Ethanol myth blasted

[The_Professor]

BTW...Thanks, Sirs & Ami


Ethanol myth blasted in new Science mag
Posted Feb 11 2008, 02:54 AM by Jon Markman
Filed under: Investing, Alternative Energy
Rating:   

Corn-based ethanol production is sure to go down as one of the greatest mistakes ever in U.S. energy policy, yet it is so heavily embedded in election-year politics it just won't go away.

The government's recent move to boost ethanol production -- embedded in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007  -- panders to Midwestern and Southern farm-state electorates that are influential in presidential races, yet will end up costing the nation billions more than it purports to save.

I  wrote about this scam back in October in a column titled, "Shuck the ethanol and let solar shine," but apparently for some reason my expression of outrage was not enough to prevent Congress from passing a law in late December that will cost taxpayers as much as $550 billion over the next four years.

Now scientists have finally completed research that shows ethanol is not only bad business but also bad for the environment. According to news reports, the latest issue of Science magazine highlights studies showing that biofuels produce more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels when all of their production inputs are accounted for.

Two studies shows that replacing fossil fuels with corn-based ethanol would double greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades. The studies show that switchgrass, an alternative to ethanol that's more weed than plant, would boost emissions by 50%.

How? It's because, as I described in my piece, so much energy is required fertilize, harvest and refine the fuels. It's also because the growing of fuel plants replaces the growing of vegetation that actually consumes harmful greenhhouse gases.

The research at Princeton and the Nature Conservancy found that an intensified push to grow fuel crops would also rob the world of biodiversity as it would require the clearing of vast tracts of pristine rainforest in South America and Africa. In total, the researchers said they discovered it would take as much as 300 years to pay off the carbon debt caused by biofuels' initial cultivation.

Luckily, some public officials are waking up to the danger of ethanol. The United Nations recently tasked a panel to evaluate biofuels sustainability, and there are rumblings that the next session of Congress will look at the possibility of already reforming the recently passed bill.

Investors meanwhile should continue to avoid the ethanol-based stocks, including popular names like Pacific Ethanol and recent initial public offering BioFuel Energy.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/02/10/ethanol-myth-blasted-in-new-science-mag.aspx

[Plane]

I suppose these studys were not done in Brazil?


http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6817

After nearly three decades of work, Brazil has succeeded where much of the industrialized world has failed: It has developed a cost-effective alternative to gasoline. Along with new offshore oil discoveries, that's a big reason Brazil expects to become energy independent this year.


To see how, take a look at Gildo Ferreira, a 39-year-old real-estate executive, who pulled his VW Fox into a filling station one recent afternoon. Instead of reaching for the gasoline, he spent $29 to fill up his car on ethanol made from sugar cane, an option that's available at 29,000 gas stations from Rio to the Amazon. A comparable tank of gasoline would have cost him $36. "It's cheaper and it's made here in Brazil," Mr. Ferreira says of ethanol. If the price of oil stays at current levels, he can expect to save about $350 a year. ............."

[kimba1]

brazil has the rain forrest to handle green house gases
but that`s actually a good point
would the change to ethanol hurt the rain forest?
since if i remember right growing cane is not exactly good for the soil
is there a growing demand in brazil for more farmland ?
will this edge out the forest
don`t forget
pretty much all feul sorces require fossil feuls

[sirs]

What I'd do?  I swear, I was no where near......wherever I wasn't supposed to be









 

[Xavier_Onassis]

With corn only the grain is converted to alcohol. With Cane, the entire plant is squeezed, so cane ethanol is more practicable. Also, In the US harvesters, that run on pertroleum products, are used for the harvest, but in Brazil, there is an abundance of peasants who cut the cane by hand.

Fertilizer can be made from things other than petroleum, sugarland can be rotated to restore what the cane takes out. What is needed in the US is a crop that is more efficiently converted ot gasoline or better yet, biodiesel. Cellulosic ethanol/methanol from switchgrass shows promise, and biodiesel can be made from jojoba beans grown in the pressntly unfarmed desert and oil palms in tropical areas can be used for biodiesel as well.

