Corn-based ethanol

Transportation fuels are the largest consumers of crude oil. Petroleum-based transportation fuels are responsible for 35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions m the United States. Only percent of transportation fuels comes from renewable nonpetro-leum-based sources, primarily from the use of corn-based ethanol blended with gasoline to make gasohol. Increased use of biofuels could lower some of the pollution caused by the use of transportatiou fuels. 

Whims, J. (2002), Corn Based Ethanol Costs and Margins Attachment 1. Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, KA (www.agmrc.org/corn/info/ksuethl.pdf). 

By 2020, the EU wants to have 10% ethanol in its transportation fuel, and China is aiming for 15%. The United States Senate is proposing a biofuel production target of 36 billion gallons by 2020, of which 21 billion would come from corn-based ethanol. As a result, com prices doubled (from 1.65 to 3/bushel), and the number of ethanol plants also nearly doubled (from 81 to 129). 

The farm industry supports the production of corn-based ethanol, although the food industry opposes it, because the increased demand for corn is raising the cost of animal feed and, therefore, the cost of dairy, poultry, and other products. 

In 2007 the number of acres planted with soybeans in the United States fell 15% to about 63 million acres. Most of those acres lost involved a switch by Midwest farmers to more corn in response to demand from corn-based ethanol processors. Historically, corn and soybeans are complementary crops in the Midwest planted in a 50 50... 

Karuppiah, R., Peschel, A., Grossmann, I.E., Martin, M., Martinson, W., Zullo, L. (2008) Energy optimization for the design of corn-based ethanol plants. AIChE J. 54(6), 1499-1525. 

Subsidizing the production and use of corn-based ethanol for motor fuel attempts to hide the perverse result of consuming more overall energy than does using oil-based gasoline. Furthermore, the politically directed diversion of corn from food to fuel has caused... 

High energy and water demands in some processes, eg, corn-based ethanol production... 

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