Ethanol Biorefineries Pollute, Too
Posted on June 22, 2009 by
Ethanol is one of the most viable alternative fuel sources on the table today, and some people are drawn to it because it would mean much less drilling for oil. That’s a good thing, but as with many environmental matters, it’s always a trade-off. Many people are opposed to the establishment of ethanol biorefineries in their towns because of the air pollution they would create. According to Citizens for Clean Power, ethanol plants can release anywhere from 120 to 1,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every year. This could create some large-scale health problems.
While some environmentalists support ethanol as a fuel source, there are other things to consider other than air pollution. It’s better than relying on oil for our fuel, but in the United States we’d likely use corn as its base, which could be a problem because corn is one of our major food staples. We should also consider the environmental degradation associated with large-scale farming methods.
In short, ethanol may be a short-term solution for our fuel issues, but we’re going to have to keep researching if we’re going to find something that will fulfill our needs and not contribute to air pollution and/or a global food shortage. What do you think of ethanol?
I still can’t help but think that it would be better to keep working on solar & wind power.
Ethanol as a one size fits all, blanket solution is a bad idea. There will be no replacement for oil. Small/local production, where the ethanol is grown, processed and used all in one given location, could be useful. Large scale production is a pipe dream.
Also, that corn (Zea Mays) that is a staple of our diet is not the corn-on-the-cob type corn. It is industrial corn that is completely inedible straight from the cob. The movie King Corn is all about that fact. We do eat an inordinate amount of corn in our diets, but that is predominately in the form of processed food, corn syrup, hfcs, corn fed meat and the like. So, removal of that type of corn from our diet would actually be a benefit, not a drawback.
Greenpa talks about why ethanol from corn and switchgrass is a bad idea. http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/2007/10/fuelish-fantasies.html
And at the risk of writing a comment ten miles long… you said we are trying to find fuel that will “fulfill our needs”. Shouldn’t part of the sollution be to reassess what our needs are? We (Americans?) are searching for the magic pill. There simply isn’t one. It will be a web of solutions that helps people survive and thrive, as well as a scaling back of what it is we feel we ‘need’.
I think Ethanol is a terrible solution. We are farming so we can drive our cars more? That doesn’t make sense. I think we need to look at wind, solar and possibly fuel cells for energy. In places where I live that is nothing but suburban sprawl, we need mass transportation. We have buses, but its a terrible system utilized by few.
Ethanol also lowers gas mileage and most cars we have around here aren’t designed for ethanol.
You haven’t seen anything yet. In 2006, the GOP made one final push to kill the green revolution that ethanol represented and basically mandated that all new ethanol plants be coal-fired by driving the economics of the plants in that direction. It was their last major poke into the eye of environmentalists. Those plants are starting come online and soon as enough of them are started Ethanol will pretty much stop being a clean alternative to anything and climate change haters will have another bullet in their gun to dismiss the entire environmental movement. As each one of the new plants comes online, Ethanol will become less and less green by the day.
[...] Many people are opposed to the establishment of ethanol biorefineries in their towns because of the air pollution they would create. According to Citizens for Clean Power, ethanol plants can release anywhere from 120 to 1,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every year. This could create some large-scale health problems. [...]
I think that there are better solutions that we could come up with rather than looking for short term quick fixes. It is too bad that hybrid cars aren’t cheaper (at least up here in Canada) because I think more people would drive one if they were.