James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his former student George Huber, now at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, are breaking new ground in the development of an alternative fuel called "green gasoline."
(Photo by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)
Components for green gasoline can be sythesized in a laboratory from agricultural waste. New processes are breaking the barriers to producing green gasoline on the large scale needed for industrial produciton. (Photo by Ben Barnhart, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)
Emerging research is proving gasoline and jet
fuel don’t have to be made from petroleum. Lisa Ann
Pinkerton reports the next generation of fuel might
just grow on trees:
Transcript
Emerging research is proving gasoline and jet
fuel don’t have to be made from petroleum. Lisa Ann
Pinkerton reports the next generation of fuel might
just grow on trees:
Researchers from the National Science Foundation say they’re using switchgrass
and agricultural waste, such as corn stalks, to make liquids very similar to gasoline and
jet fuel.
Spokesman John Regalbuto says, unlike ethanol, these new systems
don’t result in a 30% drop in mileage and the fuels can be distributed by today’s system.
“So you can use them in your car right now with no alteration of the engines. You
can ship them in pipelines, you
can use them in existing petroleum refineries.”
It might be 5 to 10 years before green gasoline or jet fuel make it to mass
production, but Regalbuto says the research published in this month’s Journal of
Chemistry & Sustainability shows that it can be done.
For the Environment Report, I’m Lisa Ann Pinkerton
A new report warns growing more corn for ethanol production carries some risks
for clean water. Chuck Quirmbach has details:
Transcript
A new report warns growing more corn for ethanol production carries some risks
for clean water. Chuck Quirmbach has details:
A lot more corn is going toward making ethanol, but a study by the National Research
Council says in areas with limited water supplies, adding acres of corn, or
launching water-using ethanol production plants is a major concern. The report also says increased use of fertilizers and pesticides on corn fields
could trigger more water pollution.
Study committee chairman Jerald Schnoor urges more research to help
extract energy from lower-impact perennial crops such as grasses:
“There needs to be a technology breakthrough so that enzymes and organisms
can break down the cellulose, the hemi-cellulose and lignin from plants like
switchgrass, woody biomass plants like poplar and willow.”
Schnoor says more research dollars could come from reducing federal subsidies
for corn-based ethanol.
Some people are warning there are hidden costs
to the drive for ethanol. The demand for corn-based
ethanol for fuel has pushed the price of corn close
to the highest price it’s been in 10 years. In the
first of our two-part series on ethanol, Rebecca Williams
reports that economists say the push for more ethanol will
mean higher prices at the supermarket:
Transcript
Some people are warning there are hidden costs
to the drive for ethanol. The demand for corn-based
ethanol for fuel has pushed the price of corn close
to the highest price it’s been in 10 years. In the
first of our two-part series on ethanol, Rebecca Williams
reports that economists say the push for more ethanol will
mean higher prices at the supermarket:
(Sound of burger sizzling)
Everything in your classic American meal has one thing in common.
(Sound of soda can opening and fizzing)
The burger, chips, soda, even the ketchup. They all depend on corn.
Cows eat corn. Chips have corn oil in them. And your soda and ketchup
have high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. Supermarkets are
loaded with food that has something to do with corn.
And lately, corn’s been near its highest price in ten years. The price
has nearly doubled. Everyone from livestock producers to beverage
companies has been feeling the squeeze of more expensive corn. And
that’s been starting to show up at the grocery store.
The US Department of Agriculture predicts our food is going to get more
expensive this year, and maybe for many years to come.
Ephraim Leibtag is a USDA economist. He says we’ll probably be paying
between two and a half and three and a half percent more this year at
the store:
“That’s on average for your food bill. So if you’re buying an average
basket of products and you spend $100 when you go to the store, now
you’ll be spending $103. But you’ll see it first in products most
related to corn. In addition you’ll see some after-effects because if
more corn is produced that may drive up the price of other commodities
if the tradeoff in land is between, let’s say, corn and other potential farm
products.”
So if farmers plant more corn for ethanol instead of soybeans, that
will drive up the price of soybeans, and in turn, the food that’s made
from them.
It turns out that’s exactly what farmers are planning to do this year.
A recent USDA report says farmers will be planting 12 million more
acres of corn than last year… and less soybeans, and rice.
Leibtag says high corn prices have been great for corn farmers, but he
says it’s been rough on a lot of other people:
“If you use corn as a main ingredient you’ve already noticed your costs
go up quite a bit. Some companies have explored the possibility of
substituting or using other products. But certainly producers of livestock and
poultry have higher feed costs. They have to think about exactly how they’re
going to produce their product when one of their inputs goes up 20, 30,
50, 80 percent in price.”
