If cellulosic ethanol makes it, it probably won't be with corn stover
A new study from the American Society of Agronomy throws some cold water on the use of corn stover as a feed stock for cellulosic ethanol. Stover is all the stuff that's left over after corn is harvested: the stalks, leaves, and husks. The problem is that there may not be enough stover available to make a difference. A lot of stover is needed to be spread on the fields to replenish the organic matter in the soil and to control erosion.
If too much of the stover is consumed in the production of fuel, the ability of fields to produce corn would be degraded significantly. This would significantly reduce the sustainability of stover as a feed stock. Of course the advantage of cellulosic ethanol is that it can be produced from a wide variety of organic matter including many plants that can readily grow on land that isn't suitable for growing food crops. Even with those kinds of inputs, however, the world's rate of energy consumption growth is not indefinitely sustainable based on fuels of this type and reductions will be needed.
[Source: American Society of Agronomy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mulad 3:26PM (12/03/2007)
Yeah, I'd always worried about that when I heard about cellulosic ethanol. That stuff gets tilled under for a reason. Without it, we'll just end up with dead soil.
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Dad 4:02PM (12/03/2007)
"If too much of the stover is consumed in the production of fuel, the ability of fields to produce corn would be degraded significantly"
Exactly. And this also apply other sources of cellulosic material. Every "solution" has a problem. There is no "silver bullet" other than the three Rs.
Reduce, reuse and recycle.
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Bob Moffitt (Bob from ALAMN) 9:31AM (12/04/2007)
There are still a lot of journalists out there who are pitching cellulosic ethanol as an ideal solution that's 'just around the corner.' In fact, there are many hurdles cellulosic ethanol must overcome before it becomes competitive with corn-based ethanol.
Promising? Yes. "Superior" to corn ethanol? In the lab, perhaps, but the real test is the marketplace.
I'm a stanch ethanol defender -- but I worry cellulosic is being oversold and hyped to a public that really doesn't understand the issues involved. I hope the problems can be overcome soon, but in the meantime, the cellulosic folks need to tone down their rhetoric.
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Nathan 9:56AM (12/04/2007)
You can find a "study" that will say anything. A recent one from Agricultural Research Service showed that said a byproduct of ethanol fermentation from corn stover can be used as a land application that actually improves soil quality: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041011075459.htm. Let's be careful about saying something won't work before it's even been tried.
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Bob Moffitt (Bob from ALAMN) 11:29AM (12/04/2007)
Nathan is correct -- until more cellulosic ethanol plants are built and the feedstock and transportation issues are resolved, we won't really know how the "next generation" ethanol will work in our marketplace.
Besides, who knows where oil/gas prices will be next year, or five years from now...
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