Fuel ethanol production

Motor fuel grade ethanol (MFGE) is the fastest growing market for ethanol worldwide; and MFGE production dwarfs the combined total production of all other grades of ethanol. Fermentation ethanol, as fuel (and solvent), has experienced several cycles of growth and decline since the early 1800s. By 1860, production had reached more than 90 million gallons per year. In 1861 Congress imposed a tax of $2.08 per gallon. About that time, oil was found in Pennsylvania. Thus began the cycle of ‘control’ of fuel ethanol markets (and therefore production) by taxation policy and oil industry influence on government. Petroleum interests dominated the world fuel industry in the postWorld War II era, until a major policy shift by Brazil in the 1970s led to an ethanol-fueled motor vehicle strategy, followed a decade later by the US (Morris, 1994, personal communication). As a result, the combined motor fuel ethanol production from fermentation in the Western Hemisphere exceeded 5.5 billion gallons per year in 2002. In Central and South America the dominant MFGE feedstock is sugar, either in the form of cane juice directly from crushed cane (autonomous distilleries), or from molasses (annexed distilleries). In North America, the dominant feedstock is starch from grain, with 90% derived from corn. Feedstock choice follows regional dominant agricultural output (Katzen, 1987). Since the technology for producing MFGE from sugar sources is an abbreviated form of ethanol production from starch, which is in turn an abbreviated form of production from whole grain, this chapter will focus on MFGE production from whole grain as typically practiced in North America. This technology is generally known as dry milling (Raphael Katzen Associates, 1978).