Opportunities for avoidance of land‐use change through substitution of soya bean meal and cereals in European livestock diets with bioethanol coproducts

An analysis is presented which quantifies the potential for distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS, a coproduct of wheat bioethanol production) to replace soya bean meal (SBM) and cereals in livestock rations. A major proportion of the SBM imported into Europe as a protein‐rich feedstuff for livestock comes from South America, where land‐use change (LUC) is associated with high carbon emissions. Production of DDGS can therefore reduce LUC in South America by substitution of SBM in animal feed. The analysis indicates that a single bioethanol distillery processing 1 million tonnes of wheat, and producing ca. 330 000 tonnes of DDGS per annum, would substitute at least 136 493 tonnes of whole soya beans grown on 47 725 ha of land, and save greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 0.63 million tonnes CO₂ per annum. By growing sugar beet and wheat in an average ratio of 0.06 : 0.94 on 1 ha of land in Europe, the net area of agricultural land required to produce feed ingredients equivalent to 6.08 t of sugar beet pulp (SBP) and 1.72 t of DDGS associated with 2363 L of bioethanol, is reduced to 0.40 ha. This accounts for 0.42 ha of soya that is not required when DDGS displaces SBM, and 0.18 ha of wheat that is not required when DDGS and SBP displace wheat in livestock rations.