Ethanol: The Green Fuel? Part Deux
By Vladimir Posted in Energy | Ethanol | Law of Unintended Consequences | Water Conservation — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
People are slowly coming to the realization that it would be a chore to invent a motor fuel that was less efficient and harder on the environment than corn-based ethanol.
Part One of this series documented the impact of high nitrogen and phosphorus in the Gulf of Mexico. Run off from the main agricultural basin of the U.S. causes an algae bloom offshore, which results in a Dead Zone, which this year reached some 8,000 square miles, an area bigger than the state of Connecticut.
Now here's a second thing to worry about: corn agriculture consumes a lot of water.
The National Academy of Sciences recently published a report titled "Water Implications of Biofuel Production in the United States". The paper outlines impacts and limitations on both water availability and water quality that would follow the pursuit of a national strategy to replace liquid fossil fuels with those made from biomass. ... [B]iofuels not only have a much lower energy return vis-a-vis conventional crude, but have between one and two orders of magnitude lower in power density, (or how much energy we get per unit of land). ...[B]iofuels also require significantly more water than even the least efficient fossil fuel systems. There are also concerns about pesticides, nitrate and other environmental impacts. So when replacing energy with a 'substitute', all other things do not usually remain equal.
This from an article on The Oil Drum. These guys are researchers and peak oil theorists, BTW, not oil company shills like me. Their graphs and maps show the likely impact of ramped-up corn production, and ethanol processing, on the nation's already-stressed aquifers.
It's one thing to demonstrate that you can run a VW microbus on biodiesel, or run a motor in a professor's lab on hydrogen, but it's quite another to scale that new technology up, and make it safe, reliable and green when you try to run a national fleet of 200 million cars on it. That's the point where most of these technologies fail, and that's the point that the journalists and politicians never seem able to grasp.
...to fight global warming, Joliphant!
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
Oh well nearly 6 millenia not a bad run.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
hydrogen fuel cells. What about that technology. (actually not always, but ten years ago I sold an IPO in hydrogen fuel cells and I think I sold myself better than my perspective clients because I seemed to like the technology better than anyone on the other end of the phone)
Always tell the truth, George; it's the easiest thing to remember.
We can't just mine it out of the ground. We have to produce it. That consumes a ton of energy. It requires a totally new and different distribution system. It is just a gimmick at this point. The best fuel, at this point, is gasoline and diesel. That's why we are using it. We could also use natural gas and propane as a motor fuel pretty easily (some fleets run on these fuels), but that's not really a money saver either.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Reread the last paragraph of the OP.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
She was amazed at how the cost of bread has almost doubled over the last couple of years. Our friends South of the border aren't too thrilled about the rising cost of tortillas either.
www.scottbomb.com
Click here to donate to the Fred Thompson campaign.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777