[Plane]

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9071071/tallow-tree
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/32151/
http://www.invasive.org/browse/subject.cfm?sub=3079





The Tallow Tree seed is so oily that if you light one it burns like a candleflame for a minute. The main problem with raiseing them is that they raise themselves like weeds and croud out native species.


Could be a good sorce of Oil could be an invader worse than Kudzu.

[kimba1]

peasants
duh!!
I totally did not factor that in
using human labor will totally change the outcome
the U.S. does not have that advantage.
we really need to reintroduce animal labor to our advantage somehow
ploughing nogood tractors are too good to bother with animals.

[Plane]

peasants
duh!!
I totally did not factor that in
using human labor will totally change the outcome
the U.S. does not have that advantage.
we really need to reintroduce animal labor to our advantage somehow
ploughing nogood tractors are too good to bother with animals.

If Man power is cheaper what keeps it from outcompeteing?

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Scania Brazil has entered into an agreement to supply engines for two new sugar cane harvesters which have been designed to improve productivity and cut pollution in Brazil. The two units are being produced by Brastoft, a joint venture between Austoft, a leading harvester manufacturer, and Eneagro, part of the Ometto Group, one of the world's biggest sugar growers.

Both the wheeled model A7000 and the crawler-tracked unit A7700, will use Scania DS11 engines rated 330 hp at 2100 rpm. In each case, the turbocharged, six-cylinder inline, 11 L engine drives both the harvester and variable-speed, bidirectional hydraulic motors that power the machine's functions. A variable-height top cutter - adjustable to 12 ft. - removes the leaves from the cane. A twin-spiral conical-screw divider system separates the rows of cane, diverting them to the base cutter that comprises two five-bladed discs. The cane is then fed via a rotary chop and swinging knife roller system to the elevator and deposited in a trailer travelling alongside the machine.

It would appear that there is a huge potential market for sugar cane harvesting machines in Brazil, one of the world's largest sugar cane producers. Currently only around 15 percent of the harvesting is mechanized, according to Scania Industrial & Marine Engines, and these machines only harvest burnt cane. This compares with 100 percent in Australia, another major producer.

With the pending introduction of new environmental regulations, the annual burning of sugar cane fields is to be prohibited in Brazil, since firing the crop normally creates heavy smoke and pollution. This will make it virtually impossible to harvest by hand, note industry sources.

The choice of Scania diesel engines for the new machines was determined by the low operating costs, thanks to the low oil and fuel consumption in Brastoft's opinion, says Otavio Barros, from Scania Industrial and Marine Engine Sales. Under the agreement, Scania will provide full support for the machine owners through its nationwide network.

A further incentive for cane growers to mechanize is the increasing demand for alcohol-based or additive fuel for motor vehicles. With limited access to oil, Brazil has been encouraging the growing motor industry to develop and produce vehicles that run on alcohol, which is largely produced from sugar cane pulp.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-55084191.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FZX/is_6_65/ai_55084191

Good news for Brazilians: the prices for ethanol has dropped 38 percent because of an increase in sugarcane production. Prices will continue its decrease, according to J?lio Maria Borges, an analyst at JOB Consultar?a, even when the harvest finishes.

There are two determining factors for this decrease. One is the price of alcohol, which has dropped 18 percent. The second factor is the decrease in ethanol exportations. Despite President Lula da Silva's efforts to export Brazil's biofuel of choice, UNICA (the Brazilian association of sugarcane producers) expects to export just 3,100 million liters this year, whereas last year the number was 3,600 million. The US, which was one of the main customers for Brazilian ethanol, has reduced imports because of the increase in domestic production and the reduction of prices.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/09/26/good-sugarcane-harvest-means-ethanol-will-continue-to-be-cheap-i/