Economics of producing fuel-grade alcohol from corn in western Ohio

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6744878

Ott, S L

The production of significant quantities of alcohol fuel will have important effects on the use of agricultural resources, including increased food prices. The two major objectives of this research were to determine (1) the potential effects of alcohol-fuel production on agriculture, and (2) the increase in energy prices needed for alcohol-fuel production to become economic. Western Ohio (the Corn Belt part of the state) was chosen for study. A quadratic-programming model with crop, livestock, and alcohol-fuel-production activities was used for analysis. Four alcohol-fuel-production levels were analyzed: 100, 200, 300 and 400 million gallons. The 400-million-gallon level represents western Ohio's share of alcohol-fuel production for a national gasohol program. The production of alcohol results in a high protein by-product feed that can substitute for soybean meal. Efficient use of this by-product is a crucial factor affecting resource use and food prices. At low alcohol-fuel production levels, 80% of the additional cropland required for increased corn production comes from the cropland released through by-product feeding. However, as alcohol-fuel production increases, livestock's ability to use efficiently this by-product feed decreases. This in turn, reduces greatly the cropland that can be released for increased corn production. Consequently, food prices increase substantially. The quantity of land released through by-product feeding, at high alcohol-fuel-production levels, can be increased if the corn is first wet milled. Wet milling produces high-protein feeds that can be used more efficiently by livestock. For alcohol-fuel production to become economic, crude oil prices must increase by ten cents per gallon for the wet-milling process and 22 cents per gallon for the conventional distillery process (1981 $).

• OSTI ID: 6744878
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
ALCOHOL FUELS
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
PRODUCTION
MAIZE
AGRICULTURE
BY-PRODUCTS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OHIO
PRICES
CEREALS
ECONOMICS
FEDERAL REGION V
FUELS
GRAMINEAE
GRASS
INDUSTRY
NORTH AMERICA
PLANTS
SYNTHETIC FUELS
USA
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