The renewable energy industry continues to expand at a rapid pace. New
advances in cellulosic ethanol technologies have the potential to reduce our dependency
on foreign oil. The evolution of these new biofuel markets could have significant effects
on future production levels, market prices, and world trade levels for various agricultural
commodities. Alternative scenarios involving new biofuel technologies, primary factor
availability, and government policy will result in very different outcomes for the
agricultural economy. The interactions of current and new biofuel technologies,
including conventional ethanol production (from corn grain) and cellulosic ethanol
production (from corn stover and switchgrass), and the agricultural economy were
examined in a general equilibrium framework. Various outcomes were examined with
attention primarily focused on (1) trade offs among competing uses of agricultural
commodities, (2) changes in the output of major agricultural producers competing with
the U.S., (3) effects on the livestock industry, (4) profitability of the agricultural
industry, (5) changes in input costs, including land rents, and (6) changes in land use
patterns. Results indicated that advances in cellulosic ethanol technology led to less grain
ethanol production and more stover ethanol production in the United States. The
production of switchgrass ethanol was not economically feasible under any scenario,
which was expected due to the availability of lower priced corn stover. Overall, it was
expected that a decrease in the costs of cellulosic ethanol production would lead to a
higher increase in total U.S. ethanol production than actually occurred. As a result, the
effects on the world economy were smaller than expected.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-508 |
| Date | 2009 May 1900 |
| Creators | Campiche, Jody L. |
| Contributors | Bryant, Henry L., Richardson, James R. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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