[Peace-discuss] some figures on ethanol production from corn
n.dahlheim at mchsi.com
n.dahlheim at mchsi.com
Mon Jul 7 08:40:11 CDT 2008
Have you read the Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstlter? His website www.kunstler.com is also
funny with the Daily Grunt and other commentary about the insanity of the suburban sprawl economy....
Thanks for the wonderful ag chemistry lesson on ethanol----I've already downloaded those e-mails and
saved them as word documents..... You have been very, very informative. I hope to have that kind of
command of the science someday.
Best,
Nick
---------------------- Original Message: ---------------------
From: "E. Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
To: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] some figures on ethanol production from corn
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 21:24:04 +0000
> The microbes that ferment the starch-derived sugar consume about 1/3 of
> the energy in the starch and
> release 1/3 of the carbon chains as CO2. The oil, protein, and fiber
> ends up in the DDGS along with the
> microbes and the mineral fraction.
>
> The most serious inefficiency is the that the end products (ethanol and
> DDGS) are all in aqueous solution, about 11% ethanol max,
> and that has to be distilled 3 times to reach a concentration suitable
> for use as fuel.
>
> It is also a rather difficult SWAG calculation to make since the plants
> use a lot of heat recycling and co-generation to recapture a varying
> amount of the energy used in milling, cooking, distilling, drying, etc.
>
> I used the probably quite adverse spin-doctored figures of Pimintel
> (2005) .
>
> 1 bushel of corn could provide the energy needs of one person for about
> 40 days, so 10 bushels of corn would work
> for a whole year, and that would equate to about 27 gallons of ethanol
> generated from that corn. Mind you
> that corn would not work as the sole food supply but could be part of
> some theoretical varied diet.
>
> *
> One of the common features of calculating the energy cost of biofuels is
> to calculate the energy cost of producing the grain and the other
> various costs of bringing land into production. One thing that should
> be noted is that we had 116 million acres in corn production in 1917 as
> compared with about 90 million this year. It is true that modern
> production techniques use lots of energy intensive mechanization and
> chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides, all of which have energy
> expenditures and environmental footprints associated with them.
>
> But, how much of those energy and environmental costs are attributable
> to Ethanol production, per se? Actually not as much as we would tend to
> think, because we are really not bringing vast new acres online or even
> intensifying corn production all that much. Since suppliers of inputs
> to farms are charging what the market will bear, and since corn demand
> for ethanol has sent prices skyrocketing, the suppliers have increased
> their prices such that a bag of seed corn that cost $8 when I was a boy
> is now estimated at $300/bag for the 2009 planting season. Likewise
> fertilizer, chemical, and land rent prices are increasing dramatically
> beyond the bounds of common sense, and some farmers are becoming very
> reluctant to plant corn in some areas because of the high input costs.
>
> Actually farmers seldom plant corn for a particular use. They dont
> think, "I am planting this corn for ethanol". They are planting corn
> because they are hoping the market price and weather will be favourable
> for a profit. Since corn is a commodity with good value, farmers have
> produced more or less the same number of acres of corn every year since
> the 70's with only relatively minor changes toward soybeans, sorghum or
> other crops due to market conditions or weather concerns.
>
> So, in one way of looking at ethanol, one actually ought not look at the
> energy input for producing the corn, since the corn would be produced
> anyway, as long as the market is decent. And the corn will be
> transported somewhere to be used, so that is a "SUNK COST", too,
> regardless of what use the corn is put to. Certainly more energy will
> be expended in sending midwestern corn to 3rd world consumers than in
> dumping it at local ethanol mills.
>
> The real problem as I see it is the disgraceful support of an erroneous
> ill-fated lifestyle by diverting foodstuffs to fuel.
>
> However one expresses the outcome, be it in terms of the burden of wrath
> brought in by iniquity and injustice, in terms of bad karma, or in
> terms ecologic and economic collapse, widespread famine, sociopolitical
> disquietudes, wars, and pestilences -- one thing is clear -- the Western
> world and the USA in particular is not living in a sustainable way.
> /Xindaihua/ (modernization) is taking the Chinese down a similar path
> although they might miss the bulk of the wrath because they are closer
> to the land than urban dwelling Westerners.
>
> Americans shun close living circumstances. Its understandable since so
> many Americans tend to be foul smelling and ill-humoured. They prefer
> the unbroken monotony of labyrinthine farmland-eating Suburbia to the
> close-neighbors urban monotony of highrise housing, and distant shopping
> centers and discount stores to nearby markets and they enforce it with
> zoning laws so they can waste time and gasoline fighting traffic in
> their individualized mobility to get to WalMart, Target, Meijer and Costco.
>
> Not only will we be forced by the laws of natural science and economics
> to halt the stupid wars of aggression whether our handlers want that or
> not, we will also be forced to change the way that we live. Actually if
> we can manage to consider our ways, stop the war right away and change
> our lifestyles right away we might even get a chance to have some say in
> the outcome and how it comes about.
>
> If we end up taking it the hard way via some sort of series of sinkhole
> socioeconomic collapses that make 9/11 and the 1930's look like a pimple
> in comparison, we won't have much time for any real planning on the way
> down other than looking for a soft rock to crash on.
>
> That might be a harsh analysis for a sunday afternoon but probably not
> too far from a reasonable projection. Maybe it doesnt have to be like that.
>
>
>
>
>
> E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
> > If corn is consumed by a monogastric animal or by a human, the
> > conversion of its gross energy occurs at an efficiency of about 89%.
> >
> > If the corn is converted to ethanol and DDGS, the following balance
> > seems to be a good estimate of the process.
> >
> > 448000 BTU Gross energy of 56 Lb of Corn
> > 210000 BTU Gross energy of 2.7 gallons ethanol derived from
> > 56 lb corn
> > 136000 BTU Gross energy remaining in 17 lb of DDGS (wet)
> > 101000 BTU Gross energy lost per bushel in conversion to ethanol
> >
> > 77% - Efficiency of conversion of corn energy by process.
> >
> > <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
> > {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt;
> > mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New
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> > {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
> > mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;}
> > div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> 162000 BTU Energy to
> > process corn and distill the ethanol (according to Pimentel, 2005)
> >
> > 210000-162000 = 48,000 BTU net from 1 bushel corn (plus 136 KBTU in
> > wet DDGS)
> >
> > 48000/124000 => Energy yield from 1 bushel corn is equivalent to 0.39
> > gallons of gasoline
> >
> > 110 bushels per acre (average US corn yield)
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
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