Abstract
Corn kernel fiber ethanol that can be produced concurrently with corn starch ethanol has recently been approved as cellulosic biofuel in the USA, suggesting that fiber ethanol could be eligible for a higher credit price than conventional starch ethanol due to its anticipated lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A life-cycle analysis was conducted to quantify ethanol's GHG emissions. Here we show that fiber ethanol's life-cycle GHG emissions (36–39 g CO2e MJ−1) are close to meeting the US cellulosic biofuel's legislative mandate of 60% GHG emissions reduction relative to gasoline (~94 g CO2e MJ−1), with slightly lower emissions under the nth plant mature fiber technology than under the state of technology (SOT). The co-product, distiller's grain with solubles (DGS), can notably affect fiber ethanol's GHG emissions, and this impact may need to be further examined when evidence of DGS market impacts becomes available.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1013-1022 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2018 |
Funding
We thank Christina Canter (Argonne National Laboratory) for technical suggestions and Brandon Emme (ICM Inc.) for providing inputs and comments for this study. This work was supported by the Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the United States Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. We are grateful to Kristen Johnson, Alicia Lindauer, and Zia Haq of BETO for their support and guidance. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the US government. Correspondence to: Zhangcai Qin, Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan. http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan
Keywords
- biofuel
- corn fiber ethanol
- distiller's grain with solubles
- life cycle analysis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
