IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/usdami/391412.html

2015 Energy Balance for the Corn-Ethanol Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Gallagher, Paul W.
  • Yee, Winnie C.
  • Baumes, Harry S.

Abstract

Report Introduction: The ratio of energy in a gallon of ethanol relative to the external fossil energy required to produce the corn and process and ship the ethanol is an important measure of sustainability of the corn ethanol industry (Pimentel). Some revisions of initial energy balance calculations have already verified enhanced industry performance and identified methods that could yield further improvement (Shapouri, et al., 2002: Gallagher and Shapouri). A post-expansion survey of ethanol processors thermal and electrical energy use showed further improvement in energy balance (Shapouri, et al., 2010). Ethanol made the transition from an energy sink, to a moderate net energy gain in the 1990s, and to a substantial net energy gain by 2008. This study investigates whether ethanol energy balance still improves and reviews some potential sources of future improvement. Estimates of the current energy balance situation are presented in this report. We update effects of current corn production practices, using current fertilizer and chemical application rates from the most recent data collected by the USDA. Updates also include the energy embodied in modern farm machinery. Energy use by the transportation system for corn procurement and ethanol distribution is also revised to reflect current marketing practices. Current thermal and electrical energy use by ethanol processors is also included. Furthermore, we discuss the range of energy balance outcomes in the industry, according to byproduct marketing practices and process energy sources. Lastly, we examine the potential for further energy balance improvements through improved economic management of byproduct marketing and power choices. We find that profitable practices followed by some firms also tend to improve the energy balance above the industry average.

Suggested Citation

  • Gallagher, Paul W. & Yee, Winnie C. & Baumes, Harry S., 2016. "2015 Energy Balance for the Corn-Ethanol Industry," USDA Miscellaneous 391412, United States Department of Agriculture.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:usdami:391412
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.391412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/391412/files/2015EnergyBalanceCornEthanol.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.391412?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, , vol. 20(2), pages 89-120, April.
    2. repec:aen:journl:1999v20-02-a04 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mike & Fritz, J. & Wailes, Eric J. & Gauthier, W. & Shapouri, H., 2003. "Biomass from Crop Residues: Some Cost and Supply Estimates," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10240, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    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. & 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.
    6. Shapouri, Hosein & Duffield, James A. & Wang, Michael Q., 2002. "The Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol: An Update," Agricultural Economic Reports 34075, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. Gallagher, Paul W. & Dikeman, Mark & Fritz, J. & Wailes, Eric J. & Shapouri, H., 2003. "Biomass from Crop Residues: Some Social Cost and Supply Estimates for U.S. Crops," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5124, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Schneider, Uwe A. & McCarl, Bruce A., 2001. "Economic Potential of Biomass-Based Fuels for Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation," Hebrew University of Jerusalem Archive 18420, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
    3. 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.
    4. Rendleman, C. Matthew & Shapouri, Hosein, 2007. "New Technologies in Ethanol Production," Agricultural Economic Reports 308483, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    5. Holmatov, B. & Schyns, J.F. & Krol, M.S. & Gerbens-Leenes, P.W. & Hoekstra, A.Y., 2021. "Can crop residues provide fuel for future transport? Limited global residue bioethanol potentials and large associated land, water and carbon footprints," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Frederic L. Pryor, 2009. "The Economics Of Gasohol," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 523-537, October.
    8. Morrison, Geoffrey M. & Kumar, Ravindra & Chugh, Sachin & Puri, S. K. & Tuli, D. K. & Malhotra, R. K., 2011. "Hydrogen Transportation in Dehli? Investigating the Hydrogen Compressed Natural Gas (H-CNG) Option," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt5hg3r4pn, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    9. 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.
    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. 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.
    12. Liu, Tingting & McConkey, Brian & Huffman, Ted & Smith, Stephen & MacGregor, Bob & Yemshanov, Denys & Kulshreshtha, Suren, 2014. "Potential and impacts of renewable energy production from agricultural biomass in Canada," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 222-229.
    13. 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.
    14. Townsend, T.J. & Sparkes, D.L. & Ramsden, S.J. & Glithero, N.J. & Wilson, P., 2018. "Wheat straw availability for bioenergy in England," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 349-357.
    15. Walsh, Marie E., 2005. "Non-Traditional Sources of Biomass Feedstocks," Energy from Agriculture: New Technologies, Innovative Programs and Success Stories, December 14-15, 2005, St. Louis, Missouri 7625, Farm Foundation.
    16. 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.
    17. Zhang, Bingquan & Xu, Jialu & Lin, Zhixian & Lin, Tao & Faaij, André P.C., 2021. "Spatially explicit analyses of sustainable agricultural residue potential for bioenergy in China under various soil and land management scenarios," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. Gallagher, Paul W., 2014. "The regional effects of a biomass fuel industry on US agriculture," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 598-609.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:usdami:391412. 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: http://www.usda.gov .

    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.