10 Things You Might Not Know About Ethanol

There's a lot more to ethanol -- the plant-based fuel often touted as the U.S.'s answer to energy independence -- than many might have you believe. Is it good for the environment or not? Does turning food into fuel contribute to world hunger? Can we grow enough? The answers might surprise you.

Following are 10 recent developments in the world of ethanol:

1. The rush to replace oil with corn-based ethanol has caused food prices around the world to rise. According to an unpublished report by the World Bank, biofuels have caused 75 percent of global food price increases. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, on the other hand, says using corn for fuel has contributed only a few percent to the cost of food.

2. However much or little the ethanol market has affected food prices, food prices do affect the ethanol market. In fact, as corn prices began hitting record highs this summer, one analyst warned that more than three out of every four ethanol plants in the U.S. could be at risk of shutting down within a matter of months.

3. The unintended consequences of growing more corn for ethanol has generated opposition from different groups that don't always see eye to eye, including ranchers and environmentalists. Just this past week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refused a request from the governor of Texas to halve the amount of ethanol that must be mixed with gasoline by federal mandate. Gov. Rick Perry had argued the requirement was causing price increases for both human food and cattle feed.

4. While the shift to biofuels in the U.S. has focused on corn, other plant sources could prove far more productive. Miscanthus, a giant perennial grass, could outperform corn big-time, generating two-and-a-half times as much fuel per acre, according to recent research from the University of Illinois. By switching to miscanthus, the U.S. could replace 20 percent of its current gas consumption using only 9.3 percent of its farmland. Meeting the 20 percent goal with corn ethanol would require 25 percent of all the nation's farmland.

5. Of all the crops that could be used to make biofuels, corn is the worst, according to a study from the University of Washington. After taking into account the large amounts of energy needed to grow corn, a fertilizer- and water-intensive crop, the amount of fuel generated is modest at best, researchers Martha Groom, Elizabeth Gray and Patricia Townsend concluded. Better sources for biofuel, they said, include switchgrass and algae.

6. Using crop waste rather than food crops for biofuels could silence the "No Food for Fuel" critics. However, even that option poses challenges. Left on the fields after a harvest, crop waste helps rebuild the soil, retain water, prevent erosion and nourish future crops. "We need to constantly replenish organic matter -- so removing valuable residue, especially in areas with low rainfall, may not be the best practice," says Ann Kennedy, a soil scientist at Washington State University.

7. Among the other food products that can be made into ethanol: beer. In fact, Coors is donating ethanol it makes from spilled or rejected beer batches to power the flex-fuel vehicle fleet at the August Democratic National Convention in Denver. The beer-maker currently makes some 3 million gallons of beer-based ethanol annually.

8. Despite the promise of various types of biofuels, there's an upper limit to how much the world could potentially produce. Earlier this year, researchers Chris Field and Elliott Campbell calculated that the amount of land suitable for biofuel farming (including abandoned cropland and pastures but not active farms or forests) totaled 1.5 million acres worldwide. That acreage could produce biofuels equal to 172 million barrels of oil. Sounds like a lot, right? But that's only 5 percent of the total amount of energy people consumed in 2005.

9. Biofuels are not only highly dependent on government subsidies, but don't do much to either improve energy security or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The report noted that ethanol from sugar cane, the primary biofuel source in Brazil, was best for lowering carbon emissions (80 percent lower than fossil fuels), while corn-based ethanol reduced emissions by less than 30 percent.

10, Genetic engineering could help develop highly efficient "algae factories" for making ethanol from cellulose. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin they had created a new form of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) by adding in genes from a cellulose-producing bacteria. The engineered algae produce cellulose and simple sugars, both of which can be turned into ethanol.