Ethanol Industry Gets Welcome News: USDA Study Shows It’s More Environmentally Friendly than Gasoline

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April 09, 2019

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(The Messenger) ... The United States Department of Agriculture has just released the findings of a USDA study about the environmental impact of the corn-ethanol industry. The conclusions are superb news — ethanol has significant greenhouse gas benefits when compared to gasoline.

The most important conclusion of an extensive research project, which was headed by Dr. Jan Lewandrowski of USDA’s office of the chief economist, is that greenhouse-gas emissions from corn-based ethanol are about 39 percent lower than from gasoline. There’s even better news when those ethanol refineries that are natural-gas powered are used for comparison. In those situations, ethanol is 43 percent better than gasoline in terms of the overall greenhouse-gas impact.

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The latest research differs importantly from expectations widely circulated by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010. Estimates developed nearly a decade ago concluded that ethanol was only slightly better than gasoline in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions. According to the USDA, its new study shows that earlier EPA projections of the amount of land to be used for corn destined for ethanol production and the environmental efficiency of ethanol manufacturing processes both proved significantly wrong. READ MORE

USDA Study Shows Significant Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Ethanol Compared with Gasoline (US Department of Agriculture)

The greenhouse gas benefits of corn ethanol – assessing recent evidence (Taylor & Francis Online)

USDA study shows significant greenhouse gas benefits of ethanol compared with gasoline (Newton County Times)

USDA study shows significant ethanol greenhouse gas benefits (AgriNews)

Building the Evidence on Corn Ethanol’s Greenhouse Gas Profile (US Department of Agriculture blog)

Extensive and Intensive Agricultural Supply Response (Annual Review of Resource Economics)

USDA: Study shows significant GHG benefits of corn ethanol (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

USDA study finds GHG from corn-based ethanol ~39% to 43% lower than from gasoline; reduction of >70% possible by 2022 (Green Car Congress)

Ethanol improving its GHG emission reductions (Feedstuffs)

Effects of Ethanol Plant Proximity and Crop Prices on Land-Use Change in the United States (American Journal of Agricultural Economics)

New USDA Study Underscores Ethanol’s Critical Role in Reducing Greenhouse Gases (Growth Energy)

USDA study highlights role of ethanol in GHG reduction (Biofuels International)

CENSKY STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF UPDATED ETHANOL DATA (Brownfield Ag News)

Study finds ethanol ‘greener’ than gas (Excelsior Springs Standard)

Excerpt from USDA: The study, led by Dr. Jan Lewandrowski of USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist, and published in the journal Biofuels, supports findings of other research that ethanol has a significantly better greenhouse gas profile than previously estimated.

The study, titled “The greenhouse gas benefits of corn ethanol—assessing recent evidence,” attributes much of these additional benefits to revised estimates of the impacts of land-use change as a result of demand for ethanol. Where previous estimates anticipated farmers bringing additional land into production as a result of increased corn prices, recent analysis finds only modest increases in crop acreage. Additional improvements at ethanol refineries, combined with on-farm conservation practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as reduced tillage and cover crops, have further decreased emissions associated with corn ethanol. The study projects that with added improvements in refineries and on farms, a reduction of over 70 percent in lifecycle emissions is possible by 2022.

More information on the greenhouse gas profile of biofuels is available at www.usda.gov/oce/oeep. READ MORE

Excerpt from Taylor & Francis Online: It is now 2018 and new data, scientific studies, technical reports, and other information allow us to examine the emissions pathway corn-ethanol has actually followed since 2010. Using this information, we assess corn ethanol's current GHG profile at 39–43% lower than gasoline. We also develop two projected emissions scenarios for corn ethanol in 2022. These scenarios highlight opportunities to produce ethanol with emissions that are 47.0–70.0% lower than gasoline. Many countries are now developing or revising renewable energy policies. Typically, biofuel substitutes for gasoline are required to reduce GHG emissions by more than 21%. READ MORE

Excerpt from USDA blog: A 2015 study published in the Annual Review of Resource Economics showed that although higher corn prices gave an incentive to farmers to grow more corn, farmers responded with increases in double-cropping and planting in fields that were fallow, and reducing temporary pasture to increase corn production—and far less land use change than originally predicted. In other words, although farmers produced more corn, they relied on improved technology and intensive cropping on existing fields rather than converting new lands into production.

Another study published last year in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics found that between 2003 and 2014, increases in ethanol demand alone led to a 3 percent increase in corn acreage, and less than one percent increase in total crop acreage in the United States by 2012 compared to 2008. This was a far smaller impact than previously projected.

These studies demonstrate that although there were additional acres brought into corn production as a result of ethanol demand, the land use change impacts weren’t nearly as drastic as we once thought.

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But it isn’t just land use change that influences the GHG balance of ethanol. How corn is produced on farms and how refineries operate can also have a large impact on greenhouse gases, from the changes in soil carbon and the emissions associated with growing crops, to the GHG emissions from producing the fuel.

Independent of our study, another recent analysis titled, “Land management change greatly impacts biofuels’ greenhouse gas emissions,” and published in the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy in 2018 found that when corn farmers adopt practices that increase soil organic carbon, such as using manure and cover crops, the lifecycle GHG emissions for ethanol are about 40 percent lower than gasoline.

Our article in the journal Biofuels also assessed the GHG impacts of improved technologies. These include adopting conservation (PDF, 7.6 MB) on corn farms, such as cover crops, no-till, and precision agriculture technology, which can decrease emissions on the farm level. Combined with efficiency improvements in refineries, such as switching to biomass as a process fuel, these improvements could result in a 70 percent lower GHG emission profile for ethanol over gasoline by 2022.

Refinery efficiency improvements can have benefits beyond reducing GHG emissions as well, such as producing co-products like corn oil. Since 2010, ethanol refineries have evolved by adopting more efficient processes to produce more ethanol per bushel of corn. Of course, taking these changes into account further drives down ethanol’s lifecycle GHG emissions.

All this research aside, there are certainly environmental tradeoffs involved in ethanol production. Any form of energy production has social and environmental costs. However, when it comes to GHGs, the evidence demonstrates that corn ethanol is a net positive compared with gasoline—and there is room for continued improvement. READ MORE