Study finds that biofuel threatens water supplies

[The Straight Story]

Study finds that biofuel threatens water supplies

The amount of water used to make bioethanol may be three times as much as previously thought, a new study has found. A gallon of ethanol could require up to 2,100 gallons of water from the farm up to the fuel pump.

The study was conducted by Sangwon Suh and his colleagues of the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and funded in part by USDA/CSREES and the U.S. Department of Energy and the Legislative Citizen's Commission on Minnesota Resources.

Earlier studies figured the amount of water used for a gallon of ethanol to be from 263 to 784 gallons. But these estimates did not account for the widely varied irrigation practices of different regions.

The amount of ethanol produced is expected to rise, therefore igniting concerns over high water usage particularly in areas where there already is water shortages.

Furthermore, there are other studies that have questioned how biofuels can be of any benefit at all because of their energy requirements being far greater than what they provide. They also may not reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as it was hoped and they stand to increase oceanic dead zones by polluting streams with chemical runoff.

http://www.examiner.com/x-6503-Ft-Lauderdale-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m4d11-Study-finds-that-biofuel-threatens-water-supplies

[rucky]

1. This is for corn-based ethanol.

I thought we already pretty much ruled that one out as viable...

Read the comments & ignore the "butt" typo if you can:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/090410-bioethanol-water.html

[ddeclue]

2. There is also bio-diesel to consider as well.

[DCKit]

3. Which makes water even more valuable.

Corporate America is (has been) salivating at the prospect of privatizing our water.

It's the plan, man.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Here's a great report from Food First about biofuels.

http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1711

Food First Backgrounder: Biofuels--Myths of the Agro-fuels Transition

Posted July 6th, 2007 by admin

By Eric Holt-Giménez, Ph.D., Executive Director,
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy

Myth #1: Agro-fuels are clean and green

Because photosynthesis from fuel crops removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and can reduce fossil fuel consumption, we are told fuel crops are green. But when the full “life cycle” of agro-fuels is considered—from land clearing to automotive consumption—the moderate emission savings are undone by far greater emissions from deforestation, burning, peat drainage, cultivation, and soil carbon losses. Every ton of palm oil produced results in 33 tons of carbon dioxide emissions—10 times more than petroleum. Tropical forests cleared for sugarcane ethanol emit 50% more greenhouse gasses than the production and use of the same amount of gasoline. Commenting on the global carbon balance, Doug Parr, chief UK scientist at Greenpeace states flatly, “If even five percent of biofuels are sourced from wiping out existing ancient forests, you’ve lost all your carbon gain.”

There are other environmental problems as well. Industrial agro-fuels require large applications of petroleum-based fertilizers, whose global use—now at 45 million tons/year—has more than doubled the biologically available nitrogen in the world, contributing heavily to the emission of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO². In the tropics—where most of the world’s agro-fuels will soon be grown—chemical fertilizer has 10-100 times the impact on global warming compared to temperate soil applications. To produce a liter of ethanol takes three to five liters of irrigation water and produces up to 13 liters of waste water. It takes the energy equivalent of 113 liters of natural gas to treat this waste, increasing the likelihood that it will simply be released into the environment to pollute streams, rivers and groundwater. Intensive cultivation of fuel crops also leads to high rates of erosion, particularly in soy production—from 6.5 tons/hectare in the U.S. to up to 12 tons/hectare in Brazil and Argentina.

(MORE)