US Fuel Ethanol Production Up 47% in May from Year Prior
31 July 2008
US production of fuel ethanol reached 18.543 million barrels (778.8 million gallons US) in May 2008, up 47% from May 2007 and up 10% just from the preceding month, according to the latest Oxygenate Production report from the US Energy Information Administration.
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| US monthly ethanol production. Click to enlarge. |
Total current production capacity from the 162 plants operating in the US is 9.407 billion gallons per year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). Facilities currently known to be expanding and under construction will bring that annual capacity to 13.615 billion gallons.
Total fuel ethanol production for 2007 was 6.498 billion gallons according to the RFA and 6.521 billion gallons according to the EIA.
I just wish it was cellulosic ethanol that was up 47% !!!
Posted by: ejj | 31 July 2008 at 05:41 AM
18.5M barrels per month is about what we use in a day, so that makes it about 3.3% of our oil usage.
Does anyone know how many gallons of gasoline (hopefully a fraction of 1 gallon) are needed to produce one gallon of corn ethanol?
Posted by: Tom | 31 July 2008 at 08:43 AM
According to wikipedia, you get 1.3-1.6 gallons ethanol output per gallon input, which is not very good.
The U.S. needs to shift future ethanol production to
cellulosic ethanol (corn stover, sugar cane bagasse, switchgrass, etc.):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol
Ethanol from municipal waste:
http://bioenergy.checkbiotech.org/news/2008-07-21/Municipal_waste_to_produce_ethanol_by_2011/
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/NEWS05/807300379/1064
Posted by: RMG36 | 31 July 2008 at 09:46 AM
You get 1.34 BTUs of ethanol energy from 1 BTU of fossil fuel input. Of that 1 unit, some comes from diesel fuel, some from coal (via electricity generation), and some from natural gas (used to create the fertilizer to grow the corn). I have not seen a breakdown of the fractions, but from discussing it with experts, it seems most of it is not from liquid fuels (gasoline & diesel).
Cellulosic will be better - but we need to start creating the system now. Once cellulosic comes on stream, it will naturally displace corn ethanol due to superior economics. But if we wait for cellulosic, the large-scale deployment will be much slower.
Posted by: shane | 31 July 2008 at 10:58 AM
Gasoline is not used in the production of ethanol.
There are small amounts of diesel fuel used for the farm equipment and transporation of the corn. The main energy inputs come in the form of fertilzers and heating at the ethanol plant (both for distillation and for drying of DDGS). This energy typically comes from natural gas.
Gasification of biomass (corn cobs for example) is easily capable of providing this energy in an ecconomical manner.
Posted by: Paul | 31 July 2008 at 10:59 AM
If only the government money wasted on corn based ethanol had been used for rebates on electric vehicle rebates or PHEV incentives, we would be so much further down the road to imported oil independance.
Posted by: Sedrick | 31 July 2008 at 11:32 AM
This is awesome. We need to keep the momentum going! Ethanol is one of the cleanest, best forms of resources that America has in abundance. And I know there are questions about efficiency, but the science is only going to get better as the oil wells dry up.
Posted by: CaptMorgan | 31 July 2008 at 01:27 PM
no no gasoline engines can be converted to run on 100%WATER. WATER FUEL IS THE ONLY CLEAN FUEL THERE IS ON EARTH AND THERES MORE WATER ON THIS PLANET THAN LAND WE WILL NEVER BE DEPENDENT ON FORIGN OIL NEVER NEVER AGAIN GO AHEAD AND RESEARCH IT GET BACK WITH TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK....
Posted by: phil | 31 July 2008 at 02:37 PM
It used to be 1.34 its not anymore as the various companies have improved the process and others have also started to use waste heat.
Posted by: wintermane | 31 July 2008 at 02:40 PM
Great news. The more we produce ethanol esp. cellulosic the faster we stop buying/using foreign oil. The window for liquid biofuels will be fairly small as higher energy density batteries and storage comes online quickly now.
And look for the big move by H2 proponents to stave off the inevitable move to small, on-demand micro-power generators. Big Energy is O V E R.
Posted by: fakebreaker | 01 August 2008 at 06:37 PM
Is Phil joking?
It amazes me how many people are out there that actually believe that water is a fuel.
In case you’re not joking phil…
water is not a fuel. It is a product of combustion, like carbon dioxide. As such, it has a very low energy state. It can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen, but this process will take more energy than you’ll get out of the resulting hydrogen gas.
Posted by: Paul | 05 August 2008 at 06:29 AM
I should add one caveat. If the resulting hydrogen atoms were fused into helium then this would be a net energy generating process. But, as far as I know, cold fusion has yet to be demonstrated economically.
Posted by: Paul | 05 August 2008 at 06:44 AM