Hat tip to
The Oil Drum for this catch on sustainable ethanol. The problem with corn based ethanol is that we can currently only get between 1-1.3 times the energy out as ethanol that we put in as fossil fuel. In the end this does not bode well for an ethanol dominated sustainable future. In my
Brazil diary I discussed how we can't follow the Brazil model without significant conservation steps and without the benefit of sugarcane ethanol. Well, a company called
E3 Biofuels has found an ingenious way to produce grain Ethanol more sustainably in the US.
More below the flip...
The basic process is this as seen in the picture below:
1. Grow corn.
2. Use corn to make ethanol.
3. Feed corn by-products to cattle.
4. Harvest milk and manure from cows.
5. Sell milk and harvest methane from manure.
6. Use methane to fuel ethanol boilers.
7. Use waste manure to fertilize corn crops.
It's all pretty ingenious. Robert Rapier at The Oil Drum talked to E3 and they still have to use natural gas as well as the harvested methane to fuel the boilers, but they are hoping to cut fossil fuel usage by 75% which could quadruple the current energy yields of grain ethanol. As an ethanol skeptic he is pretty optimistic:
But if ethanol is going to be part of the solution to diminishing oil supplies, E3 Biofuels is the first in the U.S. to show the way toward making ethanol in a more sustainable manner. As natural gas supplies diminish, many ethanol producers are turning to coal as a fuel source. E3 Biofuels, on the other hand, may become the poster child for clean, "green" ethanol. As a long-time ethanol skeptic, the approach by E3 Biofuels is the first U.S. grain-ethanol process that I endorse.
They hope to be online in September, and I am excited to see how they do. This level of inovative industrial ecology is what we are going to need with peak oil looming.
Posted to Daily Kos Environmentalists.
And, NO you can't pick more than one in the poll. It's all or nothing, flip-flopper.
UPDATE: The poll is meant for fun and not to strengthen bad stereotypes about a magic single solution. A multi-pronged approach is the only logical way forward. I have subtley changed the wording to better reflect that.