My Blog

Ethanol Fuel from Corn Faulted as ‘Unsustainable Subsidized Food Burning’

james — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:47:57 GMT

David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people. Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTUS. Thus, 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in it. Every time you make one gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs. Mr. Pimentel concluded that "abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuels amounts to unsustainable subsidized food burning". Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what Cornell University agricultural scientist, David Pimentel, calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces. At a time when ethanol-gasoline mixtures (gasohol) are touted as the American answer to fossil fuel shortages by corn producers, food processors and some lawmakers, Cornell’s David Pimentel, one of the world’s leading experts in issues relating to energy and agriculture, takes a longer range view. "Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning", says the Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that investigated the energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production several years ago, subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of the corn-to-car fuel process. His findings are published in the September, 2001 issue of the Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences and Technology . Among his findings are: * An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel’s analysis. Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol. * The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented. As many as three distillation steps are needed to separate the 8 percent ethanol from the 92 percent water. Additional treatment and energy are required to produce the 99.8 percent pure ethanol for mixing with gasoline. * Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTU. "Put another way", Pimentel says, "about 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol. Every time you make 1 gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTU". * Ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline. "That helps explain why fossil fuels-not ethanol-are used to produce ethanol", Pimentel says. "The growers and processors can’t afford to burn ethanol to make ethanol. U.S. drivers couldn’t afford it, either, if it weren’t for government subsidies to artificially lower the price". * Most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production overlook the costs of environmental damages, which Pimentel says should add another 23 cents per gallon. "Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water. The environmental system in which corn is being produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when human food is being converted into ethanol". * The approximately $1 billion a year in current federal and state subsidies (mainly to large corporations) for ethanol production are not the only costs to consumers, the Cornell scientist observes. Subsidized corn results in higher prices for meat, milk and eggs because about 70 percent of corn grain is fed to livestock and poultry in the United States. Increasing ethanol production would further inflate corn prices, Pimentel says, noting: "In addition to paying tax dollars for ethanol subsidies, consumers would be paying significantly higher food prices in the marketplace". * Nickels and dimes aside, some drivers still would rather see their cars fueled by farms in the Midwest than by oil wells in the Middle East, Pimentel acknowledges, so he calculated the amount of corn needed to power an automobile: * The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix) would need about 852 gallons of the corn-based fuel. This would take 11 acres to grow, based on net ethanol production. This is the same amount of cropland required to feed seven Americans. * If all the automobiles in the United States were fueled with 100 percent ethanol, a total of about 97 percent of U.S. land area would be needed to grow the corn feedstock. Corn would cover nearly the total land area of the United States. A personal footnote According to the world food program 2.5 million Afghans are at severe risk of famine despite all the “help” we provide. Likewise, there exists sufficient food in my country to ensure that no one goes hungry ever. However, this same consumer society denies food to those who cannot pay for it, a profound abrogation of our responsibilities to each other due to a system predicated on hoarding. Thus, a profound connection between a system driving us to the collapse of the biosphere and our control of the “means of destruction”needs to be articulated if we wish seriously to alter the course of our history.

Our tenuous grip on life

james — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:57:18 GMT

Having reached "Senior Citizen" status, I often reflect on how quickly the last 70 years have slipped away. Also, one begins to prepare for the inevitable arrival of the "grim reaper" So I try live life to the full. I hasten to add not wine , women and song: rather to keep active doing that which I enjoy. I guess everyone instinctively tries to maximize the enjoyment of the last of the summer wine; Last week I was forcibly reminded of my own vulnerability during a routine medical check up. Suffice it to say I ended up in a cardiac care ward, after being poked, prodded, x -rayed , given several ECG's I was allowed to go home. It seems my pacemaker is malfunctioning and will have to be replaced. sometime within the next three months. Surely a reminder to live for the now.

