Study: Ethanol Sucking Up Water

  • It can take a lot of water to make ethanol. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

The ethanol industry and the government
want more ethanol to be produced. They
say the homegrown biofuel is a good way
to move away from foreign oil. But a new
government report says many ethanol
refineries are putting a strain on another
natural resource – water. Mark Brush has
more:

Transcript

The ethanol industry and the government
want more ethanol to be produced. They
say the homegrown biofuel is a good way
to move away from foreign oil. But a new
government report says many ethanol
refineries are putting a strain on another
natural resource – water. Mark Brush has
more:

When you fuel up at the pump, chances are you’re putting ethanol into your car. Nearly half of the gasoline in the U.S. is blended with ethanol. And that’s likely to increase as they build more refineries.

But the Government Accountability Office says these ethanol refineries should consider local water resources before they build. It can take a lot of water to make ethanol.

Anu Mittel follows water resource issues for the Government Accountability Office:

“Many of them are being built in areas where they are relying on groundwater aquifers for their water supply and that could have a devastating effect on the local community that is also relying on that same water source for all of its other needs.”

Refineries built in those areas often rely on irrigated corn to make ethanol. So it means drawing millions of gallons of water just to make the ethanol at the refinery.

And millions of gallons more to grown the corn.

For The Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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Small Supply of Green Fuel

  • The smaller supply of cellulosic ethanol might mean the country uses less efficient ethanol from corn, or keeps using more gasoline. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Cellulosic ethanol is supposed to
be a green fuel for cars – greener
than conventional ethanol made from
corn. The government wanted industry
to create loads of cellulosic ethanol
next year. Shawn Allee reports
industry might provide just a trickle:

Transcript

Cellulosic ethanol is supposed to
be a green fuel for cars – greener
than conventional ethanol made from
corn. The government wanted industry
to create loads of cellulosic ethanol
next year. Shawn Allee reports
industry might provide just a trickle:

The fuel industry’s supposed to create 100 million gallons of cellulosic-ethanol next
year. But industry leaders say they might create just 12 million gallons.

Wes Bolsen is with Coskata. His company can create ethanol from wood chips and even
household trash. Bolsen says companies like his found some investment money – but the
financial crisis created delays.

“We’re building refineries – 300, 400 million dollar assets and that’s a lot of money
to come together. We’re two years delayed, the whole industry. We can’t open them
in 2010. Facilities will start opening in 2012.”

The federal government might have to shift mandates for cellulosic ethanol into the
future.

That could mean the country uses less efficient ethanol from corn, or keeps using more
gasoline.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Fuel From Abandoned Fruit

  • Every year, 20% of the watermelon crop never makes it to buyers. Wayne Fish hopes to turn some of this waste into ethanol. (Photo by Gail Banzet)

Every year in the US, more than 750-
million pounds of watermelon rot away
in the fields. Those left behind can’t
be sold because they’re sunburnt, diseased
or damaged, but now scientists in Oklahoma
are working on a way to use the abandoned
fruit. Gail Banzet reports:

Transcript

Every year in the US, more than 750-
million pounds of watermelon rot away
in the fields. Those left behind can’t
be sold because they’re sunburnt, diseased
or damaged, but now scientists in Oklahoma
are working on a way to use the abandoned
fruit. Gail Banzet reports:

Growers say it was a pretty fair season for watermelons in 2009. A lot of ripe, juicy
melons were enjoyed during the summer months, but, every year, 20% of the crop
never makes it to buyers.

(sound of driving)

Research chemist Wayne Fish steers his truck around the USDA’s agriculture research
laboratory in Lane, Oklahoma.

There are 320 acres of different crops and vegetables here, and one acre is dedicated
to watermelons. Workers have already picked the good ones. Those that are left are
discolored, misshapen or damaged by raccoons or birds.

“There’s one where a crow has pecked on it. That melon is over-ripe, so it has
two strikes against it.”

But Wayne Fish says that watermelon can still be used.

“It’ll still make ethanol fine.”

Four years ago, the National Watermelon Association started studying the ethanol
potential of watermelon sugars. When the project showed favorable results, a trial
process began at the research station in Oklahoma. Bob Morrissey is Executive Director
of the National Watermelon Association.

“If you’ve got that fully developed watermelon there, it has all of the components
– the water, the sugar and the fiber – to create ethanol.”

(sound of machines in a lab room)

Back at the research station in a lab, Wayne Fish and his team combine yeast with
watermelon sugars. Hours later, the mixture is fermented and placed in a still.

“By distilling that mixture, one drives the ethanol off together with a small
amount of water. That’s how we enrich the mixture to ultimately 95% ethanol.”

