Has Ethanol Lost Its License To Drive The Corn Market?

Biorefinery/Fuel Production Infrastructure, Business News/Analysis, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Infrastructure, Opinions

March 23, 2012

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by Stu Ellis (FarmGateBlog) …Now the bloom is off the rose. Gasoline demand is down, the blend wall is pushing ethanol demand down, and corn prices are not as strong as they once were.

…He (Bob Wisner, biofuels economist at Iowa State University) indicates 2015 may see about 3 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol produced because the industry has had a much slower start to economic efficiency than expected. But in the meantime, lower demand for gasoline means less demand for ethanol, regardless of its source and less profitability means reduced efforts in reaching the goals. And he says the US ethanol industry will be capable of producing much more than needed if gasoline demand drops further, either because of the recession or increased fuel efficiency.

…Wisner says there may be an opportunity from advanced biofuels, with the conversion of corn to biobutanol.

Biobutanol is considered a “drop-in” fuel, since does not required a specific blend percentage, can be transported in trucks or pipelines with regular gasoline, and have a much closer combustion and mileage performance to gasoline than does ethanol. While the octane rating of biobutanol is less than ethanol is more than gasoline, but while the energy content of ethanol is only 66% of gasoline, the biobutanol energy content is 90% of gasoline. The corn market should benefit, since biobutanol will be an added product and not replace ethanol. READ MORE

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