Ethanol

Part on of President Bush's Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 signed last month in December, requires:

Increasing the supply of alternative fuel sources by setting a mandatory Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requiring fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel in 2022.

This post will not get into the presumed connections between Bush and the corporations that this act will benefit and how it will benefit those corporations above more progressive and environmentally sound business ventures.

Trying to get ahold of the pros and cons of ethanol is tricky. It all depends on who you ask.

First off ethanol is the same thing as the alcohol which is found in wine, beer, and spirits of all shapes and shades.

Ethanol Fuel

Anhydrous ethanol (ethanol with less than 1% water) can be blended with gasoline in varying quantities up to pure ethanol (E100), and most spark-ignited gasoline style engines will operate well with mixtures of 10% ethanol (E10).[1] Most cars on the road today in the U.S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol,[2] and the use of 10% ethanol gasoline is mandated in some cities where harmful levels of auto emissions are possible.[3]

The biggest rap on ethanol is that it would take enormous amounts of corn and other crops to produce anything close to the amounts of gas that we use for transportation. This is the built in structural and logistical flaw. Plus the big agribusiness outfits use oil based fertilizers to grow the corn. So it takes oil to make corn at this level.

Study: Ethanol won't solve energy problems

As far as alternative fuels are concerned, biodiesel from soybeans is the better choice compared with corn-produced ethanol, University of Minnesota researchers concluded in an analysis Monday.

But "neither can replace much petroleum without impacting food supplies," the researchers concluded in the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper said development of non-food materials such as switchgrass, prairie grasses and woody plants to produce cellulosic ethanol would be a major improvement with greater energy output and lower environmental impacts.

As a motor fuel, ethanol from corn produces a modest 25% more energy than is consumed — including from fossil fuels — in growing the corn, converting it into ethanol and shipping it for use in gasoline.

Some pros for ethanol from the makers and producers themselves:

United States EnviroFuels, LLC.

Ethanol reduces tailpipe carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 30%.

Ethanol reduces exhaust VOC emissions by 12%.

Ethanol reduces toxic emissions by 30%.

The use of ethanol-blended fuels reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 12-19% compared with conventional gasoline, according to Argonne National Laboratory. In fact, in 2003, ethanol use in the U.S. reduced C02-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 5.7 million tons, equal to removing the annual emissions of more than 853,000 cars from the road.

Ethanol reduces the consumer cost of gasoline by extending fuel supplies, and providing a cost-effective way for gasoline marketers to meet octane requirements.

Investigate further at: Renewable Fuels Association and US BioEnergy

Ethanol Producers Magazine

Poet Energy hosted a grand opening ceremony today for the first ethanol plant in Ohio. The $105 million facility, Poet Biorefining–Leipsec, will utilize 22 million bushels of corn from the area to produce 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of distillers grains

US carmaker GM is heating up on ethanol: GM Takes a Stake in Ethanol Maker

GM is so adamant that ethanol can be a good solution that the automaker bought an undisclosed stake in Coskata, a private Warrenville (Ill.) company that claims it has developed an advanced process to make ethanol cheaply.

Finally here is VeraSun on the New York Stock Exchange: VSE. It might be interesting to watch.