Fish says the project is not an attempt to replace sugar cane or corn for ethanol. This
pilot phase of testing shows wasted watermelons can add some ethanol to the overall
market.

Bob Morrissey at the National Watermelon Association says using the melons could
open up a whole new market for farmers. They could sell the good ones to people and
the bad ones to ethanol plants.

“That farmer could literally harvest his or her entire crop, send it to the ethanol
plant, and at least get something out of it to try and cover their cost instead of
taking a complete loss.”

There are a lot of growers across the country who are worried about wasting melons.

Jim Motes is from Oklahoma. Even though he’s not a huge farmer, he says he’s always
looking for ways to make the most of his crop.

“If they can find a large enough quantity to make it efficient, then it’s a good idea,
because there are a lot of watermelons laying there when the field disked up that
ought to find some use.”

Researchers say watermelon ethanol is drawing a lot of attention. A Texas-based
company Common Sense Agriculture is currently working on a mobile unit that would
process the melon sugars and produce ethanol right in the field.

For The Environment Report, I’m Gail Banzet.

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The Attractiveness of Ethanol

  • The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Cheap oil makes switching to alternative
fuels such as ethanol less attractive.
Lester Graham reports that could affect
an upcoming decision about using more
ethanol:

Transcript

Cheap oil makes switching to alternative
fuels such as ethanol less attractive.
Lester Graham reports that could affect
an upcoming decision about using more
ethanol:

Crude oil prices spiked a little because of Iran’s long-range missile testing and revelations of a secret nuclear facility.

But analysts think for the next several months we’ll actually see oil prices go down – maybe to around $30 a barrel, less than half of what it is now.

And that could hurt demand for fuels such as ethanol.

But the government has mandated the nation produce more ethanol.

Dan Flynn is an analyst with the trading firm, Alaron.

“Obviously the government definitely wants to push this through. However, the price of crude oil and gasoline, if that goes down, generally people look not to look for alternative sources of energy.”

One way to use more ethanol is to mix higher amounts with gasoline.

The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Sampling a New Crop: Sugar Corn

  • Todd Krone researches corn for Targeted Growth, a bio-energy company. Targeted Growth is tweaking corn genetics to produce 'Sugarcorn,' a variety with high amounts of sugar and biomass. The hope is the plants can be converted into ethanol cheaply. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

The federal government wants more
and more ethanol in our fuel supplies,
but it worries about how its made.
Most American ethanol is made from
corn kernels. That’s inefficient
and it makes the ethanol and food
industries compete for corn. The
government’s mandating we start making
ethanol out of things other than corn
kernels. Shawn Allee looks
at one effort to meet that mandate:

Transcript

The federal government wants more
and more ethanol in our fuel supplies,
but it worries about how its made.
Most American ethanol is made from
corn kernels. That’s inefficient
and it makes the ethanol and food
industries compete for corn. The
government’s mandating we start making
ethanol out of things other than corn
kernels. Shawn Allee looks
at one effort to meet that mandate:

I’m just outside an ethanol plant in central Indiana and its pretty much like most ethanol
plants. There’re a lot of semi-trucks going by and they’re loaded with yellow corn kernels.


Most ethanol plants grind corn kernels for starch, they let that starch turn into sugar, then
they brew the sugary juice into ethanol. Now, this whole process would be easier and
cheaper if we could make ethanol directly from sugary plants instead of starchy grain
kernels like corn.


Pretty quick here, I’m gonna meet a guy who’s trying to make corn a plant that’s easy to
grow in the Midwest but produces sweet juice – not starchy corn kernels.

“If you walk over here, these are our sugar corn hybrids.”

I’m with Todd Krone. He’s a researcher with a company called Targeted Growth. He walks me
through a test plot of a plant nicknamed ‘Sugarcorn.’ He pulls off a ear of corn and pulls back the
leaves.

(sound of leaves being pulled back)

The ear is almost bare.

Allee: “There’re just a few stray kernels developing, very few.”

Krone: “Yep. A few got through.”

Krone says this plant avoids making corn kernels. Instead, it puts energy and sugar into the
stalk. He can prove it with a taste test – right here in field.

He snips a piece of stalk.

(sound of snipping)

And pulls out a little press.

Krone: “You squeeze some of the juice to see how much sugar’s there. It’s up to you, if
you like, you could put on on your finger and taste. Is there sweetness?”

Allee: “Yeah, it’s definitely sweet. It’s definitely got a sweet tinge to it.”

Krone: “It might be a bit sweeter than pop might be.”

Krone says tests show Sugarcorn juice is as sweet as juice from sugar cane. He says this means
America could have a new plant that boosts ethanol production – but doesn’t compete with food,
and uses equipment farmers already have.

Krone: “For the farmer, not much changes until harvest when some logistics still need to
be worked out.”

