What Is Ethanol and Why Does It Matter for Climate Progress?

Much of our global economy relies on ethanol, as evidenced by the 28 billion gallons produced worldwide in 2022. Despite its importance, most people don’t understand what it is, why we need it or where it comes from. At the same time, the economy is shifting toward relying on ethanol even more as part of the transition away from fossil fuels, but traditional ethanol production methods are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. To meet global climate goals, we must commit to sourcing and producing ethanol more sustainably.

“To meet global climate goals, we must commit to sourcing and producing ethanol more sustainably.”

What is ethanol?

Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, is a clear, colorless chemical compound typically made by fermenting corn, sugar cane and crop residue. It contains two carbon atoms.

As much as 94% of ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from corn, while Brazil produced more than 8 billion gallons of ethanol from sugar cane in 2022.

Ethanol in the global supply chain

In its most familiar form, ethanol is the ingredient in alcoholic beverages that makes them boozy, but its impact on the global supply chain is much bigger. 

Currently, ethanol is primarily mixed with gasoline or diesel to produce fuel with lower emissions. In the U.S., Congress authorized the creation of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which mandates the amount of renewable fuel, including biomass-derived fuels like ethanol, that must be blended with gasoline and diesel. As a result, ethanol powers cars and trucks around the world. You may be familiar with gas pumps marked E10, E15 or E85, which refer to the percentage of ethanol blended into these fuels. 

Ethanol can also be a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions from air travel. The aviation industry currently uses 100 billion gallons of fossil-based jet fuel per year, so ethanol-based alternatives have a major role to play in the industry’s transition to net zero emissions. 

Beyond fuels, ethanol is also an important feedstock for the production of chemicals and materials. Ethanol is positioned to be a key raw ingredient to replace materials that are traditionally produced from fossil fuels. For example, ethanol can be converted to a variety of different ethylene derivatives, including monoethylene glycol (MEG) which is one of the main building blocks of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in fabrics and packaging. These products are critical parts of the global supply chain, but when produced using fossil fuels, they have a significant negative impact on the environment. The growing use of ethanol-derived MEG and PET is helping to eliminate the use of virgin fossil carbon in the creation of these materials, but there is more we can do to make ethanol production even more sustainable.

“The growing use of ethanol-derived MEG and PET is helping to eliminate the use of virgin fossil carbon in the creation of these materials, but there is more we can do to make ethanol production even more sustainable.”

Why ethanol production needs a circular economy revamp

Given the wide use of ethanol across the global supply chain, where and how we source it has major implications for emissions reduction efforts. 

While ethanol-based fuels and materials are more sustainable than their fossil-derived counterparts, today’s primary ethanol production methods are still improving. Crops like corn and sugar that are specifically grown to be a feedstock for ethanol production can be resource intensive, requiring agricultural land, fuel, fertilizers, and water, which increases its environmental footprint. To address the challenge, some ethanol producers are looking for ways to make their operations more sustainable by switching to renewable energy sources and streamlining their processes to reduce waste.

Cellulosic ethanol, made by fermenting less resource-intensive biomass sources like crop residues, wood waste and other forms of plant matter can help sequester more carbon in soil. However, this alternative has not yet reached the scale of corn- or sugar-based ethanol production. 

While traditional bio-based ethanol certainly has a role to play in the Net Zero ambitions of the chemicals and materials industries, it is critical that we identify new raw materials to address the magnitude of the issue at hand. To go a step further, we must look to other abundant sources of carbon that can serve as feedstocks for ethanol and chemical production. One unexpected source is the gigatons of CO2 that already exist above ground. Instead of using virgin fossil carbon or resource-intensive biofuels to make things we throw away, we can capture and recycle the waste carbon produced as a byproduct of other industrial processes. By reusing waste carbon to make ethanol, we can help energy-intensive industries reduce their carbon footprints while meeting the needs of the global supply chain. This circular carbon economy model will allow us to address our planet’s carbon problem from both ends, and our team at LanzaTech is making it possible to bend the current linear economy into a circular one. 

“By reusing waste carbon to make ethanol, we can help energy-intensive industries reduce their carbon footprints while meeting the needs of the global supply chain.”

How LanzaTech helps

At LanzaTech, we use a technology process we call biorecycling to capture and process multiple forms of waste carbon before they can enter the atmosphere and cause harm. Because ethanol is an inherent product of our commercial microbe’s fermentation process, we work with biology to produce ethanol from waste carbon sources just as easily as other carbon sources. 

Emissions sources like steel mills and landfill sites can attach LanzaTech’s bioreactors to their facilities, which then act similar to a brewery. Instead of using yeast to convert sugar into beer, proprietary microbes consume carbon-rich gases and convert them into essential raw materials like ethanol. This process allows LanzaTech to create value from waste. 

Our technology is replacing chemicals typically sourced from virgin fossil carbon or biomass in everything from product packaging to perfumes and clothing fibers. Our recycled carbon-based ethanol is already in use by partners across the supply chain, like Zara, H&M Move and On. We’re also working with our partners at LanzaJet to connect our biorecycling process to their Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ) process to make SAF.

Today, we are making ethanol from waste carbon and then converting it into other key molecules. Our success with this process is paving the way for a future in which we can directly produce other downstream molecules, making manufacturing more efficient and sustainable.

If you’re interested in learning more about LanzaTech’s carbon biorecycling technology, get in touch here.