Ethanol

Corn based fuel alcohol blended into US gasoline at about 10 percent by volume.

Overview

The US Renewable Fuel Standard mandates blending volumes, creating RIN credits that refiners trade to show compliance. Chicago ethanol futures run 29,000 gallon contracts, and the corn crush spread relates grain cost to ethanol output. Brazil is the other giant, producing from sugarcane with flex fuel vehicles that switch between fuels by price. Roughly a third of the US corn crop becomes fuel, tying gasoline policy to grain markets, and distillers grains, the protein byproduct, feeds cattle, linking the ethanol plant back to livestock. Regulatory fights over summer E15 sales and sustainable aviation fuel proposals keep moving the demand outlook.