Allee: “Obviously if you’re selling a lot of this corn, you’d be making a good deal of profit,
hopefully, what’s in it for the rest of us in terms of the success or failure of this, for drivers
and everybody else?”

Krone: “I would say, hopefully, it results in cheaper ethanol that can compete with cheap
oil. And then meeting that mandate to get more and more ethanol produced.”

Well, that’s the idea, but Targeted Growth would have to change more than just corn plants to
succeed. They’de have to change how at least some ethanol companies do business. And some
ethanol companies have some tough questions about it.

“How could you handle sugarcorn? How would you store it?”

This is Jeff Harts. He works at Central Indiana Ethanol. Harts says he likes the idea of using
sweet corn juice to make ethanol – it could be efficient. But he worries about getting enough to
run an expensive operation like his. He has no problem finding corn kernels.

“It’s a consistent flow of corn and we need that consistent flow to keep going. That’s why
we have storage, the farmers have storage. That’s why we have a local grain elevator
network to ship corn to us to keep that flow steady 12 months out of the year.”

Harts’ company might be a bit reluctant to change right away, but ethanol producers will have
find alternatives to the corn kernel. The government is capping how much ethanol can come
from corn starch.

As those requirements phase in, alternatives like Sugarcorn might look sweeter than they do
now.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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From the Trees to the Tank

  • Chuck Leavell plays keyboards for the Rolling Stones. But he also owns a plantation outside of Macon, Georgia, with 2500 acres of pine trees. (Photo by Susan Mittleman)

Finding alternative fuel sources in our country involves looking at what nature has to
offer. In the West, they’re harnessing wind and solar energy. In the Heartland, it’s sweet
crops like corn. Susan Mittleman reports, in the South, they’re looking to their forests to
make cleaner, greener fuels:

Transcript

Finding alternative fuel sources in our country involves looking at what nature has to
offer. In the West, they’re harnessing wind and solar energy. In the Heartland, it’s sweet
crops like corn. Susan Mittleman reports, in the South, they’re looking to their forests to
make cleaner, greener fuels:

Chuck Leavell plays keyboards for the Rolling Stones. But when he’s not on the road, he
spends his time on his plantation outside of Macon, Georgia, tending to some 2500 acres
of pine trees.

“This is our tree farm here.”

From this tranquil refuge of nature and wildlife, he sees these trees as a possible way to
reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

“The fact that we have such wonderful resources, our forest, and that we are
looking for new markets, gives us a lot of hope to be able to use our trees to make
energy products, whether its electricity or gasification processes or any matter of
liquid fuels.”

Cutting down trees and turning them into fuels might not seem like the greenest thing to
do.

But people like Jill Stuckey, insist it is.

Stuckey heads Georgia’s Innovative Center for Energy, and says there’s no better source
for clean fuel here, than the state’s 24-million acres of forest land.

“We grow pine trees like Iowa grows corn. And it’s a renewable source of energy.”

Stuckey says trees grow faster and are more accessible in Georgia than any place else in
the country.

“It’s a good thing. Because trees sequester carbon. And we harvest these trees and
plant new trees, so we’re continuously replenishing our supply.”

She says an acre of pine trees can yield about seven tons of biomass per year.

Biomass is basically any living thing that grows and then can be harvested.
And that stuff can be used to make ethanol, electricity, and bio-diesel.

(sound of a factory)

At a small factory down in Albany Georgia, that’s what John Tharpe is making here.

Tharpe is semi- retired electrical engineer, and has designed a machine that converts
pine-tree chips into bio-diesel. The fuel can be burned to power and heat homes and
businesses.

“We’re using biomass. We make an oil and a char and then we are also looking now
at making electrical energy. You can use it in any commercial burner, such as
steam, boilers, those types of things.”

He’s already begun selling his biodiesel technology to people around the world.

So, Tharpe is making for electricity and heat. Other companies are making plans to use
trees to run our cars.

Range Fuels is building the ‘first-of-its kind’ bio-fuels plant in Soperton Georgia – which
will convert wood chips into green transportation fuels, things like ethanol and methanol.

Ron Barmore is the company’s project development director.
He says their facility is designed to produce upward of 100-million gallons of fuel a year.

“Our belief is that we’ll be able to compete with fossil fuels, with oil prices in the 70-
80 dollar a barrel range. We think long term that’s a viable place to be.”

And long-term sustainability is what tree farmers and environmentalists like Chuck
Leavell are looking for, not just for green energy, but for other reasons as well.

“These trees, in the period we plant them and their growing, they’re cleaning our
air, our water, providing home and shelter for wildlife, that helps everyone.”

