Articles on bio-fuels seem to be everywhere. The recent issue of National Geographic gives a comprehensive featured article titled “Growing Fuel – The Wrong Way, The Right Way”. Smithsonian’s November issue has an article “Can Bio-fuels Go the Distance?” The buzz is everywhere, as it should be. With gasoline and home heating oil prices out of control, global warming issues on every front page and Middle East embroiled in war and turmoil alternative, clean and renewable energy is the way to go.

Bio-fuels are particularly appealing because they are carbon neutral, meaning they take as much carbon out of the atmosphere as they put in. Bio-fuels are home-grown with money going to our farmers and woodsmen and not to Middle East despots. Unlike other alternative sources of energy, bio-fuels can use the infrastructure already in place, a major plus.

There is however a serious down side to bio-fuel. Corn is the most common source of ethanol, a bio-fuel that is a gasoline additive. All gasoline engine cars can run on B15 (15% ethanol and 85% gasoline). B85, (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) can be used in cars with a relatively minor modification. The problem is that corn is a major food source and cattle feed. Farmland is limited. Extensive use of ethanol will cause food and meat costs to rise substantially. Corn prices have already doubled with a ripple effect throughout the food world. Not only does corn use valuable farm land but it requires fertilizer and pesticides, both with pollution potential and a further drain on the oil supply. The energy created by the use of ethanol is only slightly more than the energy required to produce it. The downside of corn ethanol is that it is a poor substitute for oil and approaches being immoral as it takes low-cost food out of the mouths of the world’s poor.

Bring on cellulosic ethanol. This process uses agricultural residue such as corn stalks, leaves and corn husks; forest waste and wood chips; municipal waste; and fast growing prairie grasses grown on unfertilized marginal land. In addition, the energy balance can be significantly greater than corn ethanol. The technology for mass production of cellulosic ethanol is not yet ready for consumers.

What is the big push for using corn and only a modest effort for cellulosic ethanol? Making ethanol from corn is a process well established and ongoing. It’s here, it’s now. There are huge political forces encouraging the use of corn. Farmers are given incentives in the way of subsidies. There are tariffs protecting farmers from foreign competition. The players would change if there was a switch to cellulosic ethanol and fortunes are at stake. The entrenched will not give up easily whether or not the shift is the right thing to do. One can rationalize most anything when money is at stake.

On the horizon is yet another form of bio-fuel from algae. Corn and prairie grass are harvested once a year, but algae can be harvested daily. Potential yields per acre jump from 300 gallons of ethanol from corn to 6,000 gallons of bio-diesel from algae. Like cellulosic ethanol the algae can be grown in otherwise unproductive areas.

A 2004 study by Michael Briggs of the University of New Hampshire works out the cost and acreage numbers to have algae produced bio-diesel replace gasoline in the United States. There are many caveats to their numbers but if this country is serious about weaning itself from oil, to gain energy freedom and to reduce global warming gasses, the prospects are encouraging and exciting. Their 10-page report cannot be reproduced here but a brief summary will be provided below. The full report can be read at www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

Caveat – Replace all spark-ignition engines with compression ignition (diesel) engines. With diesel engines providing greater efficiency the 120 billion gallons of gasoline plus the 60 billion gallons of diesel currently used per year could be replaced by 140.8 billion gallons of bio-diesel. This number could be further reduced by shifting to hybrid cars and smaller vehicles. To produce this amount of bio-diesel we would need 15,000 square miles or 9.5 million acres. This is only 5 percent of the land needed if corn were used. To put this amount of land in perspective, it would be roughly 12.5 percent of the Sonora desert in southwestern United States. This compares with 450 million acres currently used for crop farming and over 500 million acres used as grazing land for farm animals. This acreage would be spread across the country. Algae farms could be constructed to use waste water (human and animal waste) and nutrients could be extracted to produce fertilizer as a by-product.

The Briggs study estimates that roughly $308 billion would be needed to build these farms. It sounds like a staggering amount but when you compare this to the $100-$150 billion the United States currently spends each year to purchase crude oil from foreign countries the cost is quite tolerable. In addition this money would stay at home.

This UNH study suggests a radical but potentially doable way to solve the energy crisis. It could happen only if a ground swell of support were to develop. How serious are the American people in reducing global warming gasses and making the country energy independent?

Jack Bash is a regular columnist for the Lakes Region Weekly and lives in Cornish.