Understanding Why the Carbon Intensity Score Is Important for Ethanol
by Kellan Heavican (Brownfield Ag News) The head of the world’s largest biofuel producers says carbon intensity scoring is critical to expanding ethanol production.
POET President Jeff Lautt tells Brownfield it’s used as a benchmark to determine greenhouse gas emissions. “All of the carbon scoring it takes to extract oil out, what energy it takes to produce it to make gasoline, the energy to get it to the end market and then ultimately that carbon as it goes through the car what that means to the environment.”
He says a lower score can increase demand for ethanol-blended fuel, which adds value to corn farmers. “The goal is for everything that is made from here on out into the future is to be better than that. When ethanol gets measured today, we’re already 50 percent better than gasoline.”
Lautt says projects that use pipelines to transport carbon, like the Heartland Greenway System, can further reduce the impact on the environment “In a project like this, it makes us another 25 percent better,” he says. “So, getting to 75 percent lower carbon intensity than gasoline.” READ MORE
