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The Global Warming and Land Use Impact of Corn Ethanol Production

The Global Warming and Land Use Impact of Corn Ethanol Production. Steffen Mueller, Ken Copenhaver ; Energy Resources Center Primary Grant Support: Illinois Corn Marketing Board.

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The Global Warming and Land Use Impact of Corn Ethanol Production

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  1. The Global Warming and Land Use Impact of Corn Ethanol Production Steffen Mueller, Ken Copenhaver; Energy Resources Center Primary Grant Support: Illinois Corn Marketing Board The Global Warming Impact of Corn Ethanol Produced at the 100 Million Gallon Per Year Illinois River Energy Center is 40% Lower Than Gasoline. • Biofuels production has frequently been recognized as a means to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign transportation fuels. • However, several studies assert that in certain instances corn ethanol production can increase greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline. • Therefore, emerging policy frameworks (California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Federal Renewable Fuel Standard) require an assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from different fuels on a life cycle basis (including all emissions incurred along the production pathways). • Life cycle analyses are performed utilizing Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET model and the BEACCON model, which was jointly developed by Steffen Mueller from UIC and Richard Plevin from UC Berkeley. • Data collection includes: • Detailed agricultural surveys with corn growers, • detailed energy balances of corn ethanol processes, and • geospatial analyses of land use change around ethanol plants. • Project results were published in the following magazines and peer reviewed journals (additional publications are under reivew): • Plevin, Richard and Steffen Mueller. ”The Effect of CO2 Regulations on the Cost of Corn Ethanol Production”; Environmental Research Letters 3 (2008) 024003, with Richard Plevin, University of California, Berkeley. • Mueller, S. (2008) and Richard Plevin (2008). “Global Warming Intensity of Ethanol - Determining Climate Benefits”; BioCycle Magazine, January 2008. • Mueller S. and Richard Plevin (2007). “Producing Ethanol for Low-Carbon Fuel Markets”; Ethanol Producer Magazine, May 2007. • We are currently in the process of expanding this research into the assessment of cellulose biofuels production.

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