ARS | Publication request: THE 2001 NET ENERGY BALANCE OF CORN-ETHANOL

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: May 15, 2004
Publication Date: May 20, 2004
Citation: Shapouri, H., Duffield, J., Mcaloon, A.J. The 2001 net energy balance of corn-ethanol. 2004. Proceedings of the Conference on Agriculture as a Producer and Consumer of Energy, Arlington, VA., June 24-25..

Technical Abstract: This presentation describes new estimates of the net energy balance of corn ethanol utilizing the latest survey of U.S. corn producers and the 2001 survey of ethanol plants. The major objective of this presentation is to improve the quality of data and methodology used in this study. This presentation also reports on the use of Aspen Plus, a process simulation computer program to allocate the total energy used to produce the ethanol and byproducts. The net energy balances of corn ethanol adjusted for byproducts credits are 27,729 and 33,196 Btu's per gallon for wet and dry milling, respectively, and the average for the entire wet and dry grind industry is 30,528 Btu's per gallon. These study results suggest that corn ethanol is energy efficient as indicated by an energy output / input ratio of 1.67.