Advanced BioFuels USA

by Nat Williams (Illinois Farmer Today) The ethanol industry has a long, complicated history. But supporters believe the best days are ahead. “Fuel ethanol was a thing as early as early as automobiles. Henry Ford made his automobiles to run on ethanol and called it the fuel of the future,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

The journey from the past to the present is characterized by spurts, lulls and — most of all — government policy. Shaw is among those convinced that ethanol is here to stay in a big way. But there are caveats.

“The future of the ethanol industry will depend on what the country decides to do about how much ethanol we are going to blend into the fuel,” he said. “It depends on how many cars are sold that are electrified. And it will depend on how much land we want to use to grow corn or crops for fuel compared to food.”

…

Another boost came at the expense of the petroleum industry, which had touted MTBE as a clean additive to gasoline.

“That blew up in the face of the oil industry about 1999 when underground storage tanks were leaking, and would leak further and faster than other oil components,” Shaw said. “At very low levels — something like 2-3 parts per billion — people could taste it in their water. You couldn’t drink your water.”

Some research suggested that MTBE was a carcinogen, and that didn’t help its popularity. States that had resisted removing the compound — such as California — began to ban it.

“About 2001 those bans became final in California and New York,” Shaw said. “The market for ethanol doubled and tripled overnight, and led to first massive expansion of ethanol production.”

…

Donahue (Tim Donahue, director of Wisconsin-based Great Plains Bioenergy) is examining not only corn substitutes, but also at new uses for corn as well as biofuels. Lignocellulosic ethanol refineries have been put into production in Iowa and Kansas.

“They tend to be built right next door to starch ethanol refineries so that an industry can bring in both the corn stalks and the corn cobs,” Donahue said. “One refinery uses one kind of process to make ethanol out of starch and one makes ethanol out of lignocellulose.”

He suggests corn ethanol could expand if more research were aimed at uses other than fuel additives. That is happening in the biomass arena, as scientists are increasing work on building-block materials for plastics.

…

With ethanol blends you still get a more complete burn.

…

“E-85 does get lower gas mileage. I could probably build an engine that could get better mileage, but we don’t build engines optimized to run on E-85. But if you look at lower prices, for the last four-years at least, E-85 has consistently been the cheapest cost per mile.”

Another argument posits that too much acreage is being used for energy production, which reduces use of land for growing food.

“There is a legitimate dialog in the country about how much starch should go for food compared to fuel, and how many acres we have to grow it,” Donahue said.

Shaw points to the efficiency of modern agriculture, including the dramatic increase of corn and soybean yields.  READ MORE 

Siouxland Energy hurt by EPA, COVID-19 (NWestIowa)