WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue University agricultural economist and energy policy analyst has changed his tune on renewable fuels.

“We don’t just talk about ethanol. We talk about biofuels,” said Wally Tyner.

“Ethanol is the product from corn, but you also can produce gasoline and diesel directly from cellulosic feedstocks. And when you bring up the blending wall for ethanol, that means the door may be open wider for processes that will take us directly from corn stover, switchgrass and Miscanthus to biogasoline and biodiesel. We need to be thinking in those terms.”

Tyner and fellow Purdue agricultural economist Steven Wu will discuss biofuels and the future of renewable energy during Growing the Bioeconomy: Solutions for Sustainability. The Dec. 1 conference is a collaborative effort between Purdue and sister land-grant universities in 11 other Midwest states.

Purdue Extension and Purdue’s Energy Center at Discovery Park are hosting a conference viewing site in Stewart Center on the university’s West Lafayette campus. The conference also can be viewed online.

The event is geared toward anyone with an interest in biofuels. Conference topics range from advances and breakthroughs in biofuels to biochar, which is the leftover material after cellulose is converted into fuel.

Tyner said there’s still a future for ethanol, but much of the future growth will be in cellulosic biofuels. Cellulose for liquid fuel comes from plant material, including the non-grain parts of corn.

Ethanol growth is restrained by a “blending wall” – the amount of ethanol gasoline companies are permitted by law to blend with petroleum-based fuel. Current federal standards set the amount at 10 percent of gasoline consumption.

No such blending limit exists with cellulosic biofuels, Tyner said. There are other differences between biogasoline and ethanol, he said.

Biogasoline is produced through a refining process and is chemically similar to petroleum-based gasoline, while ethanol is produced by a fermentation process, Tyner said. Biogasoline can be transported through gasoline pipelines; ethanol is corrosive to pipes and must be transported by rail or truck.

However, cellulosic biofuels face three challenges, Tyner said.

“You’ve got market uncertainty, technology uncertainty and government policy uncertainty,” he said.

There are no commercial cellulosic biofuels plants operating in the United States, Tyner said. Getting them built likely will require biofuels companies to enter into new kinds of contracts with the farmers supplying the feedstock. Dedicated energy crops like switchgrass and Miscanthus, a similar grass, produce for 10-15 years. A 50-million-gallon biofuels plant would need a truckload of cellulose every 10 minutes from day one.

“These plants cost $400 million to build, and nobody’s going to sink $400 million into concrete and steel until they’ve got a guaranteed supply of feedstock,” Tyner said. “And getting a guaranteed supply of feedstock means convincing farmers that they are going to be there 10 years from now to take their Miscanthus or switchgrass. The plant has to be convinced that the farmer is going to be there 10 years from now, as well. It’s a whole new ballgame.”

Government subsidy programs for renewable fuels would need to change, as well, for the biofuels industry to take off, Tyner said.

“Right now, everything in the U.S. is on a per-gallon basis. So today, for cellulosic biofuels you get $1.01 per gallon whether you’re producing ethanol or biogasoline,” he said. “Biogasoline has 50 percent more energy than bioethanol, yet it gets the same subsidy. We could consider moving to the kind of system Europe has, where everything is based on energy content. That would level the playing field.”

Wu’s presentation follows Tyner’s. Wu will discuss contracting issues for second generation perennial energy crops.

The conference’s keynote speaker is James Lovelock, a renowned thinker on global environmental science. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu are invited speakers.

The conference runs from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST.

Registration is $75 for those viewing the conference at Stewart Center and $50 for online viewing. Complete registration information is available by visiting the Purdue Conference Division’s upcoming events page at https://www.cec.purdue.edu/ec2k/Upcoming.asp and clicking on the link to Growing the Bioeconomy: Solutions for Sustainability. Registration is recommended by Nov. 24.

For a complete conference agenda, visit the conference Web site at http://www.bioeconomyconference.org. Additional information also is available by contacting Chad Martin, Purdue Extension renewable energy specialist, at 765-496-3964, martin95@purdue.edu.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — More of the fertilizers and pesticides used to grow corn would find their way into nearby water sources if ethanol demands lead to planting more acres in corn, according to a Purdue University study.

