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Agriculture enters era of energy production Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Agri News staff writer
ST. PAUL --Higher oil prices, advancing technology and increasing environmental concerns make this an interesting time to be involved in the renewable energy industry.
Yet for each technological breakthrough there is an equal and opposing question. Stover can be used to produce energy, but what about maintaining soil organic matter and increased potential soil loss?
Energy crops can be grown, but how does a grower choose to make a long-term investment on rented ground and forego government payments that favor row-crop production?
These and other issues were discussed at last week's William E. Larson and Raymond R. Allmaras Lecture Series, "Emerging Issues in Soil and Water," at the University of Minnesota.
Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, a U of M soil scientist graduate, said energy production is the new era of agriculture. He likened it to the introduction of the steel plow, mechanization and the introduction of commercial fertilizers.
Minnesota has been a leader in biofuels, Juhnke said, with the nation's first ethanol and biodiesel mandates, but the era of bioenergy is just beginning.
Old fuels
He predicted corn and soybeans will become an old fuel in a short time, as other plant-based fuel and energy sources become more commonly used.
The future of farm energy production is exciting, but leadership is needed, Juhnke said. Today's U of M students will determine how to best use the byproducts from methane digesters and how to take the next steps in producing anhydrous ammonia from wind power.
Juhnke hopes a lot of research focusing on renewable energy is done. It's going to be a valuable part of the nation's future and a source of economic development and jobs for rural areas.
Michigan State University chemical engineering professor Bruce Dale is equally optimistic about the future of biomass and biofuel.
It's impossible to work in an underfunded research area for 30 years and not be optimistic, Dale said.
He sees several potential benefits from processing crops into fuel and chemicals, including: rural community revitalization; superior products; environmental benefits; reduced dependence on foreign oil; exporting more value-added products; and helping poor countries escape the oil debt trap.
Processing advances
Cellulosic ethanol offers much potential, Dale said. Cellulosic raw materials are abundant and available to make large volumes of ethanol, but processing advances are needed to make ethanol competitive with gasoline.
Those processing advances are foreseeable, he said.
If the United States can supply 1.3 billion tons of biomass with a heating value equivalent to 3.5 billion barrels of oil, it will have replaced what was the nation's peak domestic oil production.
Dale predicts cellulosic ethanol and corn ethanol will be complimentary to one another, but cellulosic ethanol plants will be 10 times larger than existing ethanol plants. Rice straw is the leading residue that can be fermented into ethanol internationally, he said. Sugar cane bagasse is another residue waiting for another use. Dale would also like to see energy crops grown.
Plant material is much cheaper than oil. At $50 per ton, the cost of plant material is equivalent to a $15 barrel of oil. Today's oil prices, hovering around $70 per barrel, make it an optimal time to increase the use of plant material for fuel.
The key to widespread use of plant material is taking its energy content and converting it to liquid fuel, Dale said.
Compared to 10 years ago, better technologies for biofuels production exist and venture capital is beginning to flow to the industry, he said. An heightened awareness of the true costs of importing oil also exists.
It all boils down to a couple questions, Dale said: Cellulosic ethanol is viable, but can it be produced sustainably and how does the global community make the most efficient use of the remaining oil supplies? |
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