“1,000 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
No, that’s not an Exxon exec’s fantasy CAFE standard. It’s how much water will be required by an ethanol plant slated to open in Pennsylvania’s coal country, according to this report.
Secure · Tax deductible · Takes 45 Seconds
Secure · Tax deductible · Takes 45 Seconds
My calculator informs me that “1,000 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week” amounts to about 526 million gallons of water per year. The above-linked article claims that the Pennsylvania plant will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol annually. That means it takes about five and a quarter gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol — and that doesn’t account for irrigation water for corn production.
Fascinating.
