In Climate Change Battle, Biofuels Providing Major Victory

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As both Congress and the new Biden Administration start lining up solutions to battle climate change, a new report from the Environmental Research Letters says biofuels may hold a helpful nugget in the war. The latest numbers show that greenhouse gas emissions from corn ethanol are 46 percent lower than gasoline, 7 percentage points better than previously projected. The report also outlines continuous improvements in technology and practices that continue to drive emissions lower and how the ethanol lifecycle will lead to net-zero renewable fuel in the future. According to the researchers, their “findings indicated that displacement of gasoline with ethanol produced from biofuels yields greater greenhouse gas benefits than are generally recognized and that prior analyses of the payback period for conversion of land to corn production should be updated.” A study done late last year found that transitioning to higher ethanol blends (from E10 to E15) would lower greenhouse gas emissions by 17.6 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing approximately 3.85 million vehicles from the road. Transportation remains one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions around the world.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)