Biofuels: Our Energy Future? Mark Lyford Department of Botany University of Wyoming ?

Energy and Biofuels in Education

Timely and relevant Energy and Biofuels in Education

Timely and relevant Fits a wide range of content settings Energy and Biofuels in Education

Timely and relevant Fits a wide range of content settings Is a rich (i.e. complex) subject – Energy science content – Social connections (economics, politics, environmental, human health) Energy and Biofuels in Education

Timely and relevant Fits a wide range of content settings Is a rich (i.e. complex) subject – Energy science content – Social connections (economics, politics, environmental, human health) Fosters critical thinking and quantitative reasoning Energy and Biofuels in Education

Timely and relevant Fits a wide range of content settings Is a rich (i.e. complex) subject – Energy science content – Social connections (economics, politics, environmental, human health) Fosters critical thinking and quantitative reasoning Challenges preconceptions about biofuels Energy and Biofuels in Education

Peak Oil

Fossil Fuel

Fossil Fuel (Paleobiofuel)

Biological, geological, chemical, physical processes Considerable time

Fossil Fuel (Paleobiofuel)

Biofuel

Fossil Fuel (Paleobiofuel)Biofuel Biological, chemical, physical processes Short time

Fossil Fuel (Paleobiofuel)Biofuel

Fossil Fuel (Paleobiofuel)Biofuel CH 2 O

Biofuels Production Biomass Solid BiofuelsGaseous Biofuels Wood, sawdust, grass, charcoal, manure, non-food crops Liquid Biofuels Ethanol, butanol, methanol, biodiesel Methane

Liquid Biofuels Production Biomass Sugar, starch, celluloseOils and lipids EthanolBiodiesel Corn, sugar beets, sugar cane, switchgrass, wood Soybeans, sunflowers, rapeseed, palm, algae

Ethanol Production

LIFE 1002: Discovering Science

Integrated Science Class

LIFE 1002: Discovering Science Integrated Science Class Focuses on several issues including Energy Use

LIFE 1002: Discovering Science Integrated Science Class Focuses on several issues including Energy Use Biofuels piece from Discussion portion of the course where students focus on Energy Use for ½ semester

LIFE 1002: Discovering Science Integrated Science Class Focuses on several issues including Energy Use Biofuels piece from Discussion portion of the course where students focus on Energy Use for ½ semester Discussion is where we focus on the interaction of science and society and how we go about making decisions

Have you hugged something green today?

Ethanol and Foreign Oil The U.S. currently imports a substantial amount of foreign oil. Knowing that it is unlikely we can become energy independent by increasing U.S. domestic oil production, one proposed solution is increasing corn-based ethanol production to replace foreign oil. Thinking specifically about the production of gasoline for cars and given the information below, estimate how many gallons of ethanol would need to be produced on an annual basis to make up for the U.S. importation of oil. U.S. oil consumption: 21 million barrels/day U.S. oil production: 6 million barrels/day Approximately 20 gallons of gas can be produced from 1 barrel of oil

Ethanol and Foreign Oil 110 billion gallons gas/year

Ethanol and Foreign Oil Unfortunately, ethanol does not contain the same amount of energy per volume as gas. Given the information below, estimate how much more ethanol would need to be produced to make up for this energy difference. What is the total amount of ethanol required now? Gas: 131 MegaJoules/gallon Ethanol: 90 MegaJoules/gallon

Ethanol and Foreign Oil 150 billion gallons of ethanol needed

Ethanol and Foreign Oil Ethanol production requires substantial fossil fuel energy inputs associated with the production and transportation of corn, as well as the processing of corn into ethanol. Estimates on the amount of fossil fuel energy required to produce ethanol range from roughly 60 MegaJoules/gallon to 105 MegaJoules/gallon. Which of these two extremes paints a good or bad picture for the future of ethanol production? If the optimistic estimate is correct, and we wanted to replace the use of fossil fuels for ethanol production with ethanol, how many more gallons of ethanol would need to be produced each year? How does this impact your total estimated production of ethanol?

Ethanol and Foreign Oil If you only get 90 MagaJoules/gallon with ethanol, using 105 MegaJoules of fossil fuels is an energy waste. We should just burn the fossil fuel instead of making the ethanol. 260 billion gallons of total ethanol needed

Ethanol and Foreign Oil Given your estimate of the total amount of ethanol that would need to be produced each year, we now need to determine how many acres of corn would need to be grown to support the production of ethanol. Use the following figures to determine how many bushels of corn would need to be grown each year. Ethanol production from corn: 2.5 gallons/bushel corn

Ethanol and Foreign Oil 110 billion bushels of corn

Ethanol and Foreign Oil Given your estimate of the total number of bushels of corn that must be grown, determine how many acres of corn would need to be planted assuming the current average production rate is 170 bushels/acre.

Ethanol and Foreign Oil 600 million acres of corn

Ethanol and Foreign Oil Given the table below, determine if the current U.S. corn production could support your estimated ethanol production needs. StateAcres in production (millions) Ave. bushels/acreTotal bushels Colorado Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin2.2164

Ethanol and Foreign Oil 60 million acres of corn in production Order of magnitude less than what we would need

Ethanol in Brazil

Atmospheric CO 2