U.S. Department of Agriculture data has shown that corn acreage has increased with the demand for ethanol, with 93 million acres in 2007, an increase of 12.1 million acres that year.

The study of Indiana water sources found that those near fields that practice continuous-corn rotations had higher levels of nitrogen, fungicides and phosphorous than corn-soybean rotations. Results of the study by Indrajeet Chaubey, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Bernard Engel, a professor and head of agricultural and biological engineering, were published in the early online version of The Journal of Environmental Engineering.

“When you move from corn-soybean rotations to continuous corn, the sediment losses will be much greater,” Chaubey said. “Increased sediment losses allow more fungicide and phosphorous to get into the water because they move with sediment.”

Nitrogen and fungicides are more heavily used in corn crops than soybeans, increasing the amounts found in the soil of continuous-corn fields. Sediment losses become more prevalent because tilling is often required in continuous-corn fields, whereas corn-soybean rotations can more easily be no-till fields, Engel said.

“The common practice is there is a lot of tillage to put corn back on top of corn,” Engel said. “Any time we see changes in the landscape, there is a potential to see changes in water quality.”

Chaubey said there was no significant change in the amount of atrazine detected in water near fields that changed to continuous-corn rotations. The commonly used pesticide sticks to plant material and degrades in sunlight, keeping it from reaching water through runoff or sediment.

U.S. Department of Agriculture data has shown that corn acreage has increased with the demand for ethanol, with 93 million acres in 2007, an increase of 12.1 million acres that year.

“As we look forward here, if corn stover is going to be a preferred bio-feedstock, we would see more corn acreage being planted,” Engel said. “We need to know how that will affect water quality.”

The USDA and Purdue funded the study. Chaubey and Engel are expanding their research to Iowa, Tennessee and Arkansas. That three-year study will include impacts of various biofeedstock, such as switch grass, and developing management practices to reduce sediment, nutrient and pesticide losses.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -– Senate lawmakers today approved a bill that could increase the use of E85 – a blend of 15 percent petroleum-based gasoline and 85 percent ethanol – on campuses and school grounds throughout the state.

House Bill 1193, sponsored by State Sen. Ron Alting (R-Lafayette), now heads to Gov. Mitch Daniels’ desk after today’s 48-2 Senate approval.

According to Indiana’s office of Energy and Defense Development, E85 is a clean burning, high octane fuel that is derived from renewable sources produced in the United States, thus reducing the nation’s demand on foreign sources of energy. E85 decreases the harmful emissions found in gasoline while increasing the fuel’s octane rating.

“Currently, retailers and local governments can receive grants to invest in E85 pumps and fuel tanks,” Alting said. “This legislation would allow school corporations and universities to also receive grants so they can install E85 fuel tanks on campuses.”

Alting said by increasing the availability of E85 on school grounds and campuses, more flex fuel and biodiesel vehicles could be included in the fleets used to transport students and driven by faculty.

Alting said since grants became available last year, more than $135,000 has been provided to various businesses like Crystal Flash Petroleum in Marion County and Family Express Corp. in LaPorte County.

“As one of the country’s largest producers of corn and soybeans – products used to create biofuels – the Hoosier state has an innate responsibility to be one of the nation’s leaders in promoting the sale and use of renewable fuels,” Alting said.

Indiana currently offers tax breaks and incentives for those who produce and/or use biofuels. Funding for these grants comes from corn check-off funds and has no cost to Indiana taxpayers.

According to Indiana’s office of Energy and Defense Development, E85 is a clean burning, high octane fuel that is derived from renewable sources produced in the United States, thus reducing the nation’s demand on foreign sources of energy. E85 decreases the harmful emissions found in gasoline while increasing the fuel’s octane rating.

Sen. Alting represents Senate District 22, which includes a portion of Tippecanoe County.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Cellulosic ethanol made from corn stover and switchgrass could be the next big thing in liquefied energy. The biggest of the big – at least in Corn Belt states like Indiana – would likely be corn stover, a Purdue University study finds.

