Amount of energy used to make ethanol continues to fall, USDA finds
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2016 - Corn production has become much more
energy-efficient since the early 1990s, according to a new
report from USDA’s Economic Research Service.
“Ethanol has made the transition from an energy sink, to a
moderate net energy gain in the 1990s, to a substantial net energy gain in the
present. And there are still prospects for improvement,” said the report, “2015
Energy Balance for the Corn-Ethanol Industry.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack touted the results. “U.S.
farmers continue to improve their efficiency in the production of corn for
ethanol while the impact of ethanol production on corn production has become
marginal,” he said. “Between 1991 and 2010, direct energy use in corn
production has dropped by 46 percent per bushel of corn produced and total
energy use per bushel of corn by 35 percent. Moreover, between 2005 and 2010,
direct energy use fell by 25 percent and the total energy use by 8.2 percent
per bushel.”
Vilsack said that “more energy is being produced from ethanol than
is used to produce it, by factors of 2-to-1 nationally and by factors of 4-to-1
in the Midwest.”
The report also said there is “significant potential for a 30-fold
improvement in energy balance by using biomass (stover)-powered refineries.”
Another
study, released by the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy
Research Institute, found that a billion gallons of additional corn starch
ethanol would increase the median U.S. corn price by 15 cents per bushel,
excluding short‐run price impacts.
The
review of 170 studies released since 2010 also found – based on limited data –
that the additional corn starch ethanol would result in fewer livestock and higher
livestock prices, and reductions in gasoline use in the United States “due to
competition with ethanol and higher fuel costs, plus a partly offsetting rise
in rest of world gasoline use.”
The
studies that FAPRI looked at also suggest that “well under half of the increase
in corn demand to make the additional ethanol is met with greater production,
even giving time for supply to respond. Some studies estimate that the
production increase offsets the increase in demand, but most do not.”
Study
results were mixed on the effects on land use, some implying that a $1 per
bushel higher corn price “can lead to millions of more acres allocated to corn
or other crops in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, some drawn from forest
areas. Some studies focus on short‐run response with limited or no land use
change. There are few observations and the range of estimates is sometimes
quite wide.”
The
report, “Literature
Review of Estimated Market Effects of U.S. Corn Starch Ethanol,” was
prepared by Wyatt Thompson, Jarrett Whistance and Hoa T.K. Hoang.
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