The Transportation Energy Institute (TEI) released a new study, Balancing the Benefits of Biofuels, which provides a fact-based assessment of the impact crop-based biofuels have on food supplies and prices.

According to TEI, biofuels will be critical in reducing the carbon intensity of liquid fuels, which is necessary to achieve emissions reduction goals from both legacy and new vehicles with internal combustion engines.

“There are several broad findings and conclusions which can be drawn from this review,” stated John Eichberger, TEI’s executive director. “Historical evidence suggests that technological advances in agriculture have enabled it to continue to improve productivity at a rate that has outpaced the increase in demand, and as a result, land in agricultural use has been declining.”

Findings in the study include:

Agriculture Land for Biofuels: While demand for biofuels has increased significantly, the land required to produce the necessary agriculture feedstocks has not similarly increased.

Biofuels By-products and Food Production: The primary co-products from ethanol production include distillers grains, corn oil and carbon dioxide (CO2). Replacing the protein contributed by the 35.1 million metric tons of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) demand in the United States would require growing 15 million additional acres of soybeans and 5 million additional acres of corn.

Cost of Biofuels: The cost of producing the feedstocks is not directly a cost of biofuels production, as the commodity price sets the cost of feedstock to the biofuels industry. Biofuels increased corn prices by an average of 14%, while the impact on final consumer prices in the United States was estimated to be around 1%.

Carbon Impact of Biofuels: The carbon impact of corn ethanol related to direct and indirect land use change has been declining over time. There is significant potential to lower the biofuels emissions by adopting climate-smart practices for crop production that increase the efficiency of N fertilizer use, reduce use of fossil energy and increase soil carbon sequestration. Studies of the RFS have found that it has delivered a net social benefit to the United States of $110 billion for an estimated carbon reduction of more than 1.2 billion metric tons.

Biofuels and Food Production: The impact of the production of corn ethanol on food prices and indirect land use change was more significant in the early years of the RFS than in the long run. Data shows that 37.6% of the corn produced in the United States was used to produce ethanol, and ethanol made up 10.2% of all fuel used in gasoline vehicles in 2022.

For more on biofuels impact, download the full report. On Monday, July 29, NACS will launch a NACS Convenience Matters podcast that features an interview with Eichberger looking at the findings from the report.