[Vision2020] ethanol and water

[Mark Solomon]

Interesting numbers re how much water does it take to produce 
ethanol. Including water for irrigating the corn crop feed-stock: 
1700 gallons of water for each gallon of ethanol produced.

Mark



How much water does it take to produce ethanol?

By Nate Jenkins of the Associated Press
August 13, 2007

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - The growing thirst for ethanol takes a lot of 
water to quench, but less than many people believe and not enough to 
cause serious problems, experts told farmers.

Last year in Nebraska, the nation's third-leading ethanol producer, 
it took 2 billion gallons of water at 15 ethanol plants to churn out 
676 million gallons of the alternative fuel, Derrel Martin, an 
irrigation and water resources engineer said Thursday.

But roughly 900 billion gallons of rain water falls annually in 
Lincoln County, Martin said, addressing the public perception that 
ethanol production takes an inordinate amount of water.

"These plants are not consuming a huge amount of water," he said.

Martin spoke during an agriculture conference in North Platte that 
focused on water. Nebraska is aggressively pushing development of 
ethanol plants and is poised to become the second-leading producer in 
the country later this year. At the same time, it is struggling to 
meet water demands of its farmers and those in neighboring states who 
rely on water that passes through Nebraska.

A longtime analyst of ethanol production disagreed with Martin and 
questioned his figures, saying it takes an average of about 15 
gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol - much higher than 
the roughly three gallons of water per gallon of ethanol Martin cited.

Groundwater tables in some states, including Missouri, have been 
drawn down to dangerously low levels near some ethanol plants, said 
David Pimentel, an ecology and agriculture professor at Cornell 
University.

The figures cited by both Martin and Pimentel include only a plant's 
production of ethanol, not the water it takes to grow corn. After 
adding that, about 1,700 gallons are needed to produce every gallon 
of ethanol, Pimentel said.

The entire water-use picture, coupled with the fuel it takes to 
produce ethanol, makes long-term, mass production of ethanol 
unsustainable, Pimentel said.

"I wish it were sustainable, I'm an agriculturalist," he said. "I 
wish this whole ethanol deal was a major benefit, but you've got to 
be a scientist first and an agriculturalist second."

Martin said the question of whether increased corn production and the 
irrigation it requires will overburden the state's water supply is an 
important one that does not yet have a clear answer.

Moratoriums on new groundwater wells are already in place in some 
regions, such as along the Platte River, and the Republican River 
basin has caps on groundwater use.

The state faces a test over whether it will control water use in 
fragile areas or succumb to the financial allure of planting more 
irrigated corn to meet ethanol demands, Martin said.

Corn prices have risen with ethanol production. There are 19 percent 
more acres of irrigated corn this year across the country, including 
about one million more irrigated acres in Nebraska, he said.

Plans designed to curtail water use in some basins could become 
"toothless tigers" in the face of such market pressures, he said.

On the Net:
Nebraska Ethanol Board: http://www.ne-ethanol.org/
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