Scientist: Ethanol the wrong path for Lake County, alternative fuels

Lake County's public-private plan to transform trash to ethanol would generate an inferior fuel with a questionable future, a former National Science Foundation official and energy adviser to the federal government said.

John Regalbuto, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former researcher and adviser for the foundation, has cautioned government officials to steer clear of the federal subsidies that have been propping up the ethanol industry.

And he believes they are listening.

"Ethanol is dying the death as a biofuel," said Regalbuto, who directed a biofuels program for the science foundation from 2006 to 2009. "The federal funding for ethanol, I'm happy to report, is pretty much dried up."

Other alternative fuels, such as hydrocarbon-based "green gasoline" and biodiesel, which contain more energy than ethanol and thus provide better mileage in petroleum-based engines, now are garnering the attention of federal energy agencies that write subsidies and grant checks, Regalbuto said.

Congress is considering whether to extend some ethanol subsidies set to expire.

Regalbuto's position on ethanol contradicts the stance taken by supporters of the future Schneider trash-to-ethanol plant. Those proponents believe transforming the county's solid waste into ethanol will save taxpayers on garbage-processing fees and provide an economic boon to the region.

The Lake County Solid Waste Management District signed a contract with Powers Energy of America in 2008 to build and operate what will become a taxpayer-owned but privately operated trash-to-ethanol and recycling facility.

Supporters of the Lake County plan tout as cutting edge the technology that Evansville-based Powers Energy of America intends to use to heat, distill and chemically transform carbon-based trash into ethanol. They also hail the hundreds of union jobs that building the estimated $280 million facility would create.

But Regalbuto said several companies are beginning to incorporate technologies similar to the kind Powers would use, to produce biofuel with energy properties identical to gasoline and diesel -- not ethanol. The green fuels, as they often are called, run in gasoline or diesel engines with the same results as regular gas or diesel derived from fossil fuels.

As an example, Regalbuto noted LS9 Inc., a California alternative energy company in partnership with major chemical company Proctor & Gamble, has developed technology to transform sugar cane and other vegetative material into fuel with chemical properties identical to petroleum-based fuels.

By contrast, ethanol, particularly as it exists in E85 fuel, gets about 30 percent fewer miles to the gallon than gasoline, and ethanol takes more energy and water to produce than green gas or diesel, Regalbuto said. Green gas and diesel also could travel through existing fuel pipelines, while ethanol must be transported by trucks or other means.

"Why make a poor, inferior fuel like ethanol?" Regalbuto said, referring to the Lake County trash-to-ethanol plan. "If you're going to make transportation fuels, why not make the best ones?"

Regalbuto said given various limitations of trash and the science of transforming it, Lake County would be better off turning municipal garbage into fuel oil, which then could be used to produce electricity or other energy.

Vegetation-based waste, such as sugar cane, wood chips and corn stover -- the waste left over from corn plants -- makes better feedstock for producing biofuel than much of the content of municipal trash, Regalbuto said.

"With municipal solid waste, you're better off undertaking a more simplified process to produce fuel oil and electricity," he said. "Fuel oil is the simplest, best way to recycle the energy in this case."

Supporters of the proposed trash-to-ethanol plant cite a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision -- which allows the production of a gasoline-ethanol mixture with 5 percent more ethanol than most current blends -- as a sign ethanol is not going away.

But Regalbuto believes ethanol has a less viable future, largely because of its lack of energy and efficiency compared to gas and diesel and the changing direction in government energy subsidies.

source: nwitimes