Gas 2.0

Increased world demand for grains and vegetable oils due to population growth (esp. in China and India), the weak dollar, agricultural production problems around the world, and $100/barrel oil are some of the driving factors accounting for increasing food prices.

After covering 22 of the most popular myths about biodiesel, I realized I’d only given lip service to a major issue: increasing food prices. In Myth #2, I mentioned that the goal of biodiesel production is to move away from food-based feedstocks.

But until that happens, the question remains: if I use biodiesel made from soybeans right now, am I contributing to the larger problem of increasing commodity prices and starving poor people? Read the rest of this entry »

As Green Car Congress reported earlier this week, ethanol production is up 37% for the first quarter of 2008.

Ethanol plants in the US are now pumping out approximately 21.4 million gallons of corn-based ethanol every day, which has already amounted to 1.9 billion gallons for the year.

The upshot of all this production is progress toward the ethanol quotas required by the new Renewable Fuels Standard, which mandates 15 billion gallons of ethanol be produced from corn in the US by 2015.

But check this out: the Renewable Fuels Association estimates that in 2015 it will take 1/3 of the total US corn harvest to meet those quotas. The estimation is based on producing 3 gallons of ethanol from one bushel of corn, and a total corn harvest of 15 billion bushels.

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There’s no doubt that growing corn-based ethanol has some serious problems: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, controversy over increasing food prices, and questionable energy return.

But how does the impact of ethanol production compare to not doing anything?

Last week, the Delta Farm Press picked up on a statement made by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens. Pickens admitted that he has opposed ethanol in the past, but on the other hand couldn’t support exporting half a trillion dollars—something the US will do this year in order to satisfy its oil addiction. Pickens said (via Delta Farm Press):

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As controversial as corn-grain ethanol is, it may be offsetting high oil prices and saving consumers between 6 and 9¢ per gallon on fuel.

Research by the American Coalition for Ethanol (or ACE – totally unbiased, I know) found that gasoline-ethanol blends are selling 10-35¢ lower than non-blended gasoline, which after factoring in the ethanol-blender’s tax credit amounts to about 6 to 9¢ per gallon.

This may also help explain why diesel is so much more expensive than gasoline right now:

“The price of gasoline isn’t rising as quickly as the price of diesel, partly due to the fact that there’s an alternative to gasoline – ethanol – that’s adding more than 2 million gallons a day to our nation’s fuel supply,” notes Ron Lamberty, ACE’s vice president/market development. Read the rest of this entry »

Range Fuels Inc. announced yesterday it has secured over $100 million in Series B funding, an investment that could make it the first company to seriously commercialize cellulosic ethanol. The first phase of construction will produce 20 million gallons of mixed alcohols per year by 2009, and has the potential to expand to up to 120 million gallons.

Range Fuels says their facility will break down any type of plant material (eg agricultural waste or wood chips) by a two-step thermochemical process. This differs from competing methods of producing cellulosic ethanol, which involve breakdown of plant material with heat and/or acid, and treating it with costly ($0.50/gallon) enzymes.

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