Fuels Institute Case Competition: Winners Include Higher Ethanol Blends in Long-Term Strategy

The National Corn Growers Association acted as the signature sponsor in this year’s Fuels Institute University Case Competition. Students from universities across the nation submitted abstracts addressing this challenge: “Through the lens of a fuel retailer, establish a timeline of the evolution of the light-duty vehicle fueling infrastructure in the United States through 2040.” The case competition gave students a unique opportunity to consider all fueling strategies to maintain economic viability — including corn-based ethanol — while also addressing current policy, energy trends, emerging technology, and other factors.

The winner of this year’s competition was the team from Johns Hopkins University. The team was made up of Yuanlei Chen, Siwei Ye, Xiaoxue Hou and Shuang Yu. Their abstract was titled "How Gas Stations Will Cope with Future Transportation and Fuels Market.” Their business case employed strategies to remain adaptable to market drivers, including leveraging the sale of E15 and higher blends of ethanol in their retail stores as a cornerstone of their long-term strategy.

“NCGA would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s Case Competition,” said Ethanol Action Team Chair and Missouri farmer Jay Schutte. “We were thrilled to partner with the Fuels Institute as a signature sponsor and were very excited to see the winning team incorporate ethanol into their winning business case.”

The competition consisted of three rounds of judging: An abstract submission, case submission, and in-person presentations. Dave Loos, Market Development Director at Illinois Corn and Bradley Schad, Director of Market Development at Missouri Corn served as judges for round two of the process.

The other two teams were made up of students from Cornell University, University of Houston and Carnegie Mellon University. The top submissions will be published by the Fuels Institute in the coming months.

Learn more about the Fuels Institute University Case Competition here.