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Overcoming hurdles to decarbonize ethanol

The CEO of the American Carbon Alliance says a lack of new infrastructure could hold back decarbonization of the U.S. ethanol industry and limit market potential.

Tom Buis tells Brownfield carbon capture is a future for U.S. ethanol but delays in the permitting process and pushback on pipeline projects are problematic.

“If you don’t get those pipelines and the connection to those geological formations where you can store it forever, a big part of the ethanol industry won’t be able to participate,” he says. “Then, you’ve reduced the amount of feedstocks available for sustainable aviation fuel. That’s a market of up to 100 billion gallons and it will take a lot of feedstock. And ethanol is the only quantity feedstock to help them meet their goals in the near-term.”

He says its good farmers have questions about carbon pipelines and those should be discussed “not based on fear, but on fact.”

Buis says there are different ways for the industry to capture, transport and store carbon and some are on current ethanol plant sites, but the pending pipeline projects can benefit a market for U.S. corn growers.