The plant material that remains in the field after the corn has been harvested can be turned into ethanol.

Corn stover is plentiful in Indiana because of the state’s large corn acreage and could be harvested less expensively than switchgrass, said Wally Tyner, Purdue agricultural economist and the study’s lead researcher. Also, with high corn prices, corn stover would provide farmers extra profit without planting additional crops, he said. Switchgrass is a primary crop and must be planted separately.

“For cellulosic ethanol in Indiana, corn stover is where it’s at,” Tyner said. “From a cost perspective, corn stover averages $40 per dry ton delivered to the ethanol plant while switchgrass averages $60 per dry ton. That’s a huge early advantage to corn stover.

“Then there’s the profit. Farmers would receive an average of $80 an acre extra profit for corn stover and $160 an acre average profit for switchgrass.”

Corn stover consists of the cornstalks and other plant material that remains in a cornfield after the ears have been harvested.

Switchgrass is a summer perennial grass native to North America. Depending on the variety and growing conditions, switchgrass plants can reach 12 feet tall. The plant requires little fertilization and is tolerant of poor soils, drought and flooding. Switchgrass reaches full yield potential three years after planting. One or two cuttings are possible each year, using hay or silage equipment.

The Purdue study compared the costs and returns of harvesting corn stover to the growing and harvesting of switchgrass for Indiana ethanol production. Tyner and his research assistants also examined the economic and environmental results of replacing some coal with the two types of biomass at electric power plants.

Using a corn stover yield of 4.25 dry tons per acre from a 160-bushel-per-acre corn crop and a switchgrass yield of 5 dry tons an acre, the study found that in the major corn-growing regions of northern and central Indiana, corn stover was the better cellulosic ethanol feedstock.

The economic numbers were better for switchgrass in portions of southern Indiana where soils are less conducive to growing corn, Tyner said.

“In our study we factored all of a farmer’s costs: labor, equipment, seed, fertilizer replacement, twine and net wrap for baling the cellulose, and everything else we could think of,” Tyner said. “We also added a profit margin of 15 percent above all costs to provide an incentive to farmers.”

With high oil and food prices and momentum gaining for cellulosic ethanol, full-scale production could come sooner rather than later, Tyner said.

“I think it is likely that in the next few years cellulose-based ethanol is going to become viable,” he said. “With $6 and higher per bushel corn it is already very close economically. And since the federal Renewable Fuels Standard calls for the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, of which 16 billion gallons have to be cellulose, cellulosic ethanol will advance.”

Before cellulosic ethanol can take off a number of issues must be resolved, however, Tyner said.

“The biggest issue is going to be contracting,” he said. “With a corn ethanol plant, if there’s not enough corn in one county you go to another county to get your corn, or get it from out of state. Corn moves cheaply and easily.

“Biomass, on the other hand, doesn’t. Cellulosic ethanol plants will need a local supply of corn stover and switchgrass. An investor isn’t going to sink $400 million into a cellulosic ethanol plant until they have a local supply of raw material locked up.

“Conversely, farmers are going to need assurances that no matter what happens in the marketplace – fertilizer prices triple, natural gas and propane prices do this, diesel prices do that, corn prices go up or down – that growing biomass is viable for them. So we still need to develop risk-sharing, long-term contracting mechanisms that will be acceptable to both the supplier and the ethanol producer.”

Those contracts will need risk indexes and language spelling out how the farmer and ethanol plant can get out of a contract, Tyner said.

“And then there are policy issues,” he said. “If the government really wants cellulosic ethanol to get off the ground, should it intervene with policies that reduce risk for investors, such as subsidies that vary with the price of crude oil?”

The study’s findings are contained in a report titled “The Economics of Biomass Collection, Transportation, and Supply to Indiana Cellulosic and Electric Utility Facilities.” The report, co-authored by agricultural economics graduate student Sarah Brechbill, is available online at http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/papers/biofuels/Working_Paper_Fina.pdf .
Additional biofuels information is available on the Purdue BioEnergy Web site, located at http://www.extension.purdue.edu/bioenergy/ .