2008 Woodie Awards
Alternative fuel advocates defend ethanol, biodiesel
Doug Graham
Issue date: 6/26/08 Section: Front Page
Two alternative fuel advocates visited a class at the Kansas Technology Center on Thursday, June 19, to present what they said were the facts about ethanol and biodiesel.
Ethanol particularly has been under attack recently for several of its attributes, including its cost-effectiveness, environmental effects, and impact on food prices. A recent Rolling Stone article titled "The Ethanol Scam" thrust the issue into the mainstream.
But Sue Schulte, director of communications for the Kansas Corn Growers Association, addressed many of the complaints with an extensive PowerPoint presentation given to the students in Philip McNew's Introduction to Technological Systems class.
The ethanol produced in Kansas is made by chemically separating starch from corn, resulting in alcohol, leftover grain, and carbon dioxide.
Schulte says "efficiency is always improving" when it comes to ethanol production, and soon a bushel of corn will produce three gallons of ethanol.
Further, Schulte said the production of ethanol does not substantially eat into the production of the sweet corn that can be bought at the grocery store. Ethanol is made from feed corn that is grown to feed animals, and the byproduct of ethanol is a high-protein "distiller's grain" that can be fed to livestock.
"An ethanol plant sells their ethanol, but a huge part of their profit stream comes from selling distiller's grains," Schulte said.
The farmers who grow sweet corn, Schulte says, continue to do so because it is more profitable than selling feed corn to ethanol plants.
As for recent increases in corn prices, Schulte said those are mostly because of hedge fund speculators and the rising cost of energy, which, she said, ethanol helps suppress.
"Labor, packaging, transportation, energy... all of these things are pretty energy-dependent," Schulte said. "So you're seeing a lot bigger impact by the energy sector."
She said the cost of buying corn from farmers accounts for only 19 percent of what consumers pay at the grocery store.
Ethanol particularly has been under attack recently for several of its attributes, including its cost-effectiveness, environmental effects, and impact on food prices. A recent Rolling Stone article titled "The Ethanol Scam" thrust the issue into the mainstream.
But Sue Schulte, director of communications for the Kansas Corn Growers Association, addressed many of the complaints with an extensive PowerPoint presentation given to the students in Philip McNew's Introduction to Technological Systems class.
The ethanol produced in Kansas is made by chemically separating starch from corn, resulting in alcohol, leftover grain, and carbon dioxide.
Schulte says "efficiency is always improving" when it comes to ethanol production, and soon a bushel of corn will produce three gallons of ethanol.
Further, Schulte said the production of ethanol does not substantially eat into the production of the sweet corn that can be bought at the grocery store. Ethanol is made from feed corn that is grown to feed animals, and the byproduct of ethanol is a high-protein "distiller's grain" that can be fed to livestock.
"An ethanol plant sells their ethanol, but a huge part of their profit stream comes from selling distiller's grains," Schulte said.
The farmers who grow sweet corn, Schulte says, continue to do so because it is more profitable than selling feed corn to ethanol plants.
As for recent increases in corn prices, Schulte said those are mostly because of hedge fund speculators and the rising cost of energy, which, she said, ethanol helps suppress.
"Labor, packaging, transportation, energy... all of these things are pretty energy-dependent," Schulte said. "So you're seeing a lot bigger impact by the energy sector."
She said the cost of buying corn from farmers accounts for only 19 percent of what consumers pay at the grocery store.
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