This year's State of the Union addressed it. The U.S. Senate introduced a bill about it. And prominent publications from newsstand to Internet have devoted thousands of column inches to it.
Alternative fuel isn't just the pet cause of your green-thinking congressman anymore.
As the national government deals with diminishing fossil fuel reserves, biofuels like corn ethanol and biodiesel may prove to be economically as well as environmentally sounder solutions to an inevitable transportation fuel crisis. But what would a shift to alternative fuel sources mean for Southeast Michigan, a region traditionally dominated by the auto industry and a reliance on mineral-based fuel? And what are the options?
You call it corn. We call it fuel.
Of all of the alternatives, perhaps the one with the greatest name recognition is E85, an ethanol-petrol blend that contains
85% corn-derived grain alcohol. Ethanol has been around for years and unbeknownst to most Americans, the gasoline we're buying actually has small percentages of it. But the idea of blended fuel with higher ethanol percentages has been largely unheard in the United States until recent years, though several Latin American countries are currently investing in it. Brazil is the biggest user, processing the fuel mostly from sugar-cane. In fact,
77% of new cars in Brazil have ethanol engines.
But ethanol advocacy in the region is nothing new; Henry Ford
sang the praises of this crop-based fuel in the 1920s. Should Michigan choose to pursue heightened ethanol production, our abundant cornfields and arable land will prove to be an advantage.
"It's very economical to produce [ethanol] close to where it's grown," said Jim Saber, director of program development at
NextEnergy --the organization advocates for diversification of regional energy sources.
Saber says that approximately 70 to 80% of the cost of a gallon of ethanol is feedstock. Without a sophisticated infrastructure with which to shift the feedstock to the processing plant, however, additional costs for transportation will cut into any future profit. "[It's] why you see biodiesel and ethanol plants popping up in states where [feedstock] is grown — that can have a significant impact on local economy," Saber says. With fewer dollars going out to coal and natural gas-producing states, localization will only reinvest more money into the region. "I believe [it's] a very significant snapshot of the future that not a lot of people are talking about."
Saber predicts a very different economic map of Michigan 50 years in the future, featuring many small, localized refineries for biomass and production of biofuel.
More efficient (and more expensive) is next generation cellulosic ethanol, which processes switchgrass, corn stalks, or
even trees. While interest in ethanol production has already increased prices for corn on the wholesale market, cellulosic ethanol (which should become commercially viable in the next few years) would alleviate the strain, allowing for consumption of regional corn plants as both food and fuel.
Mileage may varyCornell University ecology professor David Pimentel and Berkeley's engineering professor Tad Patzek, however, challenge the wisdom of corn-based fuel. The two recently published a report that claims the actual process of converting corn into ethanol
uses 29 percent more fossil energy than the final product. Fellow critics suggest the process leaves us off no better than we are now.
In answer, supporters point to recent promising innovations. Instead of fueling the plants with coal or natural gas, greener-thinking producers have started using eco-friendly methane gas —
obtained from manure at dairies and feedlots.
Others are pinning their hopes on biodiesel. It may not impact regional economics the way corn-based ethanol does, but it can be used by current vehicle systems.
"With the biodiesel, they don’t have to reinvent anything — it all exists," says Mark Beyer, NextEnergy's director of marketing communications. "It’s all figured out."
"Biodiesel and diesel are about the same," says
Jacob Corvidae, the Green Programs Manager at WARM Training Center. Corvidae drives a Volkswagen, which he runs on biodiesel. Not only can biodiesel fuel work in any diesel-compatible system, it also runs gets better mileage. "At about 50 miles a gallon for about $2.80 a gallon," according to Corvidae, "you actually save money."
Diesel engines that run on low-sulfur fuel (and biodiesel or biodiesel blends) are popular in Europe and Japan, and the US is due: At the North American International Auto Show earlier this year, Honda, Chrysler, Nissan, BMW and Mercedes-Benz declared intent to make diesel engines available for American cars. The immediate implications for the trucking industry are obvious.
