Corn and Switchgrass Ethanol, and Used Cooking Oil Biodiesel
Corn Ethanol
To grow staple food crops like corn in the U.S. to convert to fuel is not a viable solution for the automotive industry because, well, people really like to eat corn. Besides what would happen to corn ethanol if the U.S. Congress eliminated the 54-cent tariff on each gallon of imported ethanol form places like Brazil? Brazilian sugarcane requires about half as much land and far less fossil-fuel input than U.S. corn to produce the same quantity of ethanol fuel. Having no shortage of sunshine, rain, and arable land, Brazil would certainly have a leg up in the ethanol market.
Switchgrass Ethanol
Is American switchgrass (a native prairie grass) a viable, alternative feedstock for ethanol fuel? Well, unlike corn, people don’t like to eat popped switchgrass, creamed switchgrass, switchgrass muffins, etc. so food shortage is not an issue for swtichgrass ethanol makers. Wild birds, pheasant, quail and turkey enjoy switchgrass as a habitat, but that isn’t a big problem. The major problem is feasibility. Engineers and entrepreneurs must find a commercially viable way to convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol. There is some progress with a demonstration-scale biorefinery that opened in 2008 in Jennings, LA. However this plant makes ethanol from a cellulosic feedstock called bagasse that is left over from processing sugarcane to make sugar.
Used Cooking Oil Biodiesel
While corn ethanol is heavily subsidized in the U.S., biodiesel derived from used cooking oil is a feasible alternative (a drop in the bucket) to conventional diesel fuel due to the abundance of free used cooking oil available from restaurants. Used cooking oil would only be able supply less than 1% of the 65 billion gallons of diesel consumed annually in the U.S. One small business in California, called Blue Sky, collects used cooking oil from restaurants free of charge, refines it and then sells it to diesel fleets (e.g. school bus fleets) which run on 20% biodiesel and 80% conventional diesel. Blends of 20% biodiesel with 80% petroleum diesel (B20) can generally be used in unmodified diesel engines.
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EIA: Retail Prices
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making biodiesel…
I totally agree! gr, remcowoudstra…