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A few weeks ago, Business Week broke a story disclosing how oil companies are actually funding third parties to issue skewed negative ethanol research and news stories in an effort to stop biofuels before it impacts their treasured fuels market.
A common approach is to discredit ethanol’s energy balance, which is the greatest benefit ethanol provides our country. It is time we put this issue to bed for once and for all!
In the past 10 years, nine different groups have studied ethanol energy balance in great detail and eight of the nine conclude that ethanol has a positive energy balance. Not one, not two but eight of the nine conclude ethanol produces more energy than it uses.
Argonne National Labs and the United States Department of Agriculture conclude that ethanol achieves a British Thermal Unit gain of about 34 percent. This by itself is an amazing discovery. But more important is that ethanol extends our existing liquid fossil fuel by over 600 percent. That’s right, for every BTU of transportation fuel, primarily diesel, we use for farming and transportation of corn to the ethanol facility we get 7.34 BTUs as ethanol. That is a 6.34 gain of liquid transportation fuel. At a time where our country is looking to reduce reliance on foreign oil, ethanol clearly provides an amazing benefit to American drivers.
Researchers from the USDA and Argonne conclude, “Corn ethanol is energy efficient … For every BTU dedicated to producing ethanol there is a 34 percent energy gain. … Only about 17 percent of the energy used to produce ethanol comes from liquid fuels, such as gasoline and diesel fuel. For every BTU of liquid fuel used to produce ethanol, there is a 6.34 BTU gain.”
Argonne is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers.
In 2001, David Pimentel, an entomology professor (the study of insects) from Cornell University, said that corn-to-ethanol production is uneconomical. He said that it takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces. This one university bug professor has set the stage for this debate over the past seven years. In many detailed studies since then, researchers, including those at Michigan State University, have contradicted Pimentel and said his findings are based on out-of-date statistics (22-year-old data).
In a later revised study, Pimentel partnered with Tad W. Patzek to again discredit ethanol’s energy benefits. This report again still used the antiquated data from Pimentel’s study. What is interesting is that Patzek worked for Shell Oil Co. for many years as a researcher, consultant and expert witness. He founded and directs the UC Oil Consortium, which is mainly funded by the oil industry at the rate of $60,000 to $120,000 per company per year. What more is there to say?
If you compare the USDA and Pimentel studies, the USDA clearly states through research that U.S. farming and ethanol production are very efficient, and that the energy content of ethanol delivered to the consumer is significantly larger than the total fossil energy inputs required to produce it. The USDA estimates that ethanol facilities produce at least
1.34 units of energy as ethan-ol for every fossil BTU used, considering all energy inputs related to corn farming, corn transport, ethanol production and distribution and transport of finished ethanol.
It is time for farmers, ethanol investors, public policy leaders, teachers, soccer moms, veterans and all patriotic Americans to stand up and let their voice be heard on ethanol. We need all forms of American made energy to reduce reliance on foreign oil. Ethanol clearly is one of those solutions that our country should support for so many good reasons.
Zeiger is the Executive Director of the Alternative Fuels Institute in Watertown, S.D. More information about his organization can be found at www.fieldstofuel.org.
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