Johnstown Ethanol Facility Gets a Boost
Ron Zajac in the Recorder & Times reports today:
GreenField Ethanol’s Johnstown facility will be receiving up to $110.2 million over seven years through Natural Resources Canada’s “ecoENERGY for Biofuels” program, said [Leeds-Grenville MP Gord] Brown.
The program aims to provide an operating incentive to renewable fuel producers based on production levels.
The other $7.3 million will take the form of repayable funding through the federal agriculture ministry’s “ecoAgriculture Biofuels Capital” (ecoABC) program, a $200-million initiative.
Local farmers are investing a total of $8 million in this project, said Brown.
Some arguments against investment in corn ethanol
. EROEI for corn ethanol is 1.3 [www.eroei.com]: for each unit of energy put into the process, there are only 1.3 units of energy output. Comparing to other renewables: solar space heating 1.9; wood methanol 2.6. Comparing to non-renewables: oil and gas (1940's) > 100; oil and gas (1970's) 23; coal (1950's) 80; coal (1970's) 50.
. Corn is mono-cropped, leading to depletion of the nutrients of the soil and problems with weeds and pesticides. These in turn lead to the monocropping system being dependent on pesticides and artificial fertilizers, many of which are fossil-fuel based. As peak oil is reached and lower EROEI sources are used, eg. oil sands and coal, fossil fuel production becomes an increasing source of greenhouse gases.
. The amount of water used in ethanol production varies hugely, but ranges from 5 to 2,138 liters of water per liter of ethanol, depending on regional irrigation needs [MIT Technology Review]. The availability of potable water is already being impacted by extended periods of drought caused by climate change.
. Corn for ethanol displaces food production in a world where over 1 billion are now hungry [AP News]
. As peak oil is reached, the fossil-fuel dependent, globalized food production chain -- mono-crop fertilizers, field equipment, processing, transportion, packaging -- will begin to collapse. Robust local food systems will need to be in place, and this is where agricultural investment is needed.
Some arguments in favour of investment in corn ethanol
. 40 jobs are being maintained at the Johnstown plant.
. Some farmers have short-term financial stability.
Summary
As Leeds-Grenville MP Gord Brown said about the Johnstown ethanol plant: "It's working very well for our agricultural community right now." Tomorrow and the day after that, not so much. For anyone expecting secure food and water supplies in the future, not so much.
SFGate.com / Dr. Peter Gleick / 19 June 2009
[...]
Water Number: 50 gallons of water per mile. This is the water required to produce the ethanol biofuels needed to drive a car ONE mile, using irrigated corn. This number comes from a recent Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T) journal article by R. Dominguez-Faus, Susan E. Powers, Joel G. Burken, and Pedro J. Alvarez.
50 gallons per mile. Wow. This is an average value and varies significantly depending on where and how you grow corn or other potential fuel feedstocks. It can be half this value or more than twice as this value, depending on irrigation technology and, especially, climate. But by any measure, it is huge.
Some early assessments of the water implications of biofuels only counted the water needed at the factories themselves and concluded there were no major impacts: according to these early estimates, it takes around 2 to 10 liters (or gallons) of water to make a liter (or gallon) of ethanol. But it turns out that this ignores the biggest water use: the water to grow the corn (or sugar cane or switchgrass or whatever biomass we might use to make ethanol). And that water could otherwise be used to grow food, or to satisfy other water needs.
How does this compare to the water required to produce gasoline? According to Professor Michael Webber at the University of Texas at Austin (in a piece he did for Scientific American in 2008), it takes 0.07 to 0.14 gallons of water to make the gasoline to drive a car one mile. Plug-in hybrids are a bit more water intensive, because you have to count the water to make the electricity too - perhaps 0.25 gallons water per mile. But these pale in comparison to water for biofuels.
The authors of the ES&T study also looked at the implications of the overall national biofuels program. They calculated that if we reach the mandated annual goal of 57 billion liters per year of ethanol (15 billion gallons per year) it would require 44% of the total US corn production (in 2007) and 6 billion cubic meters of water (1.6 trillion gallons, or around 5 million acre-feet) annually - more water than is used for everything in the state of Iowa.
Could we do it? Sure. But at costs to our water systems, our other irrigated water needs, our environment, and our pocketbooks - costs that have not yet been properly evaluated. In our discussions about the environmental consequences of energy decisions, we should also focus on the water implications of our energy choices.