1,000 Gallons Water Per 1 Gallon Ethanol - How Green is That?
Water conservation has always been a hot button for aid organizations and environmentalists, and with a world wide lack of drinking water, and third world countries getting involved in the growing bio-economy, I think it’s time to look behind the curtain of the fuel movement that calls itself “green.”
Most of us are familiar with the “food vs. fuel” controversy that’s been making news, but in addition to this, one of the things that many people are taking a good hard look at, is water sustainability in reference to this corn ethanol fuel.
If we look at the raw data, it becomes apparent that it takes 1 bushel of corn to make 2.5 gallons of ethanol. Now that doesn’t seem so bad, until you ask yourself, “How much water does it take to grow that bushel of corn?”
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Let’s look at some more raw data. Did you know that it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce that one bushel of corn? That’s a lot of water for 2 and half gallons of Ethanol. Let’s take this thinking a step further. If it takes 2,500 gallons of water to create 2.5 gallons of ethanol, then it takes 20,000 gallons of water, to make 20 gallons of Ethanol.
Think of it like this, the average firetruck holds up to 1,000 gallons of water. Now imagine 20 firetrucks lined up side by side, that’s how much water it takes to make 20 gallons of Ethanol.
I realize that not all of the water that’s needed to grow corn, is fed to the crop through irrigation. In the United States, about 15 percent of a crops total water usage comes from irrigation. But the United States is not the only country that’s growing corn for ethanol. In the growing bio-economy, many smaller (and less water laden countries) are jumping on the corn bandwagon, and some of these countries don’t have the average yearly rainfall, or depth of top-soil that the United States has.
The best source of any type of renewable fuel, should be as environmentally friendly as possible, and until other technologies become available, I for one, will keeping my eye out for other options.
Photo courtesy of SouthernPixel via Creative Commons License.
Source: Domestic Fuel
Misidentifed verification of process water use at Coskata. That was verified by Parsons Engineering. Argonne vouched for two other key elements - 7.7 times more energy created than used in making Coskata’s ethanol and Greenhouse Gas reductions of up to 96 percent (vs. gasoline) depending on the feedstock used.
What is this article, A joke?
Excluding the fact that 2.5 gallons of hooch per bushel of corn is outdated 1970s technology, we still get much more than Ethanol from a bushel of corn.
In addition to the Ethanol, Bio-Diesel and Methane or Syngas we get massive quantities of human food, Pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals and animal feeds as corn derived coproducts, often more than we have markets for.
Food is especialy problematic. We can not market anywhere near as much corn based people food as we can grow and produce as a coproduct of the hundreds of other corn based products.
Here is the list of products coming out of Iowa Corn Processing Center in Eddyville Iowa; High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Crude Corn Oil, Corn Gluten Meal, Sweet Bran®, Dry Sweetners, Acidulants, Citric Acid, Anhydrous Citric Acid, Liquid Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Citrate, Itaconic Acid, Natural Vitamin E, D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Mixed Tocopherols, Phytosterols, FFA, Citrous Salt, CO2, Monosodium Glutamate, Threonine and Cyclodextrins, bio-diesel, Ethanol.
In modern corn processing plants, corn is processed, like many other commodities including petroleum, for best uses. Just as gasoline is only one of many petroleum products, so Ethanol is only one of many value added products derived from corn.
This babble about water usage is simply a red herring. If we actualy used up water the earth would have gone bone dry long ago. All water is endlessly recycled. In fact it evaporates endlessly from plants, soil and the ocean and falls again as rain.
Rain distribution; rain forests and deserts, come and go, but the water is always on earth somewhere and is constantly being naturally repurified and redistibuted.
What is true is that with both water and petroleum, we are using up the easy to reach ancient underground pools and aquifiers. Not the first time, or the hundredth time that has happened. Lots of ancient cities are now burried under desert sands.
In the future we will be using solar, wind, wave, ocean current and tidal power to desalinate trillions of gallons of ocean water and send it thru pipelines all over the world. That has already started in a few places and then even natures spotty water redistribution will be conquered and controlled by man.
larry
To ChuckL,
I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the efficiency of ethanol (E85). The inefficiency you cite is a result of the engines on the road today not being set up for ethanol useage. E85 requires a compression ratio of approx. 13.0 to 1. Most cars and trucks barely break 9.0 to 1, if they do that. Even my high performance Mach 1 only has 10.0 to 1. It isn’t difficult to gat the ratios E85 requires. Far less expesive and complicated than CNG conversion.
Drag racers have been using alcohol blends for decades and the Indy Racing League mandated E85 useage, exclusively. NASCAR is under pressure to do the same. The first internal combustion engines were powered by ethanol, the same fuel Henry Ford used in his first cars, like the original Model T’s.
Corn is the least efficient fermentation stock. Sugar cane, sugar beets and best of all, Jerusalem Artichokes are far better, don’t require the amount of water to grow and refine and are not food commodities that threaten the world’s food supply.
E85 is an excellent “bridge” fuel, until more efficient alternatives come on line. No drilling required and no supertankers to belch out pollution along the world’s coastlines or to be fought over.
http://www.swhydro.arizona.edu/archive/V6_N5/feature4.pdf has slightly different statistics than you are pulling out of your arse
96% of corn used for ethanol production is not irrigated
and then in the conversion to ethanol a ratio of 4:1 or 3:1 water per ethanol
Sure ethanol isn’t a solution for our energy needs, but you sir need to put down the crack pipe
Adam, corn is going to be raised one way or another, people used irragation long before ethanol.
liars figure and figures lie on both sides of this silly “ethanol” issue. Fact - energy can nether be created or destroyed, meaning: rearrange the molecules however you like, rename them to your own phycological delight and the end of it all human non-intrinisic motion requires energy inputs and they all come from the same place - da sun. Ethanol for cars? the question should be - why cars? Ethanol renewable? - that too is a poor argument - why do farmers carry crop insurance? because when wind and hail damage their corn crop they CAN’T get it back - renew it - its gone. with each crop the anhydrous and all the diesel used to plow, till, spray, truck and store the stuff is consumed - not renewable.