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Biofuels Fueling Controversy
By Bill Boteler
In his State of the Union address President George Bush included the goal of a 20 percent reduction in gasoline consumption by 2017. To meet this goal he proposed increases in efficiency combined with "alternative fuels." The program is likely to produce a boom in demand for ethanol made from corn. Some analysts say this 10-year target would require more corn than the total amount the United States currently grows.
Some experts are skeptical, pointing out that current production of ethanol from corn uses about as much fossil fuel energy as would be taken out of the environment by replacing gasoline. Additionally, global demand created by such an initiative could spur the conversion of natural lands such as rainforests to energy crops or drive up food prices by competing with food production.
Biofuels are seen as a possible means of reducing global greenhouse emissions because they are “carbon neutral” meaning that burning them releases carbon that was only recently taken out of the atmosphere and stored in living plants, thus not contributing to a net increase in carbon in the atmosphere.
Biofuels include any fuel obtained from recently living organisms, but some of the main forms are: biodiesel, ethanol, methanol and methane. Crops currently grown to produce these fuels include: corn and soybeans (mainly in the United States), flaxseed and rapeseed (mainly in Europe), sugar cane (mainly in Brazil) and palm oil (in Southeast Asia).
It is also possible to produce biofuels from agricultural, forestry and household wastes. Methane escaping from landfills, for example, is already burned to obtain energy. Biodiesel can be produced from waste restaurant grease. While not yet commercially viable, intense research is going into methods of producing ethanol from cellulose. If it becomes economically feasible to produce ethanol from cellulose, use of ethanol made from cornstalks or sawdust could become widespread without competing with grains and other sources that are also food for humans.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more than 20 times as powerful as CO2, the major greenhouse gas, when not used as a fuel. It is produced by the breakdown of organic material in the absence of oxygen, as by rotting vegetation at the bottom of a pond. When burned in vehicles, methane reduces greenhouse gas emissions as much as 20 percent compared to a gasoline or diesel vehicle.
Biodiesel is essentially vegetable oil which has been modified by a process called transesterification and can be burned in a diesel engine, often mixed with petroleum-derived diesel fuel. Most diesel engines can use biodiesel without modification, but mixtures with more than 10 percent may not be covered under warranty. The inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel, originally imagined that it would run on peanut oil. Biodiesel is widely used in Europe where it is available at most gas stations.
Ethanol and methanol are forms of alcohol. Ethanol is the active ingredient in all forms of liquor and can be produced from fermentation of sugar obtained from fruits, sugar beets and sugar cane and from starches obtained from grains and potatoes. Methanol is another form of alcohol currently produced by combining hydrogen and carbon monoxide but also obtainable as a biofuel from distilled wood. These alcohols can be mixed with gasoline and burned in internal combustion engines but require modification of the engines for this purpose. It costs about $100 to convert a car to run on 85 percent ethanol or “E85.”
Does making biofuels release as much carbon into the atmosphere as might be prevented by using them instead of using gasoline? A recent study by the the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley estimated that using ethanol from corn is about 10 to 15 percent better than gasoline in terms of greenhouse gases. This is referred to as the “energy balance.” This balance can change depending on what is factored into the equation. Factors such as the type of energy crop, method of cultivation and method of conversion to fuel can lead to a positive or negative energy balance. Currently, sugar cane is the crop which uses the least fossil fuel and delivers the most greenhouse savings. About 60 percent of bioethanol comes from sugar cane and Brazil is the world’s largest exporter providing half the global market.
It is argued that production could be a major boon to the poor in developing countries where small farmers could produce energy crops for an expanding global market. But there are also questions about who will ultimately benefit. Two companies, Cargill and ADM, control 65 percent of the global grain trade. Much of the processing of biofuels takes place away from where it is produced. If unchanged, this would mean that much of the “value added” to the final price of the product would not go to the producers. Competition with production for food could drive up food prices.
There is also a likelihood of increased deforestation to grow energy crops. In Indonesia and Malaysia, huge areas of forest and peat lands are being cleared to grow palm oil for biodiesel and other uses. This process releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, compromising gains in combating climate change. Loss of wildlife and other values are also threatened by this process. A similar problem exists for biodiesel produced from soybeans in South America. According to Suzanne Hunt of World Watch Institute, “there is reason to be concerned” as demand for ethanol increases, “U.S. farmers will grow more corn and less soybeans and pressure to grow more soybeans in sensitive areas in South America will increase. There is a need for sustainability standards. The California Low Carbon Fuel Standard is an example of a standard that would encourage sustainable practices.”
The California Low Carbon Fuel Standard was signed into law on January 18, 2007. It sets the goal of reducing the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuels by at least 10 percent by 2020. To meet the standard, fuel providers have the option of blending more low-carbon ethanol into gasoline, buying credits from electric utilities supplying power to vehicles or diversifying into hydrogen power or other yet undeveloped technologies. 10
According to Alex Farrell of the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley “Ethanol can be, if it’s made the right way with cellulosic technology, a really good fuel for the United States.” While not commercially viable at present, this technology involves using bacteria to convert the fibrous content of plants into starch which can then be fermented by other bacteria into ethanol. Melvin Simon of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena is working on sequencing the genes of the bacteria which live in the guts of termites and enable them to obtain food directly from the cellulose in wood.
According to Stephen Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, “the potential yield that we have from converting cellulose to biofuel could be 5 or 10 times greater than what we have for corn.” Chu thinks that ethanol producers should switch from corn to swift-growing trees such as cottonwood or a tall grass such as those of the genus Miscanthus.
At present, studies are underway at places such as the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Berkeley, CA, which is an institution formed out of three National laboratories, major universities, industry and federal agencies to create biofuels using plant biomass. Big Silicon Valley investors such as Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla (cofounder of Sun Microsystems) have made investments in cellulosic technology. One company, Iogen Corporation of Canada is already using a form of cellulosic technology to make ethanol from straw.
It remains to be seen what the social and environmental impacts of biofuels will ultimately be. According to Annie Dufey of the International Institute for Environment and Development, there is a “…need for environmental and social certification systems for biofuel.” The idea of certification is that consumers will then know if the product was produced in a way that protected the environment and benefited the small producer. But will this be enough?
hat can you do if these trends worry you? You can encourage national and local officials to support efficiency standards for vehicles – including low carbon standards –and increase research and deployment for sustainable, renewable fuels including cellulosic ethanol. You can find out more about groups that are working to save rainforests from being destroyed for fuel plantations and other uses and support their efforts. You can become informed about vehicle efficiency and new vehicle technologies.
