Ethanol: An energy sink

An Associated Press story in July reported on research at the University of California at Berkeley and at Cornell University in New York stating that 29 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than is in the ethanol itself. In addition, $3 billion is given each year to the ethanol industry in tax subsidies.

The story did not list the expenditures of energy required to produce the ethanol. If it had, it would have included the fossil fuel required to prepare the land for planting the corn used to make ethanol; the fossil fuel used in the planting and fertilizing of the corn; the fossil fuel required to produce the fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides; the fossil fuel required to harvest the corn; the natural gas used to dry the corn; the fossil fuel required to truck the corn to a grain elevator, the fossil fuel required to ship the corn to an ethanol plant; the electrical energy required to grind the corn; the natural gas required to heat the corn mash to the proper temperature for the yeast to work and to maintain that temperature for many hours during fermentation; and the natural gas to evaporate off the ethanol at 180 degrees Fahrenheit, to collect the ethanol vapors, to refrigerate the vapor to change it into liquid and to heat the mash to evaporate the water to make the mash salable.

Fossil-fuel energy is also required to produce the farm machinery and machinery at the ethanol plant. The auto industry and others calculate the percentage of all the different kinds of machinery to better judge their profit and for tax purposes. So too must the farmers and ethanol plants calculate the equipment amortization for energy use.

When the energy cost of producing the equipment is added to the other energy costs of producing the ethanol, the entire ethanol production is truly a mind-boggling energy sink.

The main reason that corn growers associations promote the production of ethanol is to raise the price of corn and to create a market. Sounds reasonable, but this increase in the price of corn is passed on to the beef producers, to the egg and poultry producers and ultimately to consumers.

Also, the many food processors who use corn additives will also pass on their increased costs to consumers.

The massive use of natural gas at ethanol plants will only increase demand for it and will automatically drive up the price of natural gas for homeowners. Consumers already have been warned of a great price increase this winter caused by the hurricanes.

Ethanol production will definitely cause a hardship on homeowners this winter and for winters to come. It's just not sensible to increase heating costs and food costs to help the corn growers and ethanol plants.

How must people of the world think of our most righteous talk about alleviating world hunger when we use corn to make ethanol?

It must seem to the world we are unethical and more interested in profit for a certain few to the detriment of many here and abroad.

If the researchers at the University of California and Cornell can calculate how much more energy is used to produce ethanol than is in the ethanol itself, surely the federal government would turn loose high-powered mathematicians to officially verify the researchers' results.

Surely there must be some people in the U.S. Department of Agriculture who are not afraid to speak up.

Russ Kullberg of Cape Girardeau is retired from the biology department at Southeast Missouri State University.