Corn
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Bioenergy > Feedstocks > Ethanol feedstocks > Corn
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Corn, also known as maize, provides food in addition to being used as a feedstock for the production of the biofuel ethanol (bioethanol). Corn stover, a potential feedstock for cellulosic ethanol, is the "leftover" portion of the corn plant after harvest, including corn cobs, stalks and leaves.
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History
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Availability
- Information on the availability of corn stover in the United States can be found on the Sungrant BioWeb Corn Stover page
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Sustainability
Financial support for the growing of corn, such as through subsidies in the United States, has been linked to various impacts, both locally -- such as soil erosion, changing the overall amount and ratios of crops grown (such as through promoting increased corn production and reduced soy production) and indirect impacts on an international scale (such as through distortions of markets, increases in prices of food and changes in cropping patterns), resulting in social and ecological damage, such as increased poverty and food insecurity and degradation of tropical forests. For more, see the food-versus-fuel debate.
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Environmental Sustainability
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Greenhouse Gases
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Biodiversity
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Pollution
- Corn-Based Biofuels Spell Death for Gulf of Mexico, 13 March 2008 by Wired Magazine: "If the United States makes corn-based ethanol the centerpiece of its biofuel portfolio, the Gulf of Mexico's vast dead zone will expand and become impossible to control, says a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." The "dead zone" is an area of low dissolved oxygen (a condition known as hypoxia), caused by high levels of nitrogen runoff due to chemical fertilizer use, resulting in significantly decreased marine life.
- Corn "is almost universally regarded as an environmentally unfriendly crop that compares poorly to other biofuel sources and requires enormous quantities of fertilizers and pesticides to grow."
- Link to the scientific article: "Corn-based ethanol production compromises goal of reducing nitrogen export by the Mississippi River"
- Concern about worsening of the dead zone as a result of expanded corn-based ethanol production is echoed in a December 2007 report by the Environmental Protection Agency, "Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico" (PDF file). The summary reads in part:
- "Certain aspects of the nation’s current agricultural and energy policies are at odds with the goals of hypoxia reduction and improving water quality....[A]n emerging national strategy on renewable fuels has granted economic incentives to corn-based ethanol production. The projected increase in corn production from this strategy has profound implications for water quality...as well as hypoxia....Recent energy policies, combined with pre-existing crop subsidies, tax policies, global market conditions and trade barriers all provide economic incentives for conversion of retired and other cropland to corn production for use in ethanol production."
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Land Degradation
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Social Sustainability
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Technology/Science
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Properties
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Technology
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Economics/Policy
- Click here for complete US corn balance sheet. Includes total corn production and consumption, prices and corn used for ethanol.
- Click here for USDA statistics on total food aid by commodity for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, including totals for corn and corn meal.
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Publications
- Ethanol Expansion in the United States - How Will the Agricultural Sector Adjust? (PDF file) by Paul C. Westcott of the USDA Economic Research Service.
- This report finds that the effects on agricultural markets of the ongoing expansion of corn-based ethanol in the United States will "extend well beyond the corn sector to supply and demand for other crops, such as soybeans and cotton, as well as to the livestock industries."
- How Fuel Ethanol Is Made from Corn by Nathan S. Mosier and Klein Ileleji, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, December 2006. This is a simple introduction to how corn becomes ethanol.
- Estimating the Net Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol (PDF) by Hosein Shapouri, James A. Duffield, and Michael S. Graboski. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Office of Energy. Agricultural Economic Report No. 721, July 1995.
- Staying Home: How Ethanol will Change U.S. Corn Exports Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, December 2006.
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News
- Can Biofuels Be Sustainable?, 20 August 2008 by ScienceDaily: "Research published this month in Agronomy Journal examines one biofuel crop contender: corn stover."
- The researchers "suggest that a portion of corn stover could be harvested for biofuel production without reducing soil organic carbon levels in high yielding systems. However, since this study did not study the direct impact of stover removal, that aspect remains to be evaluated."
- Uprising Against the Ethanol Mandate, 23 July 2008 by the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. A decision is expected in the next few weeks."
- "His request for an emergency waiver cutting the ethanol mandate to 4.5 billion gallons, from the 9 billion gallons required this year and the 10.5 billion required in 2009, is backed by a coalition of food, livestock and environmental groups."
- "In ethanol’s home ground of the Midwest, where much of the corn is grown and the additive is made, Mr. Perry’s petition was opposed by 12 governors. Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, accused the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the group leading the public relations fight against ethanol, of 'treasonous' acts."[1]
- Food-related industries launch anti-biofuel campaign, 10 June 2008 by Bloomberg.com, in the Houston Chronicle: "The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Meat Institute, the National Restaurant Association and other groups say rising corn-based ethanol production is pushing food costs higher." Their new lobbying alliance, "Food Before Fuel", is "calling on Congress to step back and re-evaluate our biofuels policy, which is distorting the marketplace and harming the environment and consumers."[2]
- The World Food Crisis, 10 April 2008, editorial by the New York Times: "Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 percent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation....The increases are already sparking unrest from Haiti to Egypt....The rise in food prices is partly because of uncontrollable forces — including rising energy costs and the growth of the middle class in China and India....But the rich world is exacerbating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels."
