By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. (ICGA) officials are excited about a newly released study from Argonne National Laboratory hailing ethanol plants for their overall energy efficiency compared to just five years ago.

According to the ICGA, the study stated that ethanol facilities decreased water consumption (down 26 percent), grid electricity use (down 15.7 percent) and total energy use (down 21.8 percent) from 2001 to 2006. During that period, U.S. ethanol production soared from 1.77 billion to 4.9 billion gallons per year.

“America’s ethanol industry has come a long way in a few short years, as has the efficiency and productivity,” said Art Bunting, ICGA president. ”There continues to be a lot of outdated or just plain wrong information circulating regarding the ethanol production chain, so this is a welcome study.”

Bunting pointed to new ethanol production plants in Hennepin, Annawan and Sauget, Ill., as examples of “gold standards” for plant efficiency.

“With the construction of these new, state-of-the-art biorefineries, we are today producing ethanol using far less energy and water,” he said.

“Combined with the increased productivity on the farm and advances that are making cellulosic ethanol more attractive, ethanol production provides an important component in our efforts to reduce global warming emissions.”

According to Argonne’s results, the increased use of ethanol resulted in the reduction of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions by 10 million tons in 2007 – the equivalent of removing more than 1.5 million U.S. automobiles from roads.

Improvements in the use of ethanol co-products are leaving a green imprint, the study found. Nearly 25 percent of ethanol producers have begun capturing their carbon dioxide emissions for use in dry ice production and carbonated beverage bottling. Additionally, 37 percent of distillers’ grains are now sold in wet form, reducing the energy needed for drying.

Bunting said the study results scientifically validated what the ICGA had been hearing from the industry for years: Ethanol plants are becoming more efficient.

“However, this information is far more powerful coming from a respected, third-party source such as the Argonne Lab,” he remarked. “We expect this march toward efficiency to continue, especially with the incentive provided by ridiculously high oil prices.
“Ethanol is filling supply gaps left by Middle Eastern nations cutting production to raise prices, helping us fight air pollution in urban areas (and) replacing poisons in our gasoline like lead and MTBE. The increasing productivity reduces the number of U.S. dollars we are shipping to countries that want to destroy our culture and our way of life.”

This farm news was published in the May 7, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.