A recent ethanol study by the University of Minnesota suggests that corn-based ethanol maybe more harmful (climate change, greenhouse gases, health effects) and costly to the environment than gasoline itself. With this said, it is important to note that quite a bit of the US production of ethanol is currently reliant on first generation biofuels, such as corn.
"To understand the environmental and health consequences of biofuels," says Jason Hill, one of the lead author's of the report. "We must look well beyond the tailpipe to how and where biofuels are produced."
According to the findings in this study, for each billion gallons of fuel produced and expelled into the air through a vehicles exhaust, the combined health and greenhouse costs are $469 million for gasoline and somewhere between $472 million to $952 million for corn ethanol, the variance being dependent on whether the biorefinery heat source is coming from natural gas, coal, or corn stover.
They found that ethanol made from corn would result in health costs of as much as 93 cents per gallon compared to 34 cents a gallon for gasoline.
The results for ethanol varied according to how the fuel is produced. Ethanol produced by coal-fired plants fared the worst. Ethanol from plants that use natural gas still came out with higher costs than gasoline.
Ethanol made from prairie grasses fared much better than gasoline or corn ethanol at 24 cents per gallon.
Researchers from Stanford University and the Energy Department also were involved in the study.
Today an official working on a special project in Edmonton, Alberta has told the media about their plans to make ethanol fuel with garbage. They have plans to turn 100,000 tons of plastic, cardboard and paper into the fuel starting in 2010.
The $69.3-million plant will produce 36 million liters of ethanol per year, making it the world's first industrial scale ethanol plant using waste as a feedstock, said Don Pierce of Greenfield Ethanol.
Having waste be the world's next source for ethanol production is an awesome prospect. Not only would we be more apt to recycle but we would also be alleviating the enormous demand for gasoline and/or typical feed crops.
It is ashame it has taken three decades for them to get to this point, but what do we say, better late than never, eh?
This morning I was scanning the headlines on EcoMoto.org and was interested to see one about orange peels.
A group of University of Guadalajara students were researching essential oils when they discovered that orange peels could be used to make ethanol. Ethanol is used to dilute gasoline in car engines so that less gas is used.
News like this is rather exciting because the more natural resources we find to help make gas greener means the less prices will go up for each item. It also means there will be more ways to create ethanol and dilute gas...therefore minimizing the amount of mass drilling needed!
