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Ethanol Boondoggle Gets a Second Life
One of my biggest disappointments with Obama so far is his continued support of the ethanol boondoggle. The program was ramped up by the Bush administration to achieve energy independence by subsidizing the production of alcohol from domestically grown corn. Add clean burning moonshine (yes, it’s the same alcohol—C2H5OH), whose combustion products are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O), to gasoline and emissions also go down.
The irony is that if you include all the upstream and downstream inputs, the process consumes far more energy than it produces. It also demands massive quantities of fresh water, which someday will become more valuable than the oil the ethanol is supposed to replace, turning it into toxic waste.
Few consumers are aware of how big the ethanol industry has grown in such a short period. Ethanol consumption of corn has soared from 1.6 billion bushels in 2006 to an anticipated 4.3 billion bushels this year. Ethanol’s share of our total corn crop has skyrocketed from 14% to 33% during the same period. Corn grown for ethanol now occupies 10% of the total arable land in the US.
Ethanol’s impact on food prices has been huge. It is the sole reason why corn is trading at the $4 handle, instead of $2, and soybeans is trading at $10, instead of $4. You also have to add in the inflationary effects on downstream grain consumers, like the food manufacturers and the cattle industry. While spendthrift, obese Americans burn food so they can drive chrome wheeled black Hummers to Wal-Mart, much of Africa and Asia starve. A global food crisis is not that far off.
This ignores the reality that Brazil, the world’s largest ethanol producer, can ferment all the ethanol it wants at one third our cost because they make it from much more efficient sugarcane, which has five times the caloric content of corn. They also have ideal weather. However, protective import quotas and tariffs prevent meaningful quantities of foreign ethanol imports.
Bush financed all of this wasteful pork, because Iowa has an early primary, giving it an outsized influence in selecting presidential candidates, and has two crucial Senate seats as well. Well, it turns out that Obama needs Iowa even more than Bush, where the Democrats are ahead 3-2 in the House, and have a tie in the Senate (1-1), so the ethanol program not only lives on, it is prospering.
Ethanol has become such of big industry that it now commands a fairly large footprint in Washington, fielding armies of lobbyists to keep the subsidies and tax breaks flowing from the appropriate agricultural committees. The problem for the rest of this is that once these lobbies become entrenched they are almost impossible to get rid of. Think of an advanced case of scabies. Remember the tobacco lobby?
Shame, and double shame. Better to drink ethanol than burn it, I say.
For more iconoclastic and out of consensus analysis, you can always visit me at www.madhedgefundtrader.com , where the conventional wisdom is mercilessly flailed and tortured daily, or listen to me on Hedge Fund Radio at http://www.madhedgefundtrader.biz/ .
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Nobody commenting here wants to give up their car. We need to go to mass transit by rail and get rid of cars. The highway lobby has been in charge of transport in this country for over 50 years and that has to change. I think it will finally change by necessity when peak oil hits this country hard, since we are 5% of the world's population and consume 25% of the energy mainly by way of the automobile.
Cars have never made financial sense to me. We spend $30,000 on a piece of machinery that we operate between 3 to 6 months and throw it away. A car driven 50mph for 2000 hours or 25mph for 4000 hours =100K miles. 2000 hours = 3 months. It does not make sense, but we are forced to do it by the highway lobby. We have no other choice.
How do you implement a new fuel source when you have to fight all these government agencies which are controlled by the big corporations. Look at Pickens(windpower&natural gas) even with all his money and influence he couldn't do it.
I have done extensive road testing with fuel additives.
I have found that when they increase the amount of ethanol in fuel, efficency drops dramatically (~10%).
Therefore you need to burn 10% more fuel to drive the same distance, meaning your total emissions goes up 10%.
I haven't run the numbers, but at best I think using ethanol as an emissions-reducing additive is a wash.
If we were really serious about reducing emissions, we would reduce consumption by funding technologies such as Transonic Supercritical Fuel Injection:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/03/transonic-supercritical-fuel-injection....
Or go 100% electric using thorium power reactors to power the grid:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/
We have enough exisiting thorium reserves to power America for 1000 years.
+ !!
Ethanol is a total scam.
Tying ethanol to corn production is actually pretty smart.
