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Ethanol: Can it blend in?Ethanol remains in the news with events continuing to raise new questions about its future and that of all sectors of agriculture affected by grain or livestock. Ethanol is called the 30-year overnight miracle as the first production of gasohol goes back to the late 1970s, but the surge in building refineries has been since 2001. What comes next is linked to the price of oil, the will of Congress and the buying power of the average consumer. According to sources within the biofuels industry, ethanol is quickly approaching 10 percent of total liquid fuel use in this country. When that occurs, and the renewable fuel standard is exceeded, there will be a glut of ethanol on the market. Based on the cost of unleaded gasoline (derived from the price of oil), ethanol prices will reflect supply, demand and government subsidization. If this is so low that corn can't be profitably turned into ethanol, then we can expect cutbacks, shutdowns and bankruptcies in the ethanol refining business. Back that up one more step to the corn grower and that price goes down, as well. With the sharp increase in input costs to grow corn, the same acreage reductions and financial losses could arrive at the farm level. A way to prevent this scenario is to raise the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline from its current 10 percent to a figure of 20 or 30 percent. This would reduce the price of gasoline, displace higher priced foreign oil and stimulate demand for corn and ethanol. The problem with this outcome is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA allows either a 10 percent or an 85 percent mixture of ethanol and gasoline. E-10 is viewed as acceptable for all vehicles and E-85 is acceptable for flex-fuel- vehicles that have been specially manufactured with alcohol resistant tanks and fittings plus a means to reset the engine to efficiently burn the high octane alcohol fuel. Getting EPA to change anything takes an act of Congress, and I really mean that. In the 1990s I was working in Washington, D.C. for an organization of retail agrichemical dealers. Our goal was to sell more pesticides in refillable bulk tanks rather than in disposable jugs that wound up polluting the water supply. EPA had passed the "56-gallon rule," that generally stated a mini-bulk tank could have no less than 56 gallons placed in it for direct sale to a farmer. This eliminated the use of 55 gallon barrels but also caused another problem. The law would not allow an agrichemical dealer to put less than 56 gallons of pesticide in the reusable, refillable mini-bulk tanks. We lobbied the EPA for months to let us put a smaller amount of product in those tanks to serve smaller customers and to allow for the newer products that took a much smaller rate per acre. The answer was always: "No, if you want it changed, go to Congress!" It appears that is what is going to happen with the request to move to a higher ethanol blend for non-flex-fuel vehicles. Whether Congress will do so depends on the greater crises of the moment and the renewable fuels industry is aware of its exposure on the matter. This may be the big showdown between oil and agriculture. For Congress it appears the subsidization will be the same as the money that went to corn farmers when prices were low, now goes to ethanol blender's credits. If ethanol dead ends at 10 percent, then rising corn production will again be eligible for subsidization due to low prices. We have another interesting phenomenon that is showing up in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. The newest dispensers for retail ethanol sales are called "blender pumps" and they can custom mix anything from E-10 to E-85 and charge accordingly. Some owners of non-flex-fuel vehicles are putting an E-30 blend in their cars to reduce the cost. They are, however, violating the law. EPA is determining if it wants to warn the user or issue fines to the dispensing establishments. If the law is not modified to allow a higher blend, then a new form of "bootlegging" is going to become the norm at filling stations. Does the agency think we are stupid? We don't have any blender pumps where I live but I have decided to try an E-40 blend to see if it will make my truck run more efficiently with a lower fuel cost per mile. Even with my Okie intellect, I can't figure out how to accurately blend unleaded with E-85. I thought about putting both nozzles in at the same time but they won't fit. I have a chisel that I can use to knock out the anti-siphon device in the neck of the gas tank but I only lease the vehicle so I don't want to have to pay for the remodeling when I return it. I finally hit on a brilliant strategy. I have a large red funnel that goes into the tank and I proudly hold both nozzles and squirt them in until it is full. I'm still not sure of the mix, as ciphering digits to the right of the decimal point was taught one day when I was sick and missed high school math class. I'll get back to you on mileage and hope no one steals my funnel, as it is stuck in the tank. Editor's Note: This is Ken Root's 34th year as an agricultural reporter. He grew up on a small farm in central Oklahoma and started his career as a vocational agriculture teacher. He worked in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri as a broadcaster and was the original host of AgriTalk. He has also been the executive director of the National AgriChemical Retailers Association in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters in Kansas City. Ken is now the lead farm broadcaster at WHO and WMT Radio based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has been a columnist for HPJ and Midwest Ag Journal for seven years. 9/1/08 Date: 8/28/08 Advertisement
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