To ethanol or Not ethanol…Hmmm…now that is a question.
The government seems to really be pushing ethanol and there is a ton of information out there about it. Quite a bit of it makes ethanol seem like a dream come true. We would no longer be dependent on foreign oil & we could have a fuel source that is better for our environment than our current soup de jour. But seriously, we’ve all been alive long enough to know that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Is corn really our manna from heaven for all of our fuel woes? Below is a small sampling of the ethanol information available.
Ethanol Basics
What ethanol is and what it does
Ethanol has been blended in gasoline for decades—and billions of miles have been driven on ethanol-blended fuels.
Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production. About 18 percent of the nation’s corn crop went into ethanol in 2006—some 2.15 billion bushels. Ethanol can also be made from other grains such as sorghum as well as from “biomass” sources such as corn cobs, cornstalks, wheat straw, rice straw, switch grass, vegetable and forestry waste and other organic matter.Ethanol offers a number of benefits to our cars, our environment, our economy and our national security:· Ethanol adds oxygen to gasoline—helping it combust more completely and reducing the level of toxic exhaust emissions · Ethanol reduces our nation’s dangerous and expensive dependence on imported oil · The ethanol industry creates jobs and investment across the nation—especially in rural areas · Ethanol increases America’s fuel supply—helping keep gas prices down · Ethanol adds value to America’s corn harvest and helps reduce the cost of federal farm programs
What is ethanol and how is it made?
Ethanol is grain alcohol. In the United States, it’s usually made from corn. In Brazil, it’s most commonly made with sugarcane. Ethanol can be made from other grains like wheat and barley, and you can even produce it from potatoes. There are a couple of ways to make fuel-grade ethanol, and one of the most common ones is the dry-mill method, which goes something like this:
-
The corn is ground into a powder.
- A mixture made of this grain powder, water and an enzyme enters a high-heat cooker, where it is liquefied. The liquefied mash is cooled.
- An enzyme is added that helps to break down the grain mixture into fermentable sugars.
- Yeast is added to ferment the sugars. The sugars break down to ethanol (a form of alcohol) and carbon dioxide.
- The fermented mixture is distilled. The ethanol separates from the solids and the distiller grains is used for live stock feeds.
- A small amount of gasoline is added to the ethanol to denature and make it undrinkable.
Added in small amounts to gasoline, it reduces greenhouse emissions like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides because ethanol contains a lot of oxygen, thus is burns pretty cleanly. The addition of ethanol also reduces the amount of fossil-fuel-based gasoline we use daily.
Sound wonderful doesn’t it?
Well…now for the bad news:
Since there apparently isn’t as much energy in ethanol as there is in gasoline and we use ethanol on such a large-scale basis we will run into a snag or two. For instance where are we planning on growing all of this corn for fuel use when we need that land for growing food for feeding everyone? Or these wonderful facts:
Top Ten Facts about Ethanol
- Ethanol is listed as a known human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
- The cost of Reformulated Gasoline with ethanol will increase 3-6 cents per gallons compared to RFG with MTBE.
- Spills of pure ethanol or gasoline containing ethanol from leaking storage tanks can create a benzene plume up to 150% larger than a spill from a non-ethanol fuel.
- Ethanol cannot be shipped by pipeline because of its high affinity for water posing significant distribution costs and hurdles for gasoline blenders.
- According to a study by Cornell University, for every gallon of ethanol produced, 1.4 gallons of energy is consumed in the process, compared to 0.15 gallons used in the manufacture of gasoline.
- It takes 1.5 gallons of ethanol (E-85) to drive as many miles as one gallon of gasoline.
- Every gallon of ethanol removes 53 cents from the Federal Highway Trust Fund because of a special tax break for producers.
- Ethanol increases the vapor pressure of gasoline by 1 psi. resulting in higher evaporative emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds, while tailpipe emissions of Acetaldehyde increase 150%.
- Ethanol permeates the hoses and lines of automobile fuel systems resulting in a 50% increase in VOC emissions for pre 1995 cars.
- Ethanol dissolves oxide scale from the walls of pipes and tanks, subjecting the systems to internal corrosion, which leads to leaks.
All this information brings up other questions of potential problems. With so much corn needed, will the time be taken to rotate crops properly? Or will they deplete the soil and create the need for pesticides and artificial fertilizers to get the corn to grow…further contaminating our soils and ground water. Will they continue to use genetically modified corn…which causes the death of beneficial insects like the beautiful Monarch butterfly and does God knows what to our health since the potential health risks are still unknown. Even without my personal what ifs, it appears that ethanol is far from perfect. I doubt that there really is one perfect answer and personally I feel that anytime you rely so heavily on one resource, you will only create more problems. Why is it that we feel that there is only one answer to every problem? Why shouldn’t we take advantage of all of the resources that God has placed on our planet without depleting one before using another? Could be that there are many answers to this problem that could each be used in a manner that keeps them sustainable.