The US is the Worlds's largest exporter of corn by a country mile (circa 50% of the market).
Ethanol production from corn creates a link in price between corn and Oil prices additionally China has chronic agriculture pressures.
Bush set up a scheme that whilst disastrous for the Worlds' poor will partially hedge the US trade deficit in years to come.
I will forgive your ignorance, but that is a dumb fucking idea.
Ethanol is a horrible motor fuel.
Ethanol is corrosive, and as result requires a complete retrofit of our fuel delivery infrastructure.
At best it produces 1.2 units of energy for each unit of energy input.
Butanol is much more efficent and has none of the drawbacks of ethanol.
http://www.butanol.com/
Rotting from the inside bitches.
I live in a state that produces corn and sells ethanol blended gasoline (10%).
I don't use it because it doesn't burn as hot so you lose a couple of miles per gallon and the cost of the blend is only 3-5 cents cheaper.......
Ethanol is corrosive, so it has to be blended. Its also out right banned as a fuel in some applications, such as aircraft, for obvious reasons.
Covered lightly here:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080606_005036.html
FlexFuel cars are designed to withstand the corrosion. Run ethanol fuels in any blend greater than 10% in a regular car and it will disolve from the inside out over time.
Cooter
Can someone tell these corncobs that creating ethanol consumes only the starch, and in the case of corn, leaves the corn oil and proteins as feed? The distillers grain is more effective as a food source than the original corn. We net more food, not less.
I believe you are incorrect in your assumption, but regardless it drives the price of corn and livestock feed up.
Take a hike and shove a corncob up your ass.
Step right up folks for the latest installment of your favorite game: World Domination.
Yes that's right, here's the game: lets convert millions of acres of food producing agricultural land to ethanol producing land. Food will become scarcer and people and governments will be squeezed. Might even trigger a world war! Great game! Lots to be made and gosh don't we rich folks love a war!! Good population reducer for sure!.
Step right up!
Good read, It seems to be all about pork, no matter who is in charge. "Problem Is" nailed it too.
Instead of using corn for ethanol why not use switch grass. It would give the farmers some income and the infrastructure for ethanol could be utilized. This way it wouldn't affect food sources or prices.
Great idea but 2 problems. It makes sense so would never stand a chance in Congress. Doesn't benefit ADM and other major ag donors. Ergo kaput.
This Works: Natural gas vehicles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_vehicle
Saw them in action and drove one about a decade ago in Brazil. it burns cleaner and you actually get more power than normal gasoline. Now let us look at Nat Gas production within the USA:
www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/nat_gas.html
So that begs the question why has the USA not embraced Nat Gas cars when Brazil and other countries have had them for many years and they work fine PLUS you can easily convert a gasoline car to run off BOTH at the flick of a switch? Thus, only a very minor change to current cars to make Nat gas automobiles work.
I looked into bi-fuels a while back (you get a switch to flip between NagGas and Gas).
What I learned was not a single manufacturer whose cars are available in the united states sells a bi-fuel.
You can purchase an aftermarket conversion (my nearest option is OK City), but the design has to be approved by the EPA at a cost of about 200k.
The result is you can convert some vehicles, assuming someone else already paid the EPA to bless the conversion.
I didn't go so far as to contact them regarding my 2007 300c. I do know these have been done in Canada, where the EPA isnt in the loop.
It's certainly a way to go, although distribution is more problematic than it is with liquid fuels.
I have NatGas at my house. Why do I need a filling station?
NatGas isnt for everyone, but if 30% of the market could conveniently convert, thats a huge decrease in oil demand.
Yes natural gas has been in use in several countries including our own. Japan has been using it for decades.
"The birth of yet another entrenched lobby in Washington. Is Iowa really worth it?"
It is not whether Iowa is worth it...
The question is whether continued corporate welfare for ConAgra worth it.
Corn subsidies are gobbled up by corporate ag entities, who buy worthless Congressmen to get more subsidies causing mass over production and inefficient allocation of resource...
Oh wait, isn't capitalism's claim to fame efficient allocation of resource?
The US IS that perfectly competitive market on the blackboard at your local universities Econ 1B class?
Concentrated wealth of Corporations and elite financial oligarchs causes systemic corruption and MORE misallocation of resource, not less...
