Biodiesel Edges Out Ethanol

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/home

July 18, 2006

Minneapolis Minnesota

Five University of Minnesota researchers have taken a stand in the long-running debate over whether ethanol from corn requires more fossil fuel energy to produce than it delivers. Their answer? It delivers 25 percent more energy than is used (mostly fossil fuel) in producing it, though much of that 25 percent energy dividend comes from the production of an ethanol byproduct, animal feed.

"New and better transportation biofuels and greatly increased energy efficiency are essential for our economy and our environment. We also need renewable electricity, including both wind energy and renewable biofuels that take the place of coal. Coal is a major source of electricity and of greenhouse gases." -- David Tilman, a coauthor of the study and Regents Professor of Ecology

But the net energy gain is much higher -- 93 percent -- from biodiesel fuel derived from soybeans. And alternative crops such as switchgrass or mixed prairie grasses, which can grow on marginal land with minimal input of fossil fuel derived fertilizers and pesticides, offer the best hope for the future, according to the researchers.

Led by Jason Hill, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior and the Department of Applied Economics, the team published this first comprehensive analysis of the environmental, economic and energetic costs and benefits of ethanol and biodiesel in the pages of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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(edit: David Tilman is a highly respected world-class ecologist)

[thereismore]

1. Bush was right! Switchgrass. What a genius. nt

[Up2Late]

2. I hate to say it, but it's worst than that...

...that was something that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-MS) :puke: had the WH speech writers add.

I hate that guy, but Love the Bio-Diesel concept.

I don't want to claim credit for this, but after hearing Iowa's Sen. Tom Harkin pushing Ethanol on the Senate floor, I sent him a very informative e-mail about Bio-Diesel and about a month later, I heard both Democrat Tom Harkin and Iowa's ReThuglican Sen. Chuck Grassley both talking up Bio-Diesel in Senate Committee meetings.

I did the same with some public Officials here in Georgia, and Georgia has already passed a Bio-Diesel bill in the State Assembly.

It's just a win-win-win concept and once farm state government officials learn about it, they almost always love the idea.

Very good info at this link:

<http://www.biodiesel.org/>

[Up2Late]

3. Oh, my apologies to Mississippi, Jeff Sessions is from

...Alabama I think. :blush:

[JohnWxy]

4. very interesting but I don't think it's going to be a case of one OR the

other.

I am very interested in bio-diesel and definitely think it needs more aggressive development. My understanding of it is that it is used to cut petroleum diesel (making it a much better fuel). I think it has great promise and should be developed but I don't think biodiesel will replace ethanol - for all applications - though if it proves to be a better solution - it should. HOw is it for green house gas reduction? corn based ethanol reduces GHG 17% -24% over gasoline and cellulosic will reduce GHGs 85%.

Note that the 25% net energy gain quoted in the article(specific research not cited) for ethanol is not in aggreement with plenty of published research. The U.S. Dept of Agriculture has shown a 1.67 to 1 return for ethanol and Michigan State Univ research showed a 1.56 to 1 return for ethanol. Keep in mind even with these legitimate studies they are quoting industry wide averages which includes many much older and less efficient plants. The efficiency of producing corn and of the ethanol production process keeps improving every year. At the end of 2005 the new construction and expansions of existing plants represented a 62% increase in production capacity. This will move those average energy gains upward. Michael Wang (Argonne National Laboratory) has stated in public meetings that the latest numbers for the newest ethanol plants is in excess of 1.9 to 1.

REgarding the authors comments that muich of the energy gain for ethanol is due to co-products, Davisd Morris (of the Institute for Local-Self Reliance (ILSR)) has noted that if ethanol producers used the brewers grain (major co-product) as an energy source for the production of ethanol the net energy gain for ethanol would jump to about 2.4 : 1.

Making ethanol on an industrial scale for fuel (as opposed to a beverage on a very small scale) is relatively new technology and as such, improvements in efficiency are not unexpected. for example, the University of Iowa recently filed for patent protection for a process using ultra-sound to boost alcohol yield in the ehtanol production by 30%. The ultra-sound produces much smaller particle size and enhances the fermentation process - making it not only more productive but cheaper!
For one process innovation to produce a 30% improvement in yield is dramatic. If this translates into the ehtanol production on a full scale basis that would change the 1.9 : 1 gain mentioned by Wang to 2.47 : 1.

I'm just not ready to say it's going to be one fuel to the exclusion of the other. I certainly would like to see more investment and development of biodiesel. We need to explore every clean source of energy we've got.

Over the longer term, the real hope of reducing fossil fuel usage is going to be the fuel cell. And in this technology we won't see free hydrogen gas being used (at least not for general transportation) . Fuel cells will be using hydrocarbons to supply the hydrogen rather than fooling with presurrized hydrogen gas (quite expensive to build infrastructure and technical problems to be solved in storage on-board cars). In this configuration, it turns out ethanol is going to be very important. ONe company, Acta, has a patent for fuel cells using much cheaper alloys than platinum which will make fuel cells practical much sooner than those using free hydrogen. Acta thinks they will have a fuel cell for automotive applications in 10 years. Even if this turns out to be a bit optimistic, many experts in this field put fuel cells as a pracatical reality in about 20 years. Acta likes using ethanol and ethylene glycol as a hydrogen source for their fuel cells.