Alternative Fuel Sources - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power - page 91

ty of demand for distiller grains (DG) which are ethanol's main coprod-
uct. The potential to use these coproducts is great according to USDA's
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). A recent NASS survey
found that of more than 9,000 livestock operations contacted in 12 mid-
western states, more than a fifth of dairy producers and roughly a third
of both hog and beef producers were considering adding DG to their live-
stock feed.
Others predict that the ratio of corn to distillers grains being fed to
livestock will go from 11/1 to 3/1 in 10 years. Animal nutrition studies in-
dicate that the optimal inclusion rates of DG in feed rations are 30-40% for
beef cattle, 20-25% for dairy cows, 20% for hogs and 15% for poultry. DG
replaces corn pound for pound in feed rations, usually at a lower price, so
it will be in demand. The main barrier to the use of DG has been availabil-
ity. Distiller grains have a short shelf life and can be difficult to store and
expensive to transport. Wet DG is heavy and can mold in less than two
weeks in the summer months or freeze if stored outdoors in winter. Now,
with over 100 new grain ethanol plants in 21 states it should be easier for
farmers to locate nearby supplies. In 2007 about 3.4 billion bushels of the
fall corn harvest went into fermentation vats, which supplied almost 30
million tons of DG in 2008, more than a 60% jump from the year before.
The proceeds from DG also aid ethanol producers, adding up to 15% to
their revenue. These distiller grain sales can drop the cost of corn by about
a third. When corn is $3 a bushel, an ethanol producer gets $1 back from
distiller grain sales.
CELLULOSIC ETHANOL FUEL
The commercial production of cellulosic ethanol is moving closer
with advances in technology along with federal and private funding for
new plants and research centers. These are accelerating the time to vol-
ume production which could push the cost of ethanol from cellulosic feed-
stocks to well under $1.00 a gallon below the cost of corn ethanol.
The process of using concentrated acid hydrolysis was developed in
the 1940s but new biological and gasification technologies are expected to
cut costs by $1 a gallon, making the fuel competitive with both corn etha-
nol and gasoline. When the capital costs of building a new gasoline refin-
ery are included, gasoline would cost about the same as making cellulosic
ethanol using traditional acid hydrolysis. The biggest hurdle is the high