Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 6/24/10

A USDA report issued Thursday on how to meet the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standards mandate to produce 36 billion gallons of renewable transportation fuel by 2022 said it will take the use of about 27 million acres, or 6.5 percent, of U.S. cropland to achieve.

The estimate assumes 15 billion gallons of fuel from corn ethanol, the maximum allowed under the standards. The United States produced 10.75 billion gallons in 2009 and is expected to produce about 12 billion in 2010.

The cropland use estimate also assumes 13.4 billion gallons of biofuels from dedicated energy crops, including: perennial grasses, energy cane and biomass sorghum. It assumes 0.5 billion gallons from oilseeds including soy and canola. The cropland estimate does not include the assumed 4.3 billion gallons of biofuel produced from crop residues including corn stover (leaves and stalks) and straw or the 2.8 billion gallons assumed from woody biomass (logging residues only).

Refineries, pumps needed

USDA predicted a need to build 527 new biorefineries at a cost of $168 billion to meet the 36-billion-gallon mandate for 2022, assuming an average biorefinery size of 40 million gallons per year.

In addition, significant obstacles must be overcome to expand biofuels use. According to the report, "the limited number of flex-fuel vehicles, their relatively low utilization of bio-based fuels instead of gasoline, and the inability of the rest of the vehicle fleet to utilize higher blends, restricts the amount of ethanol that can actually be consumed."

There are currently about 8 million flex-fuel vehicles in the United States, which is only about 3 percent of the vehicles on the road. The rest of the vehicles can so far only accept a 10 percent ethanol blend, although the EPA is considering whether or not 15 percent blends can be tolerated by engines and in terms of air quality considerations.

To grow flex-fuel vehicle use, more blender pumps must also become available, the report said, adding that USDA could immediately offer assistance on the infrastructure needed to increase blender pumps. Rail and truck infrastructure is also need, given that only about 15 percent of petroleum blending terminals that handle ethanol have rail access, the report noted.

The entire report can be viewed here.