Articles by Ron Steenblik

Bait and switchgrass, again

I've only just seen this study by Tiffany A. Groode, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and not looked at it in detail, but several statements in the press release stand out:

Now a new MIT analysis shows that the energy balance is actually so close that several factors can easily change whether ethanol ends up a net energy winner or loser.

Regardless of the energy balance, replacing gasoline with corn-based ethanol does significantly reduce oil consumption because the biomass production and conversion process requires little petroleum.

Groode incorporated into her analysis the uncertainty associated with the values of many of the inputs. Using a methodology developed by a recent MIT graduate, she used not just one value for each key variable (such as the amount of fertilizer required), but rather a range of values along with the probability that each of those values would occur.

Based on her "most likely" outcomes, she concluded that traveling a kilometer using ethanol does indeed consume more energy than traveling the same distance using gasoline.

So why does the press release proclaim, "MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels"? Because cornstarch ethanol forms part of a continuum, you see:

Malaysian company may build an additional 12 plants

According to recent press reports, a Malaysian company, Pioneer Bio Industries Corp. Sdn. Bhd., is about to begin building what it claims will be the world's first plant to commercially produce fuel ethanol from nipah palms (Nypa fruiticans), also known as the mangrove palm, attap palm (in Singapore), and Golpata (in Bangladesh).

Nipah palms grow in soft mud along coasts and slow-moving tidal rivers flowing into the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are abundant in Malaysia.

Ag chair presents his vision on biofuels

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), along with two members of Congress from South Dakota, Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D) and Sen. John Thune (R), participated in the annual South Dakota Corn Growers convention on Saturday.

Naturally, a big part of the convention's focus was on ethanol.

Next year’s prize, a flex-fuel Hummer?

The Kansas Lottery has launched a "Truck & Bucks" scratch-card game, the second-chance prize for which is the flex-fuel version of the 2007 GMC Sierra Crew Cab Pickup. Flex-fuel vehicles can burn ethanol-gasoline blends containing up to 85% ethanol (normally abbreviated as E85). The game was developed by the Lottery, in partnership with the 3i Show and the GMC Division of General Motors.