The University of Nebraska-Lincoln wants to help the state’s ethanol plants cash in on efforts to contain global warming.

Results of a new research initiative announced Monday are meant to help the state’s 16 ethanol plants and others now under construction earn income from the Chicago Climate Exchange.

The UNL contribution is computer software developed over the last 18 months that quantifies the reductions in greenhouse gases that can be attributed to ethanol production, said Kenneth Cassman, director of the Nebraska Energy Sciences Center.

“We estimate that a well-run ethanol plant in Nebraska with a 100-million gallon capacity might have as much as $2 million a year in income — additional income — at the rate of $3.50,” Cassman said.

The $3.50 figure is how much the Climate Exchange currently pays per ton to businesses that can document their braking effect on carbon emissions.

“We are the first to market standardized software for this kind of need,” Cassman said of the ethanol part of that picture.

The Climate Exchange began to take shape in 2000 as a trading platform. Actual trading began in 2003.

On one end of transactions are companies that exceed emission standards. At the other are companies that are more than meeting greenhouse targets and have surpluses to sell.

Participation is voluntary, but once companies sign up, the commitments to meet targets are legally binding, according to information from the exchange Web site.

Although some ethanol critics see shortcomings in its clean-air reputation, Cassman led a team of 10 researchers who helped devise a formula that can measure how much an ethanol plant is achieving in helping keep carbon gases out of the atmosphere.

“It is for real ethanol plants,” he said, “and the whole idea is to get in front of the curve that seems to be developing, where ethanol biofuels are going to have both opportunities and challenges with their impact on the environment — and, in particular, greenhouse gases.“

Among those with their eyes on the UNL initiative are Dave Hallberg, an ethanol executive from Omaha, and Steve Chick, who heads the state office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Lincoln.

Hallberg was a private-sector member of the research team. He is also part of the ownership grouping at the E3 BioFuels plant near Mead that routes corn residue from ethanol production to an adjoining cattle feedlot and uses the cattle manure as a primary energy source to operate the plant.

Hallberg said the idea of ethanol plants collecting on carbon credits isn’t just a theory. “I think it’s not if. It’s when. It’s a matter of time here.”

The E3 plant is especially well positioned, he said, because of its closed loop approach in recycling energy.

Chick also has reason to feel optimistic about a growing role for agriculture and agricultural businesses in controlling global warming.

His office contributed $200,000 to establishing the climate exchange and recently completed a four-year timetable for enrolling farmers who could earn climate credits through such means as no-till crop production and converting crop acres to permanent grass cover.

The initial goal for the NRCS, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was 10,000 tons of carbon offsets resulting from carbon dioxide being kept in the soil.

But the NRCS role eventually grew to include 500 individual contracts on 300,000 farm acres in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas and emission credits that added up to 700,000 metric tons.

Chick called the climate credits “another good tool for us to promote and sell good conservation practices.”

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.