Biorefining cereal crops can have a major impact on the carbon footprint of meat

Ensus has released a white paper focusing on the carbon footprint of the meat supply chain and how biorefining cereal crops can make a major impact on this. The surprising conclusion is that greenhouse gas (GHG) savings from using animal feed from our biorefinery could be as large as savings from our biofuel (~70% of petrol’s GHG emissions).

The meat supply chain accounts for about a fifth of global GHG emissions. A significant proportion of this comes from land use changes caused by growing crops to feed animals. Using the animal feed (DDGS) from our refining process in place of other high protein feed ingredients can help reduce these emissions. If the meat supply chain benefits are factored into Ensus’ greenhouse gas savings, the combined saving with our biofuel is around 1.5 times (150%) the avoided emissions in petrol. Since DDGS is sold into the animal feed market in competition with other animal feeds and with no incentives, these climate change benefits are provided at no cost to the consumer.