Ethanol Works
Ethanol works on a number of different levels. In essence, it converts solar energy (the sun)—a free and renewable resource stored in corn in the form of carbon and oxygen within the starches and proteins—into fuel which can be used to power all types of combustible engines and make them more efficient. The process Badger State Ethanol utilizes was developed to extract the starch contained in the corn and make it into a transportable liquid fuel that is:
- Clean Burning
- Carbon Neutral; and
- Sustainable
A Cornucopia Of Renewable Benefits
Why is ethanol a considered "Renewable Fuel"? Although it can be produced from a variety of grains grown on farms all across the country, today ethanol is made primarily from corn. The energy of the sun is captured in the corn as it grows. When the corn is processed into ethanol, the energy of the sun is converted to ethanol. The following season, a new crop is planted and more fuel and energy are harvested.
Contrast this to the production of crude oil buried deep within the earth's core. Ethanol fuel is based on annually renewable corn crops that do not require a long period of time to be transformed from vegetable matter into a useable raw material. The oil we're burning took hundreds of millions of years to form. Once extracted from the ground, the oil is not renewed... at least for another couple hundred million or so years.
Food For Thought
Ethanol also offers a real solution to food cost control as it can help combat the rising cost of energy which has a huge impact on the cost of food.
Did you know that a 1 lb box of cornflakes at today's cost of corn contains only 12 cents worth of corn? Most of the $3.50 cost the box sells for comes from processing, packaging, advertising and shipping—all of which are affected by energy costs in general.
Of course, some food price increases can be attributed to simple supply and demand. But historically, when the price of energy increased the price of food followed. That means when the price for a barrel of oil increases so does the price for those corn flakes.
Using corn to produce ethanol doesn't lead to increased retail food prices but can actually decrease the cost of the energy needed to get food products to market.
Let's Clear The Air
When burned, fossil fuels release carbon, once locked deep within the earth's core, into the atmosphere. Science points to these releases as one of the leading causes of global warming. Unlike fossil fuels, ethanol actually reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The grain or other biomass used to make ethanol absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows.
Ethanol contains 37% oxygen by weight. When you add oxygen to a fire, the flame grows. This same principle happens in your engine. Adding ethanol to your fuel adds oxygen to the fuel. This additional oxygen helps your engine to more fully combust the gasoline. This results in fewer harmful tailpipe emissions like carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and other toxic components.
The American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago credits ethanol-blended fuel with reducing smog-forming emissions there by 25% since 1990.
Growing The Economy
In addition to national benefits, ethanol production contributes to economic growth in rural communities across the heartland of our nation. The combination of spending for annual plant operations and capital spending for new plants under construction added more than $25.1 billion to gross output in the U.S. economy in 2004. In that same year, the ethanol industry supported the creation of more than 147,000 jobs in all sectors of the U.S. economy, boosting U.S. household income by $4.4 billion.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ethanol production adds 25-50 cents to the value of a bushel of corn, or as much as $5.5 billion over the entire corn crop per year. The increased value of the corn lowers federal farm program costs. In 2004, USDA estimates ethanol production reduced farm program costs by $3.2 billion.
Also see
Production Process
Learn how Badger State Ethanol produces over 57 million gallons of ethanol, 36,000 tons of concentrated protein, 9,000 tons of corn oil and nearly 130,000 tons of dried distiller's grains with solubles (DDGS) each year.