challenges facing the industry, as well as widespread flooding that devastated thousands of acres. Chris Wilson is the general manager for Mid-Missouri Energy, an ethanol plant near here in Saline County.

Biofuels are holding their own in Illinois. But just barely.

“Treading water is what the ethanol industry might call it,” said Dave Loos, director of biofuels and research with the Illinois Corn Growers Association. “They are seeing some rough times right now.”

Times have been difficult for Iowa biofuel plants, with multiple businesses closing their doors in the past month.

Kelly Nieuwenhuis, president of the board at Siouxland Energy Cooperative, a northwest Iowa plant that announced it would be going idle on Sept. 16, cited small refinery exemptions which have “undermined the Renewable Fuel Standard” in a press release. The release stated these exemptions have reduced ethanol demand by 4 billion gallons.

There has been so much discussion of government Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) waivers this year that the possible influence of E15 on the ethanol market seemed to fade to the background.

“It’s kind of taken the back seat,” says Mark Recker, a Northeast Iowa farmer and former president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

The E15 blend of gasoline was approved for year-round use this spring, bringing excitement for additional demand to corn country.

Kelly Nieuwenhuis, who sits on the Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program Board, said when the announcement was made in late May, applications for the product “basically tripled” from the previous quarter.