Carl Bialik, “The Numbers Guy” at the Wall Street Journal, tackles the ethanol energy-efficiency debate. This is a useful resource article – Bailik has looked at some of the relevant research, and includes a number of links to the journals.
Is ethanol a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? Bialik concludes that ethanol is probably somewhat energy positive, though the amount is not clear. I.e., when you consider all the inputs, you get slightly more energy output. But studies that examine the complete life-cycle associated with each of the fuel options are exceedingly rare. One such study I’ve found is discussed in this earlier post: the study was developed by The Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment (ILEA is a Seattle environmental advocacy NGO). This study focus is the viability of “the hydrogen economy” for transport, but biomass fuels are considered, concluding that biomass should be a policy option, and merits more R&D.
Personally, I think careful examination of the complete life-cycle is essential. In the case of biomass options, “complete” must include all the environmental impacts – such as water supplies and ground water contamination [a byproduct of most competitive agriculture]. I discussed some of these issues in my May 10 post “What can ethanol contribute, really?”.
There’s the academic research, and there’s the markets. If we see meaningful biomass investment startups, that would be encouraging. Investors of course only look at the price of inputs they expect to carry. Presently that doesn’t include full life-cycle impacts such as water. Investors absolutely do include in their ROI projections the distortions of subsidies [ethanol gets a big subsidy].
Thus, one of the more interesting tidbits included in Bialik’s article is that venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is backing several ethanol startups. Khosla is one Very Smart Guy, so I will be paying more attention to this area:
Vinod Khosla, a partner in the Menlo Park, Calif., venture-capital firm Khosla Ventures, has invested in several ethanol technologies and is an advocate for their promise. He said arguments against ethanol focus unjustly on older plants. “It’s like saying, a power plant built in the ’50s is very polluting, so all power plants are very polluting,” Mr. Khosla told me.
Bottom line: today there are no known “silver bullets” for carbon-friendly transport solutions. Good policy will incorporate contributions from a variety of sources, one of which may be biomass. Tell your representatives that you want policy to be based on objective evaluation of all the inputs, outputs and side effects. And be sure to tell them to seriously consider nuclear power generation!
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