Don’t give up on biofuels: Renewable energy could be a boon to Alabama
Sunday, June 01, 2008
LARRY FILLMER and STEVEN TAYLOR
Consumers are understandably angry – angry over the rising cost of food and the growing inability to pay for it. Many are blaming ethanol for the role it has played in diverting corn away from food production.
And along with assigning blame, many Americans have begun to ask if a homegrown biofuels sector really is worth the effort. Some lawmakers even are calling for a re-examination of current federal ethanol mandates.
But does the drive toward U.S. energy self-sufficiency really have to involve an exchange of the world’s cheapest food supply for an adequate stock of renewable fuels?
No. All along, that’s been one of the biggest misperceptions associated with biofuels. Too many Americans think renewable energy is all about corn and that there is a built-in competition between biofuel and food.
But Auburn University researchers and others across the nation already are looking farther down the road to a new generation of biofuel sources derived from biomass, such as wood and agricultural residue, that offers greater potential in energy output and that won’t necessarily divert cropland from food production.
Most people involved in the expanding renewable energy sector – researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists – have been anticipating this new generation of biofuel technologies for a long time. Corn and soybeans now enjoy a pre-eminent place on the bioenergy landscape largely because they can be grown widely and converted profitably into biofuels. And while they will continue to occupy a permanent niche on this landscape, they inevitably will be upstaged by a new generation of more promising biofuel sources.
Lucky for us Alabamians, many of these promising biomass sources are as close as our back yards. And because they are so abundant in Alabama and neighboring states, the long-term outlook for our region in terms of bioenergy production could be exceedingly bright.
Forestry byproducts are a prime example.
By some estimates, the United States has enough agricultural and forest biomass resources to replace 30 percent of petroleum consumption. Alabama alone has 22 million acres of forestland. According to the Alabama Forestry Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, some 14.6 million tons of unused woody biomass is available each year in the state – logging residues such as tops and limbs and small-diameter trees not used by commercial forestry harvesting.
As much as 2 billion gallons of biomass-derived ethanol or other liquid fuels could be produced from this material – an amount roughly equal to a third of the corn ethanol currently produced nationally. To put it another way: We estimate Alabama could ultimately produce as much liquid fuels from woody biomass as Iowa produces from corn.
This does not include an estimated 4 million tons of dedicated energy crops, such as switchgrass, that could be grown on marginal lands in the state each year and that also offer immense potential for liquid fuels and electrical power.
Add to that the various types of agricultural residues, such as cotton gin wastes, peanut hulls and another potential bioenergy source – poultry litter. Each year, Alabama’s poultry industry generates some 2 million tons of poultry litter, which could make a significant contribution to a new generation of renewable energy sources in the state.
Auburn University researchers already are busy exploring cost-effective ways to gasify the biomass materials, such as forestry residues, so that the material ultimately can be catalytically converted into liquid fuel. The challenge remains to find a way to do this cost-effectively so that the technique can be used on a broad commercial scale, though we’re confident this is no longer a matter of if, but when.
Yes, food prices are higher today partly because of increased demand for corn ethanol. But don’t forget we’re also spending a greater share of our income on energy than at any time since the mid-1980s – a problem that only will grow worse with each passing year as China, India and other booming Asian countries continue to undergo steady economic growth.
Case in point: There are only slightly more than 40 million cars in China today – a number that is projected to more than triple to 130 million cars in 2015 and that will almost triple again to more than 350 million cars in 2030.
This, alone, should serve as a stark reminder of what is at stake for all of us and why the trek toward U.S. energy self-sufficiency is worth our time and effort. Larry Fillmer is executive director of Auburn University’s Natural Resources Management and Development Institute. E-mail: larry.fillmer@auburn.edu. Steven Taylor, Ph.D., is a professor and head of Auburn University’s Department of Biosystems Engineering and director of the NRMDI’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts. E-mail: taylost@auburn.edu.
