Ethanol Production

Kim du Toit has a piece up on why ethanol is a bad idea. Last weekend I had a talk with my sister and brother-in-law. They're chemical engineers who work for the EPA. My sister does research into cleaning up parasites and pollutants. My brother-in-law, oddly enough, does most of his current work on bio-fuels. I learned a lot which is one of the reasons I now know that articles like Kim's are largely hype with a silver lining of truth. Here is an overview of what I picked up:

• While many of the criticisms of transporting ethanol are valid for all types, most of the criticisms of ethanol you see in print are only valid for corn-based ethanol production. While that is the process the US is currently using, nobody expects us to keep using it because, as all these articles are eager to explain, it is far too inefficient.
• There are still invalid criticisms of corn-ethanol. One of them is that increased livestock feed prices from the use of corn for ethanol will cause horrible harm. This one is *ahem* bull. Ethanol is made from the corn's sugar and carbohydrates. The good livestock feed is made from the corn's protein (also referred to as distillers grain). You can do both.
• The long term bio-fuel solution will problem come from crops like switchgrass. They grow quickly with less energy input in less restrictive soil types. They are nitrogen fixing so they don't deplete the soil like corn (and therefore don't require petro-fertilizers like corn). But the technology and the agricultural infrastructure is going to require some time.
• The holy grail of biofuels is making them from waste streams like sewage or your household trash. It is also unlikely to happen any time soon. It is possible to reprocess a waste stream like this, but if they have been thoroughly processed already, it won't be easy. Or in other words, poop is poop because it is the stuff our bodies didn't want to bother breaking down any further for energy.
• It is entirely possible that the long term biofuel solution may not be ethanol, but a different compound like butanol or propanol. These are less soluble in water, a major problem with the transportation of ethanol. They are also more soluble in fossil fuels like gasoline which makes them better additives. They also have higher energy densities.

So now you know and knowing is half the battle.