January ethanol on the CBOT managed to rise ~ 20 cents this week to settle at $2.08 per gallon. This is a huge relief for ethanol producers considering that March corn made a run of its own, rising ~ 21 cents to $4.38 per bushel. As a result, the gross profit of converting a bushel of corn into ethanol, otherwise known as ethanol's crush spread, reached $1.44. Ethanol's crush spread hasn't been this high for several months.