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Meeting seeks unity on bioenergy and water

High Plains Journal
January 27, 2008
By Larry Dreiling

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WATER USE EQUIVALENTS--Scott Ross, water commissioner at the Stockton field office of the Division of Water Resources of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, tells attendees that with current technology, a 50 million gallon ethanol plant might use about 614 acre-feet of water a year. This is comparable to the water needed to grow one to two sections of corn or annual water use by a town of about 4,000 people.

Seeking to find unity of purpose while exposing differences of opinion in a setting of presentations of unbiased information was the purpose of a meeting on bioenergy and water in Kansas, held recently at Hays.

The Kansas Water Office and the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE) jointly sponsored the meeting, one of three held across the state for basin advisory committees to learn more about the science and policy related to energy and water in the state.

Basin advisory committees provide insight and advice to the Kansas Water Authority. There is a BAC for each of the state's 12 principal river basins and many of the more than 125 people in attendance at the Hays meeting were representatives of a BAC.

The gathering heard first from a representative of the biofuels industry, Greg Krissek, director of governmental affairs for ICM, the Colwich, Kan., based ethanol plant contractor.

Krissek outlined the basics of how an ethanol plant is constructed, adding that the technology has improved over time to reduce the use of water in ethanol production.

"A typical new dry grind plant today makes 2.8 gallons of ethanol from every bushel of corn," Krissek said. "That's about 96 gallons per dry ton. It also produces dry distillers grain at about 18 pounds per bushel of corn."

A big water user

A typical plant's consumption of energy, per gallon ethanol, is 32,000 BTU, with 0.75 kilowatts of electrical input used and three to four gallons of water, the majority of which is used for cooling. By their nature, ethanol plants are located near grain production areas, generally near small communities.

"Typically, city water is not available for supply and the city's publicly owned treatment works are not available for discharge waters," Krissek said. "The infrastructure and/or capacity of the city's treatment works are not enough for our needs."

For a sufficient water supply needed over the plant's operating life, the quantity needs to be sustainable every hour of the day. A 50 million gallon a year plant typically uses 150 to 250 million gallons of water a year.

"We are tapping into a limited resource," Krissek said. "Pumping water must be properly managed to minimize impact to existing uses. A long-term aquifer sustainability evaluation and groundwater chemistry assessment should be completed to limit impacts.

"It's a real balancing act because, in some locales, the ethanol plant is the largest user of water."

By way of comparison, Krissek said a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant uses two to three times the annual water quantity of a town with a population of 700. A city with a population of 10,000 uses two to three times the water quantity of that same sized plant.

In comparison...

Krissek then offered a list of statistics concerning water use in ethanol plants. On the whole, it takes three to five gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol.

"Average water use declined from 5.8 gallons of water to a gallon of ethanol in 1998 to 4.2 to one in 2005, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. It's an October 2006 report, so efficiencies are likely to have improved," Krissek said.

"About one-third of the water is used for process water; the remaining two-thirds is used in utility systems, with about 90 percent of that used in the cooling tower."

By comparison, Krissek offered it takes 62,600 gallons of water to produce a ton of steel; 39,090 gallons are needed to manufacture a new car, including tires; 28,100 gallons to process a ton of sugar beets into processed sugar; 1,500 gallons to process a barrel of beer; 24 gallons to produce one pound of plastic; 101 gallons to produce one pound of cotton; 300 million gallons are needed to produce a single day's supply of U.S. newsprint; and 150 gallons to produce the average size Sunday newspaper, while the average home uses 107,000 gallons of water per year and it takes 684,000 gallons per acre per year to irrigate a golf course.

"Conservative estimates show the water requirement for refining a gallon of gasoline, at two to 2.5 gallons, is similar to that of ethanol at about three gallons," Krissek said.

Water quality key

An important aspect of ethanol production is not only the availability of water to a plant, but also that the water must be of sufficient quality, Krissek said.

"High concentrations of sulfates, chlorides, silica, and/or hardness will have a negative impact on production efficiency, meaning heat transfer, through corrosion and scaling in the boiler and cooling tower," Krissek said.

"Poor source water quality results in poor wastewater quality and therefore poses difficulty with respect to wastewater permitting. A problem can be the quality of water coming into the plant may exceed wastewater permit limits straight from the source."

Krissek said the ethanol industry is moving forward in research and development into increasing the process efficiency that will lead to reducing water usage.