There is your problem:
The Majority Taxed
=> Redistributed to Corporations and Banking Elites
Corporations and Banking Elites
=> More Boondoggle Projects to Congress
More Boondoggle Projects to Congress
=> The Majority Taxed More.
Ad Nauseam...
It isn't health "reform" (other than the fact it is a corporate welfare scam) and socialists you have to worry about. It is your capitalist "captains of industry" that are killing competition and corrupting the entire system.
Gov't subsidies benefit the few at the expense of the rest. Prepare for the unintended consequences.
I fear that soon we will come into a time when burning food will seem the ultimate act of stupidity.
You know, Cuba is a good place to grow sugar cane.
I see this as a way to force everyone out of imported cars and into GM flex-fuel vehicles.
What a crock. One never knows which way to turn. Ethanol is wonderful one day since it will lessen the need for fossil fuels, but the byproducts of its' combustion is CO2, an evil boogiegas of the AGW crowd...
As for Brazil and sugarcane, it actually it is a terrible crop to grow as it requires an insane amount of water and the best fields are in more arid climes.
And then we have the electric car crowd...just plug it in overnight and drive away. Sure, sounds great! What about in California where brownouts are the norm now...I can't wait to see the traffic jams in LA as all the Prius drivers run out of power at the same time! And it will be easy to see as the smog will all be gone too!
Not to rain on your deluded parade, but the Prius is a hybrid. That means it has both an electric and gasoline engine, idiot. When the battery runs down, the gas engine starts up.
And the average 40 km commute in North America requires less than 10 kWh of power. A standard 25 amp circuit provides 2.5 kWh each hour, so you only need to plug it in for about four hours. And the brownouts almost always occur during the day, when air conditioning demand is highest. If the enviroweenies all scared of CO2 would stop obstructing nuclear plants and new hydro with bogus concerns about waste and snail darters, the electricity problem would be solved in a few years.
I'm not saying electrics are for everyone - farmers, construction people, etc. need to be in their vehicles more than 2 hours a day. But most families have two cars, so you have one electric for the person with the shortest commute, and one gas powered one for longer trips. Show a little creative thinking instead of bringing up straw men, will you?
Feel free to rain on my parade all you like...I have a good umbrella.
You are quite right about nuclear plant obstruction, but I don't think any new plants are going to built in the near future because of the waste concerns and TMI meltdown scare tactics that are quite entrenched in the general populace.
Yes a Prius is a hybrid...thank you for such an eloquent correction. So brownouts happen during the day,do they; but when are you going to fuel up your Prius? At night with everyone else for 4 hours to use your figure. Lots of electrical power will be used 24-7 it would seem and where it is going to coming from?
Feel free to pay that little extra it costs to purchase that Prius relative to a gas Corolla and enjoy that enviro-glow as your household electricity bill goes through the roof. (hopefully not breaking your solar panels)
10kWh would translate to a gasoline engine producing 13hp. That amount could probably allow a Prius sized vehicle to maintain 60mph, but not the acceleration to get there. Right now the average car/truck has over 200hp (guess). We would need a drastic change in the size of the cars we drive and the performance we would expect.
As an example, regular golf carts produce 12hp. They don't have transmissions and gearing, but that is the speed you would expect from 10kWh.
With Vermont voting to shut down their nuke last week and general difficulty building any new power stations, I have no idea how the electric car will be anything but a funny diversion. My area is flooded with "Power Plants make bad neighbors" signs. We will keep coal firing but not allow a natural gas fired plant to be built.
Torque moves a vehicle (rotational force) not kwh/hp (rate of work done).
Ac electric motors create constant torque from 0 to ? rpm and therefore do not reguire high hp to convert into to rotational force. Ic motors produce maximum torque only at specific power band eg. 400hp at 5200rpm.
Put a corvette into 6th gear and try to move it without stalling from a standstill. Replace with low power high torque electric motor and no worries, will go from O to ? no problems, so electrics require no gear changes, only an initial gearing that suits efficiency/accel/max velocity although gearing helps to improve all aspects of performance...
Making smaller vehicles helps in many ways but there is no problem moving a fully loaded truck with electrics, just that little problem of battery energy density, lifespan, cost, environmental impact yada yada yada...
