GoodFuels

UNL report released

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Center for Energy Science Research has released a report entitled “Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol” that was published in the highly respected Journal of Industrial Ecology (JIE).

The report concludes that the US ethanol is energy efficient. In fact, ethanol reduced greenhouse gas emissions by up to 59% compared to gasoline.

The timely report’s key findings include:

• Direct effect GHG emissions were estimated to be equivalent to a 48% to 59% reduction compared to gasoline, a twofold to threefold greater reduction than reported in previous studies.

• Such improved technologies have the potential to move corn-ethanol closer to the hypothetical performance of cellulosic biofuels.

• These results suggest that corn-ethanol systems have substantially greater potential to mitigate GHG emissions and reduce dependence on imported petroleum for transportation fuels than reported previously.

• Recent improvements in crop production, biorefinery operation, and coproduct utilization in U.S. corn-ethanol systems result in greater GHG emissions reduction, energy efficiency, and ethanol-to-petroleum output/input ratios compared to previous studies.

• Ethanol-to-petroleum ratios were 10:1 to 13:1 for today’s typical corn-ethanol systems but could increase to 19:1 with progressive crop management that increases both yield and input use efficiency. A closed-loop biorefinery with an AD system reduces GHG emission by 67% and increases the net energy ratio to 2.2.

The report cites an earlier report compiled by the Argonne National Laboratory.

The report is available right here on GoodFuels.