[Vision2020] ethanol and water

[Glenn Schwaller]

Hmmm . . .  maybe a more interesting, or at least an equally pertinent
question might be how much petroleum-based fuel does it take to produce a
gallon of ethanol?

GS

On 8/13/07, Mark Solomon <msolomon at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>  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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