What is ethanol?
	Benefits of ethanol
	Safety and performance
	Vehicle and fuel availability
	Research and programs
	Refuelling stations
	Ethanol Links

Benefits

Societal and economic benefits

Ethanol contributes to regional economic growth and job creation, particularly in rural communities. There is great potential to capitalize on ethanol fuel because Canada has the forest resources and cropland needed to support the production of ethanol. The development of a substantial ethanol industry would mean new markets for Canadian farmers and forest companies. It would create construction and operations jobs at ethanol production plants and help strengthen and diversify rural economies.

Canadian farmers, notably in Saskatchewan, are becoming increasingly aware of this new market opportunity. Some have formed cooperatives to grow crops intended specifically as a feedstock for ethanol production. A 100-million-litres-per-year wheat-based ethanol production plant requires 300 000 tonnes of feed grain per year and an estimated 250 000 acres to produce the feedstock. A plant this size would consume about 800 acres worth of production per day.

Ethanol production also offers opportunities to expand cattle feedlot operations. Large volumes of distiller's grain, a high-protein feed ingredient, are generated as a by-product of ethanol production. The current value of this production is about $200 million annually in Canada.

As processes are further developed to manufacture ethanol from forest feedstock, such as wood waste, ethanol production will also create new sources of revenue for Canada's forest industry.

Environmental benefits

Ethanol is a renewable fuel because it is produced from plants. Ethanol also burns more cleanly and completely than gasoline or diesel fuel. Some studies show that on a full life cycle, it can produce lower levels of carbon monoxide emissions.

Ethanol reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because the grain or other biomass used to make the ethanol absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows. Although the conversion of the biomass to ethanol and the burning of the ethanol produce emissions, the net effect is a large reduction in GHG emissions compared with fossil fuels such as gasoline. The reduction depends on the feedstock and the fuel used to make ethanol. In Canada, the manufacturing plants that produce ethanol from corn and wheat are fuelled by natural gas. GHG emissions associated with the natural gas used in the process decrease the net (full fuel-cycle) environmental advantage of using ethanol as a fuel. These emissions are offset by the carbon absorbed during plant growth. In the United States, many ethanol plants burn coal or other fossil fuels, which reduces the overall benefit of using ethanol compared with gasoline.

E-10 from corn produces about 3 to 4 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline and costs the same as gasoline with an equivalent octane rating. E-10 made from wood or agricultural cellulosic materials would produce 6 to 8 percent fewer emissions compared with gasoline, and E-85 from cellulose would produce 75 percent fewer emissions. Canada's Iogen Corporation uses enzyme technology at its demonstration plant in Ottawa, Ontario, to convert cellulosic biomass to fuel ethanol.

Impacts on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) largely depend, therefore, on whether low-volatility gasoline is used in the blend.