Study believes ethanol has several drawbacks
By KEVIN HOWELL

As with any good idea, ethanol,  despite definite benefits for replacing foreign oil, potentially cleaner air and added agricultural markets, may have some drawbacks, said a Cornell University agricultural scientist in a report written in 2001.

In the report, Prof. David Pimentel said one problem is it takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than what ethanol produces.

Pimentel investigated energy, economic and environmental aspects of ethanol by studying the step-by-step process, according to a 2001 news story from Cornell.

Some of his findings include:

  • An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels at about $347 per acre.

  • As many as three steps are needed to separate 8 percent ethanol from 92 percent water. Additional treatment and energy are needed to produce 99.8 percent pure ethanol for mixing with gasoline.

  • It takes 131,000 BTUs for one gallon of ethanol. One gallon op ethanol has an energy value of 77,000 BTU.

    “Put another way,” Pimentel said, “about 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol.”

    Also according to the story, Pimentel said, “Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water. The environmental system in which corn is being produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when human food is being converted into ethanol.”

    Other tidbits Pimentel came up with in his study:

  • The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix) would need about 852 gallons of the corn-based fuel at about 11 acres to grow it, based on net ethanol production - the same amount of cropland required to feed seven Americans.<

    If all the automobiles in the United States were fueled with 100 percent ethanol, a total of about 97 percent of U.S. land area would be needed to grow the corn feedstock. Corn would cover nearly the total land area of the United States.

    The story on Pimentel’s study can be found at - http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug01/corn-basedethanol.hrs.html.

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    Kevin Howell, Herald Journal Reporter

    Plans for ethanol plants seem to be fueling up around the state lately with a new facility planned near the Putnam County community of Cloverdale by Putnam Ethanol LLC, a site picked near Linden in Montgomery County by Demeter Enterprises LLC, and yet another planned to start construction this summer near Rensselaer by Iroquois Bio-Energy Co.

    Still other operations are in the early stages of consideration in Wells County and closer to home at Clymers in Cass County.

    With White County ranking third in the state in corn production according to 2004 numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the possibility is out there for one closer to home.

    The growth in interest in the corn-based fuel, as well as biodiesel derived from soybeans, springs from a push on the national level for alternative fuels to lower reliance on foreign oil, as well as on the state level by Gov. Mitch Daniels, for an added market for Indiana farm crops.

    In a release from the Indiana Soybean Growers Association this spring, a new law signed by Daniels provides up to $20 million in tax incentives for the production and blending of biodiesel and ethanol.

    “Producing fuel from Indiana corn and soybeans is better for Hoosiers long-term than continuing to rely on imported foreign oil,” said Lynn Teel, president of the association

    The law provides the following incentives:

    1. Up to $3 million in tax credits per taxpayer, $5 million with prior approval from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), for biodiesel and ethanol production in the state of Indiana.

    2. Up to $3 million in tax credits to a fuel blender who utilizes biodiesel produced in Indiana.

    The new law also increases the state’s budget for biofuel incentives to $20 million.

    Also on the federal level, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is leading a group of largely farm-state senators to amend a Senate bill to double ethanol production to 8 billion gallons a year by 2012. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., also hopes to create special incentives to produce ethanol from farm waste products as well as subsidized corn.

    Through those efforts and the recently released Agriculture Strategic Plan from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the economic incentive for ethanol production seems to be booming.

    “Indiana must actively participate in and lead the burgeoning biofuels industry by developing a comprehensive energy research and investment facilitation plan,” states one conclusion reported in the strategic plan.

    Ideas for boosting the production of ethanol and biodiesel both include attracting at least two ethanol and two biodiesel companies by December 2006, and offering tax and other incentives to help them along.

    Currently, Indiana has one 20-year-old operating ethanol plant in South Bend that sold about $80 million worth of ethanol as a fuel additive in 2003.

    Other plants still in the planning or pre-construction stage, like the one at Rensselaer, are expecting to produce about 40 million gallons of ethanol and employ 50 people.

    Economically that translates to $55 million to more than $100 million a year.

    Once built, the new plant in Linden may add 60 jobs to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol, and the latest addition in Cloverdale is expected to produce about 60 million gallons of ethanol a year and provide about 40 professional, skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

    But whether White County does end up with a production facility is still up in the air said White County Commissioner and farmer John Heimlich.

    “I’ve not been approached about one at this point,” said Heimlich.

    “The one in Rensselaer, it’s one of the earliest ones talked about around here, that one has White County investors in it and is fairly close to the White County line. But I’m not aware of anything here, at least not recently.”

    But the economic benefit to the area would be a good as far as jobs and monetary input for the community, Heimlich said, and he would encourage anyone who brought a facility here.

    “I would definitely be interested in that for economic development from the agricultural standpoint.”

    And he’s encouraged by the new state administration’s stance on agriculture.

    “At the state level, the new administration has targeted agriculture as a base to build some things economically, and it’s certain that the biotech area is front and center,” Heimlich said.

    © 2005 The Herald Journal

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