Ethanol Fuel Energy Balance - Energy Balance Reports

Energy Balance Reports

In 1995 the USDA released a report stating that the net energy balance of corn ethanol in the United States was an average of 1.24. It was previously considered to have a negative net energy balance. However, due to increases in corn crop yield and more efficient farming practices corn ethanol had gained energy efficiency

Cassman, a professor of agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in 2008 that ethanol has a substantial net positive direct energy balance—1.5 to 1.6 more units of energy are derived from ethanol than are used to produce it. Comparing 2008 to 2003, Alan Tiemann of Seward, a Nebraska Corn Board member, said that ethanol plants produce 15 percent more ethanol from a bushel of corn and use about 20 percent less energy in the process. At the same time, corn growers are more efficient, producing more corn per acre and using less energy to do so.

Opponents of corn ethanol production in the U.S. often quote the 2005 paper of David Pimentel, a retired Entomologist, and Tadeusz Patzek, a Geological Engineer from UC Berkeley. Both have been exceptionally critical of ethanol and other biofuels. Their studies contend that ethanol, and biofuels in general, are "energy negative", meaning they take more energy to produce than is contained in the final product.

A 2006 article in Science offers the consensus opinion that current corn ethanol technologies had similar greenhouse gas emissions to gasoline, but was much less petroleum-intensive than gasoline. Fossil fuels also require significant energy inputs which have seldom been accounted for in the past.

Ethanol is not the only product created during production. By-products also have energy content. Corn is typically 66% starch and the remaining 33% is not fermented. This unfermented component is called distillers grain, which is high in fats and proteins, and makes good animal feed.

In 2000, Dr. Michael Wang, of Argonne National Laboratory, wrote that these ethanol by-products are the most contentious issue in evaluating the energy balance of ethanol. He wrote that Pimentel assumes that corn ethanol entirely replaces gasoline and so the quantity of by-products is too large for the market to absorb, and they become waste. At lower quantities of production, Wang finds it appropriate to credit corn ethanol based on the input energy requirement of the feed product or good that the ethanol by-product displaces. In 2004, a USDA report found that co-products accounting made the difference between energy ratios of 1.06 and 1.67. In 2006, MIT researcher Tiffany Groode came to similar conclusions about the co-product issue.

In Brazil where sugar cane is used, the yield is higher, and conversion to ethanol is more energy efficient than corn. Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production may improve yields even further.

In 2006 a study from the University of Minnesota found that corn-grain ethanol produced 1.25 units of energy per unit put in.

A 2008 study by the University of Nebraska found a 5.4 energy balance for ethanol derived specifically from switchgrass. This estimate is better than in previous studies and according to the authors partly due to the larger size of the field trial (3-9 ha) on 10 farms.