Download or read book Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol written by Adam J. Liska and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corn-ethanol production is expanding rapidly with the adoption of improved technologies to increase energy efficiency and profitability in crop production, ethanol conversion, and coproduct use. Life cycle assessment can evaluate the impact of these changes on environmental performance metrics. To this end, we analyzed the life cycles of corn-ethanol systems accounting for the majority of U.S. capacity to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy efficiencies on the basis of updated values for crop management and yields, biorefinery operation, and coproduct utilization. Direct-effect GHG emissions were estimated to be equivalent to a 48% to 59% reduction compared to gasoline, a twofold to threefold greater reduction than reported in previous studies. Ethanol-to-petroleum output/input ratios ranged from 10:1 to 13:1 but could be increased to 19:1 if farmers adopted high-yield progressive crop and soil management practices. An advanced closed-loop biorefinery with anaerobic digestion reduced GHG emissions by 67% and increased the net energy ratio to 2.2, from 1.5 to 1.8 for the most common systems. Such improved technologies have the potential to move corn-ethanol closer to the hypothetical performance of cellulosic biofuels. Likewise, the larger GHG reductions estimated in this study allow a greater buffer for inclusion of indirect-effect land-use change emissions while still meeting regulatory GHG reduction targets. These results suggest that corn-ethanol systems have substantially greater potential to mitigate GHG emissions and reduce dependence on imported petroleum for transportation fuels than reported previously.

Download or read book Influence of Corn Oil Recovery on Life cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol and Corn Oil Biodiesel written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corn oil recovery and conversion to biodiesel has been widely adopted at corn ethanol plants recently. The US EPA has projected 2.6 billion liters of biodiesel will be produced from corn oil in 2022. Corn oil biodiesel may qualify for federal renewable identification number (RIN) credits under the Renewable Fuel Standard, as well as for low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity credits under California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Because multiple products [ethanol, biodiesel, and distiller's grain with solubles (DGS)] are produced from one feedstock (corn), however, a careful co-product treatment approach is required to accurately estimate GHG intensities of both ethanol and corn oil biodiesel and to avoid double counting of benefits associated with corn oil biodiesel production. This study develops four co-product treatment methods: (1) displacement, (2) marginal, (3) hybrid allocation, and (4) process-level energy allocation. Life-cycle GHG emissions for corn oil biodiesel were more sensitive to the choice of co-product allocation method because significantly less corn oil biodiesel is produced than corn ethanol at a dry mill. Corn ethanol life-cycle GHG emissions with the displacement, marginal, and hybrid allocation approaches are similar (61, 62, and 59 g CO2e/MJ, respectively). Although corn ethanol and DGS share upstream farming and conversion burdens in both the hybrid and process-level energy allocation methods, DGS bears a higher burden in the latter because it has lower energy content per selling price as compared to corn ethanol. As a result, with the process-level allocation approach, ethanol's life-cycle GHG emissions are lower at 46 g CO2e/MJ. Corn oil biodiesel life-cycle GHG emissions from the marginal, hybrid allocation, and process-level energy allocation methods were 14, 59, and 45 g CO2e/MJ, respectively. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to investigate the influence corn oil yield, soy biodiesel, and defatted DGS displacement credits, and energy consumption for corn oil production and corn oil biodiesel production. Furthermore, this study's results demonstrate that co-product treatment methodology strongly influences corn oil biodiesel life-cycle GHG emissions and can affect how this fuel is treated under the Renewable Fuel and Low Carbon Fuel Standards.

Download or read book Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse Gas Emissions written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The production and use of ethanol in the U.S. have been steadily increasing since 2001, boosted in part by production subsidies. That growth has exerted upward pressure on the price of corn and, ultimately, on the retail price of food, affecting both individual consumers and fed. expend. on nutritional support programs. It has also raised questions about the environmental consequences of replacing gasoline with ethanol. This analysis examines the relationship between increasing production of ethanol and rising prices for food. It estimated how much of the rise in food prices between 4/07 and 4/08 was due to an increase on the production of ethanol and how much that increase in prices might raise fed. expend. on food assistance programs. Tables and graphs.

