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Sustainable Ethanol goes beyond the headlines, uncovering the benefits and limitations of North America's fuel ethanol industry. Ethanol production and use are becoming more efficient and less reliant on fossil fuel inputs. Learn about the technologies making ethanol make sense for our environment, economy, and security. Discover how the end of cheap oil is providing an opening for biofuels; how some cars get better fuel economy on 10% ethanol compared to ethanol-free gasoline; how the next generation of flex-fuel and hybrid electric vehicles could be optimized to get much better fuel economy on ethanol; how North America can produce significant quantities of biofuels without damaging our food production capacity; how sustainable farming methods are reducing ethanol's reliance on fossil fuels; and how cellulosic ethanol can be made from waste materials and soil-restoring perennial crops.
sustainable ethanolReviewed by G. A. Baxter, 2008-09-06
A good introdution to the subject of ethanol fuel,well worth reading,with some valuable information not in other books on ethanol.Not enough detail though for people who prefer a more hands on approach and would like to make their own fuel and convert their vehicle to run on ethanol.
Sustainable Ethanol: The Future of Energy Production?Reviewed by Peter N. Jones, 2008-06-04
We hear a lot these days about global warming, the West's over
consumption habits, and how oil is getting more and more expensive
and less available. We also hear a lot about alternative energies,
flex-fuel cars, ethanol, and the like, but how many of us really
know what these alternatives mean - both for the environment and
our wallets. Unless you are a scientist working in the field, often
we have to rely on what the media tells us; and many of us don't
trust the media for a straight forward, objective opinion. Big oil,
with their record profits, try and keep us in the dark about other
forms of energy. Good thing I stumbled upon the book Sustainable
Ethanol by the Goettemoeller brothers. This is the first book I
have seen that explains the science - and logic - behind ethanol as
an alternative fuel to oil and gas in a clear, readable, and
informative style.
Not only do they cover the history of ethanol fuel (did you know
the first cars were designed to run on ethanol, not gasoline), but
they go into what the latest scientific studies prove - that
ethanol is a viable alternative fuel not only for cars, but also
for other forms of energy such as natural gas. This latter point is
further developed in the book when the Goettemoeller brothers delve
into biogas and butanol - two other alternative energies that can
be derived from natural resources (such as landfills, manure, and
agricultural waste).
Chapters include: A brief history of ethanol fuel; Will cheap oil
return?; Economic and security benefits; Environmental impact; E10,
E85, and flex-fuel vehicles; Improving fuel economy on ethanol;
Food, farming, and land use; Ethanol production; Cellulosic
ethanol; Energy balance: Is ethanol renewable?; and Facing our
energy future.
Some highlights of the book include:
In 2006 the ethanol industry contributed $23.1 billion to our Gross
Domestic Product, created 163,034 new jobs, $2.7 billion in federal
tax revenue, $2.2 billion in state tax revenue, and reduced our
need for foreign oil imports by 206 million barrels.
If car manufacturers optimized their flex-fuel vehicles to run on
E85 (85% denatured alcohol and 15% gasoline), not only would the
fuel economy be the same as straight gasoline, but a significant
reduction in pollution would occur because ethanol has fewer highly
volatile components (i.e., lower carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide).
Ethanol production is not limited to just corn: grain sorghum,
wheat, barley, agricultural residues, forestry wastes, municipal
solid wastes, food processing and other industrial wastes, and
various grasses can all be used to make ethanol.
Ethanol can be made via a "closed loop" system, whereby the grain
used to make the ethanol can then be feed back to the animals (as
ethanol production only uses the starch from grains, not the
proteins or vitamins), the manure from the animals is then used to
create fertilizer (for more grain) and biogas which is used as a
process fuel in place of natural gas. In a sense, no external
energy is required to go into the process, creating a sustainable
energy production process.
Sustainable Ethanol is copiously documented, with charts and graphs
illustrating the complex science that is clearly explained. This
book should be on everyone's reading list who cares about the
environment and our future. Rarely does one get to read about an
emerging technology and actually understand at the end what that
technology is, how it works, and just how important it can be for
helping save the planet. The Goettemoeller brothers have succeeded
beyond any expectations in this regard. Sustainable Ethanol is a
landmark book - if you want to see what you can do to help save the
planet, then this book is a must.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
New Great Books
[...]
A Rational View of the Emerging Biofuels IndustryReviewed by Peregrinus, 2008-05-25
This is a book that is helpful for people of all educational levels
to begin to understand not only Ethanol, but the who Biofuels
industry.
The conciseness of the information into what can be considered
bullet points delivers the maximum information in the least space
possible. This leaves no room for agenda driven diatribes present
in most books today. In addition, the book provides an abundance of
cited sources that can be used by the reader for additional
research and, thus, does not choke the book with needless facts and
information.
The best part is that, for us who think Ethanol is only one piece
in the complete Biofuels puzzle, much of the information can be
applied to other Biofuels like methanol and butanol.
For me this book is not only a primer, but a reference source for
the future.
The book you should read before taking sides on the food versus
biofuel controversyReviewed by Emc2, 2008-04-23
This book is truly a crash course on the subject. The Goettemoeller
brothers present a brief but very comprehensive account of the
ethanol evolution, beginning with a concise history of the oil and
ethanol industries, through farm subsidies, the economics,
environmental impact, greenhouse gases, ethanol and world hunger,
all the flex-fuel vehicles available (E10, E85, E100 and the
Brazilian full flex-fuel vehicles), improving fuel efficiency,
ethanol production from several crops, the energy balance, to close
with a discussion about a key question, is ethanol renewable? All
of it in just less than 200 pages, not surprisingly the book reads
fast, the facts are presented almost like bullets, with web
addresses and references for easy follow-up.
