Renewable Fuels, Id like you to meet Climate Change

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Renewable Fuels, Id like you to meet Climate
Change
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Todays corn to ethanol model
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Todays Technology
amylase
yeast fermentation

• 134 corn ethanol plants in 2006 (77 under
  construction/expanding)
• 4.9 billion gallons in 2006

• 14 days at 388 million gallons a day

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Tomorrow
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Why all the fuss about renewable fuels?
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Energy security
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Changing global dynamics
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Achieving balance between goals
Ethanol production costs (2006) From corn, US
1.03 per gallon From sugarcane, Brazil 0.81 per
gallon
0.54
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And Now Climate Change......
In a hushed conference hall, as envoys from 186
nations looked on, the worlds lone superpower
took a tongue-lashing....
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On November 14, 2007, Governor Jennifer M.
Granholm issued Executive Order No. 2007-42
establishing the Michigan Climate Action Council
(Council).. 
Advise state and local government on measures to
address climate change.
Who cares about climate change?
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On December 19, 2007, President George Bush
signed the Energy Independence and Security Act
of 2007..  Cellulosic biofuels....achieve a 60
percent GHG emission reduction.....
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Conservative Christians care
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Corporate Social Responsibility The Carbon
Disclosure Project Collect data on corporate
behavior, broker converstions between companies
and shareholders
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One key driver Carbon emissions
Rogers and many other executives are convinced
the United States is likely to join Europe in
placing limits on carbon dioxide omissions The
rising expectation of mandatory carbon caps is
reviving interest in ... alternative
fuels. Rogers the science says we need to act
Jim Rogers, CEO
January 12, 2007 NEW YORK - Oil major Exxon
Mobil Corp. is engaging in industry talks on
possible U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
regulations and has stopped funding groups
skeptical of global warming claims
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Uncertainty about carbon regulation a key
motivator
amylase
yeast fermentation
CO
2
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Unintended Consequences
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Food and Fuel
The push to produce biofuels as an alternative to
hydrocarbons is further straining food supplies,
especially in the U.S., where generous subsidies
for ethanol have lured thousands of farmers away
from growing crops for food.
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Environmental Conflicts
The bottom line is that when the core of the duck
factory becomes a corn factory, nesting habitat
and wetlands disappear, and ducks lose. --Ducks
Unlimited
ABA estimates that as much as one-third of the
farm land idled through the CRP could be returned
to production without sacrificing environmental
goals. --American Bakers Association
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Turning up the flame
The Clean Energy Scam Time Magazine, March 27,
2008 Use of U. S. Croplands for Biofuels
Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from
Land Use Change Science Magazine, February 29,
2008
The argument goes like this
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Tropical rainforest to soybean
Years to repay the biofuel carbon debt
Grassland to corn
Tropical grassland to soybean
Abandoned cropland to cellulose
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Millions of hectares
Total Amazon Pastures Farmland
Sugarcane
Land Use in Brazil
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The U. S. Renewable Fuels Standard
Corn to ethanol
Cellulose to biofuel
Total renewable fuels
Billion gallons
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Abandoned farmland
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Cellulose from natural forests

• millions of acres of trees
• harvest one-third
• inputs?
• food vs fuel
• but there will be challenges

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Proper Environmental Practices
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Fitting into current systems
Federal
State
Private
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Transportation and storage of nondense energy

• 3,000 tons of biomass a day
• 182 semis a day, 360 days a year
• One every 8 minutes, 24 hours/day

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Intelligent, economic use of byproducts
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The Future Biofuels and climate change?
The public opinion Ménage à trois Fuels, food,
climate
On Thursday (6 March), the UK government's chief
scientific advisor, Professor John Beddington,
warned Some of the biofuels are hopeless. The
idea that you cut down rainforest to actually
grow biofuels seems profoundly stupid.
"Governments need to look more carefully at the
link between the acceleration in biofuels and
food supply and give more thought" to biofuels
policy, Sheeran said. "This land could be better
used."
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The Future Biofuels and climate change?
Sticking to it maybe?
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The Importance of Sticking to It
Brazilian ethanol
Gasoline in Rotterdam
Energy C0st ( per gJ)
1980 1990
2000
-- Goldemberg, 2003
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The Future Biofuels and climate change?
The vagaries of policy
Another type of fuel
Ethanol production costs (2006) From corn, US
1.03 per gallon From sugarcane, Brazil 0.81 per
gallon
X
0.54
another crop