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Ethanol gives farmers a boost, but some say additive isn’t a cure-all
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MILWAUKEE-The surging demand for ethanol continues to drive construction of plants to make the home-grown fuel additive. It’s also fueling farmers’ hopes for better corn prices, although some remain skeptical of ethanol’s staying power.
Corn is the main ingredient for ethanol, which is mixed with gasoline to make motor fuel. A bushel of corn produces about 2.8 gallons of ethanol.
About 20 percent of Wisconsin’s corn crop is destined for the fuel additive, which is significant considering the state didn’t have an ethanol plant five years ago.
Four plants are here now, with at least five more in various planning stages.
One town recently approved plans for a $75 million ethanol plant that would produce about 45 million gallons of the fuel additive a year.
It takes about 18 months to build one of the plants.
By pooling their money, farmers are building ethanol plants that give them more control over their products and boost their profits.
The plants give them an opportunity to make money from an agricultural-based business that’s not tied to their individual properties.
Ethanol receives government subsidies, which elected officials say are justified because the fuel additive helps lessen our dependence on foreign oil.
The proliferation of ethanol plants across the Midwest will continue as long as Congress subsidizes the fuel additive, said Mike Davis, an economist with the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.
“If ethanol had to stand on its own, it’s very doubtful that we would have a big, booming ethanol industry,” Davis said.
Wall Street is getting in on ethanol production, further fueling its development. Eventually, farmers will have to scale back their investments or risk losing money in an overbuilt industry.
“But I don’t think that point is coming right away,” Tolman said.
Ethanol is not a cure-all for the nation’s energy problems, according to new research from the University of Minnesota.
If every acre of corn grown in the United States were used for ethanol, it would replace only 12 percent of the gasoline used in this country, the research noted, adding that energy gains from corn-produced ethanol are modest.
“Meanwhile, global population growth and increasingly affluent societies will increase demand for corn and soybeans for food,” the research noted.
As a motor fuel, ethanol from corn produces 25 percent more energy than is consumed including the fossil fuels used to grow the corn, convert it to ethanol and ship it for use in gasoline, according to the research.
On the other hand, Soybean biodiesel returns 93 percent more energy than is used to produce it.
The researchers tracked all the energy used for growing corn and soybeans and converting the crops into biofuels.
They also looked at how much fertilizer and pesticide corn and soybeans required and how much greenhouse gases and nitrogen, phosphorus and pesticide pollutants each released into the environment.
While often touted as a “green,” environmentally friendly fuel, corn-based ethanol’s impacts on the environment are mixed at best, the researchers said.
Its environmental drawbacks include “markedly greater” releases of nitrogen, phosphorus and pesticides into waterways as runoff from corn fields.
Nitrogen fertilizer, mainly from corn, causes the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists have said.
Biofuels such as switchgrass and woody plants, produced on marginally productive agricultural land, have the potential to provide much larger fuel supplies with greater environmental benefits than corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel, according to the study.
RICK BARRETT
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
