HOUSTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Total listed capacity of operable ethanol plants in the United States increased by 5 percent-more than 700 million gallons (about 2.6 billion liters) per year-between January 2017 and January 2018, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday.
According to EIA's latest U.S. Fuel Ethanol Plant Production Capacity report, fuel ethanol production capacity in the United States reached more than 16 billion gallons (about 60.6 billion liters) per year, or 1.06 million barrels per day, at the beginning of 2018.
Most of the U.S. fuel ethanol production capacity is located in the Midwest region. Of the top 13 fuel ethanol-producing states, 12 are located in the Midwest. The top three states-Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois-contain more than half of the nation's total ethanol production capacity.
Actual U.S. production of fuel ethanol reached a total of 15.8 billion gallons (59.8 billion liters) in 2017. In EIA's June Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), U.S. production of fuel ethanol was forecast to reach 15.9 billion gallons in 2018.
