Posted on 07/10/2008 8:53:51 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
The increased use of corn-derived ethanol and other bio-fuels has been blamed for rising food prices worldwide. But defenders of these fuels say their impact on food prices is being exaggerated and that new fuels under development will largely bypass that problem in any case. VOA's Greg Flakus has more on the story from College Station, Texas.
American corn, wheat and soybean fields feed much of the world and also provide the material from which alcohol fuels like ethanol are produced.
Ethanol has benefited the U.S. heartland by giving farmers more stable prices for their grains and creating jobs at rural refineries, some of which are owned and operated by local farmers.
Federal law requires the use of ethanol in gasoline, usually at around 10 percent, but some flex-fuel vehicles can also use an 85-percent mix.
But critics say congressional mandates to use ethanol are ill-conceived. They note that corn-derived ethanol generates less than two units of energy for every unit used to produce it. Even ethanol promoters agree that the future lies in using more non-food material, like corn stalks, to produce what is called cellulosic fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at voanews.com ...
Is the link to the article down?
Biofuels are a dead end. The only proper place for ethanol is in my gin & tonic, not my gas tank.
Drill here, drill now!
Nuclear power, oil shale, synthetic petroleum from coal down the road...
This statement is vague. Here in Fairbanks we don't have ethanol in the gasoline since importing would be so expensive. The rest of the article might also be suspected of being too vague to be at all useful except for occupying bandwidth.
A Column of Support
What started as a student research project at Augsburg College may become a major change in the biodiesel industry. A team of scientists and engineers have turned a tool for purifying and separating chemicals into a six-second process for turning the poorest quality vegetable oil into biodiesel. The first commercial-scale plant using the process should come on line this year.
By Jerry W. Kram
Augsburg College, tucked away in downtown Minneapolis, probably isn’t the first institution that comes to mind in a discussion of cutting-edge scientific research. However, the school has a stellar reputation as a leading undergraduate educational institution. It counts among its alumni a Nobel Prize winner in
http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2381
Ever Cat Fuels LLC,
http://www.evercatfuels.com/progress.jpg
http://www.830wcco.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=1993962
Biofuel Researchers See Bright Future
2008-07-09 23:30
The increased use of corn-derived ethanol and other bio-fuels has been blamed for rising food prices worldwide. But defenders of these fuels say their impact on food prices is being exaggerated and that new fuels under development will largely bypass that problem in any case. VOA’s Greg Flakus has more on the story from College Station, Texas.
American corn, wheat and soybean fields feed much of the world and also provide the material from which alcohol fuels like ethanol are produced.
Ethanol has benefited the U.S. heartland by giving farmers more stable prices for their grains and creating jobs at rural refineries, some of which are owned and operated by local farmers.
Federal law requires the use of ethanol in gasoline, usually at around 10 percent, but some flex-fuel vehicles can also use an 85-percent mix.
But critics say congressional mandates to use ethanol are ill-conceived. They note that corn-derived ethanol generates less than two units of energy for every unit used to produce it. Even ethanol promoters agree that the future lies in using more non-food material, like corn stalks, to produce what is called cellulosic fuel.
Brian Jennings represents the American Coalition for Ethanol.
“I believe the first cellulosic biofuel that is commercialized will probably come from some sort of agricultural residue, meaning that it will grow on a farm and a farmer will sell it to a biorefinery,” he said. “We strongly embrace cellulosic ethanol alongside corn ethanol. The fact of the matter is we need both.”
One of the most promising replacements for corn in producing ethanol is sorghum, a grass that can produce grain used in some foods and in animal fodder.
Bill Rooney, who runs the sorghum project for Texas A and M University, says sorghum-derived fuel could start having an impact on the market within five years.
Bill RooneyBill Rooney”If we are talking about a sugar platform, one that is very similar to sugar cane, we can use sweet sorghums to do that in the very near future,” he noted. “If we are looking at cellulosic, the whole plant and all the fiber, then we are looking at systems that are a little bit longer out.”
This is just one of the areas of research at Texas A and M. that could provide biofuels for transportation. Fossil fuels like oil and coal originated from ancient plant material, compressed and heated over millions of years, but scientists in laboratories here can produce fuels directly from harvested plant material.
Mark Hussey, who oversees agriculture programs at Texas A and M, says a lot of research is directed at getting gasoline-like fuel directly from plant material.
“We are producing a product that is identical to the product that would be produced from a barrel of oil and we are producing it strictly from plants,” he said.
One of the most promising areas of research is algae, which is grown in ponds rather than fields. David Baltensperger heads the Texas A and M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.
“Algae produces about 60 percent oil on a dry-weight basis, 60 percent of the material is oil,” he explained. “With soybeans it is about 17 or 18 percent oil.”
He says using algae for fuel also helps reduce greenhouse gases, because they can be used with the algae to create energy.
“We can pump excess CO2 from manufacturing processes or whatever into the ponds and the algae converts it because it needs it for photosynthesizing,” he added.
The new bio-fuels could be running many automobiles in a few years, but Mark Hussey cautions that they are unlikely to replace oil as the main transportation fuel. What they will do, he says, is help offset the rapid growth in energy demand.
“Hopefully, if we can take care of this increased growth in demand that we have got for energy, both in this country and globally, with bio-based fuels, we will go a long way to solving the energy issues,” he explained.
Hussey says development of bio-fuels should not offset agricultural enterprises that produce food, feed and fiber. But he says much of the bio-fuel production can be done on marginal lands so as to avoid a food-versus-fuel competition over land resources.
News provided by VOA.
Not Correct.
Ethanol derived from foodstuffs as a Biofuel is a dead-end.
