Analysis of Texas Biofuel Supply Chains Originating in the United States and Brazil
Leigh B. Boske and James T. Woodward, University of Texas at Austin, May 2009, 94 pp. (169201-1)
This 2009 study, funded by the Southwest Region University Transportation Center, investigates competing ethanol supply chains terminating in the State of Texas. Midwest corn ethanol and Brazilian sugarcane ethanol constitute two sources of the biofuel necessary for synthesis of the ten percent ethanol, ninety percent gasoline fuel blend, commonly referred to as E10. The updated 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2007, promotes national availability of E10. As a follow up to the 2008 Bioenergy and Alternative Fuels Scoping Study, this report discusses the requisite equipment, time, and costs to transport ethanol to the Lone Star State from its Midwestern or Latin American sources. Federal biofuels policy along with new transportation technology, such as pipeline movement of renewable fuels, will largely determine whether domestic or international ethanol is more economically competitive in six Texas fuel markets. If Congress chose to repeal the $0.54 per gallon domestic ethanol offset tariff, sugarcane ethanol pipelined inland from the coast could be more competitively priced than the corn variety as far west as the El Paso metropolitan area.
Keywords: U.S.-Brazil Trade, Maritime Transportation, Supply Chains, Intermodal Transportation, Transportation Corridors, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Alternative Fuels, Economic Impacts, Transport of Alternative Fuels, Transportation Infrastructure
ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 4.2 MB)