FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. What is
ethanol?
A. According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Ethanol: “A colorless volatile flammable liquid (C2H5OH) that is the intoxicating agent in liquors and is also used as a solvent called also ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol. As a fuel, it has a BTU content of approximately 77,000 BTU per gallon. For reference, conventional gasoline has BTU content of 129,000 BTU per gallon. Higher BTU content means more energy per gallon.
Q. How is ethanol used as fuel?
A. Ethanol is blended with gasoline to improve its oxygen content in volume levels ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent. There is also a blend called E85, which is between 80 and 85 percent ethanol and 15 to 20 percent gasoline.Increasing the oxygen content in gasoline can improve the burn and reduce engine knock.
Q. How much ethanol can be produced from a bushel of corn?
A. A bushel of corn can produce approximately 2.8 gallons of ethanol and 17 pounds of distillers grains.
Q. What are distillers grain?
A. This is the grain that remains after producing the ethanol. In the production of ethanol, enzymes and heat break down the starch in corn and convert it to sugar, which is then fermented and converted to alcohol. The remaining material from the grain is now free of starch, high in fiber, high in phosphorus, and has a very different mineral and amino acid profile than the corn that began the process. Many animals cannot efficiently digest the high fiber product and since there is no national standardization of content, many distiller grains have varied mineral and amino acid profiles making them a poor substitute for corn.
Q. Why is corn important to animal agriculture?
A. Corn is an essential nutritional component of cattle, swine, and poultry diets. The rise in demand for corn has pressed market forces to demand higher corn prices. Consequently and among other impacts, its change in price and availability has led animal agriculture producers to consider alternatives to their feeding, nutrition, and dietary regimen. These changes impact meat and poultry quality, consumer offerings, farm efficiency, environmental impacts, American agriculture competitiveness, exports, and the management of livestock, dairy, and poultry operations. This dietary shift is largely being driven by an energy policy that has selected certain technologies to advance, namely ethanol. For perspective, poultry will eat a diet of between 40 and 85 percent corn, hogs will eat on average a diet of 75 to 85 percent corn, and fed cattle can range between 35 and 80 percent corn.
Q. What are the consequences to not feeding animals corn?
A. Like people, animals need energy sources and the starch in corn has been a critical one in animal diets for decades. The ethanol process removes the starch. Without a significant starch source in the diet, lactating animals have less energy to produce milk or nurse their young. Additionally, initial studies have shown that low starch animal diets produce meat that is of reduced quality. Lastly, a low energy diet, such as one that utilizes distillers grains reduces farm efficiency since it requires a longer period of time to feed the animals to gain a comparable amount of market weight.
Q. What would happen if there is a drought?
A. Government mandates are insensitive to price or impacts, thus, ethanol would continue to be produced to fulfill the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandate. Economists from Iowa State University estimate that there could be an increase of $30 billion to food costs if there was a 1988 like drought.
Q. How much does ethanol cost American taxpayers?
A. Ethanol industry estimates that production will reach 9.5 billion gallons by the end of 2007. By only including the $0.51 per gallon tax credit, the ethanol subsidy provide $4.845 Billion annual subsidy. This excludes state subsidies and an extra $0.10 per gallon for ethanol operations producing less than 60 million gallons.
There is a proposal in Congress that seeks to raise the RFS mandate to 36 billion gallons per year. Maintaining the current subsidy of $0.51 per gallon, would increase the tax payer provided ethanol subsidy to $18.36 BILLION annually. For perspective, this is five times the size of the City of Philadelphia's annual budget.
A. According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Ethanol: “A colorless volatile flammable liquid (C2H5OH) that is the intoxicating agent in liquors and is also used as a solvent called also ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol. As a fuel, it has a BTU content of approximately 77,000 BTU per gallon. For reference, conventional gasoline has BTU content of 129,000 BTU per gallon. Higher BTU content means more energy per gallon.
Q. How is ethanol used as fuel?
A. Ethanol is blended with gasoline to improve its oxygen content in volume levels ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent. There is also a blend called E85, which is between 80 and 85 percent ethanol and 15 to 20 percent gasoline.Increasing the oxygen content in gasoline can improve the burn and reduce engine knock.
Q. How much ethanol can be produced from a bushel of corn?
A. A bushel of corn can produce approximately 2.8 gallons of ethanol and 17 pounds of distillers grains.
Q. What are distillers grain?
A. This is the grain that remains after producing the ethanol. In the production of ethanol, enzymes and heat break down the starch in corn and convert it to sugar, which is then fermented and converted to alcohol. The remaining material from the grain is now free of starch, high in fiber, high in phosphorus, and has a very different mineral and amino acid profile than the corn that began the process. Many animals cannot efficiently digest the high fiber product and since there is no national standardization of content, many distiller grains have varied mineral and amino acid profiles making them a poor substitute for corn.
Q. Why is corn important to animal agriculture?
A. Corn is an essential nutritional component of cattle, swine, and poultry diets. The rise in demand for corn has pressed market forces to demand higher corn prices. Consequently and among other impacts, its change in price and availability has led animal agriculture producers to consider alternatives to their feeding, nutrition, and dietary regimen. These changes impact meat and poultry quality, consumer offerings, farm efficiency, environmental impacts, American agriculture competitiveness, exports, and the management of livestock, dairy, and poultry operations. This dietary shift is largely being driven by an energy policy that has selected certain technologies to advance, namely ethanol. For perspective, poultry will eat a diet of between 40 and 85 percent corn, hogs will eat on average a diet of 75 to 85 percent corn, and fed cattle can range between 35 and 80 percent corn.
Q. What are the consequences to not feeding animals corn?
A. Like people, animals need energy sources and the starch in corn has been a critical one in animal diets for decades. The ethanol process removes the starch. Without a significant starch source in the diet, lactating animals have less energy to produce milk or nurse their young. Additionally, initial studies have shown that low starch animal diets produce meat that is of reduced quality. Lastly, a low energy diet, such as one that utilizes distillers grains reduces farm efficiency since it requires a longer period of time to feed the animals to gain a comparable amount of market weight.
Q. What would happen if there is a drought?
A. Government mandates are insensitive to price or impacts, thus, ethanol would continue to be produced to fulfill the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandate. Economists from Iowa State University estimate that there could be an increase of $30 billion to food costs if there was a 1988 like drought.
Q. How much does ethanol cost American taxpayers?
A. Ethanol industry estimates that production will reach 9.5 billion gallons by the end of 2007. By only including the $0.51 per gallon tax credit, the ethanol subsidy provide $4.845 Billion annual subsidy. This excludes state subsidies and an extra $0.10 per gallon for ethanol operations producing less than 60 million gallons.
There is a proposal in Congress that seeks to raise the RFS mandate to 36 billion gallons per year. Maintaining the current subsidy of $0.51 per gallon, would increase the tax payer provided ethanol subsidy to $18.36 BILLION annually. For perspective, this is five times the size of the City of Philadelphia's annual budget.