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Wisconsin needs to make sure it is part of this movement, "Wisconsin's developing ethanol industry is important to our rural economy.

The ethanol sector’s rapid ascent from a cottage industry to a robust source of renewable fuels has been called the greatest success story in modern agriculture. It’s easy to see why.

Ethanol is a significant market for U.S. corn, But ethanol’s value goes far beyond its role as a major use of corn. Ethanol plants have helped rejuvenate rural communities across the country by creating high-paying jobs, boosting local tax revenues and creating partnership opportunities for local businesses. Additionally, ethanol helps the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and displacing the harmful additive MTBE from reformulated gasoline.


NCGA will continue to work with ethanol and feed industry leaders, livestock nutritionists and others to ensure ethanol producers continue to have a market for this valuable coproduct.

Ethanol isn’t the only product manufactured by ethanol plants. A coproduct of the ethanol process is distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a high-protein, high-energy livestock feed. Though DDGS have long been fed to beef and dairy cattle, swine and poultry producers are beginning to see the value of including DDGS in their feed rations.

Eliminates the need and expense of adding a gas line antifreeze, since ethanol in gasoline absorbs more water than a small bottle of isopropyl.

Millions of Americans have driven billions of trouble-free miles using ethanol-blended gasoline over the past quarter century. The majority of this gasoline has been E-10 Unleaded, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent ordinary unleaded gasoline. However, E85 (85 percent ethanol and 15 percent ordinary gasoline) is rapidly becoming an important part of the nation’s fuel supply.

It’s also important to note that energy from ethanol is not the only result of ethanol production. Coproducts such as distillers grains, gluten feed, carbon dioxide, and corn sweeteners are also created in ethanol production. That means that not all the energy used by an ethanol plant is directed at manufacturing ethanol, thus further improving the net energy balance of ethanol production.

Sugar cane grows in the extreme southern United States, but not in the cooler climates where corn is dominant. However, many regions that currently grow corn are also appropriate areas for growing other crops that can be used for energy production. These crops include corn stover, sugar beets, wheat straw, hybrid poplars, and dedicated herbaceous biomass feedstocks such as switchgrass or bermudagrass. Some studies indicate that using these sugar beets would be a much more efficient method for making ethanol in the U.S. than using corn. United States Department of Energy reports have shown that a minimum farmgate price, hybrid poplars and switchgrass would be economically advantageous over conventional crops in certain regions of the U.S.

Ethanol appears to be less of a fire hazard than gasoline; while methanol, being more volatile, is somewhat more prone to fire and explosions. However, since ethanol and methanol dissolve in water (rather than floating on it like gasoline) their fires can be extinguished with ordinary water hoses.

One of the problems with accidental combustion of pure ethanol is that it burns with a dim, blue flame, with invisible smoke. Methanol flames are dim enough to be considered invisible in daylight. Blending significant amounts of gasoline produces a highly visible flame; small quantities of dye can also produce this effect.