Nurmey said:
We can only hope you are correct that the junk science behind using corn will die. Here is a little geekyness on ethanol.
Corn (annual) produces 400 gallons of ethanol per acre. Switch grass (native perennial) produces 1100 gallons of ethanol per acre. To make ethanol you use 100% of the Switch grass as opposed to just the seeds of corn. Mow down switch grass and it grows back. Switch grass can be grown on land not currently used for edible plants. Now which one of this products sounds better to use in ethanol production?
Thats great, except that the starches in corn are much more readily available and much easier to process into ethanol. Corn is used for ethanol in the US because it is a product that we produced in excess in the past, has a high yield per acre and is easily processed for alcohol. Switch grass sounds like a great biofuel resource but we do not yet have a way to economically process the grass into alcohol on a large industrial scale.
There are a number of companies and government sponsored organizations researching the processes required but we are still years away.
Our grain prices are going up for several reasons:
1. Increased cost of shipping due to rising fuel prices.
2. Increased overseas demand due to weak dollar and increased wealth in developing countries
3. Increased use of corn in ethanol plants.
The ethanol plants is actually the least of the problems and the one most likely to be cut back as grain prices increase. Even with the government incentives of corn ethanol it took the big oil price increases of the last few years to make ethanol a profitable product. If corn prices continue to increase faster than oil then the equation will change again and the ethanol plants will cut back or try to switch to other raw materials.
As for water in ethanol and pipe line problems. It is not the water in the ethanol that causes corrosion. Ethanol appears to mildly corrosive itself to some metals which makes pipelines somewhat problematic. Additionally pipeline networks tend to allow some water into the ethanol which ethanol will absorb making it less suitable as fuel. This happens to other pipeline products also but oil based fuels do not absorb water.
I'm wondering where the article in the OP gets his water usage numbers from. I can only guess the article is refering to the water used by the corn when growing. I believe most of the corn grown in the US is grown without irrigation so that water usage is natural rain fall. The water used in the manufacturing of ethanol should be easily recycled using common sewage treatment methods. My guess is that most of it is recycled in the same plant.
Does corn ethanol make economic and environmental sense? Probably not. But it is not near as evil as some are making it out to be and the alternative biofuel sources are not yet available. The only alternative that is viable currently is conservation but that isn't all that likely in a large scale either. For now I will continue to do my part by riding my bike to work and limiting our family auto usage to <10k miles a year in a compact car.
Craig