IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/nddaae/95745.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Feasibility of Sugarbeet Biofuel Production in Central North Dakota

Author

Listed:
  • Maung, Thein A.
  • Gustafson, Cole R.

Abstract

This study examines the financial feasibility of producing ethanol biofuel from sugar beets in central North Dakota. Under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, biofuel from sugar beets uniquely qualifies as an “advanced biofuel”. EISA mandates production of 15 billion gallons of advanced biofuels annually by 2022. A stochastic simulation financial model was calibrated with irrigated sugar beet data from central North Dakota to determine economic feasibility and risks of production for a 10MGY (million gallon per year) and 20MGY ethanol plant. Study results indicate that feedstock costs, which include sugar beets and beet molasses, account for more than 70% of total production expenses. The estimated breakeven ethanol price for the 20MGY plant is $1.52 per gallon and $1.71 per gallon for the 10MGY plant. Breakeven prices for feedstocks are also estimated and show that the 20MGYplant can tolerate greater ethanol and feedstock price risk than the 10MGY plant. Our results also show that one of the most important factors that affect investment success is the price of ethanol. At an ethanol price of $1.84 per gallon, and assuming other factors remain unchanged, the estimated net present value (NPV) of the 20MGY plant is $41.54 million. By comparison, the estimated NPV of the 10MGY plant is only $8.30 million. Other factors such as changes in prices of co-products and utilities have a relatively minor effect on investment viability. This study examines the financial feasibility of producing ethanol biofuel from sugar beets in central North Dakota. Under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, biofuel from sugar beets uniquely qualifies as an “advanced biofuel”. EISA mandates production of 15 billion gallons of advanced biofuels annually by 2022. A stochastic simulation financial model was calibrated with irrigated sugar beet data from central North Dakota to determine economic feasibility and risks of production for a 10MGY (million gallon per year) and 20MGY ethanol plant. Study results indicate that feedstock costs, which include sugar beets and beet molasses, account for more than 70% of total production expenses. The estimated breakeven ethanol price for the 20MGY plant is $1.52 per gallon and $1.71 per gallon for the 10MGY plant. Breakeven prices for feedstocks are also estimated and show that the 20MGYplant can tolerate greater ethanol and feedstock price risk than the 10MGY plant. Our results also show that one of the most important factors that affect investment success is the price of ethanol. At an ethanol price of $1.84 per gallon, and assuming other factors remain unchanged, the estimated net present value (NPV) of the 20MGY plant is $41.54 million. By comparison, the estimated NPV of the 10MGY plant is only $8.30 million. Other factors such as changes in prices of co-products and utilities have a relatively minor effect on investment viability.

Suggested Citation

  • Maung, Thein A. & Gustafson, Cole R., 2010. "The Economic Feasibility of Sugarbeet Biofuel Production in Central North Dakota," Agribusiness & Applied Economics Report 95745, North Dakota State University, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:nddaae:95745
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.95745
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/95745/files/AAE667.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.95745?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Haankuku, Choolwe & Epplin, Francis M. & Kakani, Gopal V., 2015. "Energy Sugar Beets to Biofuel: Field to Fuel Production System and Cost Estimates," 2015 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia 196777, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    2. Sorda, Giovanni & Madlener, Reinhard, 2012. "Cost-Effectiveness of Lignocellulose Biorefineries and their Impact on the Deciduous Wood Markets in Germany," FCN Working Papers 8/2012, E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN).
    3. De Laporte, Aaron & Ripplinger, David, 2016. "The effects of opportunity costs, supply chain logistics and carbon balances on advanced biofuel production," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235852, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Ripplinger, David & Saxowsky, David M. & Bangsund, Dean A., 2014. "Economic Feasibility of Irrigation Along the McClusky Canal in North Dakota: Farm-level Returns," Agribusiness & Applied Economics Report 196960, North Dakota State University, Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics.
    5. Almohammed, Fouad & Mhemdi, Houcine & Vorobiev, Eugène, 2016. "Pulsed electric field treatment of sugar beet tails as a sustainable feedstock for bioethanol production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 49-57.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries; Production Economics;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ags:nddaae:95745. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/dandsus.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.