1. How can biotechnology be used to more efficiently produce biofuels?
Yields for biotech corn are higher than for conventional corn. That makes it more cost-effective to produce ethanol. A U.S. Department of Energy Biofuels Program study concluded that if 4 billion gallons of ethanol were consumed annually, roughly 26 million metric tons of CO2emissions would be eliminated.1 What’s more, plant biotechnology also can help reduce U.S. need for foreign oil and create jobs in the United States. Today, more than half of the petroleum-based energy used by U.S. industries and automobiles is imported. That costs roughly $70 billion, which represents nearly half of the current U.S. trade deficit.2 In addition, the International Energy Agency estimates that world petroleum production will peak between 2010 and 2020.3 By “growing” more of its own fuel, the United States can meet more of its own energy needs from renewable, plant-based resources. Collectively, biofuels work to restore the atmosphere’s natural CO2 balance by not only displacing fossil-fuel emissions, but by relying on feedstocks that pull from the atmosphere the CO2 they need to grow. The Renewable Fuels Association says ethanol reduces tailpipe carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 30 percent, VOC emissions by 12 percent and toxic emissions by 30 percent.4
2. Can’t conventional crops be used just as easily to produce biofuels?
It’s true that traditional crops can and are used to produce biofuels. But plant biotechnology can help produce these fuels more economically and in a more environmentally friendly manner in two ways:
First, yields are higher with Bt corn because this enhanced corn has built-in protection against insect pests like the European corn borer. Bt corn, so-named because it contains the naturally occurring soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis, also requires less spraying to control insect pests. Corn is used to produce more than 90 percent of the ethanol in the United States.
Second, researchers are using biotechnology to develop new tools to more efficiently use waste plant products such as grass clippings or corn stalks to produce ethanol and other products. That’s expected to make ethanol even cheaper.
3. What are biofuels and how much is produced and used?
Biofuels are made from plant material, or biomass. In Brazil biofuels such as ethanol are quite common. In fact, some 3.6 million pure-ethanol vehicles are on the streets and highways of Brazil. Currently, ethanol and biodiesel are commercially available in the United States. Ethanol is typically used as a gasoline additive, or oxygenate, that reduces harmful automobile emissions. U.S. ethanol production has increased by about 12 percent annually5 since 1980 — reaching more than 1.6 billion gallons in 2000. Biodiesel is a renewable diesel-fuel substitute that’s made by combining any natural oil or fat with alcohol.6 Biodiesel is being used by several municipal fleets around the country. In March, Minnesota became the first U.S. state to mandate the use of biodiesel. The law requires that, by 2005, most diesel fuel sold in the state contain a 2 percent blend of biodiesel.7
4. Doesn’t burning ethanol also create emissions?
Burning ethanol does, in fact, release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, it releases essentially the same carbon dioxide that was fixed by photosynthesis when the fuel-producing plants grew. So much or all of the CO2 released when biomass is converted into biofuel or burned in automobile engines is recaptured when new biomass is grown to produce more biofuels.8
5. How is ethanol produced?
The process of making ethanol or ethyl alcohol from starch or sugar-based feedstocks is nearly as old as humankind. While the basic steps remain the same, however, the process has been dramatically improved in recent years. Ethanol can be made from any biological feedstock, but it typically starts with corn. Here’s how ethanol is produced: Starch in corn is converted to sugars by commercial enzymes enhanced by biotechnology. Those sugars are then used by specific varieties of yeast to produce ethanol in a process called fermentation.9
6. What effect has increased ethanol production had on the U.S. corn industry?
Ethanol is now the third-largest market for U.S. corn, after animal feed and corn headed for export.10 More than 600 million bushels of corn are converted to ethanol annually. That provided as much as $3 billion, or 30 to 35 cents a bushel, in additional farmer income in 2000.11
7. What will the economic impact be of future renewable fuel use?
A study by AUS Consultants predicted that increased demand for renewable fuels between 2002 and 2016 will increase farm-level corn prices by 11.8 percent and will not result in a significant rise in food prices.12 That will put an additional $6.6 billion of net cash income into the pockets of American farmers every year over the next 15 years. That’s a total of $99 billion. That same study estimated that increased production and use of renewable fuels will also create as many as 300,000 new jobs by 2016.13
8. Does biotech corn really have higher yields than conventional varieties?
Yields depend on a variety of factors, including the weather, the type of seed and the soil. But biotech corn does produce higher yields in areas that are prone to insect infestations.14 These pests can cause millions of dollars of crop damage each year. A recent study, for example, found that 57 percent of Iowa farmers reported an average yield loss of 5.4 bushels per acre caused by the European corn borer alone.15 Many farmers have found that biotech corn is the best way to protect their crops, which increases yields. Leonard Gianessi, senior research associate for the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, said in testimony to the House Science Committee that the average yield for Bt corn in 1997 was 11.7 bushels per acre higher than for conventional corn. In 1998, the average increase in yield was 4 bushels per acre.16 That would translate into an extra 30 gallons of ethanol per acre in 1997, and an additional 11 gallons per acre in 1998.17 Research is currently underway to develop biotech corn hybrids that have higher yields as well as resistance to insect pests.
