The increasing use of cellulosic routes to ethanol will help reduce the price of corn in the US from about 2012, LECG consultant John Urbanchuk, told Ethanol '07 in Tucson Arizona, my colleague William Lemos reports.
(Disclosure: William and I work for ICIS: About ICIS)
Ethanol will consume about 30% of the US corn crop by 2012, according Urbanchuk. Urbanchuk did not make a projection on the price of corn, but he said this will retreat from the 2006 peaks as cellulosic ethanol becomes slowly available after 2012.
Just as well, the price of corn increased by 60% between September 2006 and January 2007 in the US, mostly driven by increased demand for ethanol.