Corn and Ethanol

Written by Malc

Friday, 11 May 2007

The corn and ethanol debate.

For a long time now, the US government has been paying a subsidy for corn and ethanol production. One reason for producing ethanol is so that it can be added to petrol to help it burn more efficiently

and therefore reduce emissions, or to be used as fuel on its own. It is also hoped that ethanol will not only help reduce greenhouse gas, but also help the US to be less dependant on oil from the Middle East.

With most ethanol that is produced in the U.S being made from corn, although other grains and biomass can be used, there as been a economic stimulation to U.S. agriculture, therefore creating a new market for corn and maize. Estimates have also shown that as many as 10 million acres of land are required to grow corn or maize to produce ethanol.

By increasing production in the ethanol industry it may be a means of increasing farmers income as well as reducing farm subsidy payments and also as said before, lessen the dependence on imported fuels. Furthermore, there is more energy efficiency achieved through use of corn and ethanol and it also achieves a net gain in a better form of energy since converting corn to ethanol means using abundant domestic supplies of coal and natural gas.

Some possible negative aspects with using corn and ethanol:

There are certain issues with using corn and ethanol since it requires the use of fuel and energy to grow the corn in the first place and it has been found that one acre of U.S. corn will produce approximately 328 gallons of ethanol. However, the planting, growing and harvesting of that amount of corn will need 140 gallons of fossil fuels, and that in itself amounts to $347 per acre which equates to $1.05 per gallon of ethanol even before the corn leaves the farm.

This may be further compounded by the crushing and fermentation of corn at processing plants, all of which consumes energy. It seems that the end cost of producing ethanol and using corn works out to be more expensive than that of petrol.

That said , there are many that argue that corn and ethanol are energy efficient and in fact gives 30 percentage more energy than it takes to make it in the first place. Studies and figures are showing the net energy value of corn and ethanol is rising with the passage of time and this could be due to advances in technology relating to producing ethanol as well as for better corn production

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