DOE researchers find corn ethanol reducing its GHG emissions

In Illinois, a study conducted by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory reveals that the use of corn ethanol is reducing the carbon footprint and diminishing greenhouse gases.

The study, recently published in Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, analyzes corn ethanol production in the United States from 2005 to 2019, when production more than quadrupled. Scientists assessed corn ethanol’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity (sometimes known as carbon intensity, or CI) during that period and found a 23% reduction in CI.

According to Argonne scientists, corn ethanol production increased over the period, from 1.6 to 15 billion gallons (6.1 to 57 billion liters). Supportive biofuel policies — such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard and California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard — helped generate the increase. Both of those federal and state programs evaluate the life-cycle GHG emissions of fuel production pathways to calculate the benefits of using renewable fuels.