UNL Research: Corn Ethanol Emits 51 Percent Less Greenhouse Gas Than Gasoline

CattleNetwork.com
1/22/2009 12:49:00 PM

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Corn ethanol directly emits an average of 51 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline, as much as three times the reduction reported in earlier research, thanks to recent improvements in efficiency throughout the production process, University of Nebraska-Lincoln research shows.

A Journal of Industrial Ecology article (available online at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2008.00105.x) outlines the research, conducted by an interdisciplinary team of UNL researchers, which evaluated dry-mill ethanol plants that use natural gas. Such plants account for nearly 90 percent of current production capacity.

This research is the first to quantify the impact of recent improvements throughout the corn-ethanol production process, including crop production, biorefinery operations and co-product use, said Ken Cassman, UNL agronomist who was part of the research team. Previous studies, which found ethanol to have a much smaller edge over gasoline in GHG emissions, relied on estimates based on corn production, ethanol plant performance and co-product use as they were seven years ago.

Read the full story