Download or read book Policy Implications of Allocation Methods in the Life Cycle Analysis of Integrated Corn and Corn Stover Ethanol Production written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, a biorefinery may produce multiple fuels from more than one feedstock. The ability of these fuels to qualify as one of the four types of biofuels under the US Renewable Fuel Standard and to achieve a low carbon intensity score under California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard can be strongly influenced by the approach taken to their life cycle analysis (LCA). For example, in facilities that may co-produce corn grain and corn stover ethanol, the ethanol production processes can share the combined heat and power (CHP) that is produced from the lignin and liquid residues from stover ethanol production. We examine different LCA approaches to corn grain and stover ethanol production considering different approaches to CHP treatment. In the baseline scenario, CHP meets the energy demands of stover ethanol production first, with additional heat and electricity generated sent to grain ethanol production. The resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for grain and stover ethanol are 57 and 25 g-CO2eq/MJ, respectively, corresponding to a 40 and 74% reduction compared to the GHG emissions of gasoline. We illustrate that emissions depend on allocation of burdens of CHP production and corn farming, along with the facility capacities. Co-product handling techniques can strongly influence LCA results and should therefore be transparently documented.

Download or read book Biofuels and Sustainability written by Kazuhiko Takeuchi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-13 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book presents a comprehensive analysis of biofuel use strategies from an interdisciplinary perspective using sustainability science. This interdisciplinary perspective (social science-natural science) means that the strategies and policy options proposed will have significant impacts on the economy and society alike. Biofuels are expected to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, revitalizing economies in agricultural communities and alleviating poverty. However, despite these anticipated benefits, international organizations such as the FAO, OECD and UN have published reports expressing concerns that biofuel promotion may lead to deforestation, water pollution and water shortages. The impacts of biofuel use are extensive, cross-sectoral and complex, and as such, comprehensive analyses are required in order to assess the extent to which biofuels can contribute to sustainable societies. Applying interdisciplinary sustainability science concepts and methodologies, the book helps to enhance the establishment of a sustainable society as well as the development of appropriate responses to a global need for urgent action on current issues related to biofuels.

Download or read book Modeling Corn Ethanol and Climate written by Richard J. Plevin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New fuel regulations based on life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have focused renewed attention on life cycle models of biofuels. The BESS model estimates 25% lower life cycle GHG emissions for corn ethanol than does the well-known GREET model, which raises questions about which model is more accurate. I develop a life cycle metamodel to compare the GREET and BESS models in detail and to explain why the results from these models diverge. I find two main reasons for the divergence: (1) BESS models a more efficient biorefinery than is modeled in the cases to which its results have been compared, and (2) in several instances BESS fails to properly count upstream emissions. Adjustments to BESS to account for these differences raise the estimated global warming intensity (not including land use change) of the corn ethanol pathway considered in that model from 45 to 61 g COe MJ1. Adjusting GREET to use BESS's biorefinery performance and coproduct credit assumptions reduces the GREET estimate from 64 to 61 g COe MJ1. Although this analysis explains the gap between the two models, both models would be improved with better data on corn production practices and by better treatment of agricultural inputs.

Download or read book Corn Ethanol Production in the Wisconsin Agricultural Context written by Julie C. Sinistore and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Economic Analysis of Land Use in Global Climate Change Policy written by Thomas W. Hertel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-05-07 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land has long been overlooked in economics. That is now changing. A substantial part of the solution to the climate crisis may lie in growing crops for fuel and using trees for storing carbon. This book investigates the potential of these options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, estimates the costs to the economy, and analyses the trade-offs with growing food. The first part presents new databases that are necessary to underpin policy-relevant research in the field of climate change while describing and critically assessing the underlying data, the methodologies used, and the first applications. Together, the new data and the extended models allow for a thorough and comprehensive analysis of a land use and climate policy. This book outlines key empirical and analytical issues associated with modelling land use and land use change in the context of global climate change policy. It places special emphasis on the economy-wide competition for land and other resources, especially; The implications of changes in land use for the cost of climate change mitigation, Land use change as a result of mitigation, and Feedback from changes in the global climate to land use. By offering synthesis and evaluation of a variety of different approaches to this challenging field of research, this book will serve as a key reference for future work in the economic analysis of land use and climate change policy.

