Ethanol Is a Disaster, But What About Other Biofuels?

By Jenna Scatena, AlterNet. Posted January 12, 2009.

Fuel, no matter the kind, requires consumption of resources and energy in order to be produced. The costs of harvesting and transporting any kind of material and converting it into a viable product will inevitably affect some parts of ecology, society and the economy.

The problem now is finding the most accessible, economical and sustainable solution we have -- and it's not corn. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that by 2030, carbon emissions per capita will decrease by five percent due to the increased use of biofuel. However, despite our using 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol, energy-related carbon emissions in the U.S. will still increase by 16 percent. This is mainly because they're factoring in the U.S.'s plans to increase the use of coal by 49 percent, making us the world's largest coal emitters second to China. It simply does not make sense to use a resource that possesses the highest carbon content (coal) to produce a so-called "green" biofuel. This is why some researchers are looking at the possibilities of cellulosic ethanol -- biofuel derived solely from nonfood plants like perennial grasses and algae.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently estimated that 1.3 billion tons of cellulosic ethanol has the potential to replace over half of the transportation fuel burned each year -- emitting 40 percent less greenhouse gases than corn ethanol when used in a flexible fuel vehicle.

Cellulosic biofuel is something that has held this sort of promise for a long time, but has only been actualized in a handful of small operations around the U.S. However, Cornell University is in the final stages of developing its new Cellulosic Biofuels Program. The laboratory was initiated by a $10 million grant from the Empire State Development Corporation and is set to open in January 2009.

Tucked in the hills of Ithaca, N.Y., next to the Cornell dairy barn, is the site of the 11,500-square-foot biofuel facility. Larry Walker, a professor of biological and environmental engineering, directs the Biofuels Research Laboratory. With $6 million of brand new state-of-the-art equipment, Walker and his multidisciplinary team are preparing to research the development of converting cellulosic materials (mainly perennial grasses and woody biomass in this case) into biofuel that is more economically feasible and environmentally friendly than corn ethanol.

"We're not hung up on [only] cellulosic material," Walker explained. But you do get a "better carbon footprint with perennial grasses than with corn. Nitrogen usage is less and water usage is less." He pointed out that, "when you work with cellulosic materials you get two sugars instead of one," making the biofuel more efficient. Cellulosic ethanol emits 82 to 85 percent fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline (compared to 12 percent fewer with corn ethanol). It also doesn't harm the soil or interfere with the food market as much as corn does.

One of the main challenges in maintaining a successful program, Walker said, is going to be finding ways to develop biofuel in an economic and sustainable way and also to find additional funding. Another barrier he points out is, "being able to produce this material, handle it, store it -- to make it available throughout the year. . . [and] cellusloic material is not very dense, which makes it harder [than corn ethanol] to transport."

According to Walker, "What we tend to do is distill the challenges down into a few sound bites, when we really need to look at the complete system ... It's not enough to look at the individual components. Bioenergy systems are complex enterprises." This is why monoculture systems (such as he current corn production system) are shortsighted: Monoculture takes one material that is considered economical and sustainable and hyper-focuses on cultivating that one resource, leaving all other potentials out of the picture. This is why it's important to expand our vision to encompass a more diverse system for our fuel problem. By diversifying production inputs for biofuel, we can expand production of alternative fuels while diffusing detrimental effects on the environment and the economy.

Walker recognizes that Cornell's new program alone cannot solve the problem of finding accessible and sustainable biofuel: "I can make ethanol out of newspapers, apples -- a lot of different things. But the bottom line is: Is it economically and environmentally sustainable?" Developing biofuels and making it a successful reality is going to take more than just one system. Walker believes that, "science, engineering and good policy is going to allow us to develop renewable energy systems broadly that will help us sustain human development." When weighing out the many options we have to use for biofuel, maybe we'll finally see that the grass really is "greener."
 

See more stories tagged with: biofuel, ethanol, cellulose, cellulosic biofuel

You can read more of Jenn Scatena at crookedkaleidoscope.blogspot.com.

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