Ethanol backers say it’s just a matter of time before the market will
adjust to more expensive corn. Bob Dinneen is the president of the
Renewable Fuels Association:
“Corn prices are indeed going up… Our own industry is paying more for feedstock for ethanol today. But
at the end of the day, as the marketplace adjusts, we’ll be able to grow
more than sufficient grain to satisfy the country’s demand for food,
fuel and fiber and rural America will be better for it.”
But others argue it won’t be possible to have it all forever. Lester
Brown is the president of the Earth Policy Institute:
“Usually in the past, rises in food prices come when we have a poor
harvest somewhere in the world as a result of weather and therefore is temporary. It usually
lasts a year or so and weather comes back to normal and we get a good
harvest again. What we’re looking at now is continuous pressure on
prices as far as we can comfortably see in the future, simply because in
agricultural terms, the demand for automotive fuel is insatiable.”
Brown says we’re at risk of trading food for ethanol fuel. And he says
it’s not just going to impact food prices in the US. It’s also going
to affect food supplies worldwide, especially in developing countries.
“The biggest effects are hitting people in other countries who consume
corn more directly, like Mexico for example, which has a corn-based diet and there
the price of tortillas has gone up about 60 percent.”
Brown says many US politicians have what he calls “ethanol euphoria.”
He’s called for a moratorium on licensing new ethanol plants. He wants
the government to think about whether it makes sense to keep
subsidizing ethanol made from corn.
Many people, even some in the ethanol industry, say ethanol from corn
is a limited solution. So researchers are looking for ways to make
ethanol from other sources, such as woody plants like switchgrass.
In the meantime, ethanol from corn is still the most viable option.
Economists say if corn gets diverted into ethanol on a large scale,
that might mean we’ll all be paying higher food prices for the next
several years.
The nation’s leading food processor is making big profits from ethanol. Archer Daniels Midland has had two straight years of record profits. And in its latest quarter, the company nearly set another record. Dustin Dwyer has more:
Transcript
The nation’s leading food processor is making big profits from ethanol. Archer Daniels Midland has had two straight years of record profits. And in its latest quarter, the company nearly set another record. Dustin Dwyer has more:
ADM’s profits on corn processing, which includes ethanol production, more than doubled in its latest quarter. Total profits for the period were about $400 million.
Daniel Kammen studies energy policy at the University of California – Berkeley. He says while ADM is making lots of money from corn-based ethanol, future profits could go to companies that make ethanol from switchgrass and other woody products.
“It’s really the first companies that switch into cellulosic sources that I think are going to be the big winners, because they’re going to capture the environmental prize as well as the offsetting gasoline prize.”
ADM executives have laid out a new strategy that includes plans to expand ethanol production from fuel sources other than corn.
Daniel Kammen notes that there might not even be a market for ethanol if not for government subsidies, which also helped ADM reap its bigger profits.
Most efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil have been focused on alternative energy sources like solar, wind, or corn-based ethanol, but some conservationists have another crop in mind: grass. Brad Linder reports:
Transcript
Most efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil have been focused on alternative energy sources like solar, wind, or corn-based ethanol. But some conservationists have another crop in mind: grass. Brad Linder reports:
Scott Singer is on a mission to promote switchgrass as an alternative to fossil fuels. Singer’s a wildlife biologist with the US Department of Agriculture. He says the tall grass grows in most parts of the US, even in harsh conditions such as when there’s a drought.
Most importantly, Singer says switchgrass can easily be converted to fuel that’s cleaner to burn than coal. He says it’s a good crop to grow, because it takes less time to plant and harvest.
“You also reduce energy use for farmers out there, saving them money and basically saving energy which is generally fossil fuel driven in the field.”
Singer’s working on a pilot project to demonstrate the technology. He says fuel pellets made from switchgrass can be used in stoves that usually burn wood or power plants that usually burn coal.
Some scientists are sounding a warning bell about the rush to plant new biofuel crops. Charlie Schlenker reports they worry the new crops could damage the environment:
Transcript
Some scientists are sounding a warning bell about the rush to plant new biofuel crops. Charlie Schlenker reports they worry the new crops could damage the environment:
The scientists warn many potential Biofuel crops have similarities with plants that have become invasive and damaging to crops and the environment. Ecology Professor Roger Anderson is the co-author of a recent article in the journal Science. He notes plants targeted for biofuel crops such as Miscanthus and switchgrass grow fast:
“They have very high rates of photosynthesis, so they’re gonna yield a lot of biomass. A second feature is that many of these plants also have few enemies and pests and diseases.”
Anderson says no studies have determined whether these plants are likely to get out of hand as kudzu, johnsongrass, and giant reed have. Anderson says invasive alien plants cost U-S agriculture more than $123 billion a year. He worries political pressure to plant new biofuel crops may cause damaging shortcuts.
For the Environment Report, I’m Charlie Schlenker.
James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his former student George Huber, now at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, are breaking new ground in the development of an alternative fuel called "green gasoline." (Photo by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, courtesy of the National Science Foundation)