IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uerser/308483.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New Technologies in Ethanol Production

Author

Listed:
  • Rendleman, C. Matthew
  • Shapouri, Hosein

Abstract

Fuel ethanol production has increased steadily in the United States since the 1980s, when it was given impetus by the need to reduce energy dependence on foreign supplies. The momentum has continued as production costs have fallen, and as the U.S. Clean Air Act has specified a percentage of renewable fuels to be mixed with gasoline. The fraction of annual U.S. corn production used to make ethanol rose from around 1 percent in 1980 to around 20 percent in 2006, and ethanol output rose from 175 million gallons to about 5.0 billion gallons over the same period. New technologies that may further increase cost savings include coproduct development, such as recovery of high-value food supplements, and cellulosic conversion. High oil prices may spur the risk-taking needed to develop cellulose-to-ethanol production. Developments such as dry fractionation technology, now commercially viable, may alter the structure of the industry by giving the cheaper dry-grind method an edge over wet milling. Dry milling requires smaller plants, and local farmer cooperatives could flourish as a result. Though improvements in processing and technology are important, however, the fluctuating price of inputs such as corn, the cost of energy alternatives, and environmental developments play larger roles in the fortunes of the industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Rendleman, C. Matthew & Shapouri, Hosein, 2007. "New Technologies in Ethanol Production," Agricultural Economic Reports 308483, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:uerser:308483
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.308483
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/308483/files/aer842.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.308483?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. Paul Gallagher & Donald Johnson, 1999. "Some New Ethanol Technology: Cost Competition and Adoption Effects in the Petroleum Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 89-120.
    2. C. Matthew Rendleman & Neil Hohmann, 1993. "The impact of production innovations in the fuel ethanol industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(3), pages 217-231.
    3. Paul W. Gallagher & Daniel M. Otto & Mark Dikeman, 2000. "Effects of an Oxygen Requirement for Fuel in Midwest Ethanol Markets and Local Economies," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 22(2), pages 292-311.
    4. Gallagher, Paul & Johnson, Donald, 1999. "Some New Ethanol Technology: Cost Competition and Adoption Effects in the Petroleum Market," ISU General Staff Papers 199901010800001274, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    5. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mark & Fritz, John & Wailes, Eric J. & Gauthier, Wayne M. & Shapouri, Hosein, 2003. "Biomass From Crop Residues: Cost And Supply Estimates," Agricultural Economic Reports 34063, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Kevin McNew & Duane Griffith, 2005. "Measuring the Impact of Ethanol Plants on Local Grain Prices," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 164-180.
    7. Gallagher, Paul W. & Johnson, Donald, 1999. "Some New Ethanol Technology: Cost Competition and Adoption Effects in the Petroleum Market," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5265, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    8. Gallagher, Paul W. & Otto, Daniel & Dikeman, Mike, 2000. "Effects of an Oxygen Requirement for Fuel in Midwest Ethanol Markets and Local Economies," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5244, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Hohmann, Neil & Rendleman, C. Matthew, 1993. "Emerging Technologies in Ethanol Production," Agricultural Information Bulletins 309679, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    10. Kevin McNew & Duane Griffith, 2005. "Measuring the Impact of Ethanol Plants on Local Grain Prices," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 164-180.
    11. Tembo, Gelson & Epplin, Francis M. & Huhnke, Raymond L., 2003. "Integrative Investment Appraisal of a Lignocellulosic Biomass-to-Ethanol Industry," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 1-23, December.
    12. Torre Ugarte, Daniel de la & Walsh, Marie E. & Shapouri, Hosein & Slinsky, Stephen P., 2003. "The Economic Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Production on U.S. Crop Production," Agricultural Economic Reports 33997, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    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. Li, Jun & Zhao, Renyong & Xu, Youjie & Wu, Xiaorong & Bean, Scott R. & Wang, Donghai, 2022. "Fuel ethanol production from starchy grain and other crops: An overview on feedstocks, affecting factors, and technical advances," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 223-239.
    2. Hettinga, W.G. & Junginger, H.M. & Dekker, S.C. & Hoogwijk, M. & McAloon, A.J. & Hicks, K.B., 2009. "Understanding the reductions in US corn ethanol production costs: An experience curve approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 190-203, January.
    3. Jenkins, Timothy L. & Sutherland, John W., 2014. "A cost model for forest-based biofuel production and its application to optimal facility size determination," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 32-39.