- "The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years."
- "At best, corn ethanol delivers only a small reduction in greenhouse gases compared with gasoline. And it could make things far worse if it leads to more farming in forests and grasslands. Rising food prices provide an urgent argument to nix ethanol’s supports."[3]
- Corn-Based Biofuels Spell Death for Gulf of Mexico, 13 March 2008 by Wired Magazine: "If the United States makes corn-based ethanol the centerpiece of its biofuel portfolio, the Gulf of Mexico's vast dead zone will expand and become impossible to control, says a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
- Corn "is almost universally regarded as an environmentally unfriendly crop that compares poorly to other biofuel sources and requires enormous quantities of fertilizers and pesticides to grow."
- Link to the scientific article: "Corn-based ethanol production compromises goal of reducing nitrogen export by the Mississippi River"
- Update: Ethanol, Global Warming and the Ailing Gulf - Report: Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Could Reach Record Size. 15 July 2008 from The Daily Green: "The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could reach a new record size this year, and grow to cover an area equal to the State of New Jersey, researchers said Tuesday."
- "The discharge of pollutants and nutrients from the Mississippi River causes algae to bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. When the algae dies, the decaying absorbs so much oxygen from the water that large areas become inhospitable to fish. The resulting lifeless area is called a eutrophic or hypoxic zone, or more colloquially, a dead zone. The condition is cyclic, and reaches its maximum in late summer."
- Farmers "have increasingly planted more corn per acre, which depletes the soil and requires heavier inputs of chemical fertilizer....The acreage of corn planted, and the use of fertilizer, has skyrocketed in the past couple of years as Congress set quotas on the use of ethanol".
- "Corn... fuel... fire! U.S. corn subsidies promote Amazon deforestation", 8 January 2008 press release from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: According to STRI researcher William Laurance, "Amazon deforestation and fires are being aggravated by US farm subsidies...that promote American corn production for ethanol." Corn subsidies also result in farmers reducing production of soy -- thus increasing global soy prices, which in turn promotes burning of forests in the Brazilian Amazon in order to clear land for soy cultivation.
- According to Laurance, "The evidence of a corn connection to the Amazon is circumstantial, but it's about as close as you ever get to a smoking gun."[4]
- Tropical maize could become biofuel supercrop in the US, similar to sugarcane. "Scientists from the University of Illinois who are studying tropical maize have found that when the crop is grown in the US, it does not produce grain, but stores far more sugar in its stalks instead."
- Ethanol's Growing List of Enemies, 19 March 2007 from Business Week. An unlikely coalition of livestock farmers, free-marketers, and environmentalists is coming together to oppose government subisidies for corn ethanol.
- Rapid ethanol expansion questioned 27 November 2006 from thestarpress.com. While Indiana has 18 ethanol plants proposed or under construction, a Purdue University agricultural economist has suggested that only 7 to 9 will be built due to limits on the amount of corn. The proposed plants would use almost two-thirds of all corn produced in Indiana.
- Stover to Fill Part of Ethanol Goal for US 22 November from the Des Moines Register. A report issued by the Biotechnology Industry Organization on Tuesday estimated that it was "realistic" to harvest 30 percent of the available stover nationwide to yield 5 billion gallons of ethanol. Most of the stover would continue to be left in the field for environmental reasons as the decaying plant material prevents soil erosion and adds ground nutrients. The US DOE has set a goal of 60 billion gallons of ethanol by 2030. However that goal assumed the use of 70% of stover for ethanol.
- First Commercial-sized Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in US to be built in Iowa 21 November 2006 from the Des Moines Register. The Broin Cos. plant will be converted from a 50 million-gallon-a-year conventional corn dry mill facility into a 125 million-gallon-a-year commercial-scale biorefinery producing ethanol not only from corn but also corn stalks, leaves and cobs.
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Events
- 2-4 June 2008, Kansas City, Kansas, USA: 6th Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. Sponsored by the National Corn Growers Association. (Themes: corn, ethanol)
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Organizations
- National Corn Growers Association Extensive information on ethanol production in the US
- American Corn Grower's Association "The American Corn Growers Association is America’s leading progressive commodity association, representing the interests of corn producers in 35 states"
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Tools
- BESS: Biofuel Energy Systems Simulator - "The BESS model is a software tool to calculate the energy efficiency, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and natural resource requirements of corn–to-ethanol biofuel production systems."
| Corn | edit | |
| corn-based bioethanol | corn surge | ||
| Temperate feedstocks for bioenergy | edit | |
| Corn (Bioethanol) | Jojoba (biodiesel) | Prairie grasses (Bioethanol) | Rapeseed (Biodiesel) | Soy beans (Biodiesel) | Sugar beet (Bioethanol) | Sweet potato (Bioethanol) | Sweet sorghum (Bioethanol) | Switchgrass (Bioethanol) | Wheat (Bioethanol) | ||
| Bioethanol | edit | |
| Bioethanol feedstocks: Corn Bioethanol conversion technologies: | ||
| Bioenergy feedstocks | edit | |
|
Biodiesel feedstocks: Ethanol feedstocks: | ||
