Why should plants be grown for fuel production in places where they do not compete with food crops
Ethanol - C2H5OH also known as "ethyl alcohol" or "grain alcohol" is used for drinking/making alcoholic beverages. Ethanol is also used as a "universal" solvent and as such mainly in medical uses, for a long time ethanol has been used as an important ingredient in fuel for racing cars, airplanes and high power engines.
Recently, as part of the search for alternative sources of energy / fuel, large quantities of ethanol are produced which is used as an additive / substitute for fuel for car engines, i.e. fuel from a biological source - "bio-fuel".
It is important to note that in the process of producing ethanol, carbon dioxide is emitted, as well as when burning it as a fuel, except that: since ethanol is produced from plants, plants that absorb the gas as they grow, thus zeroing out / neutralizing the emission. Also, in today's production processes, the energy invested in production is only slightly lower than the energy that ethanol provides, a situation that will change when the processes are improved.
The pioneer in its use is Brazil, where ethanol is produced from sugarcane and where more than 50% of vehicles (mainly in public transport) are powered by fuel with an ethanol content of up to 100%. This is by using "flexible engines" that can be fueled with different concentrations of fuel (gasoline) and ethanol, an initiative that is possible in Brazil because of the huge areas where sugar cane is grown, the production of ethanol from sugar cane is easy, and the yield is high, about 15 liters of ethanol from 30 kg c cane-sugar,
In the USA, in an attempt to replace the use of fuel from mineral sources, ethanol is produced from corn (from the kernels), about 30 liters of ethanol are produced from every 10 kg of corn kernels.
Ethanol is produced by fermenting sugar, therefore the easiest and simplest way is to use plants with a high percentage of sugar (corn, sugar cane, sugar beet, etc.), but the use of food sources to create fuel causes problems and controversy, especially the use of corn. Corn is a basic food source in the countries of Central America and the USA, in the USA corn is the basis for the production of many types of food and beverages, and even healing potions such as cough syrup. Maize is used as a source of food in chicken coops, that is, a source of chicken meat, herds of cattle fed with corn are a "symbol" of meat production, meaning that the importance of corn as a food in Central and North America is not in doubt.
Due to the growing demand for fuel production from corn, the price of the kernels is rising. The effect is of course immediate, the prices of beef and chicken and food products (and drinks) are rising, in Mexico thousands are protesting against the rising prices of the "tortilla" which is a popular and cheap "fast food".
In the USA, there are about 100 plants for the production of ethanol from corn and a similar number are in the planning and construction stages, last year about 20 billion liters of ethanol were produced, an increase of 25% from previous years, all from corn cobs/kernels that could be used as food.
The immediate result is, more and more farmers are growing more corn instead of other food crops, meaning the prices of other agricultural products are also rising.
To relieve the "stress" and to prevent a lack of food, biotechnologists are trying to develop processes to produce ethanol from cellulose, it is possible to break down cellulose (which constitutes the bulk of the mass in every plant) and produce sugars. It is possible to produce sugars from starch, mushrooms, paper, cotton, algae (seaweed) and from many natural materials that contain carbon and hydrogen molecules such as straw, sawdust, animal manure, "wild" grasses and even elephant dung. From all of them, the raw material can be extracted to create ethanol, but the process is expensive and therefore not worthwhile and does not compete with the ease of production from corn,
In nature there are plants, insects and microorganisms that "know" how to turn cellulose into sugar, species of germs, fungi, bacteria and others, some of which live in symbiosis with termites, ants, cockroaches and others, researchers are looking for the "ultimate" creature that will give manufacturers the opportunity to use secondary plant materials (stems -grains, tree trimmings, etc.), materials that today constitute waste and are thrown away as such, i.e. utilization of waste for fuel production.
The search for those "producers" (microorganisms) is carried out in the digestive system of various insects, in palm resin, agave leaves, mushroom roots, and more. The intention is to "engineer" microorganisms to a stage where they "know" how to create enzymes that will allow the breakdown of many types of waste, a breakdown whose result will yield sugars, the search / research on this topic will continue for about fifty years, now many millions are allocated to the advancement of research, a large part of the budgets are diverted / transferred from subsidies Govt. for corn growers. And several companies promise to achieve results in a short time.
Meanwhile, a study based on computer simulation is published, the researcher, Prof. Mark Jacobson from Stanford University, is an "environmental civil engineer". According to the study, his conclusion is that "even though the use of ethanol is supposed to be less polluting, increased use of ethanol will result in a higher emission of exhaust ozone that will cause more health hazards." Of course, this publication causes angry reactions and adds a facet to the public debate on the use of ethanol.
In another place and time I wrote about the jatropha, a tree from whose fruits biodiesel can be squeezed, the uniqueness of the jatropha tree is its ability to grow in dry conditions and poor soil, that is, where other plants will not succeed. Following the article, interested parties contacted who wanted to check the economic viability of growing jatropha, (in Israel and abroad). I don't have a great understanding of economics, but simple logic says that where food can be grown, it is wrong to grow "fuel", it is possible that for the individual grower it would be worthwhile to grow fuel and not tomatoes or corn, but for society as a whole it would be right to grow food. If it is possible to produce fuel from crops / crop waste, what is good. This is what researchers and scientists are working on today, and the sooner they advance, the better for everyone.
