Green Plains Renewable Energy

Green Plains Renewable Energy

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

ECON 211

December 12, 2013

Green Plains Renewable Energy

I. History of the Ethanol Industry.

Ethanol is probably one of the most commonly used chemicals in the world. It can be found in many alcoholic beverages; it can be used as a disinfectant, antiseptic, and also as a solvent in many products we use on a day-to-day basis. Ethanol was primarily used to start an engine in 1826 an after that in 1876 an inventor by the name of Nicolaus Otto used it to power up a four-cycle combustion engine (Gustafson, n.d.). In the 1850s ethanol was also used as lighting fuel, but that didn’t last too long because they began to tax it to help with the Civil War. Later on in 1908 the first automobile built by Ford Motor Company, the Model T was fueled by ethanol made from corn. According to Gustafson (n.d.), “today’s ethanol industry began in the 1970s when petroleum-based fuel became expensive and environmental concerns involving leaded gasoline created a need for an octane.” Due to depletion of many of our valuable petroleum resources, ethanol has been selected as a very good prospective and alternative to oil.

There are various ways to produce ethanol; it can be manufactured synthetically from ethene using steam. It can also be produced from sugars and starches using fermentation, and from biomass waste using bacteria. A few of the reasons why the production of ethanol increased throughout the years is due to the reduction of carbon monoxide emissions, the decrease in imported oil dependence, and the increase in environmentally friendly fuels. According to Gustafson (n.d.), “In 2005, the first Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) became law as part of the United States’ energy policy. It provided for ethanol production of four billion gallons in 2006 with an increase to seven and one-half billion gallons by 2012.”Since then, many changes have occurred such as the...