Corn prices Ho Wing Tung Janice

What does corn make? Food commodities Food grain for breeding By product: Bioethanol

How to make biofuel? Filtering Removing of water Titration Preparation of sodium methozide Heating and mixing Settling and separation

Bioethanol A kind of alcohol made from corn, of high quality Commonly found in Brazil Blended into gasoline as a fuel enhancer Advantages Increase car’s thermal efficiency Reduce pollution Tax credit, subsidies are provided by US government Disadvantages Smaller energy density and output level (2/3 of petrol) Need a bigger tank to fully substitute petrol Easy to erode pipelines

What affects prices of corn? Prices of corn Demand and supply of feed grain for meat production Demand as food commodities Demand and supply of Bioethanol

Prices of Corn Highest: $445.75Lowest: $300.5

Emerging trends

1. Global Warming Alternatives of gasoline and petrol Bioethanol can be a more environmentally friendly Higher demand for bioethanol Prices of corn

2. Second generation biofuel Aim: The Energy Independence and Security Act 2007 Increase 3x usage of biofuel in 10 years with advanced biofuel Frees the industry from reliance on a single commodity Avoid threatening food supply and biodiversity

Categories Corn Wheat Soybean First Generation Biofuel Industrial waste Woodchips Leaves Second Generation Biofuel

Derived from non-food commodities E.g. woodchips, industrial waste, leaves Less greenhouse gas emission Higher energy output Substitute of corn-biofuel with better performance Prices of corn ??

Short term (3-5 years) Corn prices Target set by America’s Environmental Agency High fixed cost to invest in non-food biofuel Food-biofuel still dominates with raising demand

Long Term (5-10 years) Joint ventures emerge US government grants and loans to investors Oil companies are joining the ventures Solazym and Chevron BP and Dupont Prices of corn will substantially

Q & A

Emerging trends European Union’s goal of reaching 10% of transportation fuel as biofuel Shell and Cosan team up on ethanol Generation game A champion of futuristic biofuels embraces the old-fashioned kind Feb 4th 2010 | SÃO PAULO | America's biofuel muddle Coming up empty America will have trouble meeting its ambitious goals for biofuels Mar 25th 2010 | CHICAGO Joint ventures Higher targets