Biofuels

“The U.S. transportation sector is almost entirely dependent on oil, a condition that poses significant economic and environmental risks. Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, have the potential to displace oil use in transportation fuel. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to describe the status of and impediments to expanding biofuel production, distribution infrastructure, and compatible vehicles as well as federal policy options to overcome the impediments. GAO was also asked to assess the extent to which the Department of Energy (DOE) has developed a strategic approach to coordinate the expansion of biofuel production, infrastructure, and vehicles and has evaluated the effectiveness of biofuel tax credits. GAO interviewed representatives and reviewed studies and data from DOE, states, industry, and other sources.”
Reported by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) —June 2007
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Facts on recent increases in fuel and food

• The cost of marketing food is responsible for 80% of the retail cost of food. Marketing costs are the difference between the farm value and consumer spending for food at grocery stores and restaurants. Marketing costs include the increased price of diesel fuel paid by trucking companies.
• Corn accounts for less than 5% of the price a box of corn flakes.
• The price of rice has nearly doubled. Rice is not used in the production of biofuels. Corn for ethanol cannot be grown in rice paddies.
• In 2007, the same year the U.S. produced a record amount of ethanol from corn, the U.S. increased it surplus of corn to more than 1.4 billion bushels. In a record ethanol year, the U.S. actually fed more of the world by increasing its exports of corn by 6%.
• As a whole, fish prices are up. Fuel prices account for approximately 60%-70% of operating costs of fishermen. Fish are not used in the production of biofuels.
• An increasing amount of biofuels are produced from nontraditional feedstocks such as waste products from the beverage, food, and forestry industries. In the very near future, biofuels will be produced from agricultural residues such as grain straw, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover, municipal solid waste, and energy crops such as switchgrass and algae.

Ethanol and Net Energy

Some people say ethanol is a net energy loser—don’t believe it, but even if it was, so what? Popcorn sold in theaters is a net energy loser!

In the past, nobody really cared because there was plenty of oil and gasoline was cheap. People just wanted to fill their tank up and drive, kind of like eating popcorn at a theater without being concerned about how much “energy” was spent cooking the popcorn. Today, we can’t just worry about how much fuel costs, now we are expected to also worry about how much energy is spent making it.

How much energy is “spent” making ethanol, and why should we care?

It takes a lot of thermal energy to make ethanol from corn. In general, about 35,000 Btu of energy is required to produce a gallon of ethanol. For comparison, the energy content of ethanol is about 75,000 Btu per gallon.

People who want to discredit and discourage the use of ethanol in America often employ deceptive arguments about net energy by claiming that ethanol production consumes more “fossil fuels” than can be replaced by ethanol. (The original arguments against ethanol also included the btu in the “solar energy” consumed by the corn during the growing season.)

All attempts to discredit ethanol with the fossil fuel argument are deceptive because the argument is based on a false premise: it assumes that fossil fuel always means oil. Yes, petroleum is a fossil fuel, but not all fossil fuels are petroleum. The fossil fuel most often used for ethanol production is natural gas.

About 85% of the ethanol plants in the U.S. use natural gas as a source of thermal energy. The remainder use propane, fuel oil, or coal. Newer plants are developing renewal sources of thermal energy, such as methane produced from hog or cattle manure. Geothermal energy is also being developed.
Geothermal Energy Utilization in Ethanol Production   size: 212 Kb - 4 pages

Some of the older ethanol plants were designed to use fuel oil, back when fuel oil was cheap. Those plants have most likely already been converted to use natural gas or biomethane from a nearby dairy farm.

The amount of petroleum consumed in the process of making ethanol is less than 10% of the total energy within a gallon of ethanol — this covers every stage related to ethanol production, including planting, growing, and harvesting the corn as well as transporting the ethanol to where consumers buy their fuel and fill their gas tanks.

Diesel fuel made from petroleum is consumed by the tractors and other farm equipment as well as the trucks that transport the ethanol to market. If the corn fertilizer was produced by petroleum refineries, then that too contributes a portion of the overall percentage of petroleum used to make a gallon of ethanol.

A joint study by the Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory and General Motors found a 10 to 1 net energy gain—Ten gallons of ethanol for every gallon of petroleum consumed.

Some people believe that more fossil energy is required to produce ethanol than it provides as fuel. But in fact, a recent study by DOE?s Argonne National Laboratory and General Motors Corp. concluded that today?s corn growers and ethanol plants consume only about 7 British thermal units (Btu) of fossil-fuel energy for every 10 Btu of fuel they produce. In other words, it takes less energy to produce ethanol than is supplied by ethanol fuel, so the fuel provides a net energy benefit.

The benefits are even greater in terms of replacing petroleum. Because most of the fossil-fuel energy is supplied by coal and natural gas, only about 1 Btu of petroleum is consumed for every 10 Btu of ethanol fuel produced. That means that every gallon of ethanol fuel produced significantly reduces our use of petroleum.

The energy balance is even better for the production of cellulosic ethanol. Because the process residues will be used to produce heat and power for the conversion facility, biomass will provide 95% of the energy needed to make the fuel, with the remaining energy coming from petroleum. Because the process is only about 45% efficient, the net result is the same as that for corn ethanol: 1 Btu of petroleum is burned for every 10 Btu of ethanol fuel produced. However, the process uses less fossil fuel overall and thus produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Gains in processing efficiencies and economies of scale should boost the petroleum replacement and greenhouse gas benefits of cellulosic ethanol significantly.
From Biomass to Biofuels — National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) August 2006
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Recommended reading:
ABC's of Biofuels — Biofuels research by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Biofuel as an Oil Alternative — PBS Newshour segment on biofuels, April 13, 2006
The history of ethyl alcohol fuel —Bill Kovarik, Ph.D., Radford University