Tracking corn from seed to ethanol, it creates greenhouse gas emissions on par with diesel and only slightly less than gasoline. But harvesting native prairie grasses for ethanol leads to a net reduction in the planet-warming pollutants.
Click on the chart at left for the full size view. This is an excellent graphic from the new study published in the February Conservation Biology, by Groom, Gray & Townsend from the University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy. It appears the authors have attempted a full life-cycle inputs/outputs study of most of the biofuels sources currently in production or under development.
Of the biofuel sources they evaluated, the only ones that make sense are those that don’t work today: switch grass, wood waste and algae. The “wood residue” crop would presumably include processes such as the Range Fuels thermochemical process. I’m keeping an eye on Range Fuels because their syngas process is close to conventional chemical plant methods and doesn’t require any bio-engineering breakthroughs [as does the switch grass channel].
There is a summary of this report in the Seattle PI.
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