What is corn ethanol?

In different contexts and industries, corn ethanol is also referred to as Corn alcohol, Organic corn ethanol, Corn-based alcohol and Corn ethyl alcohol. It is produced from corn biomass through the fermentation and distillation of ethanol, usually by a process known as dry milling or (less commonly nowadays) wet milling.

Corn ethanol is a renewable fuel that is blended with gasoline to create fuel mixtures, such as E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline), E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), etc. E10 has an increasing market share in countries across the world and in some, such as Sweden and the UK, is now the official standard product at gas stations.

Corn ethanol - advantages and disadvantages

Corn ethanol results in up to 50% fewer greenhouse gas emissions well-to-wheel than gasoline. It is also fully biodegradable and burns off more environmentally cleanly than gasoline or diesel fuel. Nevertheless, the environmental benefits of corn-based biofuels remain disputed.

First, corn ethanol as fuel also has a lower mileage than oil. It also has a far lower EROI (energy returned on energy invested) than oil. The EROI for corn ethanol is about 1.5:1 and for oil about 11:1, though with technological advances it is believed this gap may shrink significantly.

Secondly, some research suggests corn ethanol in fact produces more carbon emissions per unit of energy than gasoline, once you factor in fertiliser use and changes in land use.On land use, there is the additional criticism that the huge areas of arable land used to produce corn for ethanol (some 25% of all US arable acreage, for example) is therefore unavailable to grow corn or other crops for human or animal consumption.

All in all, however, we feel corn ethanol benefits the global fuel mix. An E10 blend typically decreases CO and CO2 emissions by some 30%. And on the criticism that ethanol uses more energy than it provides, the evidence is conflicting. Moreover, most governments and experts ultimately feel the benefits of using corn ethanol-based fuels outweigh the potential disadvantages.

Denaturants

Not all corn alcohol is used to produce food or drinks. If you do not use raw alcohol to produce food or drinks, we can denature it for you. In that case, the product will be exempt from excise duty. You can choose from the following denaturing agents:

• DEP
• MEK
• Bitrex
• TSDA 1-9
• TBA
• IPA
• Euro Denatured

Choose your combination of denaturants to create the customised neutral alcohol you need or contact us to discuss the various options.