Of course, mileage, in part, hinges on how fuel-efficient your car is begin with.
In the State of the Union address this year, President Bush declared an increase of domestic ethanol production to 35 billion gallons a year, a 20% decrease in American petroleum use by 2017, and stricter fuel-efficiency standards. An increase in ethanol production and a gradual cutback on gas consumption will pay out in the long term, but tighter efficiency standards is something the automakers can look into now, helping shed our dependence on foreign oil.
Most likely the near-future of transportation will rely on flexfuels, or blends of biodiesel, or petroleum and ethanol, like E85. Most effectively, these fuel blends may even combined with new-line hybrids.
Plugging into the future
"I think that in the future … you’ll start to see obviously more ethanol- and E85-compatible vehicles, more biodiesel in the marketplace, a growth in hybrid electric powertrain and other hybrid powertrain," Saber says.
Chevrolet drew significant hype for its
Volt at this year's Detroit Auto Show, a small sedan that couples a 40-mile rechargeable electric battery and a standard internal-combustion engine. But there's still potential to be tapped. Some see the next few years as the Big Three's chance to take the lead again in the industry.
"[It's] all going to be a positive impact if Southeast Michigan can grow some of these technologies first and market it to the rest of the world," Saber says.
"We're better as leaders than begrudging followers," Corvidae adds. "There's more the Big Three could be doing to lead this — more intelligent marketing they could be doing around … biodiesel and ethanol in Michigan."
There are significant gains the traditional Detroit automakers can achieve with hybrid technology, especially in the US market where there are still not many flexfuel vehicles available — or consumers who know about them, says Jennifer Alvarado, executive director of
Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA). "A lot of people don't even know that you can put ethanol in your car."
If either Ford, General Motors or DaimlerChrysler want to regain sales and status lost in recent years to foreign auto manufacturers, they must become forerunners in the technology but also make their vehicles attractive for their consumer base. In the competitive auto market, the hybrid subsector is still small enough that there's time to take advantage of it.
NextEnergy's Beyer suggests the traditional Detroit powers may already be taking necessary action.
"The Big Three is doing far more work on this than is publicly known," Beyer says. "They are pushing hard in every direction, harder than anyone we know of … [to] keep Detroit in a leadership position with vehicles."
Emphasis on making more vehicles biofuel-compatible (and as a result, cleaner burning), may add extra punch to the goal of making Michigan greener all around.
"We won’t see the growth of this industry without implementing the right policy transitioning from fossil fuel to renewable energy," Alvarado of GLREA says.
Both she and Saber note that some Michigan lawmakers are trying to legislate
renewable portfolio standards for the state that requires Michigan to get a portion of its energy from renewable resources like wind and solar. If Michigan would be joining the
23 states that already have an RPS, roads streaming with biofuel-burning cars would certainly fit the picture.
"Having [an RPS] attracts to the state investors and investment in renewable resources," Saber says. "[It’s] a signal that Michigan can send out to the investment world that we're interested in doing business here.
The Darwinian business mantra “Adapt or die” certainly applies to the state of transportation fuel and the automotive industry today, and transitively, the Southeast Michigan economy. Whether its abundant cornfields, green thinking and automaking background, Michigan has the opportunity to lead the industry in biofuel technology and manufacture of a better breed of cars. It's rare that so many pieces to the fuel-crisis solution are in one place — the resources are here in our own backyards. If we don’t take advantage of them and work to innovate in the next few years, there may be much bigger problems than four-dollar gallons of petrol.
Kimberly Chou is a freelance writer living in Ann Arbor. She is a frequent contributor to metromode. You can read her article here.
Photos:
Ethanol plant
Corn = fuel
Traditional fossil fuels are running on empty
Chevrolet Volt at the Detroit Auto Show (photograph by Dave Krieger)
NextEnergy headquarters at TechTown - Detroit (photograph by Dave Krieger)
Conceptual photographs licensed from istockphoto