The people that solve this problem? will have statues erected in their honor in every city in the world. But I sure will miss my 63 impala ;-)
Ford was originally going to make the Model-A run on ethanol but the fledgling oil industry talked them out of it.
Brazil can do ethanol but America can't, is what I'm hearing.
That's bulldinky.
America can grow more than enough ethanol feedstock.
America is in this boat because Oil industry has controlled everything for a long time.
Guess what? We had all electric cars before the Ford Model-A.
New york city was full of electric cars before mass production.
Ford invented the Nickel-Iron battery back then.
-MB
The reason Brazil "can do ethanol" where America can't is because they are using sugarcane as the biofuel crop rather than corn. Sugarcane produces almost 8 times more energy than corn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance#cite_note-bourne-0
Every Ag Econ land grant state college in the US has studied ethanol feasibility on US agricultural lands.....and for over 30 years knows that it is not a feasible venture....
SOLAR charged batteries....is where the future is....
...........................
Think about it....
No transport
No fuel depots
No pollution
Most efficient
...........................
The first solar driven engine...ie the Sterling
which is heat responsive....seems to have the
most promise....to drive a generator for batteries....
Another seemingly more forceful source ie Bloom Energy....
Question being....can solar drive Bloom's fuel cells...
.................
The next revision moving from 220 appliances to dc 110....
Sorry, there's just not sufficient energy density in solar.
Thorium is the answer.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/
How 'bout some sources?
The quote about ethanol production requiring more energy input than you get out is false. Corn-based ethanol is certainly one of the worst biofuels from this standpoint, but it still has an energy ratio above 1.0.
http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/AF/265.pdf
And you're not really implying that Big Ethanol has a stronger lobbying hold on Washington than Big Oil, are you? 'Cuz that's just silly.
Let me get this straight - you're using government figures to justify this scheme? Haven't they misled you enough with bogus CPI, unemployment, and GDP figures?
I have this bridge for sale....
An average daily commute in an electric car would require 5-10 kwh of electricity, which could be provided by a 1kwh solar panel kit consisting of 5 panels, 12 batteries, a couple pieces of electronic hardware, some diodes and wire. The cost of such a kit is under 10k and dropping like a rock. Panels last 20 years, and good batteries will provide you with 5-10 years of service. On cloudy days, plug the damn charger into the wall.
Use corn to feed the people, and don't forget to save a little to make some hooch. Using ethanol for fuel is indeed a racket.
Good point. But there's a missing piece in that solution.
Residential Energy Storage.
Power from thorium solves this problem.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/
Truth.
http://www.energyfromthorium.com/ppt/GreenEnergyForum_20080725.ppt
Cooter
BTW, 100k miles at 20 miles/gallon = 5000 gallons of gas. You do the math.
A 1kWh kit won't generate 10kWh a day. 5 maybe. Add $5k for batteries. $15,000 / $3 a gallon = 100k miles.
In 2008 people in Mexico were starving because of the insane liberal notion that we 'need' high energy prices. Where's the compassion.
We need to drill.
energy independence my ass!!
now that the agw advocates have been finally and permanently discredited and shown to be the fraud that they are why are we even turning corn into ethanol???
why? because bush & obama are two sides of the same nwo coin.
absolute, unadulterated FRAUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bear,
Trust me, we have already drilled every deposit worth drilling, we are running out of oil that can be feasibly extracted, and, are you ready for this, a 90% drop in oil production by 2020, yes, that's right, just 10 short years from now, you will not recognize this place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDNMjV6sumQ&feature=related
If you want to know what the future of US production will look like take a look at Mexico today. The Mexicans are royally in a pickle of they're own corrupt design. They've been using outdated and insufficient technology to develope their reservoirs based on cozy (outright bribery) with certain wealthy oil servicing companies... cough schlumberger cough...
They fired the head of Pemex last year and replaced him with someone who promised to bring production up, but I think the old relationships run too deep (pockets).
Not surprised by your comment. Rather than reduce consumption. It is typical. Your not doing anything wrong. Its everyone else.
That is an extremely weak response. Everything needs to be on the table and our goal should be to take away oil's strategic importance.
Please see the works of Anne Korin of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.
http://www.iags.org/