    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. Gallagher, Paul W. & Shapouri, Hosein, 2008. "Biomass Crop and Ethanol Supply from Agricultural Lands in the United States with Methodology, Estimation Results, and State-by-State Simulations," Agricultural Economic Reports 308485, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. 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.
    3. Junpyo Park & John Anderson & Eric Thompson, 2019. "Land-Use, Crop Choice, and Proximity to Ethanol Plants," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-14, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Gallagher, Paul W. & Shapouri, Hosein & Price, Jeffrey & Schamel, Guenter & Brubaker, Heather, 2003. "Some long-run effects of growing markets and renewable fuel standards on additives markets and the US ethanol industry," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 25(6-7), pages 585-608, September.
    6. Gallagher, Paul W. & Shapouri, Hosein & Price, Jeffrey & Schamel, Guenter & Brubaker, Heather, 2003. "Some long-run effects of growing markets and renewable fuel standards on additives markets and the US ethanol industry," ISU General Staff Papers 200309010700001445, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    7. Zhang, Zibin & Vedenov, Dmitry V. & Wetzstein, Michael E., 2007. "Can the U.S. Ethanol Industry Compete in the Alternative Fuels' Market?," 2007 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2007, Mobile, Alabama 34867, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    8. 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.
    9. Uwe Schneider & Bruce McCarl, 2003. "Economic Potential of Biomass Based Fuels for Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(4), pages 291-312, April.
    10. Szulczyk, Kenneth R. & McCarl, Bruce A. & Cornforth, Gerald, 2010. "Market penetration of ethanol," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 394-403, January.
    11. Thorsell, Sara & Epplin, Francis M. & Huhnke, Raymond L., 2003. "Economies Of Size Of A Coordinated Biorefinery Feedstock Harvest System," 2003 Annual Meeting, February 1-5, 2003, Mobile, Alabama 35059, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    12. Bai, Yun & Ouyang, Yanfeng & Pang, Jong-Shi, 2012. "Biofuel supply chain design under competitive agricultural land use and feedstock market equilibrium," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1623-1633.
    13. Gallagher, Paul & Shapouri, Hosein & Brubaker, Heather, 2007. "Scale, Organization, and Profitability of Ethanol Processing," ISU General Staff Papers 200703010800001439, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    14. Paul Gallagher & Mark Dikeman & John Fritz & Eric Wailes & Wayne Gauthier & Hosein Shapouri, 2003. "Supply and Social Cost Estimates for Biomass from Crop Residues in the United States," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(4), pages 335-358, April.
    15. Frederic L. Pryor, 2009. "The Economics Of Gasohol," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 523-537, October.
    16. Tembo, Gelson & Epplin, Francis M. & Huhnke, Raymond L., 2003. "Integrative Investment Appraisal of a Lignocellulosic Biomass-to-Ethanol Industry," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mark & Fritz, John & Wailes, Eric & Gauthier, Wayne & Shapouri, Hosein, 2003. "Supply and Social Cost Estimates for Biomass from Crop Residues in the United States," ISU General Staff Papers 200304010800001493, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Bai, Yun & Ouyang, Yanfeng & Pang, Jong-Shi, 2016. "Enhanced models and improved solution for competitive biofuel supply chain design under land use constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(1), pages 281-297.
    19. Mohamed Abdul Ghani, N. Muhammad Aslaam & Vogiatzis, Chrysafis & Szmerekovsky, Joseph, 2018. "Biomass feedstock supply chain network design with biomass conversion incentives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 39-49.
    20. Mônica A. Haddad & Gary Taylor & Francis Owusu, 2010. "Locational Choices of the Ethanol Industry in the Midwest Corn Belt," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(1), pages 74-86, February.

    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:uerser:308483. 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/ersgvus.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.