Premium
Costs of joint production of ethanol and industrial sugar juice using energy beets in the Northern Plains of the United States
Author(s) -
Wamisho Kassu,
Ripplinger David,
De Laporte Aaron
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
biofuels, bioproducts and biorefining
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.931
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1932-1031
pISSN - 1932-104X
DOI - 10.1002/bbb.1585
Subject(s) - profitability index , sugar , ethanol fuel , economics , investment (military) , production (economics) , agricultural economics , capital (architecture) , agricultural science , biofuel , microeconomics , environmental science , chemistry , engineering , food science , waste management , finance , politics , political science , law , archaeology , history
This study evaluates the economic feasibility and profitability of producing industrial sugar juice and ethanol using energy beets in the Northern Plains of the United States. An enterprise budget is constructed to estimate the breakeven price of energy beets that triggers farmers to produce the crop. This breakeven price is used to estimate the long‐run breakeven prices for industrial sugar juice and ethanol. Stochastic models are developed to account for price and parameter variability in the estimation of enterprise budgets and breakeven prices. Results show that the simulated breakeven price of producing ethanol is 518 $m −3 and that of industrial sugar juice is 351 $t −1 , using a 36 $t −1 breakeven delivered cost of energy beets. Energy beet ethanol investment could be profitable at the breakeven prices of energy beets and ethanol computed, and could attract new capital investment into the ethanol industry. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd