Pro Farmer Editors

Improved technologies have added to efficiency gains in producing ethanol, says a report by John Christianson, CPA of the independent accounting firm Christianson & Associates, PLLP, which catalogues the energy improvements being made at ethanol biorefineries across country from 2004 to 2007.

Link to full report.

According to the report, the average amount of energy as measured by British Thermal Units (BTUs) required to produce ethanol and a livestock feed co-product across all ethanol production technologies was reduced by 13.5 percent between 2004 and 2007.

The most efficient biorefineries demonstrated an even more dramatic 19 percent reduction in BTU energy requirements, today using fewer than 21,000 BTUs per gallon of ethanol produced. Likewise, electricity usage at ethanol biorefineries was also cut. The Christianson report shows a 13% reduction in electricity consumption at the average ethanol facility.