Oops! New Research Shows That Using Corn Ethanol to Reduce Emissions May Have Been a Dumb Idea

In the U.S. most gasoline sold contains 10 percent ethanol. A new study shows that this may have caused INCREASED carbon emissions.

Understanding that the Corvette is the best sportscar made in America is easy. Understanding how carbon emissions work is a little more difficult. That is why that after years of putting ethanol in our gasoline to reduce emissions we are now seeing that it may have had the opposite effect. We are not here to bash ethanol. In fact, it is capable of producing a lot of power and is used extensively in racing. We are not bashing trying to reduce emissions either. We all want a safer and healthier planet. But when it comes to how we propel our cars a lot of factors need to be considered before we declare victory. Of course, now EVs are the big thing but that electricity has to come from somewhere, right? Maybe the lessons learned from ethanol will help us understand the true environmental savings of EVs.

Jason Fenske recently posted another excellent video on his Engineering Explained YouTube channel. In this video Fenske discusses new research out of the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The research suggests that 10 percent ethanol in our fuel may have done more harm than good. Fenske discusses the history of ethanol, how it works, and why we still use it. He also covers what the future looks like. If you are at all curious about the fuel that you put into your Corvette, this is fascinating information.

Corn Ethanol

Why do we put corn in our cars? The idea was to reduce the amount of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. Corn ethanol is a renewable fuel compared to gasoline itself. For gasoline we pull oil from the ground, refine it, distribute it, and eventually burn it in our cars which releases carbon dioxide in the air. Corn ethanol is made from growing corn obviously. So, to grow the corn you are pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The corn is then processed until it becomes ethanol, burned in our cars and releases carbon dioxide. It is a renewable cycle of pulling carbon from the air and eventually putting it back. As opposed to gasoline which is coming from the ground and net new carbon dioxide is added to the air. Simple right?

University of Wisconsin – Madison Study

A new study was recently published that concludes that ethanol has a 24 percent GREATER carbon intensity than gasoline. Oops. Why did we do this? Ethanol implementation was driven by the Renewable Fuel Standard created by Congress in 2005. The program goal was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, expand the use of renewable fuels, and reduce reliance on imported oil. In 2010 an impact analysis was done which stated the program had to realize a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Corn ethanol showed a 21 percent reduction according to the impact analysis, so the corn boom began. If you are really interested in all the details or just have insomnia one night, you can read the full 1,109-page document here.

Problem With Corn

Nothing in life is free. While ethanol may in theory reduce overall emissions, you can’t just stick an ear of corn in your gas tank. It has to be farmed, distributed, refined, and most important of all there is additional land needed in order to grow all this extra corn. This land use change contributes a massive amount of carbon emissions as the land that is prepared to grow corn releases carbon into the air. Eventually this large initial carbon release to grow the corn will be offset with the lower emissions but it could take decades. And if the University of Wisconsin – Madison study is accurate, it will never happen.

Now What?

The Renewable Fuel Standard set the plan through the year 2022. A quick glance at your calendar will tell you that is this year. So, the EPA has to set the standard for how much corn ethanol will be used going forward. An analysis of Switchgrass as the source of ethanol was done and that seems to offer far greater emissions reduction benefits than corn does. So, it is possible and even reasonable to expect that corn could be replaced with the far more efficient Switchgrass. However, this is a government agency we are talking about so nothing would surprise us. In any event for all the details you ever wanted on the impacts of ethanol and our environment, check out the video below.

Images: Chevrolet; Engineering Explained

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