Ethanol fuel produced from corn reduces petroleum use, while also reducing greenhouses gases by about 13 percent, according to a report published in the journal Science.
In the report, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy compared six analyses of the energy required to produce ethanol and the energy benefits of ethanol and other co-products. The report found that those studies most critical of the energy benefits of ethanol ignored the added energy benefits of co-products such as animal feeds and included old or non-representative data about the energy used in the processes.
The report also examined the production of ethanol from grasses and other "cellulosic" biomass sources, and found that the energy benefit would decrease slightly, but the greenhouse gas benefits would be greatly enhanced.
The authors suggest that such cellulosic ethanol could provide a sizeable fraction of the fuel needed for transportation in the United States.
Several companies are already pursuing cellulosic ethanol. Abengoa Bioenergy, which has a pilot plant in Nebraska, is building a plant in Spain to produce 110,000 gallons per month of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues. MEMS USA, Inc. plans to build a facility in northern Ontario capable of producing 5 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per month from forestry and mill waste. And Iogen Corporation is working with Volkswagen and Shell to study the feasibility of building a cellulosic ethanol plant in Germany, according to the EPA.
