May 16, 2007 

Ethanol industry to take up quarter of US corn

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects the ethanol sector will gobble up 27 percent of US corn or a record of 12.46 billion bushels this year. 

Some 3.4 billion bushels of corn - enough to make 9.3 billion gallons of ethanol - will be consumed by distillers in the marketing year beginning on 1 September, compared with 2.15 billion bushels or 20 percent of the 2006 crop, according to USDA forecasts.

US ethanol production is seen to produce more than 12 billion gallons a year by the end of the decade with 117 distilleries manufacturing an annual capacity of 6 billion gallons. Projects with 6.5 billion gallons of capacity should be completed within two years.

Note: 1 bushel = approximately 35 litres