Last I saw, ethanol and gasoline aren’t far apart in water use, two to three gallons of water per gallon of product.
For perspective, a 100 million gallon ethanol plant uses about the same amount of water as a small town of about 3,000.
I once nearly got the biggest beverage plant in the world developed up here in WA state.
The idea was to use rolling stock to ship beverages to places where water was scarce, and do it at a scale that would make manufacturing it cheaper (including the freight) than manufacturing locally and shipping by truck.
By using rail instead of truck, the fuel savings cost alone in WATER USE made the total water use of the plant a WASH. The amount of water used in the manufacturing of the beverages was offset by the diesel fuel savings.
The plant was to be partially powered by organic waste from the manufacturing process. It would have replaced 24 medium sized beverage manufacturing facilities. (Essentially replacing every plant in California, Arizona, and Nevada).
It didn’t happen. Watermelons tied us up and used the clock to beat us.