E85 Stations Continue to Rise, Reaching 1560

The number of E85 stations across the country continues to increase. In April 39 new locations were added bringing the total to 1560 stations.

May 1, 2008 - 1560
April 1, 2008 - 1521
March 1, 2008 - 1501
February 1, 2008 - 1475
November 9, 2007 - 1378
May 7, 2007 - 1200

The current number plus the locations of all E85 stations can be found at the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

Iowa State Study : Ethanol Saves Motorists Money

Researchers at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University have released a study that shows ethanol blended into the fuel supply has caused retail gasoline prices to be 29 to 40 cents lower than what they otherwise would have been.

The study noted that ethanol has helped to keep prices low by adding to the refinery capacity in the country which is already at or near capacity.

These reductions in retail gasoline prices are surprisingly large, especially when one considers that they are calculated at their mean values over the sample period. The availability of ethanol essentially increased the “capacity” of the U.S. refinery industry and in so doing prevented some of the dramatic price increases often associated with an industry operating at close to capacity.

The study also noted that ethanol has significantly reduced the profit margin of the oil refinery industry.

Source : The Impact of Ethanol Production on U.S. and Regional Gasoline Prices and on the Profitability of the U.S. Oil Refinery Industry

Food Versus Fuel? Why Not Food Versus Clothes?

Lately, biofuels have gotten a lot of the blame for rising food prices and have been blamed for people around the world going hungry. Many critics of biofuels have claimed that biofuels production was immoral because it was taking food out of poor people's mouths. One critic even went as far as saying that biofuels were a 'crime against humanity'.

In this country, ethanol in particular has been the recipient of a lot of that criticism. It has been blamed for any and all rising commodity prices.

But nothing has ever been said about any other non food uses of cropland. Let me explain.

Last year, we produced 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol. At the industry average of 2.8 gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn, that equates to about 2.3 billion bushels of corn. At the national average of 151 bushels of corn per acre in 2007, that means that about 15.4 million acres were devoted to raising the corn used for ethanol production last year.

Now, I will agree that 15.4 million acres devoted to ethanol production sounds like a lot but in 2006 15.3 million acres were planted in cotton. And of course cotton is a non food item that is grown on land that could otherwise be used to grow food crops. But did you ever hear anything said about cotton taking food out of people's mouths? Was cotton ever called a 'crime against humanity'?

That same could be asked about nursery crops (landscape plants), floraculture crops (cut flowers), tobacco, and forestry crops (lumber). They all are non food items grown on land that could otherwise be used to produce food crops.

If the food versus fuel issue was really about feeding the poor wouldn't we also be examining these other non food uses of agricultural land as well?

With all that said let me just emphasize that I am not against cotton farming and am not suggesting that we stop growing cotton. The point is that American agriculture has always been about more than just food.

The same goes for the food versus fuel issue.

Missouri Motorists Save With Ethanol

The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council commissioned John Urbanchuk of LECG to study the effects the ethanol mandate that went into effect on January 1, 2008 was having on gasoline prices in the state. The study found that the 10% ethanol blend was saving Missouri motorists 9.8 cents per gallon based on the wholesale price difference between ethanol and gasoline.

Based on last years fuel usage and the 9.8 cents per gallon savings that translates into about $285 million dollars that will be saved this year.

Source : Missouri Corn Online

Study : Ethanol Production Has Become More Efficient

A new study conducted by the Argonne National Laboratory for the Renewable Fuels Association shows that ethanol production has become more efficient since 2001. The study analyzed ethanol producer survey responses to determine how ethanol production in 2006 compared to 2001. Major findings of the study include...

• Ethanol yield per bushel of corn increased 6.4% for dry mills and 2.4% for wet
  mills.
  
• Total energy use (fossil and electricity) decreased 21.8% in dry mills and 7.2% in wet mills from 2001 survey.
  
• Another major change from 2001 survey is 15.7% decrease in grid electricity use
  in dry mills.
  
• There is a shift in process fuel use from coal to natural gas in the dry mills.
  
• More than one third (37%) of the dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), the feed co-product of dry mill ethanol production, was sold as wet feed which
  reduces heat demand in the plant.
  
• CO2 collection and production as a co-product is on the rise that a total of 23.5% of the ethanol production capacities responded exported CO2.
  
• Finally, water consumption in dry mills decreased 26.6% from 2001 survey.
  

It is pretty interesting to see the progress that ethanol production made over the five years of the study period. Having written several posts that deal with new technologies that hold the potential to make ethanol production even more efficient, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years.