IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/urdbrr/280102.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Whey to Ethanol: A Biofuel Role for Dairy Cooperatives?

Author

Listed:
  • Ling, K. Charles

Abstract

Pertinent information regarding whey-to-fuel ethanol production is explored and reviewed. A potential of producing up to 203 million gallons of fuel ethanol from whey in 2006 was estimated, and dairy cooperatives could have a share of 65 million gallons. Two whey-ethanol plants are currently operated by dairy cooperatives, producing a total of 8 million gallons a year. Successful operations of the plants since the 1980s indicate that (1) fuel ethanol production from whey is technically feasible, (2) whey-tofuel ethanol production technologies and processes are mature and capable of being adopted for commercial operations, and (3) producing fuel ethanol from whey is economically feasible. However, in this era of whey products' price uncertainties, a key consideration in assessing the feasibility of a new whey-ethanol venture should be the valuation of the opportunity cost of whey as feedstock for fermentation. A new wheyethanol plant probably should have an annual production capacity of at least 5 million gallons of ethanol. Some historical lessons on the pitfalls to avoid are summarized.

Suggested Citation

  • Ling, K. Charles, 2008. "Whey to Ethanol: A Biofuel Role for Dairy Cooperatives?," Research Reports 280102, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:urdbrr:280102
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.280102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/280102/files/RR214.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.280102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ling, K. Charles, 2004. "Marketing Operations of Dairy Cooperatives, 2002," Research Reports 280089, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gupta, Anubhuti & Verma, Jay Prakash, 2015. "Sustainable bio-ethanol production from agro-residues: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 550-567.
    2. Ling, K. Charles, 2011. "Cooperative Theory, Practice, and Financing: A Dairy Cooperative Case Study," Research Reports 280109, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    3. Csilla Farkas & Judit M. Rezessy-Szabó & Vijai Kumar Gupta & Erika Bujna & Tuan M. Pham & Klára Pásztor-Huszár & László Friedrich & Rajeev Bhat & Vijay Kumar Thakur & Quang D. Nguyen, 2019. "Batch and Fed-Batch Ethanol Fermentation of Cheese-Whey Powder with Mixed Cultures of Different Yeasts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Aspasia A. Chatzipaschali & Anastassios G. Stamatis, 2012. "Biotechnological Utilization with a Focus on Anaerobic Treatment of Cheese Whey: Current Status and Prospects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 5(9), pages 1-34, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ling, K. Charles, 2005. "Dairy Cooperative Growth Challenges: Technology, Ingredients (Proteins) and Equity Financing," Research Reports 280094, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    2. Godfrey, E. Bruce & Stockton, Matthew C. & Gray, C. Wilson, 2006. "The Fate Of Federal Milk Marketing Orders: Is Order 135 An Indication Of The Future?," A.E. Research Series 305039, University of Idaho, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.
    3. Webb, Tom & Liebrand, Carolyn & Ling, Charles & Thomson, Stephen & Ely, Gerald & Eversull, Eldon, 2005. "Rural Cooperatives Magazine, July/August 2005," Rural Cooperatives Magazine, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, vol. 72(4), July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:urdbrr:280102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rdagvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.