2015: 30% of US Corn Harvest Will Be Gasoline
As Green Car Congress reported earlier this week, ethanol production is up 37% for the first quarter of 2008.
Ethanol plants in the US are now pumping out approximately 21.4 million gallons of corn-based ethanol every day, which has already amounted to 1.9 billion gallons for the year.
The upshot of all this production is progress toward the ethanol quotas required by the new Renewable Fuels Standard, which mandates 15 billion gallons of ethanol be produced from corn in the US by 2015.
But check this out: the Renewable Fuels Association estimates that in 2015 it will take 1/3 of the total US corn harvest to meet those quotas. The estimation is based on producing 3 gallons of ethanol from one bushel of corn, and a total corn harvest of 15 billion bushels.
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That’s a big increase in ethanol production: The US produced about 13 billion bushels of corn in 2007, but only produced about 6.4 billion gallons of ethanol. That means that a 16% increase in corn production will have to support a 234% increase in the amount of corn being turned into vehicle fuel.
If the food vs. fuel debate is hot now, just wait until 2015. What seems ludicrous about this situation is that we have better options going online already, like cellulosic ethanol and algae biofuel facilities. Let’s just hope they can start ramping up production before this really gets out of control.
Source: Green Car Congress (Apr. 6, 08) Report: US Ethanol Production up 37% in Q1
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April 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
The waistlines of the USA could do with less of our food being made from corn. The problem isn’t that we won’t have enough corn to eat it’s that cropland used for other crops will be converted to corn to feed our desire for junk food *AND* our desire to drive and get it.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
[...] no doubt that growing corn-based ethanol has some serious problems: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, controversy over increasing food [...]
April 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Off the American back-side and into America’s gas-tanks! Great!
April 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
[...] This process could provide a less-energy intensive alternative to standard ethanol production—the fuel which, like it or not, the US is currently banking on to carry it into the foreseeable future (don’t believe this? see my last post). [...]
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
[...] would also wager that corn-based ethanol, which will require about 30% of the US corn harvest by 2015, is a much bigger culprit than soy-based biodiesel if either one is significantly contributing to [...]
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] the US, on the other hand, ethanol still does not play such a prominent role, even though 23.7% of the annual corn crop is going to create biofuels. The market share that ethanol commands in the US will likely only [...]
June 6th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
[...] 2015: 30% of US Corn Harvest Will Be Gasoline [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
In a 2005 study addressing ethanol’s potential as a fuel alternative, David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University stated that, “Ethanol production in the United States does not benefit the nation’s energy security, its agriculture, the economy or the environment.”
Natural gas is the practical bridge to sustainable energy because 98% of it is in North America RIGHT NOW. What’s more, according to the Natural Gas Supply Association, reserves point to at least a 60-year supply. As the cleanest burning fuel available, Natural Gas emits little to no particulate matter. However, large-scale production of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel requires a considerable amount of cropland, which leads to soil erosion on a massive scale.