Locally - Sourced Wheat to be Feedstock Located near Belle Plaine, Saskatchewan, the Terra
Grains Fuels ethanol plant has officially opened and is claiming to be the largest wheat ethanol project in North America.
Not exact matches
Fermentation is triggered by lactic acid bacteria — or lactobacilli — and yeasts, which use the carbohydrate
fuels from the cereal
grains to produce
ethanol (alcohol), carbon dioxide, lactic acid and acetic acid.
The researchers, who found that
ethanol requires 29 percent more fossil energy than it provides, question the morality of using
grain to
fuel cars in the face of world hunger.
A gadget built around an automotive
fuel injector transforms
ethanol, or
grain alcohol, into hydrogen gas, a team of chemical engineers reports in this week's issue of Science.
Pimentel also was an early critic of
grain - based
ethanol fuel production.
I saw your support for cellulosic
ethanol, but no statement on the logic (or lack thereof) of the United States diverting some 40 percent of its corn crop to
fuel while world
grain prices soar.
For example, a farmer in northern Iowa could plant an acre in corn that yields enough
grain to produce roughly $ 1,000 worth of
fuel - grade
ethanol per year, or he could use that same acre to site a turbine producing $ 300,000 worth of electricity each year.
Lester R. Brown, «Exploding U.S.
Grain Demand for Automotive
Fuel Threatens World Food Security and Political Stability,» Plan B Update (Washington, DC: Earth Policy Institute, 3 November 2006); Lester R. Brown, «Distillery Demand for
Grain to
Fuel Cars Vastly Understated: World May Be Facing Highest
Grain Prices in History,» Plan B Update (Washington, DC: Earth Policy Institute, 4 January 2007); F.O. Licht, World
Ethanol and Biofuels Report, vol.
David Pimentel, a professor of ecology at Cornell University who has been studying
grain alcohol for 20 years, and Tad Patzek, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, co-wrote a recent report that estimates that making
ethanol from corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the
ethanol fuel itself actually contains.
The other concern is the high degree of embedded (and unsustainable) fossil
fuels required for
grain ethanol production.
It cited «plausible scenarios in which GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions from corn -
grain ethanol are much higher than those of petroleum - based
fuels,» and questioned the method by which EPA determined that
ethanol would produce 21 percent less emissions.
To get the correct carbon score of corn
ethanol, the inputs must be distributed fairly across all the co-products —
fuel, distillers
grains feed, corn oil, cobs and stover, etc..
Even if all the corn
grain available were converted to
ethanol, however, it would meet only 15 — 18 % of current transportation
fuel needs.
Gary Schnitkey, Darrel Good, and Paul Ellinger, «Crude Oil Price Variability and Its Impact on Break — Even Corn Prices,» Farm Business Management, 30 May 2007; 2006
grain used for
ethanol from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service (ERS), Feed Grains Database, at www.ers.usda.gov, updated 28 September 2007; 2006 grain harvest from USDA, Production, Supply and Distribution, electronic database at www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline, updated 12 September 2007; 2008 ethanol requirement from Renewable Fuels Association, «Ethanol Biorefinery Locations,» at www.ethanolrfa.org, updated 28 September 2007; 2008 grain harvest from Interagency Agricultural Projections Committee, Agricultural Projections to 2016 (Washington, DC: USDA, February
ethanol from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service (ERS), Feed
Grains Database, at www.ers.usda.gov, updated 28 September 2007; 2006
grain harvest from USDA, Production, Supply and Distribution, electronic database at www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline, updated 12 September 2007; 2008
ethanol requirement from Renewable Fuels Association, «Ethanol Biorefinery Locations,» at www.ethanolrfa.org, updated 28 September 2007; 2008 grain harvest from Interagency Agricultural Projections Committee, Agricultural Projections to 2016 (Washington, DC: USDA, February
ethanol requirement from Renewable
Fuels Association, «
Ethanol Biorefinery Locations,» at www.ethanolrfa.org, updated 28 September 2007; 2008 grain harvest from Interagency Agricultural Projections Committee, Agricultural Projections to 2016 (Washington, DC: USDA, February
Ethanol Biorefinery Locations,» at www.ethanolrfa.org, updated 28 September 2007; 2008
grain harvest from Interagency Agricultural Projections Committee, Agricultural Projections to 2016 (Washington, DC: USDA, February 2007).
Between 1980 and 2005, the amount of
grain used to produce
fuel ethanol in the United States gradually expanded from 1 million to 41 million tons.
Clinton also criticized the heavy U.S. reliance on a food crop, corn, to produce
ethanol for
fuel, which helped drive up
grain prices worldwide.
Chapter 2 Data: Population Pressure: Land and Water (XLS PDF Highlights) World
Grain Production and Consumption, 1960 - 2009 World
Grain Consumption and Stocks, 1960 - 2009 Wheat - Oil Exchange Rate, 1950 - 2008 Wheat Production in Saudi Arabia, 1960 - 2009, with Projection to 2016
Grain Harvested Area Per Person in Selected Countries and the World in 1950 and 2000, with Projection to 2050 U.S. Corn Production and Use for
Fuel Ethanol, 1980 - 2009 Countries Overpumping Aquifers in 2009 World Irrigated Area and Irrigated Area Per Thousand People, 1950 - 2007 World Population of Cattle, Sheep, and Goats, 1961 - 2007 Livestock and Human Populations in Africa, 1961 - 2007 Livestock and Human Populations in Nigeria, 1961 - 2007 Livestock and Human Populations in China, 1961 - 2007 World Total and Per Person Wild Fish Harvest, 1950 - 2007 Top of Page
Just when it seemed that things could not get much worse, the United States, the world's breadbasket, is planning to double the share of its
grain harvest going to
fuel ethanol — from 16 percent of the 2006 crop to 30 percent or so of the 2008 crop.
With 200
ethanol distilleries in the country set up to transform food into
fuel, the amount of
grain processed has tripled since 2004.
Suddenly investments in U.S. corn - based
ethanol distilleries became hugely profitable, unleashing an investment frenzy that will convert one fourth of the 2009 U.S.
grain harvest into
fuel for cars.
More than a quarter of the total U.S.
grain crop was turned into
ethanol to
fuel cars last year.
The combination of population growth, rising affluence, and the conversion of one third of the U.S.
grain harvest into
ethanol to
fuel cars is expanding the world demand for
grain by a record 43 million tons per year, double the annual growth of a decade ago.
The decision in May 2009 to raise U.S. auto
fuel efficiency standards 40 percent by 2016 will reduce U.S. dependence on oil far more than converting the country's entire
grain harvest into
ethanol could.
The Earth Policy Institute has noted that even if the entire U.S.
grain crop were converted to
ethanol (leaving no domestic crop to make bread, rice, pasta, or feed the animals from which we get meat, milk, and eggs), it would satisfy at most 18 percent of U.S. automotive
fuel needs.