Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Michael Woolverton / To meet the demand of the 2007 Energy Bill will require a new approach to ethanol
production in the United States. The question persists: how can the ethanol industry in the
United States produce 21 billion gallons of ethanol from cellulosic sources? This challenge
will require changes in the facilities currently manufacturing ethanol, the collection and
storage methods to which the Midwestern farmer is accustomed, and a drastic change in
farm production practices. Several different methods of cellulosic ethanol production are
being examined. One such method is to change the focus from starch based ethanol to
ethanol produced by harvest, collection, and manufacture from corn cobs. Research has
included surveys, development of economic models, and focus group meetings to
determine the feasibility of corn cobs as a viable raw material source for cellulosic ethanol.
Findings indicate that: corn cob collection is feasible for the Midwestern farmer.
According to the economic models presented in this thesis, Midwestern farmers can benefit
economically from the collection of corn cobs. Further, the collection of corn cobs allows
for current ethanol plants to be upgraded with new technology without major change in the
manufacturing processes. The focus of this research was to determine which method of
corn cob collection was preferable for Midwestern corn producers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/14044 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Schany, William J. |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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