Another Record Month for Ethanol Production
6 Comments
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – January 30th, 2010
November set yet another record for ethanol production in the United States.
According to the latest figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. ethanol production hit a record high in November 2009 of 761,000 barrels per day (b/d). That is a 93,000 barrel increase from the previous year.
Ethanol demand, as calculated by the Renewable Fuels Association, also reached an all time high at 781,000 b/d in November, up from 683,000 b/d a year ago. Ethanol demand is averaging 702,000 b/d through November.
EIA also reports fuel ethanol imports of 12 million gallons in September.
6 Comments »
Michael Massey
If US farmers/US ethanol industry is producing 10% of fuel needs for US gasoline powered cars, then would the ethanol industry now be the largest domestic supplier of fuel? What comparison do we draw with Alaskan oil production barrels per day versus ethanol production barrels per day? Has the ethanol industry overtaken Alaskan production? Is the industry now the second largest domestic producer of fuel behind Texas? Who reports this analysis?
Ken
Ethanol is reducing our dependance on foreign oil from sources that want to do us harm.
We need to produce more energy here at home.
Ethanol from all sources — corn, farm waste, cellulose, algae, corn cobs, garbage to fuel are all sources we can count on.
We need more home grown solutions to our energy problems and this will keep jobs here at home.
Ethanol, wind power, solar power, geothermal all need our support.
ALL new gasoline powered vehicles should be flex fuel capable offering consumers a choice at the pump.
Ron Harmeyer
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration web site, the U.S. imported about 11,100,000 barrels of oil per day in November 2009. According to the same site, refiners get 20 gallons of gasoline from a barrel of oil. Therefore, we imported enough oil to make 222,000,000 gallons of gasoline per day.
We made 761,000 barrels, or 31,962,000 gallons of ethanol per day. But a gallon of ethanol has only 75% the energy of the gasoline it displaces. So let us say that we produced enough ethanol to displace 23,971,500 gallons of gasoline per day.
In order to make 23,971,500 gallons of gasoline per day, we would need 1,198,575 barrels of imported oil. In November 2009, oil was selling at Cushing, Oklahoma, for about $75 per barrel. That means we did not spend $90 million dollars per day (rounded to the nearest million).
Extrapolate that over the year, and the use of ethanol kept $32.8 BILLION dollars in the United States.
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