"We're looking at the use of gray water, or municipal and industrial wastewater, use," Krissek said. "We're looking at new water treatment technologies to create sustainable water quality and quantity solutions."

Examining the environmental impacts of biofuels production and processing was KCARE director Bill Hargrove, who predicts production of all biofuels to increase to 35 billion gallons annually by 2017, five-fold increase that should total about 15 percent of projected annual liquid fuels use.

"That is supposed to increase to 60 billion gallons by 2030," Hargrove said. "For corn ethanol, that means about two to four gallons of water use per gallon of ethanol. For cellulose, it would be two to six gallons, though most commonly 4.5 to five gallons."

Corn has its limits

Hargrove said there are limits to the production of corn-based ethanol.

"Current total U.S. corn production is about 10 billion bushels," Hargrove said. "To achieve 5 billion gallons of ethanol, we used almost 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop. To achieve 35 billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2017 would require more corn than is currently produced in U.S."

To reach the 2017 goal of 35 billion gallons of biofuels production, the U.S. will need 12 billion gallons of production from cellulosic ethanol.

"This will require at least 120 million tons of biomass or 12 million acres of dedicated bioenergy crops, yielding 10 tons of biomass per acre or 60 million acres of crop residues, yielding two tons per acre; that's about two-thirds of the current corn acreage."

A move away from corn-based to cellulosic biofuels, Hargrove said, would lead to an improved U.S. energy balance; less negative environmental impacts; a move away from food and feed crops to dedicated energy crops and/or the use of waste products; lower production inputs such as water, fertilizer and chemicals while increasing the domestic energy supply at low relative cost.

"We have to ask an economic question: Will dedicated bioenergy crops be competitive and, if not, how can we incentivize them?" Hargrove said. "Optimizing the use of perennials in the landscape to provide environmental services and bioenergy will be a good way to go."

A positive impact

Buttressing Hargrove's statements was Dr. Dan O'Brien, Extension agricultural economist at the Kansas State University Northwest Research and Extension Center at Colby. O'Brien gave a quick summation of research he and fellow K-State ag economist Dr. Mike Woolverton did on the growth of the bioenergy industry in Kansas.

"Grain-based ethanol production is only part of the energy security solutions for this country," O'Brien said. "In time, capacity expansion will slow.

"Grain-based ethanol production does affect water resources in the western areas of the state, but is not distorting grain usage patterns. While it will cause changes in the cropping practices of farmers, it positively impacts rural community and state economies."

Echoing that statement was Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Adrian Polansky, who said the promise of what he called the state's new "bioeconomy" is in part realized through the creation of green collar jobs--jobs created through the production of renewable energy products--for Kansans, especially those in rural areas.

"Some 600 permanent jobs have already been created in the working ethanol plants of Kansas," Polansky said. "Related industries include ICM of Colwich, building modern ethanol plants around the world and employing 750; Poet Ethanol Products of Wichita, employing 50. EdenSpace, a biotechnology company in Junction City, will soon employ 30 to 40, mostly scientists.

"Edenspace is developing a trademarked EnergyCorn variety that can reduce cellulosic ethanol processing costs by $1.20 a gallon by incorporating enzyme traits in the plants."

Bioeconomy benefits

Polansky said the renewable energy industry is a huge job creator.

"A study in Nebraska found that a 100 million gallon ethanol plant results in $150 million in capital construction investment, $70 million to the economy during construction and expansion of the local economic base by $233 million each year," Polansky said.

"These plants create 45 direct jobs plus 101 indirect jobs in the area. Grain prices are raised by some 10 cents a bushel and new tax revenues of $3.2 million per year are added. These are not just jobs, but good jobs with an average annual salary of $49,000, well above the average Nebraska salary of $34,000. Kansas is currently conducting its own survey of the economic benefits of the ethanol industry."

Sensible use of natural resources and innovation will help build this new bioeconomy, Polansky said.

"Water is required for nearly every human venture, whether it's raising kids or crops, food, fuel and fiber, or making tires or watering lawns," Polansky said. "We make choices about where to allocate water and other natural resources. New energy crops and genetic modifications to corn and other crops will give us more choices about resources.

"It's a fact that the world's demand for energy continues to increase. Many of the resources we rely on today are running out and cannot be renewed. We must use every source we can, including conservation, to provide energy. The bioeconomy can benefit Kansans and the world."

Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.

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