I literally live in Iowa and I'm against ethanol. The farmers like it because it's easy, and they don't have to innovate to invest in added-value tech to enhance the value of their crops.
Ethanol literally kills investment in just about everything else ag related. I had some long time friends who had a process that would break down corn, and possibly other ag products, into it's basic protein, carb, and fat constituents. The carb was a pure sugar stream. It was a simple, efficient, low cost cold process that could have gotten up and running from a small amount of capital relative to what is invested in the industry right now.
The beauty of it is a pure sugar stream would make an ethanol plant far more efficient not having to deal with the other components on the front an back in, meaning it would have dropped the breakeven significantly. That sugar stream can be used to ferment many other things, and the protein and fat came out high quality with no loss of nutrition v. the stillage and DDG's that come out the the back end.
No one was interested because 'they were making money right now' in an industry known for it's booms and busts. They also wanted 'skin in the game' despite the fact I've seen the ag industry blind invest billions in boondoggles that never worked.
So forgive me if I'm a little hostile to ag industry at the moment. Ethanol is a crap product as it is and we should have moved on from it 2 decades ago.
