Alcohol Can Be a Gas: Debunking Myths About Ethanol 19 comments
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I recently read a book titled, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! It is an excellent 600 page book. A lot of time and research went into it. The book teaches almost everything you’d need to know to produce ethanol. I highly suggest you read the book if you’re at all interested in learning more about the ethanol industry, especially if you’re interested in investing in the industry. It might teach you something that could help you decide which ethanol companies are on the right track. I for one, won’t invest in producers using corn as their primary feedstock. There are many other efficient crops that make economical sense and don’t depend on government subsidies.
There are a lot of myths circulating about ethanol, so I thought I’d briefly show how the book debunks some of them.
Myth: It takes more energy to produce alcohol than it’s worth.
This myth is false, perpetuated by people that believe corn is the only crop that can create ethanol. Corn isn’t a very efficient crop, but luckily there are crops out there that are MANY times more efficient than corn. Brazil uses sugarcane to produce energy in a very efficient manner and is one of the most energy self-sustainable countries on the planet. The biomass parts of the plant that can’t be turned into ethanol are used to help distillation. It’s a very efficient method. There are other crops that are even more efficient than sugarcane, as alcohol can be made from anything with sugar or starch. There are also many companies and researchers working on creating cellulosic ethanol which will allow an even greater variety of plants to create ethanol. Regardless, some ethanol crops can be made very efficiently and produce MORE energy than consumed. It all depends on what crop, how it’s being grown, etc.
The people that cite this myth also often discount, or completely forget, the byproducts that result from manufacturing ethanol. Even corn ethanol results in a byproduct called DDGS. This ‘dried distillers grains with soluble’ still contain all of the protein and fat, and much of the cellulose, vitamins and minerals. The only thing that has been removed is the starch. This byproduct can still be used as an animal feed, and has been proven to be better than corn when fed to cattle (quicker cattle growth!). The removal of the starch, which goes through cattle undigested, allows quicker digestion and growth of the animal when DDGS is used.
Myth: Not enough land for food and fuel.
In terms of corn growth, corn only utilized ~8% of arable farmland, about 17% of the prime land, in the U.S. However, the reason so much corn is grown is to support the cattle industry and now the food industry in general (sugar from corn is now used in many of our soft drinks and other food products). In fact, the reason the U.S. ethanol industry uses corn is because for years, due to government subsidies, farmers have been growing more corn than we know what to do with. Yes, ethanol production in the United States began using corn as an answer for the overproduction. Otherwise, much of the U.S. ethanol would be grown using much more efficient crops and crops that don’t have subsidies.
You can’t forget that the byproduct of producing ethanol still leaves us with DDGS, which can effectively feed many animals. Also, if it were necessary, we could grow fish. Cattle take about ten pounds of feed to produce one pound of meat. That isn’t very efficient. We can improve the situation, if you’re truly worried about starving, by switching to fish. Fish only require 1.5 pounds of feed to produce one pound of meat. We could also use natural desert plants, on government land, for ethanol purposes, without any additional water or using up valuable farmland - Mesquite! The ocean can also be used to produce marine algae. What I’m trying to say is, many plants can be used on a variety of lands (and even sometimes on the ocean).
Myth: Ethanol is dirtier than gasoline.
Ethanol actually burns a lot cleaner than gasoline! Alcohol doesn’t have many of the harmful chemicals that gasoline does. Just go get your emissions checked while you’re running on 100% ethanol - they will assume their machine isn’t working because almost none of the normal pollutants from gasoline are present.
One part of the equation often forgotten is that during the growth of the plant, a lot of carbon dioxide is converted to oxygen, and a lot of carbon dioxide is sequestered in the cellulose tissue. Growing plants is good for the environment!
Summary
I didn’t include all the facts. The book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! is an excellent one that has been well researched and contains a plethora of information. I’m 100% in favour of solar technology, but I think we often forget that plants are natures’ sustainable solar technology. We can use plants for fuel and food in a sustainable manner.
