BioFuel
Issues
Scientific Concepts Required Are Beyond Most People's Understanding
A biofuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass -- recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal and nuclear fuels.
Scientific studies are finding that biofuels -- a long-time cornerstone in the search for green energy -- may sometimes produce more harmful emissions than the fossil fuels they replace.
Peder Jensen, of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen said, "If you make biofuels properly, you will reduce greenhouse emissions...  But that depends very much on the types of plants and how they're grown and processed. You can end up with a 90 percent reduction compared to fossil fuels — or a 20 percent increase." He added, "Its important to take a life cycle view".
Demonstrating that different economic valuations develop with technology:
The quality of timber and grassy biomass does not have a direct impact on its value as an energy source. Energy content varies, but not along traditional quality lines.
True      False
The US Energy Policy Act of 2005, became law in August, 2005. It contains 551 pages of federal legislation including tax credits, subsidies, and mandates for the use of biofuels including ethanol.
True      False
One definition of biofuel is any fuel with an 80% minimum content by volume of materials derived from living organisms harvested within the ten years preceding its manufacture.
True      False
Switchgrass, prairie grasses, and woody plants theoretically could produce cellulosic ethanol. Today process is in the laboratory development phase. If a practical process is found to convert these to biofuel, to do so could cause a reduction in soil fertility, since they would not be plowed back into the ground to fertilize next season's crops.
True      False
Since ethanol contains less energy, it actually displaces only about 3.5% of gasoline by energy content. That is the only measure the engine cares about -- Useful Energy.
True      False
Ethanol contains about 70% of the energy contained in an equal volume of gasoline. Since ethanol contains less energy per gallon, the consumer will need to buy more gallons to drive the same distance as when gasoline is used.
True      False
Quick. Wrong. You have made the situation worse. And so it is with ethanol, global warming & other unproven, emerging technological axioms as they are prematurely over-promoted and made to pass as panaceas.
Agree      Disagree
Photosynthesis is the process by which growing plants capture the sun's energy.
True      False
Ethanol's formula is C2H6O. More descriptively, its formula is C2H5OH.
True      False
Ethanol, grain alcohol, is the US' most widely used biofuel. About 3.9-billion gallons were produced in the US in 2005. This amount is trivial compared with the 140-billion gallons of gas used in the US.
True      False
Achieving the federal mandate to increase ethanol use to 7.5-billion gallons by 2012 is realistic. However, it won’t make much difference in the price of fuel, in foreign oil dependency, in air pollution, or for global warming. The primary fuel in six years will still be gasoline. If consumption increases at historical rates, the extra ethanol will barely offset the growth in gasoline consumption expected by then -- and is unlikely to reduce it.
Agree      Disagree
If all of today's US corn production were converted into ethanol, it would replace only 12% of our gasoline needs.
True      False
The Energy Policy Act of 2005, mandates that, starting in 2006, the average gallon of "gas" will contain 2.78% ethanol.
True      False
The carbon in biofuels has been recently extracted from atmospheric carbon dioxide by growing plants. Therefore, extracting the carbon as part of the energy release process does not result in a net increase of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere.
True      False
Ethanol fuel produced from sugar cane is being used as automotive fuel in Brazil. Ethanol produced from corn is being used as a gasoline additive - an oxygenator - in the US. Cellulosic ethanol is being manufactured from straw, which is an agricultural waste product.
True      False
Government subsidies and tax breaks for corn growers and refineries are causing an artificial migration toward ethanol before significant long-term costs and impacts have been identified.
True      False
Biomass is a warehouse mechanism to store solar energy. The energy of the sun is "captured" through the process of photosynthesis in growing plants.
True      False
All mixtures of gasoline & ethanol contain less energy than pure gasoline. There vehicles must burn more mixture to travel the same distance on the same amount of gasoline. Therefore, mixtures of ethanol & gasoline must cost the consumer less to make up for the decreased energy content.
True      False
Using ethanol has a mixed effect on vehicle emissions. The Department of Energy states that E85 in place of gasoline reduces carbon monoxide by 4% and NOx by 59%. However, it raises total hydrocarbon emission by 43%.
True      False
90,000



 

10,000
106liters
  Ethanol Production 1975 - 2010
The US imports about 65% of its petroleum. If we assume that the ethanol in gasoline in 2012 is used entirely to displace imported oil, and we make the most favorable assumption -- that 26% of the energy is renewable -- it would reduce imports by about 1.4%. If all the ethanol production were used to reduce Persian Gulf imports, the reduction would amount to 7.4%.
True      False
Ethanol's real cost today is hidden by a broad blanket of agricultural subsidies. The federal government puts up 51 cents per gallon. That alone will cost taxpayers more than $4.1 billion in 2012.
True      False
Some states add an extra 10, 20 cents, or more with credits, tax reductions, and other incentives for farmers and manufacturers.
True      False
Cellulosic ethanol is hoped to be the future source of ethanol. Instead of using just the high-value seed kernels of corn as is done now -- the food part -- the whole structure of the plant including stalks, leaves, and all which is not food, would go into ethanol manufacturing. Also other plant materials would be included: Forest thinnings & fast-growing foliage such as switch grass. After 30 years of large-scale US funding, it remains unfeasible.
True      False
A bushel of corn yields 2.8 gallons of ethanol. An acre of corn yields 144 bushels on average, or 403 gallons. At that rate, satisfying the mandate for 7.5-billion gallons by 2012 will require about 1.25-billion-more bushels of corn, which will require 8.7-million acres to grow. All to get a mere 5% ethanol into US gasoline.
True      False
There is concern that using corn and soybeans for ethanol production could create competition for food crops.
True      False
Producing enough ethanol for a 10% stretch of our gasoline supply would likely end most corn exports. That is about two-billion bushels now. That reduction would require planting on marginal acres not used now, and lead to high corn prices that would disrupt the economics of meat and dairy production.
True      False
Running E85 reduces a vehicle's range roughly 28%. With fewer than 600 stations selling E85 fuel dispersed across 37 states, why have GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler been cranking out these flex-fuel vehicles by the millions? The answer is the mandatory Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Federal law requires that the cars an automaker offers for sale average 27.5 mpg; light trucks must achieve 22.2 mpg. Failure to achieve these results can result in substantial fines.
However, relief is available to manufacturers that build E85 vehicles in order to encourage their production.
The irony here is that E85 gets poorer fuel economy than gasoline. However, for CAFE purposes, the government counts only the 15% gasoline content of E85. Not counting the ethanol, which is the other 85%, produces a seven-fold increase in E85 mpg.
True      False
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