Bio-diesel, OTOH, can be derived from feed-stocks other than that which is primarily used as food, e.g. chicken fat, corn husks, etc. As such, it is a very efficient, noncompeting (vis a vis alternate economic uses) fuel.
farmers more stable prices for their grains and creating jobs at rural refineries
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I was under the impression that the Insurgents from our Southern border were necessary for farm labor because they do jobs that American will not do. What is the need for additional jobs in the farm lands?
Alternatives are great.....but they are 20 years out. Drillers are saying that they could possible start pumping oil within a year of starting new wells. We need something as soon as we can get it and at the same time, work on the alternatives.
If it is limited to diesel, and can be used as an equivalent substitute for petroleum based diesel, fine. We are not going to make 20 million barrels of biofuel per day to run the economy. Is it not economical to manufacture two types of internal combustion engine, one that runs on gasoline and one on ethanol.
I still think biofuels are a second-best to oil shale and synthetic petroleum for most of our energy needs that are being supplied by conventional petroleum now.
Just filled up at Sunoco for the first time. It states up to 10% ethanol. Had I known that I would not buy there. Everybody says vehicles get poorer gas mileage with ethanol. I will see. Before that, have only bought from BP where no mention of ethanol exists.
Limiting my top speed to 60mph, I’ve achieved 28mpg with my 02 PT. Previously limiting to 65mph I achieved 26mpg. It’s progress. I use less than a gal./day.
Why is GreenFuel focusing on algae instead of other energy crops like corn?
Algae have some advantages to other energy crops*, specifically:
· Algae are the fastest growing plants in the world and can be grown year round, unlike seasonal crops.
· Algae farming does not require agricultural land or clean water, so it does not compete with food crops for these resources.
· While it is difficult to compare one energy crop to another, per hectare of land algae is more productive than corn, soy or palm.
· Unlike other energy crops, the entire biomass produced from algae can be used in end products.
· Lastly, the algae produced by GreenFuel can be used to produce renewable biofuels needed to reduce dependence on non-renewable fuel sources such as coal, oil and natural gas.
...
How does algae fuel production compare to other liquid fuel crops including corn ethanol?
Under our base design, oil production from the algae farm is estimated at over 5,500 gallons per acre per year. This compares to palm oil at 500, soy at 90, and corn (in the form of ethanol) at 350 gallons per acre per year.
...
Arizona example:
Based on actual meteorological data from the ‘Typical Meteorological Year’ data (TMY) for Phoenix, Arizona, the average hour by hour Global Horizontal Direct and Diffuse solar radiation is 242 W/m2 (across 24 hours, 365 days), which converts to 5.81 kWh/m2-day (242 * 24 hours * 1000 kW/W). From the NREL solar database the average is 5.7 kWh/m2-day.
Using the lower value of 5.7 kWh/m2-day, the total energy on a yearly basis is 2080.5 kWh/m2-yr. At 1 kWh = 3.6 million Joules, and 1 Joule = 0.002388 kCal, this is equivalent to 2080.5 * 3.6 * 10^6 * 0.0002388 = 1.79 * 10^6 kCal/m2-yr
At 11% maximum theoretical photosynthetic efficiency, 1.97 * 10^5 kCal/m2-yr is available for photosynthesis, which is sufficient to create 51.6 kg/m2 glucose.
The energy required to fix 1 mole of CO2 via photosynthesis is 114 kCal, or 686 kCal per mole of glucose created. 1 mole of glucose is 180 grams, so 1 Kg of glucose (as biomass) requires 3811 kCal of solar energy. Our proven productivity of 98 g/m2-day dry biomass at our Arizona facility in 2007 is equivalent to 36 kg/m2-yr productivity, which is 70% of the theoretical maximum, or a photosynthetic efficiency of approximately 7.7%. Since these results were achieved during the summer, when peak solar radiation is experienced, we would expect the annual average productivity to be somewhat lower. In fact, using the average monthly solar radiation of 8.0 for June and July in Phoenix, compared to the annual average of 5.7, leads to an expected annual average productivity of 70 g/m2-day based on our experimental data which is 25.5 kg/m2-yr, about 50% of the maximum photosynthetic efficiency.
from:
http://www.greenfuelonline.com/contact_faq.html
Farmers should be prosecuted for making a profit and for deciding how to market the fruits of their labor. Farmers have no right to their work-product and selling grain for food energy or ethanol energy should be decided by urban bureaucrats.
I kinda agree. Biofuel from corn is absolutely wrong on target and pretty much the product of idiot congressmen and senators from the midwest. They dictated this twenty years ago and here we are today...stuck in this “wrong” direction. Sugar cane and at least a dozen other choices are far better choices than corn.
The one glimmer of hope in this picture is the question of oil from algae. There, you’re talking about desert land, CO2, water which is recycled, and 20,000 gallons of oil per acre as opposed to 18 for corn/ethanol and 800 for palm oil, and they’re close to having algae strains which produce diesel and gasoline which requires little if any refining.
A 3 minute video that could’ve been 30 seconds because ... the ... narrator ... talks ... so ... slooooowlllly.
“Ethanol has benefited the U.S. heartland by giving farmers more stable prices for their grains and creating jobs at rural refineries, some of which are owned and operated by local farmers.”
Any news on the bankruptcies and those refineries operating below capacity?
Hope no one “bet the farm”!
Excellent post! Valcent Products Inc of El Paso, Texas is saying their patented system will grow 100,000 gallons of algae oil in an acre.
They also have verticle grow systems for other crops that will “produce approximately 20 times the amount of vegetables per acre grown in a field while only using 5% of the water used for field crops.”
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