Quick Facts
- One acre of corn can produce enough ethanol to run a car for some 72,000 miles on E-10 Unleaded.
- For every barrel of ethanol produced, 1.2 barrels of petroleum are displaced.
- In 2008, U.S. ethanol production displaced the equivalent of 330,000 barrels of imported crude oil per day—more than one large oil tanker per week.
- The use of E-10 Unleaded (10 percent ethanol/90 percent ordinary unleaded gasoline) is approved for use by every major automaker in the world.
- One bushel of corn yields about 2.8 gallons of ethanol.
- A typical 40 million gallon ethanol plant creates 32 full-time jobs and generates an additional $1.2 million in tax revenue for a community.
- Ethanol production results in a net energy gain—producing 67 percent more energy than it takes to grow and process the corn into ethanol.
- Ethanol production consumed about 20 percent of the nation’s total corn supply in 2007—some 3.0 billion bushels.
- Ethanol production in the U.S. hit a record 6.5 billion gallons in 2007—nearly double the amount produced in 2004.
- There are some 7 million “flexible fuel” vehicles on America ’s highways that can run on up to 85 percent ethanol (E85).
- A flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) can run on any combination of gasoline and ethanol up to 85 percent ethanol. You can fill up with E85 one time, E-10 Unleaded the next and ordinary unleaded the next—and a computer in the fuel system automatically adjusts for the level of ethanol in the fuel mix.
