This report provides evidence that corn ethanol can be a GHG-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, while boosting farm economies.

—US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Among the findings:

• Between 2005 and 2015, ethanol production in the US also increased significantly—from 3.9 to 14.8 billion gallons per year. At the same time, advances in ethanol production technologies, such as the use of combined heat and power, using landfill gas for energy, and co-producing biodiesel helped reduce GHG emissions at ethanol refinery plants.

• By 2022, given current trends, the GHG profile of corn-based ethanol is expected to be almost 50% lower than gasoline primarily due to improvements in corn yields, process fuel switching, and transportation efficiency.

• If additional conservation practices and efficiency improvements are pursued, such as the practices outlined in USDA’s Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry strategy, the GHG benefits of corn ethanol are even more pronounced over gasoline—about 76%.

• On-farm conservation practices, such as reduced tillage, cover crops, and nitrogen management, are estimated to improve the GHG balance of corn ethanol by about 14%.

GHG balance of gasoline compared to three different corn ethanol scenarios: 1) the lifecycle GHG balance of corn ethanol in 2014; 2) the projection of corn ethanol’s lifecycle GHG emissions in 2022 based on current trends; and 3) the 2022 GHG balance of corn ethanol based on increased agricultural conservation practice adoption, such as the practices outlined in the USDA’s Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry strategy. Source: USDA. Click to enlarge.

There are several reasons this report found greater lifecycle GHG benefits from corn ethanol than a number of earlier studies. Previous estimates anticipated that growing corn to produce ethanol would result in indirect land use change—in other words, land would be converted from grasslands and forests to commodity production as a result of increased demand for corn used in ethanol production. But based on new data and research, there is compelling evidence that while land use changes have occurred, the actual patterns of changes and innovation within the farm sector have resulted in these indirect emissions being much lower than previously projected.

Recent studies of international agricultural land use trends show that that the primary land use change response of the world’s farmers from 2004 to 2012 has been to use available land resources more efficiently rather than to expand the amount of land used for farming. Instead of converting new land to production, farmers in Brazil, India and China have increased double cropping, expanded irrigation, reduced unharvested planted area, reduced fallow land and reduced temporary pasture. Much of the international attention on supply of corn for ethanol has focused on Brazil, where earlier estimates anticipated conversion of rainforests to commodity production. But between 2004 and 2012, at the same time US corn ethanol production increased more than 200%, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon decreased from 10,200 to 2,400 square miles per year.

The report also demonstrates the added GHG benefits of on-farm conservation practices like reduced tillage, nitrogen stewardship, and cover crops—the same practices outlined in USDA’s Building Blocks for Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry strategy, which aims to reduce GHG emissions by more than 120 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2025.

Continuing to support adoption of these practices on farms will further reduce GHG emissions associated with agriculture—as well as benefiting the positive trends in lifecycle GHG balance of corn-based ethanol, USDA said.

Resources

• Flugge, M., J. Lewandrowski, J. Rosenfeld, C. Boland, T. Hendrickson, K. Jaglo, S. Kolansky, K. Moffroid, M. Riley-Gilbert, and D. Pape (2017) A Life-Cycle Analysis of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Based Ethanol Report prepared by ICF under USDA Contract No. AG-3142-D-16-0243.