More than 100 companies are looking at ways to use Georgia’s trees, in some form or
another, to produce greener, cleaner energy.

For The Environment Report, I’m Susan Mittleman.

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Chairman Criticizes Climate Change Bill

  • Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Collin C. Peterson from Minnesota (Photo courtesy of the House Committee on Agriculture)

A dispute about bio-fuels could put passage of a climate change bill at risk. Lester Graham reports corn ethanol is at the center of a dispute among some Democrats:

Transcript

A dispute about bio-fuels could put passage of a climate change bill at risk. Lester Graham reports corn ethanol is at the center of a dispute among some Democrats:

Conventional wisdom in Washington these days is: it’s not a good idea to use food for fuel, so corn ethanol should be replaced by cellulosic ethanol – made from crops such as switchgrass.

The chairman of the Ag Committee, Democrat Collin Peterson, believes the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are putting rules and legislation in place to put corn ethanol at a disadvantage to cellulosic ethanol.

He says they’re forcing changes on corn ethanol makers and farmers that could ruin the future of the bio-fuels industry.

“They are setting this up to guarantee there will never be second-generation ethanol or bio-diesel.”

Congressman Peterson says the Climate Change bill is just more of the same. He says he won’t vote for it and he doesn’t think any of the 46 members of the House Agriculture committee will either.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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New Rule for Renewables

  • More bio-fuels, like ethanol from corn, will be blended into petroleum (Photo by Scott Bauer, courtesy of the USDA)

The Obama administration wants us all to use more bio-fuels in our vehicles. Lester Graham reports on a proposed rule released by the White House:

Transcript

The Obama administration wants us all to use more bio-fuels in our vehicles. Lester Graham reports on a proposed rule released by the White House:

The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, says this will mean blending more bio-fuels into petroleum.

“Under the proposed rule, the total volume of renewable fuel ramps up to a maximum of 36-billion gallons by 2022.”

But, for the first time, renewable fuels also will have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Bob Dinneen heads up the ethanol trade-group, the Renewable Fuels Association.

He says the carbon footprint of ethanol is 61% smaller than petroleum. But the government wants to include indirect effects – such as reduced corn exports leading other countries to slash and burn rain forest to grow corn.

“We believe when that is better understood, ethanol is going to continue to demonstrate significant carbon benefits.”

The government will hear about their concerns and others during a 60-day comment period.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Gasoline Goes Low-Carbon

  • Today almost everything that goes into your car's gas tank started as oil (Photo by Shawn Allee)

How you fuel your car could change pretty quickly. California air regulators are requiring gasoline producers to reduce greenhouse gases by 10% by 2020. That could force big oil companies to invest in alternative fuels. Tamara Keith reports when it comes to environmental regulations, what happens in California usually spreads from there:

Transcript

How you fuel your car could change pretty quickly. California air regulators are requiring gasoline producers to reduce greenhouse gases by 10% by 2020. That could force big oil companies to invest in alternative fuels. Tamara Keith reports when it comes to environmental regulations, what happens in California usually spreads from there:

Today almost everything that goes into your car’s gas tank started as oil. But in the future it could be very different.

“The fuels that we will be moving towards are electricity, biofuels and hydrogen mostly.”

Daniel Sperling is a member of the California Air Resources Board which voted in the new rule.

Sperling says the goal is to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle fuels. That could mean oil companies might even have to buy credits from power companies for electric cars.

“You start transforming the oil industry, getting off of oil. I mean that’s what we talk about and this is a policy that will actually do it.”

The California rule even looks at how much greenhouse gas pollution goes into making corn ethanol.

Oil companies say fuel prices will definitely go up in California.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

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More Ethanol in Gas?

  • A corn ethanol refinery- The ethanol industry is asking the EPA to raise the legal limit of ethanol that can be added to regular gasoline from 10 to 15%. (Photo by Grant Hellman, Courtesy of US Department of Agriculture)

In the 1970s, the government limited the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline at 10 percent. Now, a trade group called Growth Energy has asked the U-S EPA to raise the limit to 15 percent:

Transcript

In the 1970s, the government limited the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline at 10 percent.

Now, a trade group called Growth Energy has asked the U-S EPA to raise the limit to 15 percent.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has already said that 12 or 13 percent ethanol is possible soon.

But, an environmental groups says, “slow down.”

Jeremy Martin is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says, first, the government should make sure that a higher-ethanol blend doesn’t damage pollution controls on vehicle engines.

“We don’t want to quickly make a change and then find out that we’ve caused a lot of damage to lots of vehicles on the road or caused a lot of air quality impacts.”

Supporters of the increased ethanol blend say it would help US corn farmers and reduce the demand for foreign oil. But opponents say ethanol made from corn does more harm to the environment than good.

For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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