I’m not sure what the next article should be about…should I continue on the alternative fuel route? Or take a side road off to the genetically modified corn route? Since the holidays are upon us I won’t be posting another environmental post until between Christmas & New Years, so there is time to put your vote in. Which road would you like to travel? Let me know & that’s where I’ll go. Wishing you all the beauty that the holidays can bring…
Resources:
The Cal gasoline ten facts, are of course… very biased. (It is amazing what ‘facts’ you get from the competition. (these are facts from someone trying to sell MTBE) MTBE of course replaced ‘lead’, and… there are some doubts to its safety, and just because it is not associated with cancer does not mean that a person wants other nasty things it can cause. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTBE
Responses:
1: cancer? it does not stop people from drinking it… Ethanol is the type of alcohol in beer, or wine. The concentrations where MTBE become a significant risk are FAR lower.
2: cost: — likely true in California, but, the reverse is true in Kansas…. supply and demand you know. (Kansas had produced so much corn this year, for example, that it was dumped outside in front of grain bins to wait for the train (after the bins were full) Seriously, that little bit of Ethanol production helped take care of the “surplus”
3: first part is totally wrong… no benzine in PURE ethanol… if there were wouldn’t be pure… strange they don’t mention the MTBE effect in a spill, could this be because there are EPA talks about it being a dangerous ground-water contaminate? do they not want to talk about kidney problems? California banned MTBE because the nasty health effects it cased when the spill went down into the water table.
4: N/A… and not realistic. Production per acre could not possibly justify a pipeline. by the way MTBE has the same problem [dissolves in water easily]! (and is more toxic — note how many people drink ethanol)
5: ??? not even realistic… and I can cite other studies that give very different numbers. (I will admit, CORN ethanol is very inefficient, but still, the manufactures and the farmers have to make a profit, and pay their taxes.) Estimates range from 40% gain (unrealistic) to 30% loss (also unrealistic) for corn ethanol. Remember though, that the most pessimistic 30% loss assumes that the distillers grain is a waste product of 0 value, NOT that it is used as feed. [however, THIS means, that the production of corn-ethanol is limited by the production of beef in the general area... and, I can assure you, farmers cannot afford to over-supply... if meat gets to cheap, they will get out of it.]
6 OK… not even relevant, they should ONLY mention the 1 to 4 % drop that e-10 gets, (unless you ‘need’ the higher octane) They are trying to sell their ADDITIVE, not MTBE as a fuel. (unless, they want to tell what sort of mileage you would get on MTBE-85) [anyways -- you only USE e-85 if you bought something to burn it -- not as an additive]
7: I walk to work… look at how much I remove from the Highway trust every year by not paying the taxes to put gas in my car, and burn it… The argument that we don’t consume enough…. is a BAD argument. — (sorry… I’m totally opposed to anyone who argues that I hurt the economy by not borrowing enough, or consuming enough… once it is gone, its gone… I’d rather conserve)
8: and the number for MTBE? 55.2°C is a pretty low boiling point.
9: FAIR observation! some of the materials used in ‘older’ cars could not handle ethanol — check owners manual before using.
10: one of my favorite arguments…. The corrosion already happened… but, yes, wash it off, it might leak… *go ahead and use e-10… its not like the other additives are not solvents too*… but e-85 can ruin something pretty quick.
—————————————————–
This list… was garbage, MTBE is dangerous, and God forbid it ever get in my water. — however your writing is good. NO, it is not possible to ’solve’ the energy problem this way… the corn needs to be for feed in the end, or its not profitable. The prices of corn can’t be pushed too high. YES, there are other ways to make it, but, for now at least, it is just an additive.
Perhaps, we will make it from stalks someday — when oil costs $300 per barrel, and we all have flex fuel vehicles, and for some strange reason, bio-diesel didn’t take off here. — but no matter what, we don’t have the production capacity to keep doing things the same as we are doing now…. production can never meet demand
. and that fuel that was produced by nature God only knows how long ago is not enough to last forever.
pretty soon, lots of us will be walking to work, turning off the lights…. and turning down the heat. Conservation is the final solution…. we can’t make everything we consume — no matter how good we get at making.