Previous |
Next |
August 17, 2007, 10:46 AM ET
Ethanol Will Not Fuel the Future, Oregon Researchers Say
If you’re thinking about running the campus fleet on biofuel, you might think twice. Researchers at Oregon State University spent a year looking at the viability of various kinds of ethanol and found it lacking.
Biofuel may not be sustainable, at least in the Northwest, the researchers found. “For every 10 units of corn-based ethanol energy, eight units of energy are used in producing the fuel,” said a news report about the research. “For canola-based biodiesel, for every 10 units of energy, six units of energy are required to make the biodiesel.”
A copy of the researchers’ report is available.
Of course, readers of The Chronicle should know this already. In the sustainability package last year, an economist from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities raised serious questions about the use of ethanol as a green fuel. The University of Minnesota was touting its ethanol-burning fleet as “green.”
Pundits like James Howard Kunstler have railed against biofuels for years, asking Americans to create compact, walkable cities and neighborhoods, which would obviate the desperate need to fuel automobiles. Americans are dreaming about “how to keep all the cars running by some other means,” even though gasoline replacements have been found inadequate, he said in a speech at the Commonwealth Club of California. “But the wish to keep the cars going is so powerful that round and round the dream keeps going: Ethanol! Biodiesel! Coal Liquids!”
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.