Often times the ethanol is just one piece of the puzzle. If you want to increase food production of both protein and plants, while solving our energy needs, it can be done. You take the DDGS byproduct from the crop (whatever crop you decide to use) during the production of ethanol. This byproduct is very valuable. You can either sell it to farmers/feedlots or you can grow your own protein. Cattle will grow faster with it! Even better, you can grow fish extremely efficiently. The fish create their own effluent (waste) that is just like a liquid fertilizer. The fish waste can be pumped into a greenhouse that is growing highly valuable vegetables/herbs/flowers/fruit/etc. You just got free fertilizer to grow a high quality crop! The plants take the effluent out of the water and the water can then be recycled back into the aquaculture system and is now safe. Yup, the fish feed the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish, which reduces the amount of water needed to grow fish. Now you can sell ethanol, high quality greenhouse crops, and valuable fish. Talk about efficiency and making economical sense - we can feed more people, make more money, and solve our energy problems. Not bad, eh?
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This article has 19 comments:
I have invested in Aventine, because of their position as producer-distributor and the quality of the management. In spite of that, it's not going well. What non-corn ethanol companies would you suggest ?
I think that ethanol has a place in a nations energy playbook, especially as they try to break an unfortunate dependance on oil. The source of that ethanol must vary by region as to balance out supply and demand issues.
The recent Chapter 11 of VERASUN (YIKES what a fiasco!) as well as a few others, may have had a lot to do with mismanagement but it does also highlight the problem with using one primary source for ethanol production.
(In VERASUN's case Irresponsible hedging, overly aggressive acquisitions and just plain old financial stupidity. The stock is at $0.06 per share and had been as high as $30 !)
Ethanol can and has been produced from corn, sugar cane, sourgum, orange waste, forest biomass or dairy industry byproducts. There are plenty of different sources. Unfortunately we will see increased competition..and higher prices.. for those potential ethanol sources as even coal fired power plants are expertimenting with burning forest biomass to produce electricity.
Here in Wisconsin, as in most of the Midwest, we have many small ethanol producers that rely primarily on corn. One producer, RENEW Energy, appears to have developed a small, solid and successful business plan that provides value to its loyal customers. Until technology advances, the manufacturing process of ethanol will likely and for good reason remain small scale. I think the book points that out too!
There are many problems in the US with extremely large scale ethanol production, storage and transportation. The political, economic and environmental issues are wildly divisive. For most people, there does not appear to be a "mid point" on its use.
Nevertheless, as Brazil and Japan have shown us, there is some upside potential here. The real answer will come if the politicos and lobbyists can take one step toward the middle.
the supplier claimed it was produced from citris fruit orchard droppings.
The main reasons we used methanol were, the engine ran cooler and had more HP per gallon. The drawbacks are, cost per gallon, and fuel mileage.
On a carborated motor, we resized the main jets by three. On fuel injection the fuel jet was approx. two times gas jet.
Yes there are viable alternative fuels. All we have to do is---DO IT!
I have an E85 truck but have been burning E10 or E0 (when I can find it) because I ran the numbers and found I need about a 25% premium for the ethanol cents per mile to match the E10/E0 cents per mile and that does not factor in the pain in the...regarding reduced range and the scarcity of gas stations carrying E85.
Ethanol has a place in our energy supply, welfanol does not.
The subsidies, the WELFARE CHECKS required to make corn ethanol profitable are wasting money and raising the costs of foodstuffs. They are also delaying the growth of the kinds of ethanol, cellulosiac and sugarcane-based, that as you pointed out, could make a real difference. They are also casting a ethical cloud over the entire concept in the process.
But all this is beside the point. This is financial blog and we all want to make money. So my question to you is this; Since you are bullish on the prospects of these cleaner forms of ethanol are there any stocks or companies out there that would give us a chance to invest in them? The only ethanol plays I know of are large and corn-based. In lobbying hard for government subsidies, these companies are essentially trying to sell our own tax dollars back to us at a discount! Makes me a bit sick.
What I have noticed, despite an enlightened SA readership, is there are still many misconceptions about this product.
Regarding corn, I agree with User 48358 that ethanol subsidies should be removed. This might force some farmers to chose between being corn farmers or energy farmers. If they are the latter, there are much better crops than corn.