Download or read book Sugarcane ethanol written by Peter Zuurbier and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-28 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Climate change is a challenge facing human life. It will change mobility and asks for new energy solutions. Bioenergy has gained increased attention as an alternative to fossil fuels. Energy based on renewable sources may offer part of the solution. Bio ethanol based on sugar cane offers advantages to people, the environment and the economy. Not surprisingly, governments currently enact powerful incentives for the development and exploitation of bio ethanol. However, every inch we come closer to this achievement, evokes more scepticism. Many questions are raised relating to whether sugar cane is really a sustainable solution. Still much is unknown about the net release of carbon dioxide and what the impacts of sugar cane expansion are on green house gas emissions. This book looks at the scientific base of the debate on sugar cane bio ethanol. Authors from Europe, Brazil and the USA capture many aspects of what is known and address assumptions while not denying that still much is unknown. It covers impacts on climate change, land use, sustainability and market demands. This publication discusses public policy impacts, technology developments, the fuel-food dilemma and the millennium development goals. This makes this publication unique and extremely relevant for policymakers, scientists and the private energy sector worldwide."

Download or read book Fuel cycle Assessment of Selected Bioethanol Production written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large amount of corn stover is available in the U.S. corn belt for the potential production of cellulosic bioethanol when the production technology becomes commercially ready. In fact, because corn stover is already available, it could serve as a starting point for producing cellulosic ethanol as a transportation fuel to help reduce the nation's demand for petroleum oil. Using the data available on the collection and transportation of corn stover and on the production of cellulosic ethanol, we have added the corn stover-to-ethanol pathway in the GREET model, a fuel-cycle model developed at Argonne National Laboratory. We then analyzed the life-cycle energy use and emission impacts of corn stover-derived fuel ethanol for use as E85 in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). The analysis included fertilizer manufacturing, corn farming, farming machinery manufacturing, stover collection and transportation, ethanol production, ethanol transportation, and ethanol use in light-duty vehicles (LDVs). Energy consumption of petroleum oil and fossil energy, emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide [CO2], nitrous oxide [N2O], and methane [CH4]), and emissions of criteria pollutants (carbon monoxide [CO], volatile organic compounds [VOCs], nitrogen oxide [NO(subscript x)], sulfur oxide [SO(subscript x)], and particulate matter with diameters smaller than 10 micrometers [PM10]) during the fuel cycle were estimated. Scenarios of ethanol from corn grain, corn stover, and other cellulosic feedstocks were then compared with petroleum reformulated gasoline (RFG). Results showed that FFVs fueled with corn stover ethanol blends offer substantial energy savings (94-95%) relative to those fueled with RFG. For each Btu of corn stover ethanol produced and used, 0.09 Btu of fossil fuel is required. The cellulosic ethanol pathway avoids 86-89% of greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the life cycle of corn grain-based ethanol, in which the ethanol plant consumes most of the fossil fuel, farming consumes most of the fossil fuel in the life cycle of corn stover-based ethanol.

Download or read book 2008 Energy Balance for the Corn Ethanol Industry written by H. Shapouri and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. The Agricultural Resource Management Survey of corn growers for the year 2005 and the 2008 survey of dry mill ethanol plants are used to estimate the net energy balance of corn ethanol. This report measures all conventional fossil fuel energy used in the production of 1 gallon of corn ethanol. The ratio is about 2.3 BTU of ethanol for 1 BTU of energy inputs, when a portion of total energy input is allocated to byproduct, and fossil fuel is used for processing energy. The ratio is somewhat higher for some firms that are partially substituting biomass energy in processing energy. Charts and tables.

Download or read book Environmental Efficiency Among Corn Ethanol Plants written by Juan P. Sesmero and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic viability of the US corn ethanol industry depends on prices, technical and economic efficiency of plants and on continuation of policy support. Public policy support is tied to the environmental efficiency of plants measured as their impact on emissions of greenhouse gases. This study evaluates the environmental efficiency of seven recently constructed ethanol plants in the North Central region of the U.S., using nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA). The minimum level of GHG emissions (per gallon of ethanol produced) feasible with the available technology is calculated for each plant and this level is used to decompose environmental efficiency into its technical and allocative sources. Results show that, on average, plants in our sample may be able to reduce GHG emissions by a maximum of 6% or by 3,116 tons per quarter. Input and output allocations that maximize returns over operating costs (ROOC) are also found based on observed prices. The environmentally efficient allocation, the ROOC maximizing allocation, and the observed allocation for each plant are combined to calculate economic (shadow) cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These shadow costs gauge the extent to which there is a trade off or a complementarity between environmental and economic targets. Results reveal that, at current activity levels, plants may have room for simultaneous improvement of environmental efficiency and economic profitability.