9. How much gasoline is consumed in the United States each year?
In 1999, the last complete year for which data is available, total U.S. gas consumption was roughly 131 billion gallons. Historically, gasoline demand has increased at an annual rate of about 1 percent.18
10. Does the cost of ethanol make it a viable petroleum substitute?
Ethanol still costs more to produce than gasoline, but the cost to produce it has dropped substantially over the past 15 years.19 An August 2002 report by the USDA's Office of the Chief Economist found that increased corn yields and technological efficiencies in how corn is converted into ethanol in recent years has made ethanol production much more efficient than in the past.20 The report said ethanol production now yields 34 percent more energy than is used in growing and processing corn. It is believed that biotechnology can be used to dramatically reduce ethanol production costs even more by using low-cost biomass feedstocks such as agricultural and forest residues, prairie grass, kudzu, waste wood, used paper products, and even urban waste. Continuing research into biotech fuels could help reduce the cost of producing ethanol by as much as 60 cents per gallon by 2015.21
11. How does plant biotechnology work with biofuels?
Researchers are working to develop a collection of new biocatalysts — genetically engineered enzymes, yeasts and bacteria — that are making it possible to produce biomass ethanol from just about any plant, tree or agricultural waste. This would dramatically reduce the cost to produce ethanol because the industry would no longer have to rely solely on corn as a feedstock.
12. What is the status of biofuel technology?
The ethanol industry is about where the petroleum industry was a century ago when it first cracked the petroleum molecule. That breakthrough allowed more petroleum to be used to produce high-performance gasoline, thereby reducing waste and the cost. Likewise, new biocatalysts and processing techniques are being developed that will allow more plant life — such as lawn clippings or wood waste from sawmills — to be used to make renewable fuel.22 Fast-growing switchgrass, which was once common on the American plains, is also being considered as a feedstock.23
References:
1. U.S. Department of Energy Biofuels Program, paper presented to the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, June 12, 1997.
2. “Biofuels for Sustainable Transportation,” The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, June 2000, p. 5.
3. DiPardo, Joseph, “Outlook for Biomass Ethanol Production and Demand,” Energy Information Administration, Washington, D.C., last updated April 26, 2000, www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biomass.html
4. “Ethanol and the Environment Q & A,” Renewable Fuels Association, www.ethanolrfa.org/factfic_envir.html
5. “Biofuels for Sustainable Transportation,” The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, June 2000, p. 4.
6. Brunswick, Mark, “Ventura Allows Biodiesel Bill to Become Law Without His Signature.” Star Tribune, March 16, 2002.
7. Cushman, Janet and Ferrell, John and Glassner, David, “Our Changing Earth Our Changing Climate,” Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Office of Transportation Technologies, U.S. Department of Energy, November 1998, p. 5.
8. Krohn, Brad, Monsanto, Electronic document, April 5, 2002.
9. “U.S. Corn Usage Statistics,” The National Corn Growers Association, www.ncga.com
10. Frequently Asked Questions,” The National Corn Growers Association, www.ncga.com/ethanol/main/FAQ.htm
11. Urbanchuk, John M., “An Economic Analysis of Legislation for a Renewable Fuels Requirement for Highway Motor Fuels,” AUS Consultants, p. 2-3.
12. Urbanchuk, John M., “An Economic Analysis of Legislation for a Renewable Fuels Requirement for Highway Motor Fuels,” AUS Consultants, p. 1.
13. Vaughan, Dee, “Testimony,” Board Member, National Corn Growers Association, October 20, 2000, National Corn Growers Association Web site, www.ncga.com/public_policy/testimonies/pre2001/ statement_10_26_00.htm
14. Gianessi, Leonard. “Agricultural Biotechnology: Insect Control Benefits,” National Center for Food & Agricultural Policy, p. 19, www.ncfap.org/biotech.htm
15. Vaughan, Dee, “Testimony,” Board Member, National Corn Growers Association, October 20, 2000, National Corn Growers Association Web site, www.ncga.com/public_policy/testimonies/pre2001/ statement_10_26_00.htm
16. Kraus, Mathew, Monsanto, Electronic document, April 4, 2002.
17. “Ethanol, America’s Clean Renewable Fuel,” The National Corn Growers Association Web site, www.ncga.com/ethanol/main/index.htm
18. Lugar, Richard G. and Woolsey, James. “The New Petroleum.” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 1, January/February 1999, pg. 89.
19. DiPardo, Joseph. “Outlook for Biomass Ethanol Production and Demand,” Energy Information Administration, Washington, D.C., last updated April 26, 2000, www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biomass.html
20. “USDA Report Finds Ethanol is Energy Efficient” United States Department of Agriculture press release, Aug. 1, 2002,
21. Lugar, Richard G. and Woolsey, James. “The New Petroleum.” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 1, January/February 1999, p. 89.
22. Biofuels from Switchgrass: Greener Energy Pastures, bioenergy.ornl.gov |
