IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genstf/200901010800001492.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Improving Sustainability of the Corn-Ethanol Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Gallagher, Paul W.
  • Shapouri, Hosein

Abstract

Two criteria based on characteristics of plant growth establish when bio-fuels can provide sustainable energy for society. The first criteria: enough solar energy stored during plant growth becomes available for man's use. Pimentel's early evaluation of the US ethanol industry calculated the ratio of BTUs in ethanol: BTUs from fossil energy of com and ethanol production at less than one. He concluded that ethanol is not sustainable energy, and questioned the industry's existence. Recent energy balance ratios that include adjustments for co-product feed and higher energy efficiency in corn/ethanol production suggest a moderate contribution from captured solar energy. The ratio is around I .3 (Shapouri et al., 2002). Dale questions the relevance of the net energy criteria, noting that economic value creation is consistent with energy ratios less than or near one. Dale (2007) proposes a second criteria for a sustainable fuel: enough C02 in the atmosphere is converted to carbon in the plant and 02 in the atmosphere through photosynthesis and plant growth to improve global-warming. Comparing greenhouse gas emissions from a refinery and an ethanol plant, some have calculated that emissions could be about 20 % lower with today's com-ethanol instead of the corresponding output of petroleum-based gasoline (Wang et al., 1999). Thus, recent calculations of energy ratios and C02 emission comparisons both suggest that the com-ethanol industry is sustainable. Further, public policies to ensure the com-ethanol industry 's exislence find moderale justification from both suslainability measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Gallagher, Paul W. & Shapouri, Hosein, 2009. "Improving Sustainability of the Corn-Ethanol Industry," ISU General Staff Papers 200901010800001492, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isu:genstf:200901010800001492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/c1229d13-36ac-4b75-a743-7dbe7fde7d3f/content
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gallagher, Paul & Schamel, Guenter & Shapouri, Hosein & Brubaker, Heather, 2006. "The international competitiveness of the U.S. corn-ethanol industry: A comparison with sugar-ethanol processing in Brazil," ISU General Staff Papers 200601010800001441, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Paul Gallagher & Guenter Schamel & Hosein Shapouri & Heather Brubaker, 2006. "The international competitiveness of the U.S. corn-ethanol industry: A comparison with sugar-ethanol processing in Brazil," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 109-134.
    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. Paul W. Gallagher, 2009. "Roles for evolving markets, policies, and technology improvements in U.S. corn ethanol industry development," Regional Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Apr, pages 12-33.
    2. Gallagher, Paul W., 2009. "Roles for Evolving Markets, Policies, and Technology Improvements in U.S. Corn Ethanol Industry Development," ISU General Staff Papers 200901010800001495, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.

    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. Jacinto F. Fabiosa & John C. Beghin & Fengxia Dong & JAmani Elobeid & Simla Tokgoz & Tun-Hsiang Yu, 2010. "Land Allocation Effects of the Global Ethanol Surge: Predictions from the International FAPRI Model," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(4), pages 687-706.
    2. Luciana S. Soler & Peter H. Verburg & Diógenes S. Alves, 2014. "Evolution of Land Use in the Brazilian Amazon: From Frontier Expansion to Market Chain Dynamics," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-34, August.
    3. Frederic L. Pryor, 2009. "The Economics Of Gasohol," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 523-537, October.
    4. Yi, Fujin & Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia & Thome, Karen, 2013. "An Analysis of the Effects of Government Subsidies and the Renewable Fuels Standard on the Fuel Ethanol Industry: A Structural Econometric Model," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150224, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Fox, Glenn & Shwedel, Kenneth, 2007. "North American Ethanol Bionenergy Policies and Their NAFTA Implications," 2007 NAAMIC Workshop IV: Contemporary Drivers of Integration 163897, North American Agrifood Market Integration Consortium (NAAMIC).
    6. K.M. Thomé & A.B.P. Soares, 2015. "International market structure and competitiveness at the malted beer: from 2003 to 2012," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 61(4), pages 166-178.
    7. Carraresi, Laura & Banterle, Alessandro, 2015. "Agri-food Competitive Performance in EU Countries: A Fifteen-Year Retrospective," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 18(2), pages 1-26, May.
    8. Crago, Christine L. & Khanna, Madhu & Barton, Jason & Giuliani, Eduardo & Amaral, Weber, 2010. "Competitiveness of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol compared to US corn ethanol," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7404-7415, November.
    9. Simla Tokgoz & Amani Elobeid, 2006. "Analysis of the Link between Ethanol, Energy, and Crop Markets, An," Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) Publications (archive only) 06-wp435, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:isu:genstf:200901010800001492. 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: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.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.