Regarding corn again, the tradeoff between fuel and foodstuffs is a ruse. I'm told the vast majority of corn produced in the U.S. is to feed mostly cattle but also pigs. As best as I can find corn was used initially because we had a surplus of it and it was cheap.
Marcus - a mechanic friend of mine agrees with you and said this has something to do with compression ratios. That's all I know.
This may be the kind of product that works best locally where a group of farmers fund their own still and sell directly to the consumer. I say this because there is one E85 station in my community and they sell E85 for $2.79 while the average for regular unleaded is in the area of $2.15.
I too own the book.
@ariesl: Yes, tilapia is one of the main types of fish that can be grown efficiently - but there are others. Yes, I believe poultry can be fed distillers grain as well.
@MikeCooper: I agree!
"You article here is supportive of an ethanol industry which unfortunately doesn't exist."
I do agree. A lot of smaller (and often private) companies are doing the research at the moment. The problem is there aren't enough viable companies that we can invest in now that are in production - Sure, we can invest in companies that are still in the research phase, but I really want to be able to invest in a company that is already doing it.
The reason I wrote the article is to open up people's eyes to the possibility of an economical and sustainable ethanol industry. Ethanol has a bad rap - but it can be done right and make money without subsidies! Many people don't even pay attention to ethanol anymore and raising money for an ethanol company that is 'doing it right' only becomes harder with such attitudes. I'm keeping my eyes open and looking for companies that do it right, and when we find a company doing it right we will make money. I am compiling a list of ethanol companies that are doing it right or are on the right track. This article was just the first step. Maybe there is a company we don't know about that is doing it right. Either way, I suspect a few companies will be popping up in the next 5 years that are on the right track.
What you should know is that the author of Alcohol Can Be a Gas!, David Blume, has been going on Coast to Coast AM and promoting the ethanol industry 'doing it right' to an audience of over 10+ million Americans. Even the permit office for issuing permits for small distilleries has literally been halted - they were flooded with permit requests and couldn't handle it - They actually started telling people to just build it, and when it's complete, inform them. Something will come of all this interest. Many will be smaller, independent operations, but a few viable public companies will come... in time. That is one of the reasons I thought I should clear up some of the ethanol myths.
So, like I said, I just wrote this to clear up the myths and get people realizing that it is being done wrong at the moment, but it can be done properly. Next, we must look for and invest in companies that are doing it right. My next ethanol article will be a compiled list of ethanol companies.
If anyone knows of a non-corn based ethanol producer, feel free to let us know.
For details, see
culturechange.org/cms/...
"David Blume, has been going on Coast to Coast AM and promoting the ethanol industry 'doing it right' to an audience of over 10+ million Americans"
Your cred just dropped below the btu value of the fuel being burned in the black helicoptors! Perhaps they can explore using grain from inside crop circles for the manufacture of ethanol, as well as chasing down the scoundrells who bought the water-to-gasoline pills and 200mpg carburetor! LOL
Maybe your credibility should go down because you are so blind as to paint people with the same brush merely because someone has listened to a particular show which also discusses other more controversial topics - It doesn't mean that person agrees with it... Some of us think for ourselves... Did I, at anytime, speak about or promote carburetors with 200mpg, water-to-gas pills, conspiracy theories, ghosts, UFO's or black helicopters?
Ethanol is a real thing. It even works. Yes, there are some issues. Yes, ethanol is largely being done the wrong way... Yes, it can be done right - that doesn't mean it currently is.
If we are truly worried about producing enough food - we should be using greenhouse aquaponic systems - sustainable fish farming. Fish only require 1.5 lbs of feed to produce 1 lb of meat... Cows require 10 lbs of feed to produce 1 lb of meat... So, we could be 6.5x more efficient by using fish... That's A LOT more food. And Fuel to boot if we use crops that are over 10x more efficient at creating ethanol than corn. It can be done right...
This sounds like sci-fi but it is an ideal which the biofuel industry will approach in time. Competition will drive it.
On the plus side, investing in the equipment suppliers to the ethanol industry when tax breaks are doled out, and identifying the industries which will purchase the closed ethanol plants when the subsidies are eliminated could be a bonanza.