As the ag economy searches for the next evolution of demand, Deanna Kovar says the future tractor might not just sip diesel, it could run on E98 ethanol grown by farmers themselves. In an exclusive interview with Farm Journal, Kovar said the tractor is still in trials and testing, but John Deere is debuting the E98 tractor, and engine, during Commodity Classic next week.
Kovar, president of the Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, Production & Precision Ag for John Deere, says the company is actively testing an ethanol-powered tractor in Iowa and other locations. While diesel remains the dominant fuel across production agriculture, Deere engineers are exploring whether high-ethanol blends could offer a cleaner, farmer-driven alternative.
“We’re not just thinking about diesel,” Kovar says. “We’re also considering how might we fix this problem another way. And that’s an ethanol tractor.”
A Tractor Fueled by the Farm
With so much talk about E15 and what that would mean for added domestic corn demand, Deere is taking it a step further for farm equipment. The concept centers on E98, a fuel blend made up of roughly 98% ethanol (the remaining 2% is denaturant). Unlike traditional diesel engines, an E98-powered tractor would burn clean enough that it would not require diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) to meet emissions standards.
That’s a notable shift in an era where emissions systems add cost, maintenance and complexity to modern equipment. But for Kovar, the opportunity goes well beyond simplifying aftertreatment systems.
“The idea that we could use E98 to run a tractor, it’s so clean you don’t need diesel exhaust fluid to run it,” she says. “It would allow a farmer to grow the fuel that they put in their tractor to grow next year’s crop.”
That means corn grown in the field could be processed into ethanol, then returned to the farm as fuel — creating a tighter, more circular production system while generating more demand for the crops farmers already grow.
From Concept to Cornfield
One of the farmers helping test that concept is Tim Burrack of Arlington, Iowa, who recently shared his experience on “AgriTalk”.
Burrack first heard about the ethanol tractor while traveling and speaking with Deere representatives.
“They were talking about this tractor they had built that ran on 100% ethanol — or actually 98%, because ethanol is denatured,” Burrack says. “And I said, ‘Well, I’d sure like to have that tractor on my farm.’”
Before fall harvest ended, Deere delivered.
For five days, Burrack put the prototype to work, four days on a grain cart and one on tillage. The tractor, which Burrack says looks like a traditional John Deere 8R, is rated at 350 HP. Burrack says Deere has built only a handful of the prototypes, with one reportedly operating in Brazil and another in Iowa this past fall.
“I’m really thankful I got to run it, and I’m extremely impressed by it,” he says.
Unlike today’s high-horsepower diesel machines, the E98 tractor uses a spark ignition engine, a major departure from the compression ignition systems farmers are accustomed to.
“If you can imagine this, though, having 350 horse using electronic ignition, we’re not used to that in agriculture anymore at that large scale,” Burrack says.
In the field, however, he says performance spoke for itself. Hooked to an 1,100-bushel grain cart, the tractor handled full loads during harvest without issue. On tillage, Burrack says it performed “really well.”
Fuel consumption, he notes, ran about 1.65 gallons of ethanol to equal the energy performance of one gallon of diesel, which is consistent with the lower energy density of ethanol compared to diesel fuel.
The prototype isn’t perfect. Burrack says cold-weather starting remains a challenge, and Deere engineers are still refining the system.
“They know the problems they’ve got to resolve,” he says. “But I think John Deere is committed to making this work.”
The Infrastructure Hurdle
Kovar emphasizes the biggest barrier to adoption isn’t necessarily the engine itself.
“I don’t think it’s the engine technology that limits how long,” she says. “I really think it is the infrastructure.”
For E98 to become viable at scale, the industry would need:
- Reliable production and distribution channels
- Fuel retailers equipped to handle high-ethanol blends
- On-farm storage and dispensing systems
- A coordinated effort from fuel companies and equipment manufacturers
“There is a ton of infrastructure that would need to follow to allow an E98-type fuel to flow and be on [the] farm,” Kovar says. “Are the fuel companies ready to deliver it to the farm? Do we have the on-farm ability?”
If that system were in place, she suggests, the technology could move more quickly. Without it, adoption becomes a longer-term play. Kovar wouldn’t give an exact timeline on how long it could be before it’s commercially available to farmers, but she says the technology in the equipment will more than likely be ready before the infrastructure to support it.
A Local Fuel Loop
Burrack emphasizes the close, convenient loop the idea creates.
“Just imagine, within 20 miles of my farm, I can grow the corn, take it to the ethanol plant, they’ll make the fuel and all the liquid fuels that I need will be made right here,” he says. “I think it’s a transformation of equipment. And John Deere needs some encouragement to keep moving, but it actually works.”
Diesel isn’t going away anytime soon. But as Deere continues testing, and farmers like Burrack put E98 prototypes through real-world paces, the idea of tractors powered by the very crops they harvest is moving from thought experiment to field trial, and possibly, one day, to a field near you.
Watch the complete interview with Kovak on YouTube.