The successful Brazilian experience is also presented, explaining
the 30 year process that led to this country's leadership in
farming productivity, ethanol fuel production and distribution, and
the development and manufacturing of full flex-fuel vehicles, with
the same sales price as E-10 cars. And all of these achievements
without government subsidies, or sacrificing food production, and
even with a sharp increase in grain and food exports thanks to
China's voracious appetite for commodities. The authors also debunk
the deforestation myth. Sugar cane is produced mainly in São Paulo
state, some 2,500 Km away from the Amazon forest, in areas
previously used for farming, and the entire state's area is just 3%
of Brazil's territory. Whenever possible, a comparison with the U.S
experience is presented, and key differences are highlighted, such
as Brazil's superior productivity rates in farming sugar
cane.
My only disappointment with the book is that the Brazilian case is
not presented with the same depth as the American experience;
instead, information about Brazil is spread throughout the book in
very short paragraphs, and based mainly on interviews with
Brazilian English-speaking executives. It seems the language
barrier hindered a deeper coverage of this successful story. That's
why I did not give the book the five stars. And incidentally, the
book does not mention the fact that today the price of hydrated
ethanol (Brazil's biofuel) is around 30% cheaper than standard
gasoline, more than enough to fully compensate for the lower energy
content in ethanol, and thanks to the fully flexible fuel
technology, auto users are free to choose the proportion of each
fuel depending on market prices. Tipically, between sugar cane
harvest seasons, you simply go back to gasoline.
As oil approaches US$ 120 per barrel, and as the oil industry and
OPEC countries are ironically echoing the concerns of some
international bureaucrats and environmental groups (yes, the same
supporting the Global Warming cause!) regarding the alleged
responsibility of ethanol production for the recent increases in
food prices, I think this is a book you definitively should read
before taking sides on the food versus biofuels controversy.
The problem is complex; there are several causes, and agricultural
subsidies in rich countries are chief among them, in particular
when highly subsidized corn crops for ethanol production became
more profitable than producing other cash crops for food. This
subject is out of the scope of the book, but if you are interested
on this controversy, read the masterpiece article in the
Economist's April 17th 2008 issue, entitled "The Silent Tsunami".
That will be a good starting point to understand the real causes
and the paradoxes behind world hunger and poverty.
Also, the latest two books from Joseph E. Stiglitz have some
chapters explaining how agricultural subsidies in the U.S. and
several European countries, together with trade barriers, are among
the real culprits for the poorest developing countries not being
able to produce what they eat, and how many other countries are
being barred from entering the "free" global market and developed
by themselves. Just read Making Globalization Work and Fair Trade
for All: How Trade Can Promote Development. At least inform
yourself properly and get the facts right before taking sides on
this new global controversy. Happy 2008 Earth's Day!
Excellent primer on the ethanol industryReviewed by Dennis Littrell, 2008-04-12
The people in Washington have decided that growing corn to produce
ethanol as a partial means to energy independence is consistent
with national security goals. Consequently ethanol production, like
domestic oil production receives government subsidies. Some may
call it pork-barrel legislation and others may call it a "scam."
Robert Bryce, in his recently published Gusher of Lies: The
Dangerous Delusion of Energy Independence (2008), actually entitles
his chapter on ethanol, "The Ethanol Scam." Bryce's point is that
ethanol production is not energy efficient and is not sustainable.
Furthermore it is posited that we should be using our cropland to
grow food for a hungry world that is likely to get hungrier.
Jeffrey Goettemoeller and Adrian Goettemoeller argue in this
technical but readable book that ethanol production can be made
energy efficient and sustainable. They counter the cropland for
food argument by noting that only the carbohydrate component of the
corn kernel is used to produce ethanol, adding that too much corn
is now grown for food in America to the detriment of farmers
elsewhere who cannot compete in the marketplace with cheap American
corn. Consequently, our abundance puts small foreign farmers out of
business and ironically creates food shortages. See pages 86-87 for
the full argument.
As to the viability of ethanol for use in our vehicles, the authors
contend that, although ethanol is only about two-thirds as energy
rich as gasoline, it is nonetheless necessary since we will soon or
late run out of gasoline. Furthermore, today's combustion engines
can be altered to run more efficiently on ethanol than currently is
the case. (See "flex fuel" vehicles.) Additionally, ethanol is
valuable since burning it reduces vehicular pollution. Finally,
ethanol is a necessary replacement for MTBE which here in
California has been phased out due to its tendency to pollute
underground water supplies.
The book begins with a brief but interesting history of ethanol
production, how it was used in lamps before electricity, and how it
was legislated against during Prohibition. They follow that with a
consideration of oil production and consumption and the prospects
for the return of cheap oil. They go on to tout the economic and
security benefits of ethanol while considering the environmental
impact. Fuel economy and the various gasoline/ethanol blends are
discussed and how ethanol might improve fuel economy. There's a
chapter on ethanol production from such feedstocks as sorghum,
sugar, artichokes, and food waste. Cellulosic ethanol is
considered. They close by urging conservation and more efficient
use of fuel.
My personal opinion is that ethanol is one of many stop-gap
measures we will be taking during the long, slow withdrawal from
fossil fuels. In the final analysis, unless there are some major
breakthroughs in more efficient ways to capture solar energy and
the development of more efficient batteries to store energy, we
will not be able to support the six and a half billion people on
this planet at current energy levels.
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