Ethanol Stats (February 2012)
- Number of operating plants/ethanol facilities: 209
- States with ethanol facilities: 29
- Operating Capacity: 14.9 billion gallons per year (bgy)
- Utilized Capacity: 14.1 bgy
- Capacity Under Construction: 140 million gallons
Historic Ethanol Production (in billions of gallons)
*Estimated
2011 Top Ethanol Production States
Important Facts about Ethanol Production
- 2.8 gallons of ethanol, 17.5 pounds of livestock feed (distillers grains)and 18 pounds of carbon dioxide are produced from each bushel of grain used.
- One-third of every bushel of corn is returned to livestock feed and other markets.
- Ethanol production requires approximately 2.7 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol produced.
- From 2001-2008, electricity demand per gallon of production fell 32% and water use fell by 47%.
- Ethanol yields between 1.7 - 2.3 units of energy for every one unit of energy used in production, meaning ethanol is providing twice the energy it took to produce, according to USDA research.
- Ethanol producers are increasing the amount of ethanol they can produce from the same bushel of corn. At 2.8 gallons of ethanol per bushel, ethanol yields per bushel are up 5% since 2001.
- The average dry mill ethanol plant in 2008 used 28% less thermal energy per gallon than it did just seven years earlier in 2001.