Too Proud To Weep

james — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:48:17 GMT

The day you left, the gods blacked out the sun. Enraged . . . unbowed . . . I vowed I was too proud to weep. "No tears!" I swore and sealed my hurt inside. The pain I dared not touch . . . the wound was much too deep. And so . . . although the urge consumes . . . I've managed thus . . . so far . . . somehow . . . my somber vow to keep. But oh the price I've paid! When comes release? . . . Perhaps if I could cry . . . perhaps then I might sleep.

recovering

james — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:49:47 GMT

The trip on Uhuru earlier this year battered both of us, though my problems manifested themselves gradually. So,long trips have had to be aborted until late summer. I the meantime we have been sailing on the Cleddau. I have been able to trim the boat and get back to reasonable fitness which is a perquisite for the solo sailor. The relaxed sailing enabled me to take photographs: I had thought to upload a few but tribe doesn't seem to work. I have also returned to my workshop in the village and started making bits and bobs again. By way of a thank you to the owner of the property, I made her some patio tiles. Now people are calling in to order "more of those tiles you made for Eleanor" . I will have to draw the line soon because it demands too much time. One minor success, two of the doll's houses were auctioned of in the local inn and made some money for the Children's Hospice of Wales. Over here petrol (gas) tanker drivers employed by Shell are taking strike action. Petrol stations are beginning to run dry and panic buying is raising it's ugly head. Having got caught up in a long queue and witnessed the degeneration of good manners and open hostility coming to the surface, I began to wonder weather that tenuous chord that holds society together is beginning to unravel. I sincerely hope not, for this is just the beginning. Meanwhile the politicians engaged in useless and acrimonious debate when they should be contemplating the dismantling of Left /Right wing dogma, and form a government that will deal with what can only be described as an international emergency.

photographs

james — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:02:23 GMT

Can't for the life of me upload photographs anymore

THE LOCK-STEP-ONE-STEP OF AMERICAN ELECTIONS

james — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:23:34 GMT

Once it finally becomes clear to the American voter that Israel is tacitly the USA’s 51st state, and that whoever covets the job and gets elected to the US presidency must be completely bound to the defense of Israel, taking on all of its enemies as if they were also America’s , (i.e., primarily tens of millions of diehard Islamists of the Middle East ) it really does not make any substantial difference, in theory at least, as to who gets elected to the Whitehouse. The die is already cast for American foreign policy, which is molded inevitably to an inviolable pro-Israeli stance, and metaphorically for all intents and purposes, resembles a kind of sea anchor to the USA’s Ship of State,--not that there’s anything wrong with that ---as long as such a foreign policy stance does not sink the US Constitution, drown national unity, scuttle the USA’s economy, and capsize the USA into a greed-driven NeoCon-operated police state. In realistic terms, it’s why the Cheney/Bush fuhrerprinzip, scoffs at those who call for its impeachment in regard to the military actions it took against Iraq. It all comes down to the Decider’s public pronouncement that the “world” (essentially meaning Israel’s world ) is "better off" with Saddam and his regime eliminated. The same argument could also be made, and is being made, for the Iranian regime,--one suggests-- given the virulent anti-Israel and anti-American diatribes that emanate from Tehran, ‘Israel’s world’ (and by association, America’s world) would be, no doubt, better off if Iran’s “regime” was stack-heaped into being pro-Israel, just like Americans are at election time. It is not all that difficult to see where this militant lock-step defense of Israel has led Washington, and what the consequential one-step future of America is going to have to endure: more of the same--just as long as Jewish /Israel interests have any power at all in determining the way America operates on the world stage.

Blank.

james — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:18:55 GMT

Today, I curse my dead-leg soul. Like a flatlined heart - no spike or charge to spur me on. Nothing here but vacant signs and sombre stares in morning rise. Like clipboard foolscap waiting for scrawl from a pen without ink. Oh damn this weary me! I feel so numb - so empty, I feel so …

Binty

james — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:16:36 GMT

Thank you to those who have sent condolences: I have no words to describe how I feel.

remembrance day

james — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:54:21 GMT

Je Touche Moi Death passed me by, but he touched my soul. While his scythe of fiery lead, cut a swathe through the pre-morn light. Bony fingers plucked holes in mortal flesh., To quench the reaper’s thirst. He passed me by, This time. Crossing Coronation Point an enemy machine gunner seemed to have a personal vendetta against me. Fortunately he missed. Until Until you have had the ground beneath your feet disappear. Seen the sky turn black and shower you with molten metal fragments. You'll never know how precious the morning can be for men at war. I pray you never have to share the moment. On warm dusky nights, where now only the weeds stand guard watched over by the same moon and stars men once fought and died. On ground scorched by fire, grass now grows, while in the silent moonlit nights misty grey figures rise, ready for battle carrying on a war long ended. No rattling gun or scream of shells, no cries from wounded or the dying. The fit have gone home now. The dead lie where they've fallen. I've seen them

The War Prayer

james — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:30:04 GMT

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory -- must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen! "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."