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With us, a monstrous project is being pushed, the main of which is the "Sea Canal", among the other "advantages" the entrepreneurs announce the production of electricity in waterfalls that will take advantage of the height difference between the Bay of Eilat and the Dead Sea, right would the entrepreneurs have done if they had checked the environmental, economic, and social damages The huge amount that this project will cause!
Asaf
19 תגובות
For number one - maybe you didn't notice, but what you're actually saying is that the prices of corn for food can rise up to 25 percent at most, so the viability of growing corn for bio-fuel is not particularly high above large corn for food
To David Maroani: Are you not the country's sports reporter?
In any case, conducting scientific research in the field of chemistry is light years away from analyzing a match between Maccabi and Hapoel Petach Tikva and unlike other fields, in science you have to understand to say something..
David Maroani, I'm sorry but I don't agree with you.
The oil companies have nothing to do with this.
In my opinion, we need to address this issue more.
Thank you very much Doctor for addressing this.
By the way, I'm just learning about it and doing work on it, you serve me as a very good source of material and knowledge for work. So thank you very much, and I hope there will be more articles on this topic because it's a very important topic that requires attention from the people.
Yael.
How naive you are: the big oil companies are the ones who finance the "studies" that find harm in the use of ethanol, there are endless areas on the planet where you can grow corn and not confuse the brain about hunger, what they did to the electric car that disappeared, that's how they want to cause other fuel substitutes disappear
My negative opinion on the competition between food production and fuel production is similar to yours, from a rather in-depth understanding of the subject.
However, one must keep an open mind.
In an article published in the publication Environment not long ago, at least one positive effect was highlighted, which helps poor countries move from alms clusters to independence in the food sector.
The increase in food prices, which previously reached poor countries as half-free aid, increases the economic viability of agriculture in these poor countries and actually increases their own food production.
It seems to me that termites and their stomach bacteria are an idea worth investing in. Cellulose is not lacking and in fact it is almost completely wasted in many cases. Biotechnological development of bacteria that will efficiently produce effective enzymes to break down the cellulose that originate, for example, in the termite's stomach, are ideas whose logic seems simple. Today, with the help of not particularly complicated genetic manipulations, quite a few bacteria can be engineered to create "improved" enzymes and even ones that did not exist (or at least are unknown) in nature. Straw and chaff reactors driven by solar energy in which complex populations of animals and bacteria will work to create alcohol is a visible option. She is not in heaven.
Ami
The sale of fuel to private cars must be banned!
I think that if we are going to invest in research, then accelerate the emergence of the ultimate solution, the use of hydrogen.
To Dr. Rosenthal, thank you very much for the reference.
I still think, as a layman, that growing fuels from nuclear or sugar cane, etc., will deteriorate the third world into a real famine whose damages are huge.
In my opinion, the whole journey {mass...} for green fuel is the result of juggling by the fuel companies that will degenerate any serious research into a real fuel alternative.
to Rafi,
Go through the list thoroughly and you will realize that: I am warning against "fuel growth"
Where food can be grown, and therefore it is important to develop "enzyme producers" that will allow the utilization of waste to create fuel!
To Yuval,
The website has a list about jatropha.
To Noam,
I look forward to the reaction of the green bodies to the initiatives, if they hesitate...
I will soon publish a list about the "Tailat-Hayim Canal".
Assaf Rosenthal Hello!
It seems that the matter of the Sea Canal bothers you so much that you "cool" it at the end - regardless of the article.
How about writing an article on the Hakim Canal in which you will properly clarify your position?
Recently there was a somewhat "flamboyant" article against the canal in Maariv.
I didn't come out of it educated enough to understand the counter-arguments.
Best regards
pleasantness
Can I get a reference to more material on the jatropha tree?
The countries that produce ethanol use the fact that corn and sugar cane are used to feed the world's population.
This does not take into account the enormous damage to the earth created by the areas for their cultivation at the expense of competition for other agricultural areas, the destruction of the rain forests and the habitats of thousands of different species and varieties.
Although the respected author himself enumerates the limitations and problems associated with the process of producing fuel from corn or sugar cane, he continues the fantasy of replacing fossil fuel with grains and basic food products.
How are you, Mr. Rosenthal? For the sake of "clean" fuel, is it worth increasing world hunger because the competition for that 'core' will increase, or is it to reduce the areas of the rain forests for the sake of sugar cane plantations?
The answer is clear…
The condition of the areas in the world that are left for the rain forests and habitats of various species is very bad.
So any additional land area for corn crops for cars will eventually come at the expense of these areas.
Today there is more and more foothold of the modern man in the few territories that remain in Brazil as well
which include massive destruction of forests for agricultural crops.
Ethanol pollutes both the air and the soil, causes massive destruction of the rain forests and robs the habitats of various species that are in danger of extinction, and also creates a situation of high corn and chicken prices at the expense of hunger in Africa and third world countries.
In the end, the general damage it creates is 3 times the damage from using fossil fuel.
Growing corn is "worth" at most only 25% more than the investment in growing it with fossil fuel, pesticides and various soil pollutants. If anything, say recent studies.