Your turn: Franken is misinformed on wind, fuel
A University of Utah study showed that nature needed 100 tons of algae to make just 1 gallon of oil. But nature had millions of years worth of prolific algae to produce those trillions of barrels of oil beneath the ocean bottom. So trying to use just this years corn crop to make a sufficient quantity of a gasoline substitute doesnt work very well. Producing 12.6 billion ethanol gallons in 2011 will use 40 percent of a U.S. crop laden with artificial nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides, which run off into rivers. A University of Minnesota study led by Professor Sangwon Suh recently reported that in the United States, an average of 162 gallons of water are consumed to produce 1 gallon of ethanol from corn. Drier states with more irrigation use more water, with Kansas and Nebraska requiring 500 water gallons for 1 ethanol gal. The James A. Baker Institute at Rice University has released its report, Fundamentals of a Sustainable US Biofuels Policy. On greenhouse gas emissions, the report says, It is uncertain whether existing biofuels production provides any beneficial improvement over traditional gasoline after taking into account land-use changes and emissions of nitrous oxide. Legislation giving biofuels preferences on the basis of greenhouse gas benefits should be avoided. The presence of a billion of the worlds cars and light trucks at the dinner table does concern Franken. He responds that the future is in nonfood cellulosic ethanol. Congress mandated 100 million gallons of cellulose ethanol in 2010; we produced perhaps 6 million. The 2011 mandate is for 250 million gallons; we will again produce perhaps 6 million. The newest wind travesty is a plan by the Fish & Wildlife Service to plant scores of bird- and bat-killing wind farms in the same corridor as the Mississippi and Central Flyways, two of the most important migratory bird routes in the Western Hemisphere. The turbine placements directly encroach on the migratory route of endangered whooping cranes and other birds. Each of these permits would allow a project to take an unspecified number of birds, taking being the FWS euphemism for killing or injuring.How To Make Ethenol - News
Iowa farmers produce more than 2 billion bushels annually, more than 40% of which is used to make ethanol, a fuel additive that the government had hoped would reduce American dependence on foreign oil. The state is the beneficiary of a number of
The senator notes a new Iowa production plant that will scoop up corn stover (the stalks and leaves) to make ethanol. Removing that stover exposes the soil to erosion and denies nutrients needed by the soil. At best, that cellulose plant will begin in
The grain is the primary input used to make ethanol in the US “Ethanol was able to make gains on the back of corn and the general bullishness,” SCB & Associates LLC, including Justin Dirico, a senior ethanol trader, said in a note to clients.
To give the system an extra boost, the authors knocked out the gene that sends acetyl-CoA down the pathway towards ethanol. On its own, this process wouldn't do anything useful, since it would create a mix of longer hydrocarbons all linked up to
Jatropha-based biofuels are being increasingly used in Mexico, and agave -- the plant from which tequila is made -- is being studied as a new source for ethanol. But some observers warn that Mexico's cumbersome land laws make it too hard to purchase
Scientists Isolate Plant Gene That Could Lead to Cheaper, More ...
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Previously, the issue with ethanol — and most other biofuel production processes — was the release of sugars within the plant that form the base of the fuel. Plants that produce ethanol and other biofuels are naturally hardy and releasing those sugars is difficult, but with this discovery, scientists could engineer the plants’ DNA to be easier to break down. Scientists have been studying clostridium thermocellum for decades but have been unable to isolate this specific gene before. This BESC study was just released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and could be the key to a future of plant-driven transportation systems.