Large-scale alcohol production from corn, grain sorghum, and crop residues

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5317747

Turhollow, Jr, A F

The potential impacts that large-scale alcohol production from corn, grain sorghum, and crop residues may have on US agriculture in the year 2000 are investigated. A one-land-group interregional linear-programming model is used. The objective function is to minimize the cost of production in the agricultural sector, given specified crop demands and constrained resources. The impacts that levels of alcohol production, ranging from zero to 12 billion gallons, have at two projected levels of crop demands, two grain-to-alcohol conversion and two milling methods, wet and dry, rates are considered. The impacts that large-scale fuel alcohol production has on US agriculture are small. The major impacts that occur are the substitution of milling by-products, DDG, gluten feed, and gluten meal, for soybean meal in livestock feed rations. Production of 12 billion gallons of alcohol is estimated to be equivalent to an 18 percent increase in crop exports. Improving the grain-to-alcohol conversion rate from 2.6 to 3.0 gallons per bushels reduces the overall cost of agricultural production by $989 billion when 12 billion gallons of alcohol are produced.

• OSTI ID: 5317747
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
090200* -- Alcohol Fuels-- (-1989)
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
140504 -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Biomass Production & Conversion-- (-1989)
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
295000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Hydrogen & Synthetic Fuels
299003 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Unconventional Sources & Power Generation-- Other-- (-1989)
AGRICULTURAL WASTES
AGRICULTURE
ALCOHOL FUELS
CEREALS
ECONOMIC IMPACT
FUELS
GRAMINEAE
GRASS
INDUSTRY
MAIZE
ORGANIC WASTES
PLANTS
PRODUCTION
SORGHUM
SYNTHETIC FUELS
WASTES