A GIS-Based Territorial Model for Energy Balance Evaluation of Corn-to-Ethanol Process: an Italian Case Study.

A territorial analysis was carried out to provide the main elements of agricultural land use planning for a bioethanol production chain. A model was developed at a regional level in a GIS environment where the land use map of Emilia-Romagna was integrated with alphanumerical data on the energy inputs and outputs related to corn production. A simulation was done converting part of the areas previously cultivated with sugar beet and vacated by the sugar industry sector reorganization to the cultivation of corn for bioethanol production. Data allows to foresee the location of two ethanol plants in the Emilia-Romagna region. An energy analysis was carried out on a territorial base to highlight the energy expense due to corn production, transportation and processing into ethanol. Energy balances were calculated for each single supply area as the ratio of output/input, considering coproducts energy credit as part of the energy output. Energy balances vary in a small range of 1.15443 - 1.16576 according to supply areas and corn yields.