Ethanol Will Take 30% Of US Corn Crop By 2012 - GAO Report - Reuters

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - Almost a third of the US corn crop will be used in five years to produce fuel ethanol, possibly raising animal feed costs for farmers and meat prices for consumers, a new government report warned Monday.

Assuming US ethanol production continues to expand to the Energy Department's projected 11.2 billion gallons by 2012, about 30 percent of the corn crop will be needed for the fuel supply, according to the Government Accountability Office. "Using more corn for energy production will likely exert additional upward pressure on corn prices, potentially influencing livestock feed markets and meat prices," the GAO said in a report to Congress.

About 27 percent of this year's corn crop will be used to make ethanol, according to the U.S Agriculture Department. Corn prices are projected to average between US$3 and $3.40 a bushel, making up an estimated 74 percent of the cost of producing ethanol, the GAO said.

The extra corn to make ethanol in 2012 will come from planting more acres by putting pastureland and idle land into production, planting corn where other crops like wheat were previously grown, or using corn that would be exported or used as livestock feed, the GAO said.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42541/story.htm

[krispos42]

1. I hope my Doritos prices don't spike!

:scared:

[Systematic Chaos]

4. You are not allowed to mention Doritos in any thread I visit.

I am on a diet!

The Great and Mighty One has spoken.

:)

[krispos42]

6. Oh yeah? Well this is what I'm having for lunch:

I don't recall. I don't recall. Redacted. Redacted. I don't recall. I don't recall. Redacted. Redacted. I don't recall. I don't recall. Redacted. Redacted. I don't recall. I don't recall. Redacted. Redacted. I don't recall. I don't recall. Redacted. Redacted.

But I can assure you it was delicious and healthy!



:rofl:

[woodsprite]

2. OK, sounds like we found a way to used GM corn. n/t

[AndyTiedye]

3. This Assumes We Make All Our Ethanol Out of Corn

There are better crops for that.

[GliderGuider]

5. Better crops such as?

[4dsc]

7. Ethanol will be unprofitable by 2008!!

I cannot provide the link but look Mr Rapiers' website for more information!!

[Canuckistanian]

8. So does this mean

That cheap subsidized corn will not be dumped on third world countries any more?

[GliderGuider]

10. That's right!

Now third world farmers will be pulling up their indigenous crops to grow corn to sell to the Good Old Red White and Blue! That's much better, isn't it? They'll have money. They won't have food, but they'll have money. Money they can use to buy (ta-da!) food from the Good Old Red White and Blue. Let's here it for Good Old Adam Smith. Though it's not so much Adam Smith's Invisible Hand that's shaping the lives of those poor farmers so much as Adam Smith's Invisible Dick.

Ethanol - I've never seen such a comprehensive collective abandonment of reason in my entire life!

[Canuckistanian]

11. And I used to think ethanol was the energy solution

I've since been disabused of that notion, mostly because of what I learn here.

Gawd knows, I'll never hear it on my TeeVee.

[phantom power]

9. Oopsie.

[philb]

12. Landfill waste cellulosic ethanol is a better option

BlueFire Ethanol to build second commercial facility
May 22, 2007
Cellulosic ethanol company BlueFire Ethanol (PINKSHEETS: BFRE) has started engineering and permitting for a second commercial production facility.
BlueFire has secured a site in Northern Los Angeles County, at a landfill near Lancaster, California for a new modular biorefinery that will target an initial production level of approximately 3 million gallon per year, turning waste into fuel.
The company already has a pilot facility at a landfill in Southern California producing 18.6 million gallons per year from green and wood waste.
BlueFire says it is working to optimize a design incorporating prefabrication that will permit rapid, cost-effective construction of future cellulosic ethanol plants.
The new plant is to produce other higher value fuel components such as bio-butanol, which has been previously produced at Arkenol's pilot plant.
"After numerous requests from both end users and partners alike, BlueFire has designed this facility to also produce value added chemicals such as Ethyl levinate and Ethyl lactate as a diesel fuel additive, which has been shown to reduce particulate emissions by 90%," said CEO Arnold Klann.
The company expects to begin construction later this year after permitting is complete.
BlueFire Ethanol uses its Arkenol Process to convert cellulosic waste materials to ethanol, a viable alternative to gasoline. The company says it is the only cellulose-to-ethanol company worldwide with demonstrated production of ethanol from urban trash (post-sorted municipal solid waste), rice and wheat straws, wood waste and other agricultural residues.
It aims to produce fuel production facilities worldwide.
Learn more about BlueFire and its Arkenol Process in Inside Greentech's webinar What's real and what's not in cellulosic biofuels, co-sponsored by BlueFire and Celunol.

Celunol Cellulosic Ethanol
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/02/diversa_and_cel.html
http://bioconversion.blogspot.com/2007/01/celunol-launches-commercial-scale.html

http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/1013