by Jan Lewandrowski (US Department of Agriculture) Over the past two decades, the demand for renewable fuels including corn-based ethanol has helped drive a strong domestic market for corn, and supported rural America by generating jobs (PDF, 1.5 MB). New research is confirming that corn ethanol also has more greenhouse gas benefits than previously thought.
A study we just published in the journal
Biofuels found that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from corn ethanol are about 39 percent lower than gasoline on energy equivalent basis. The study, titled “
The greenhouse gas benefits of corn ethanol assessing recent evidence,” also found that when ethanol is produced at natural gas-powered refineries, the GHG emissions are even lower around 43 percent below gasoline. This study confirms work that we released in 2018 (PDF, 3 MB) and adds to the mounting evidence of ethanol’s GHG benefits, which have been often overlooked.