Ethanol From Corn: Clean Renewable Fuel for the Future, or Drain on Our Resources and Pockets?

Patzek, Tadeusz W; Anti, S. M.; Campos, R. Capote; Ha, Kwang-Tae; Lee, J.; Li, B.; Padnick, J.; Yee, S.

doi:10.1007/s10668-004-7317-4

Cited by 47 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…First of all, growing corn for ethanol production occupies large areas of cropland and could negatively affect food production (Varvel et al 2008). Secondly, corn plantation requires lots of energy in field management like irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide (Patzek et al 2005). In 2011, switchgrass was recognized as a promising bioenergy crop in the Billion-Ton Update report (U.S. Department of Energy, 2011).…”

Section: Chapter II Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

QTL Mapping for Reproductive Maturity in Lowland Switchgrass Populations

et al. 2015

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Section: Chapter II Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

QTL Mapping for Reproductive Maturity in Lowland Switchgrass Populations

et al. 2015

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“…As shown in Table 2, natural gas burning to produce process energy is a major contributor to GHG emissions for ethylene production from all feedstocks. In the case of ethanol feedstock, CO 2 removal from the atmosphere by corn photosynthesis only partly offsets these emissions [40].…”

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confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of ethylene production from diverse feedstocks and energy sources

2013

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Quantitative cradle-to-gate environmental impacts for ethylene production from naphtha (petroleum crude), ethane (natural gas) and ethanol (corn-based) are predicted using GaBi Ò software. A comparison reveals that the majority of the predicted environmental impacts for these feedstocks fall within the same order of magnitude. Soil and water pollution associated with corn-based ethylene are however much higher. The main causative factor for greenhouse gas emissions, acidification and air pollution is the burning of fossil-based fuel for agricultural operations, production of fertilizers and pesticides needed for cultivation (in the case of ethanol), ocean-based transportation (for naphtha) and the chemical processing steps (for all feedstocks). An assessment of the environmental impacts of different energy sources (coal, natural gas and fuel oil) reveals almost similar carbon footprints for all the fossil fuels used to produce a given quantity of energy. For most of the environmental impact categories, the GaBi Ò software reliably predicts the qualitative trends. The predicted emissions agree well with the actual emissions data reported by a coal-based power plant (Lawrence Energy Center, Lawrence, KS) and a natural gas-based power plant (Astoria Generating Station, Queens, NY) to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The analysis shows that for ethylene production, fuel burning at the power plant to produce energy is by far the dominant source (78-93 % depending on the fuel source) of adverse environmental impacts.

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“…called fi rst-generation biofuels, have been criticized and debated recently in the scientifi c and non-scientifi c literature (Henke et al, 2005;Patzek et al, 2005;Moore, 2008;Rabbinge, 2008a). Food commodity prices increased sharply between 2004 and the summer of 2008, and many analysts and commentators pinpoint the market development of biofuels as one of the main causes (BBC, 2007;Wroughton, 2008), a key factor allegedly being the subsidized production of biofuels in the European Union and the United States.…”

Section: : Yield Map Of Miscanthus -Nuts3 Královehradecký Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodology of analysis of biomass potential using GIS in the Czech Republic

Havlíčková¹,

Weger²,

Šedivá³

2014

Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun.

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HAVLÍČKOVÁ, K., WEGER, J., ŠEDIVÁ, J.: Methodology of analysis of biomass potential using GIS in the Czech Republic. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2010, LVIII, No. 5, pp. 161-170 This article deals with the issue of a methodology for and analyzing biomass potential in the Czech Republic using a geographic information system. The biomass sources considered include cereal and rape straw, permanent grasslands and forest residuals. The process of assessing biomass potential from agricultural soils is based on assigning yields of individual biomass sources according to the production soil-ecological units (BPEJ) which were created for better agricultural planning in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The analysis of energy crop suitability is based on the evaluation of crop yields related to individual BPEJ's respectively to its component the main soil climate units (HPKJ). To ascertain the production potential of residual biomass (straw) from conventional agriculture, the wheat (grain) yield related to HPKJ was multiplied by the straw coeffi cient. The yield of the permanent grasslands in the main soil climate units was also multiplied by the coeffi cient of dry matter. The me thodo lo gy for the analysis of biomass potential for forest land is based on forest management plans that describe the composition of all forest stands. Data from these forest management plans can be used to determine in detail the potential of the forest biomass in individual periods according to the plan for silvacultural treatment and major harvest of the wood. This detailed analysis is suitable only on the municipality level. On a higher government level, the forest management plan can be used to calculate a coeffi cient that determines the average yield from biomass in the form of forest residuals and in relation to the forest size for specifi c areas or levels of analysis. The energy potential of residual biomass is around 136 PJ from present area of conventional agriculture in the Czech Republic. Biomass consumption in animal production and harvest loses were deducted from this calculation. biomass potential, soil-ecological units, forest residuals, permanent grasslands, straw Today, biomass energy continues to be the main source of energy in many developing nations, particularly in its traditional forms, providing on avera ge 35% of the energy needs of three-guarters of the worlds' population. Biomass covers between 60 and 90% of energy demand in the poorest developing countries. However, modern biomass energy applications are increasing rapidly both in the industrial and developing countries, so that they now account for 20-25% of total biomass energy use. For example, the United States obtains about 4% and Finland and Sweden 20% of their primary energy from biomass (Calle et al., 2007).Biomass features strongly in virtually all the major global energy supply scenarios, as biomass resources are potentially the world largest and most sustainable energy source. The annual bioenergy potential is about 2900 EJ (appr...

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Ethanol From Corn: Clean Renewable Fuel for the Future, or Drain on Our Resources and Pockets?

Cited by 47 publications

References 12 publications

QTL Mapping for Reproductive Maturity in Lowland Switchgrass Populations

QTL Mapping for Reproductive Maturity in Lowland Switchgrass Populations

Environmental impacts of ethylene production from diverse feedstocks and energy sources

Methodology of analysis of biomass potential using GIS in the Czech Republic

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