Corn stover harvest and transport cost functions were estimated for two harvest operations for a proposed biomass-to-ethanol conversion facility located in southern Minnesota, USA. This work presents an alternative methodology to estimating corn stover quantities and harvest costs at the county level, taking into account county-specific yields, transportation distances, erosion constraints, machinery specifications, and other key variables. Monte Carlo simulation was also used to estimate the probability distribution of costs under alternative assumption on key parameters whose values vary widely in the literature. Marginal stover cost for 50MM gal/year of ethanol output was estimated at $54/dt ($0.77/gal ethanol) for the more intensive harvest method and $65/dt ($0.80/gal) for the less intensive method. Costs were greater than $62/dt ($0.89/gal) for a facility producing > 200MM gal/year under the more intensive harvest method, and greater than $84/dt ($1.21/gal) for the less-intensive harvest method. Monte Carlo simulation estimated a mean marginal cost of $52/dt ($63/dt under the less intensive harvest method) for 50MM gal ethanol output, with an $11 ($9) standard deviation. Costs were found to be at or below $62/dt 90 percent of the time ($71/dt for the less-intensive method). An $11/dt standard deviation in stover cost would result in a $0.16/gal swing in ethanol cost. Overall, costs were found to be consistently higher than those found in the literature, but even under a variety of parameter assumptions, costs tended to stay within a $10/dt range of the mean.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics in its series Staff Papers with number
14213.
Length: Date of creation: 2006 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:ags:umaesp:14213
Contact details of provider: Postal: 231ClaOff Building, 1994 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108-6040 Phone: (612) 625-1222 Fax: (612) 625-6245 Email: Web page: http://www.apec.umn.edu More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (AgEcon Search).
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)