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Jim Motavalli

Fuel facts of life: Corn ethanol is out, and cellulosic ethanol from biomass is in

The Obama administration's sweeping revision to the federal renewable energy standard encourages development of high-yield ethanol from biomass.
Tue, May 05 2009 at 2:16 PM EST
Read more: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, ETHANOL, OBAMA

The Lincolnway Energy ethanol plant in Iowa. (Photo: Fred Thompson/Flickr)
 
The Environmental Protection Agency has seen a future fueled by corn ethanol, and it doesn’t much like it. That’s why in a sweeping revision to the National Renewable Fuel Standard announced today, it proposes a shift over time to the higher-yielding cellulosic form of ethanol — which is produced largely from biomass (switchgrass, woodchips and sugar cane).
 
By 2022, the rulemaking proposes that the U.S. fuel mix will include 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels, 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels, four billion gallons of “advanced biofuels” and at least a billion gallons of diesel fuel made from biomass — an increasingly viable concept (gasoline, diesel and jet fuel can all be made from “feedstocks” as varied as sawdust and sugar cane).
 
The White House envisions that its proposed rule, calling for 36 billion gallons of biofuels, would reduce foreign oil dependence by 297 million barrels of oil annually, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions 160 million tons a year when fully phased in. President Obama is committing $786.5 million for advanced biofuel research, which will be necessary because cellulosic technology is still in its infancy.
 
The 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol (from existing plants) in the plan is “grandfathered” in, which should damp down any outcry from the Midwestern corn farmers (and their politicians) who had a lockdown on U.S. energy policy in the Bush years.
 
According to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson during a conference call this morning, “Corn-based ethanol is a bridge, an extraordinarily important one, to the next generation of ethanol and biofuels.”
 
The U.S. produced nine billion gallons of corn ethanol in 2008, and the EPA says it could maybe get to 18 billion gallons by 2015-16. But, it added, 15 billion gallons is probably the limit of “sustainable” production.
 
Cindy Zimmerman, who writes the industry-savvy Domestic Fuel blog with her husband, Chuck, says the Obama administration plan makes sense. “As Lisa Jackson said, corn ethanol is a bridge to the next generation,” Zimmerman said. “We couldn’t have next-generation biofuels without the current ethanol infrastructure.”
 
Zimmerman said that today’s corn ethanol plants can be re-engineered to produce high-yield cellulosic ethanol, “and in fact that is already happening.” Verenium has a cellulosic ethanol plant in Louisiana up and running, with sugar cane waste (or baugasse) as fuel, and South Dakota-based Poet, which has 26 plants and produces a billion gallons of ethanol annually, is also developing cellulosic technology and hopes to have a plant online by 2011.
 
The EPA plan takes the prudent step of conducting a very thorough land-use analysis to determine the greenhouse gas impact of its ethanol standards. And it also considers indirect impacts. As Zimmerman puts it, “Will what we do here cause somebody in the Philippines to tear up forests?”
 
Needless to say, farm-state senators would rather have indirect impact analysis go away. “It defies common sense that EPA would publish a proposed rule-making with harmful conclusions for biofuels based on incomplete science and inaccurate assumptions,” said an incredulous Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). He was one of a dozen farm-state senators who wrote Jackson in March in the hope that only direct emissions would be considered.
 
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Comments(4)

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Posted By T. Rider - Mon, May 11 2009 at 5:33 PM EST

Transpartation Energy

Ethanol from plant material should be saved for producing products other than vehicle fuel. Vehicle engergy should come from battery power. That electric power for charging the batteries should come from solar, wind, Hydro power and nuclear power, and eventually hydrogen fuel cells.
As for the thousands of people starving, well, we the US have tried over and over and over to feed them with out success. The money has just be goes into the bank accounts of corrupt leaders and their.... More

Posted By Anonymous - Thu, May 07 2009 at 12:33 PM EST

cellulosic is a pipe dream

The problem is still the EROEI. And the water. Takes a lot of energy and water to break down the cellulose and turn it into sugar that can be fermented and distilled. Way too much work just to get a liquid fuel. Much better option is to burn, gasify or pyrolyse, make steam, make electricity. Make a little biochar on the side to put something back into the soil you keep depleting.

Posted By opit - Tue, May 05 2009 at 3:41 PM EST

biofuel

Currently over a billion are facing starvation in the world today. Adding to the problem is anything which tends to set up an international competition between food for people and fuel for industry : $$ win, people die.
The problem is not recognized properly. For instance, Afghanistan had 30% of its population facing starvation over the winter ( their cash crop having been burned in the mad rush to deprive Indian hospitals of cheap painkillers ).
Still, an oil based economy has to.... More

Posted By Jake Millan - Tue, May 05 2009 at 5:30 PM EST

Re: biofuel

You are way off base here. There is not a worldwide food shortage, there is a distribution problem. In the world we live, 2/3 of the population has too much to eat, and 1/3 doesn't have enough to eat. Corn ethanol affects food prices by 3%; that's not very much. Please educate yourself on this matter, and you will understand that these first generation biofuels are only a stepping stone towards much more sustainable liquid fuels. You can shoot holes in any upcoming technology, but to keep.... More

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