title: Fuel miles and the blend wall: costs and emissions from ethanol distribution in the United States.
abstract: From 1991 to 2009, U.S. production of ethanol increased 10-fold, largely due to government programs motivated by climate change, energy security, and economic development goals. As low-level ethanol-gasoline blends have not consistently outperformed ethanol-free gasoline in vehicle performance or tailpipe emissions, national-level economic and environmental goals could be accomplished more efficiently by concentrating consumption of gasoline containing 10% ethanol (i.e., E10) near producers to minimize freight activity. As the domestic transportation of ethanol increased 10-fold in metric ton-kilometers (t-km) from 2000 to 2009, the portion of t-km potentially justified by the E10 blend wall increased from less than 40% to 80%. However, we estimate 10 billion t-km took place annually from 2004 to 2009 for reasons other than the blend wall. This "unnecessary" transportation resulted in more than $240 million in freight costs, 90 million L of diesel consumption, 300,000 metric tons of CO(2)-e emissions, and 440 g of human intake of PM(2.5). By 2009, the marginal savings from enabling Iowa to surpass E10 would have exceeded 2.5 g CO(2)-e/MJ and $0.12/gallon of ethanol, as the next-closest customer was 1600 km away. The use of a national network model enables estimation of marginal transportation impacts from subnational policies, and benefits from policies encouraging concentrated consumption of renewable fuels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 215B McLaughlin Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94704, United States. bret@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Bret
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Strogen
authors.forename: Arpad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Horvath
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: McKone
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis; D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D000431:Ethanol / Q000191:economics*; D005742:Gasoline / Q000191:economics*; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011634:Public Health; D014186:Transportation / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D005742:Gasoline; D001335:Vehicle Emissions; D000431:Ethanol