In a rare show of vision, the Bush administration’s Farm Bill 2007 allots $2 billion for renewable energy such as biofuels. This could help slow climate change and global warming. But the deal has a catch.
Alternative fuel crops need land to grow on, a lot of it. Bush’s Farm Bill proposes to let farmers use land earmarked for conservation. Herein lies the problem with alternative fuels: their potential effect on the food supply and impact to the land.
The solution might be a new contender in the race for federal dollars, cellulosic ethanol.
The two frontrunners for alternative fuel sources are ethanol and biodiesel. Ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, is derived primarily from corn but can come from various starch and sugar sources. Biodiesel comes from natural oils like soybean.
Pure corn-derived ethanol must be combined with gasoline and is commonly known as gasohol. Since corn ethanol is comprised of 35% oxygen, it increases octane levels that help reduce tailpipe emissions like carbon monoxide. It is nontoxic, biodegrades quickly and produces very little pollution when burned.
Biodiesel seems to have an edge over corn ethanol for several reasons. In their ability to reduce fossil fuel-based greenhouse emissions, corn ethanol is at 12% while biodiesel reduces emissions by 41% over gasoline.
The production/energy ratio is also a factor weighing in favor of biodiesel over corn ethanol since, according to a University of Minnesota/St. Olaf College study, corn ethanol provides 25% more energy per gallon than is required for its production. This is in comparison to soybean-based biodiesel’s 93% production/energy ratio. Biodiesel is also the only biofuel to successfully complete the Health Effects Testing requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act.
The story could end here with a showdown between corn and soybeans except cellulosic ethanol appears to triumph over both.
Cellulosic ethanol cuts emissions more than corn ethanol and biodiesel combined. According to Department of Energy studies conducted by the Argonne Laboratories at the University of Chicago, cellulosic ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 85% over gasoline.
A recent National Academy of Sciences study found that neither ethanol nor biodiesel can replace petroleum without heavy impact to the food supply.
Perhaps an equally pressing reason is land, or lack of it, on which to plant the corn and soybeans. A recent National Academy of Sciences study found that neither ethanol nor biodiesel can replace petroleum without heavy impact to the food supply. Even if 100% of American corn and soybean production were redirected to biofuels, the fuel would still only replace 12% of gas demand and 6% of diesel demand.
The heavy conversion of corn to fuel sources rather than food and feed crops also presents a problem. When corn crops are redirected to fuel production, what will happen to the price of food for humans and livestock? Cellulosic ethanol helps solve that problem because it is derived from cellulose, which can come from myriad biomass sources including agricultural, urban and forest waste.
With its high emissions reduction and relatively low land impact, the future of biofuel augurs strongly in favor of cellulosic ethanol that can be grown on agriculturally marginal land, preferably of the non-conservation ilk. Currently, cellulosic ethanol pilot programs exist, including a plant in China. As of February, 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy said it would grant around $385 million to six bio-refineries to produce cellulosic ethanol over the next four years. Four out of the six recipients are American companies: Broin Companies, Alico, Inc., BlueFire Ethanol and Range Fuels.
This is in keeping with President Bush’s call to expand the use of ethanol, both corn-based and cellulosic. He announced a proposal to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017, only 15 billion of which can derive from cornstarch, leaving 20 billion gallons left for cellulosic ethanol.
Regardless of which fuel wins, this investment is a move toward America finally ending oil addiction and turning to alternative fuels.
Marie Black is a Los Angeles-based writer. She can be reached at thelaughingbird@hotmail.com.
