Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Ohio, environment benefit from ethanol
By Dave Mosher
The Lantern (Ohio State U.)
02/24/2006

(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio — During 2005, a group of northern Ohio workers produced 4 million gallons of moonshine for less than a dollar per gallon. But Liquid Resources, the Medina-based company responsible for making the 200-proof grain alcohol, is not producing it for human consumption. Instead, the ethanol is denatured with a little petroleum and shipped off — eventually fueling automobiles.

Since President George W. Bush passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 last August, Ohio and the rest of the nation began to experience an ethanol boom. Annual ethanol production is expected to double to nearly 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. Consequently, the world is focusing its attention on the feasibility — and effects — of this growing industry.

Dwayne Siekman, executive director of the Ohio Corn Marketing Program, said Ohio will increase production from 4 million gallons of ethanol to 170 million gallons by next year — mostly because of increasing demand.

To make 4 million gallons of ethanol, 40,000 tons of ground corn are necessary.

"The fastest growing market for the corn industry is the ethanol industry," Siekman said.

To create ethanol, Siekman said a multi-stage process is used that has essentially been around for hundreds of years.

"They grind (dried corn) into a powder called meal. That meal is mixed with water and enzymes, and then liquefied," Siekman said.

Once the mushy mix has been made and the enzymes convert the corn starch into sugar, yeast is added to digest the sugar into alcohol.

"The alcohol that leaves is 96 percent alcohol," Siekman said.

A molecular sieve, essentially a glorified name for a funnel, then removes the remaining water. The anhydrous, or dry, alcohol is then denatured to make it undrinkable and is sent to companies that mix in petroleum fuel. The resulting mix is called E85 — signifying that 85 percent of the fuel is ethanol.

At present, Ohio farmers are not receiving any government subsidy for producing ethanol. Siekman said the mixers receive a 51 cent subsidy from the government for each gallon of E85 produced.

Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, said this mix is a step toward helping the environment and reducing dependence on foreign oil.

"Fuels are generally bad for the environment. We increase global warming, (and) we increase air pollution — among other things," Spofforth said. "Any way you look at it, we pay a heavy cost for our addiction to petroleum."

Using ethanol as an alternative fuel is a start to achieving a more environmentally friendly society, Spofforth said. Because corn pulls carbon dioxide from the air and cars produce carbon dioxide by burning fuel, Spofforth said an energy balance is achieved.

Despite the benefits of using ethanol, Spofforth said E85 fuel is not perfect: For every gallon produced, only 0.20 gallons of fuel can be used by consumers — the rest is used for its production.

"Once we get to the point where we can make ethanol from switch grass and other fibrous material, the energy balance will be even more positive," Spofforth said.

To create a better picture of ethanol's environmental impact, Bhavik Bakshi, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State, said his research group is looking at the process from start to finish. Bakshi said the study, funded by the National Science Foundation, has produced interesting preliminary results.

"(Ethanol production) has a higher environmental impact due to the use of fertilizers," Bakshi said. "The nitrogen in fertilizers runs off and ends up in streams, lakes and oceans."

Bakshi said this pollution causes algal blooms that remove oxygen from the water, killing fish and other animals.

Siekman, however, said the industry is working hard to alleviate pollution.

"With any crop production, farmers are becoming more efficient with the use of pesticides and fertilizers," Siekman said. "So far, they're doing a good job."

But, as corn production increases dramatically, future studies will be needed to validate this claim.

[ Back to Student Voices ]