Ethanol’s main by-product, which is sold as livestock feed, has raised potential food safety concerns.
Several studies have linked the byproduct, known as distillers grain, to elevated rates of E. coli in cattle. And now, distillers grain is facing further scrutiny because the Food and Drug Administration has found that it often contains antibiotics left over from making ethanol.
Full story
The newest ethanol producer in the U.S. is also one of the largest, but Valero Energy Corp. is not a member of the organizations that typically represent ethanol producer interests. Instead, Valero continues to retain membership in the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, a lobbying group that testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety earlier this week that ethanol should not be blended into gasoline at levels higher than 10 percent for use in non-flexible fuel motor vehicles and non-road gasoline-powered engines. The NPRA suggested that levels above 10 percent have not been sufficiently tested for their safety.
Full story
These days, being a corn ethanol booster is a little like cheering for the Detroit Lions. The industry is on a heck of a losing streak. Not only have profits left the industry, but there’s mounting scientific evidence that it’s not the environmental godsend some would have us believe it is, and that it uses more water than our rural areas can afford to give up.
Full story
Criticisms are not all accurate, the ethanol industry retorted today (April 1), issuing a report forecasting ethanol, among other things, to produce 55 percent fewer GHG emissions than gas by 2015.
Full story
Posted by Ian:
According to Jay Yarrow of The Business Insider “The struggles of ethanol aren’t necessarily a harbinger for what’s to come for wind or solar.” Elgin county is home to both an ethanol plant in Aylmer and a wind farm in east Elgin. So we have a vested interest in alternative forms of energy. Here’s Yarrow’s take.
In the Financial Times today there is a story about the struggles of the renewable energy industry. Not surprisingly, the capital-intensive industry is struggling along with the banking industry.
The problem here is that the FT is painting the whole industry with a broad brush.
The struggles of ethanol aren’t necessarily a harbinger for what’s to come for wind or solar. They are radically different technologies, with radically different goals. Ethanol was supposed to be able to replace gasoline, it clearly cannot. (Even if it could, it wouldn’t be a good decision. It’s a poor use of land.)
Solar and wind power aren’t supposed to completely eradicate our use of coal in the short term. Maybe in a century it’ll be possible, but that’s a ways away. The need to use ethanol arose in knee-jerk reaction to the rise in prices at the pump–coupled with xenophobia. Those two factors don’t really contribute to solar and wind run investment. They are more about producing cleaner energy that limits emissions.
For the tech savvy audience, we’ll make this analogy: If LinkedIn goes bankrupt some day, does that mean that Twitter will also fail? They’re both social networks. Of course, they’re under the same tent, but on different sides of the pole.
But, to the over-arching struggles with most renewable energy projects: Yes, it’s true that alternative energy projects–wind, solar, better batteries, etc.–are capital intensive and many will not make it through the downturn. But so what?
Posted by Ian:
The IGPC ethanol plant recently brought online in Aylmer is projected to produce 150,000,000 litres of ethanol yearly, using 15 million bushels of corn. Are these still realistic expectations based on warnings posted by Jeff Wilson on Bloomberg.com recently that ethanol sales haven’t kept pace with the industry’s expansion, coupled with the fact at least six companies have sought bankruptcy protection in the past year. Here’s what’s noted by Wilson.
Waning Ethanol Demand
Ethanol sales haven’t kept pace with the industry’s expansion, as the 64 percent plunge in crude-oil prices from the record in July has curbed demand for alternative fuels. Increased U.S. fuel-efficiency standards may cap the growth in ethanol just as yield-enhancing seed technology from St. Louis- based Monsanto boosts corn output, Wells Fargo’s Michael Swanson said.
About 3.7 billion bushels of corn will be distilled to ethanol in the marketing year that began Sept. 1, up from a February forecast of 3.6 billion and 22 percent more than last year, the USDA said this month. In February 2008, it forecast 4.1 billion bushels would be used for ethanol this year.
Ethanol production will consume about 31 percent of this year’s U.S. corn crop, up from 23 percent in 2008, the USDA forecast on March 11. Distillery shutdowns from New York to California are gripping the industry as producers curb output or seek bankruptcy protection. Archer Daniels Midland Co., the second-largest U.S. maker of the fuel, estimated on Feb. 3 that 2.7 billion gallons, or 22 percent of U.S. capacity, was idle.
Ethanol Bankruptcies
At least six companies have sought bankruptcy protection in the past year, including VeraSun Energy Corp., once the largest publicly traded ethanol producer. The Sioux Falls, South Dakota, distiller entered Chapter 11 proceedings in October after bad bets on corn prices.
Every 1 billion gallons of ethanol production requires about 7 million acres of corn, Wells Fargo’s Swanson said. He estimates corn demand for ethanol may fall to as little as 3.4 billion bushels this year.
“We can lose 2 or 3 million acres of corn and not significantly tighten supplies,” Swanson said.
Farmers have little choice other than to keep planting and hope that crops in another area are damaged by weather, said Byron Jones, 68, who farms near Saybrook, Illinois. The economics may get even worse next year, as higher costs and lower revenue curb profit, making loans harder to get, he said.
“Global demand has diminished because of falling incomes,” Jones said. “Agriculture always lags the rest of the economy.”
Posted by Ian:
Recreational boating, ATVs and snowmobiling are popular seasonal activities in Elgin county. What then would be the impact of using ethanol-based fuels in these marine and off-road vehicles?
Trouble, according to boat manufacturers in the U.S. as reported in this story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Washington — At St. Charles Boat & Motor, owner and service manager Jerry Sims used to oversee the rebuilding of 30 carburetors in a year’s time. Last year, Sims says, he stopped counting at 750. They were victims, he claims, of ethanol in gas.
“It’s killing motors right and left,” Sims said. “But the EPA keeps shoving it down everybody’s throats.”
Armed with damage stories and test results suggesting more problems on the horizon, the boating industry is fighting to block a drive by fuel manufacturers to increase ethanol in the fuel supply from 10 percent to 15 percent — or E15.
Full story
Motorists could soon be using fuel made from trash, including old tyres and plastic bottles, to power their cars, an alternative fuel expert says.
Wes Bolsen, from US company Coskata, said anything that included carbon could provide the basis of ethanol, an alternative fuel with the potential to cut the world’s reliance on petrol and slash greenhouse gas emissions.
Official IGPC plant opening in Aylmer, December, 2008
Ethanol demand is growing rapidly. At the same time, entire countries are running out of landfill space. So why not take care of two issues at once and turn all that excess trash into ethanol?
Full story
