Green Plains Renewable Energy INC. (GPRE)

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Ethanol - Key to a Greener Future

http://policyvoice.wp.trincoll.edu/2011/04/29/ethanol-the-key-to-a-greener-future/

Mary Sullivan (‘13)

*This essay is the second installment of a point-counterpoint on Ethanol

“We must face the prospect of changing our basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative, in a planned way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature.”

-President Jimmy Carter on the oil crisis, 1976

The United States’ oil crisis is old news, and yet our generation has thus far been most proactive in working to prevent the consequences President Carter spoke of decades ago.

Cheap oil has been the driving force behind much of the economic development of the past two centuries. Our excessive demand for oil stems primarily from the belief that we need it. It is the concept that as a country, we will fall behind in the economic rat race if we don’t obtain the as much oil as possible and sell it to the highest bidders. Today’s bidders include you and I, and every other American who drives a vehicle, owns a toaster, or pays taxes. Even if we want to disregard the disastrous effects that burning fossil fuels has on the environment, the economic stagnation, and the social and political upheaval that tears allies as well as citizens of one nation apart, there remains one unfixable problem with oil. We’re going to run out- and whether it happens in 2015, or 2045, the date of peak oil consumption is imminent. If we proceed down our current oil-centric path, we will soon wake up to find our lives changed permanently.

Experts estimate that the year 2045 marks the longest amount of time we can continue our current lifestyle before Americans will be consuming more oil than can be supplied. If you’re under fifty, this is within your lifetime.

With that perspective in mind, let’s consider our options. There are a number of alternatives to using fossil fuel, including biofuels. Biofuels are created from a wide range of vegetation (primarily corn) and can be used in the same way as fossil fuels, but have the great advantage of being renewable. A biofuel that has been given serious consideration as a petroleum alternative is ethanol.

In addition to being a renewable source, Ethanol has several other benefits. First, Ethanol production yields several by-products, or substances other than fuel that result from production. Unlike the by-products of nuclear energy production, the by-products of Ethanol production are environmentally friendly and can be refined or sold as-is to offset the cost of Ethanol production. Ethanol’s by-products can be used to make feed for dairy cattle or other farm animals, corn oil, corn starch, sweeteners, vitamins, citric acid, lactic acid, pharmaceuticals, films, solvents, pigments, fibers and CO2. Furthermore, Ethanol can be produced in a manner (known as “wet-grind milling”) that wastes no part of the corn kernel.

A second benefit of Ethanol production is the capital that can be derived from the construction of Ethanol production plants. As demand for Ethanol increases, more milling plants will be necessary to meet this demand. This would result in immediate, though temporary, increase in capital and employment. Once built, these facilities would also require labor to maintain plant production. Therefore, Ethanol production is both environmentally and economically friendly.

Third, Ethanol is a relatively clean burning fuel. In addition, this clean burning does not come at the cost of energy yield; Ethanol yields 25% more energy than the energy invested in its production, meaning it has a net energy gain. Relative to the fossil fuels it replaces, greenhouse gases are reduced by 12% by the production and combustion of Ethanol. This is because Ethanol is used as an oxygenate to reduce automotive emissions. It is compatible with conventional automobile engines when blended with gasoline to create E10 (gasoline with up to 10 volume percent Ethanol). In flexible fuel vehicles, Ethanol can be blended with gasoline up to 85 volume percent Ethanol (E85). Ethanol allows gasoline to burn cleanly, reducing the amount of non-methane hydrocarbons, (NMHC) as well as carbon monoxide (CO) that the vehicle produces, both of which are damaging to our atmosphere. Ethanol is also carbon neutral, meaning that when burned, it returns to the atmosphere only the amount of carbon that was absorbed through the corn as growing plants.

Like any other energy option, Ethanol has its weaknesses. For instance, opponents claim that corn is a major food source and should be used to feed people. While it is true that corn is a food source, we must not overlook the fact that many foods are used in alternative products. Corn is used in plant fungicide for weed prevention, insect repellent, varnish for wooden floors, cosmetics, and antibiotics. Corn is also used as an adhesive in many plastics, and even in different parts of automobiles. With the advances of technology we have today, we have continuously awarded developments that embrace multiple uses of a product. If we contest the “proper use” of corn, we challenge not only corn’s use in Ethanol, but also its use in a vast array of other nonfood products.

Critics also maintain that corn prices are skyrocketing, and that if used in this way, harvests face depletion. However, the worst-case scenarios depict a situation in which corn supplies will only be low until the next harvest, rather than completely exhausted. Corn is renewable, after all, which is what makes it so preferable to the limited supply of fossil fuels.

Increase the demand for Ethanol, and an increase in corn prices will be sure to follow. As with every market fluctuation, this is good for one party, and bad for another. Namely, this increase in the price of corn aids the struggling farmer rather than the consumer. As a country, we have to decide what type of market exchanges we are willing to sustain and endorse. Although this increase in demand would certainly shift a monetary burden to the consumer, we must determine whether or not the benefit in going forward with this process outweighs the cost to the consumer. With prospects of an increase in capital and employment, cleaner air and a cleaner environment, as well as safer national security resulting from a decrease in reliance on foreign oil, we must strongly consider Ethanol as a viable option to replace fossil fuels.

No one product is the sole solution to the damage that has already been done to our environment. While Ethanol undoubtedly has its flaws, we must at least consider this a transitional product lest we come to know the chaos that President Jimmy Carter predicted would result if we are unwilling to change.