A comparison of the costs of bioethanol production from triticale, wheat and maize

Abstract

Bioethanol is one of the most promising biofuels from renewable resources. The selection of the most appropriate feedstock for bioethanol production strongly depends on the local conditions. The present work compares the costs of the biotechnological production of fuel bioethanol from triticale, wheat and maize. The first part of the study was concerned with the cultivation of four varieties of triticale and wheat and four maize hybrids under optimum agro-ecological conditions. The grain yield data and the data for the yield of bioethanol obtained under laboratory conditions from these raw materials were used in the second part of the study. Namely, these data served as the basis to calculate the costs of bioethanol production from triticale, wheat and maize grown on 26 privately-owned farms in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that the main factor that influences the price of bioethanol is the cost of the raw material. On the other hand, the price of particular raw materials depends on the grain yield per hectare. The results of the economic analysis showed that the expenses of bioethanol production from triticale were the lowest, somewhat higher from maize, and the highest from wheat.