Download or read book Ecologically based Life Cycle Assessment of Corn Stover Biofuels written by Brooke Elizabeth Laing and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Cellulosic biofuels are becoming a popular option for alternative fuels that could decrease fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions without interfering with the food supply. At this point in time, studies of cellulosic fuels from a life cycle point of view have been largely limited to ethanol. Furthermore, most methods of life cycle assessment do not consider ecological goods and services, even though these are important precursors to any industrial project. In this project, butanol, ethanol, and biodiesel fuels were compared using Eco-LCA. Fossil fuel requirements, water requirements, CO2 emissions, reactive nitrogen losses to the environment, and Ecological Cumulative Exergy Consumption were quantified for the life cycle of each fuel. Gasoline, diesel, corn ethanol, and soybean biodiesel were included for purpose of comparison. The corn-stover-derived fuels were demonstrated to have numerous advantages, including lower fossil fuel requirements and ECEC than their petroleum based counterparts, while also having lower water requirements and reactive nitrogen losses than corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel.

Download or read book Biorenewable Resources written by Robert C. Brown and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-12-06 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, 2nd Edition will provide comprehensive coverage of engineering systems that convert agricultural crops and residues into bioenergy and biobased products. This edition is thoroughly updated and revised to better serve the needs of the professional and research fields working with biorenewable resource development and production. Biorenewable resources is a rapidly growing field that forms at the interface between agricultural and plant sciences and process engineering. Biorenewable Resources will be an indispensable reference for anyone working in the production of biomass or biorenewable resources.

Download or read book Life Cycle Assessment of Biorefineries written by Edgard Gnansounou and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life-Cycle Assessment of Biorefineries, the sixth and last book in the series on biomass-biorefineries discusses the unprecedented growth and development in the emerging concept of a global bio-based economy in which biomass-based biorefineries have attained center stage for the production of fuels and chemicals. It is envisaged that by 2020 a majority of chemicals currently being produced through a chemical route will be produced via a bio-based route. Agro-industrial residues, municipal solid wastes, and forestry wastes have been considered as the most significant feedstocks for such bio-refineries. However, for the techno-economic success of such biorefineries, it is of prime and utmost importance to understand their lifecycle assessment for various aspects. - Provides state-of-art information on the basics and fundamental principles of LCA for biorefineries - Contains key features for the education and understanding of integrated biorefineries - Presents models that are used to cope with land-use changes and their effects on biorefineries - Includes relevant case studies that illustrate main points

Download or read book Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources written by Anoop Singh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-09-02 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governments are setting challenging targets to increase the production of energy and transport fuel from sustainable sources. The emphasis is increasingly on renewable sources including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass based biofuel, photovoltaics or energy recovery from waste. What are the environmental consequences of adopting these other sources? How do these various sources compare to each other? Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources tries to answer these questions based on the universally adopted method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This book introduces the concept and importance of LCA in the framework of renewable energy sources and discusses the key issues in conducting their LCA. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of LCA for some of the most common bioenergy sources such as agricultural production systems for biogas and bioethanol, biogas from grass, biodiesel from palm oil, biodiesel from used cooking oil and animal fat, Jatropha biodiesel, lignocellulosic bioethanol, ethanol from cassava and sugarcane molasses, residential photovoltaic systems, wind energy, microalgal biodiesel, biohydrogen and biomethane. Through real examples, the versatility of LCA is well emphasized. Written by experts all over the globe, the book is a cornucopia of information on LCA of bioenergy systems and provides a platform for stimulation of new ideas and thoughts. The book is targeted at practitioners of LCA and will become a useful tool for researchers working on different aspects of bioenergy.

Download or read book Technology Assessment of Biomass Ethanol written by Jeremy Clayton Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Cont.) The variability in the system suggests that this variance is dependent primarily on corn production location, distribution requirements, and ethanol conversion and purification efficiency lead to the significant variance. From an economic performance, an optimized facility can produce ethanol competitively with gasoline at $55/barrel, on an unsubsidized and energy equivalent basis. The life cycle greenhouse gas emissions decrease of - 5% - 30% between gasoline and ethanol on a miles driven basis. A potential modification to the process is the use of an alternative feedstock, such as lignocellulosic waste and residues, which have larger resource availability and lower economic cost. Compared to the original case, cellulosic ethanol would have a higher net energy ratio with lower greenhouse gas emissions, but the current projected economic costs are prohibitive. An improvement analysis of potential technology advancements using multiple object network optimization across the entire supply chain suggests that research and development should focus on feedstock logistics and the pretreatment stage.