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April 13, 2006 |
A: According to a March 2006 Christian Science Article by Mark
Clayton, "Late last year in Goldfield, Iowa, a refinery began pumping out a
stream of ethanol, whose plant is burning 300 tons of coal a day to turn corn
into ethanol - the first US plant of its kind to use coal instead of cleaner
natural gas. An hour south of Goldfield, another coal-fired ethanol plant is
under construction in Nevada, Iowa. At least three other such refineries are
being built in Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. The trend, which is
expected to continue, has left even some ethanol boosters scratching their
heads. Should coal become a standard for 30 to 40 ethanol plants under
construction - and 150 others on the drawing boards...."
In contrast, some ethanol plants are looking towards renewables resources for
energy, particularly biomass electricity and thermal. Corn Plus in Minnesota is
coming close to completion of a project that will utilize fluidized bed
combustion technology to burn the syrup normally put in distillers dried grains
(DDGS). They expect it will virtually eliminate the natural gas demand at the
plant and the resulting DDGS will lose some fat content but increase in protein
content.
Another proposed example is in the works at Central Minnesota Ethanol Co-op.
They are attempting to build a biomass gasification addition to the existing
plant that would burn waste wood chips and the plant's VOCs. I discuss others in
my June 2005 article in Ethanol Producers Magazine.
Ken, it would make little sense to expend energy to create ethanol, only to
expend more energy from the resulting alcohol fuel to make more alcohol. Using
the original biomass resource for heat for drying, fermentation, distillation or
for direct combustion to electricity is the most efficient use of the biomass
resource, which would be from the part of the biomass which cannot be easily
converted to ethanol. Biomass can also be used is gaseous forms either through
anaerobic digestion or gasification for a cleaner burn for heat or electricity
generation.
I feel compelled to state emphatically that I disagree with those in the
industry and EPA who want to reduce the emissions requirements for ethanol and
biodiesel plants so they may utilize coal. Sacrificing human health, land and
water resources for a renewable fuel is just plain crazy - particularly when
other cleaner, more sustainable options are very available. There is absolutely
no reason why biofuels plants should not use biomass resources for thermal and
electric energy. There is every reason to utilize combined heat and power,
landfill gas and biogas, geothermal and solar thermal, wind and water energy,
and photovoltaics to generate renewable liquid fuels.
Scott Sklar