Ethanol, as we have addressed in earlier reports, though touted as a renewable solution to liquid fuel needs, has negative and serious economic and social impacts when it is, as in our and other temperate-climate nations, derived from agricultural produce.
A tool for calculating the true economic value of fuels that hasn't yet been well-publicized, or even really translated into plain English, is "Energy Return on Energy Invested", or, more simply, "Energy Return on Investment", most often abbreviated variously as "EROEI" and "EROI". We might attempt a summary explanation of the concept in a later dispatch; but, in brief: It can be demonstrated that it takes more energy to make ethanol from corn than will be returned in the use of that ethanol. Corn ethanol's "EROEI", in the United States, is negative. It is an investment with a negative return that will slowly fritter what wealth we have remaining away if we put our money there.
Only in Brazil, it seems, does agricultural ethanol, as made from sugar cane, which can be grown there year-around and has higher densities of carbohydrates than corn, have a positive "energy return on energy invested", and even that isn't great, relative to fossil fuel extraction and use.
Again, "EROEI" is a topic we will in future dispatches return to. But, it looks, from preliminary analyses of data provided to us by some competent assistants, that coal lies somewhere midway between petroleum, as extracted earlier in the last century, current data seems unavailable, and agricultural/other renewable sources analyzed more recently.
The EROEI of coal liquids, in one web-available, though incomplete, analysis, lies slightly below the midway point between petroleum and agricultural ethanol, but the coal liquid cost was based on indirect coal liquefaction processes, which are, perhaps, more energy intensive, and thus more costly, than other technology options. We would hope that West Virginia University could provide economic analyses, the EROI, of direct coal liquefaction technologies, such as the "West Virginia Process", which should be much more favorable.
In any case, Ethanol is a useful liquid fuel, with higher energy densities than some other alternatives. And, it can, through technology we've earlier documented, with more energy investment, be converted into gasoline.
If it is Ethanol we want, though, since it does offer some emissions benefits, relative to gasoline, when used as a liquid fuel, it's EROI will no doubt be higher if we synthesize it from coal. To further document that ethanol can be synthesized from coal, in support of our earlier citations, we submit the enclosed article, linked above, reporting on a project sponsored by our own, US, DOE, about which we bet no one in Coal Country has heard of.
And, interestingly, though this coal research isn't being conducted in Coal Country, it is being managed from Coal Country. Check out one of the key contacts:
| Name: | Driscoll, Daniel J. |
| Telephone: | (304) 285-4717 |
| Location: | NETL |
| Email Address: | daniel.driscoll@netl.doe.gov |
The area code, 304, is West Virginia, isn't it? Our guess is he's working out of the National Energy Technology Laboratory office in Morgantown. Someone should give him a shout, drop him an email, knock on his door.
Excerpt, with brief, but pointed, comment following:
| "Project Information | |
| Project ID: | DE-FC26-06NT43024 |
| Project Title: | Catalytic Processes for the Synthesis of Ethanol From Coal-Derived Syngas |
| FE Program: | Hydrogen from Coal |
| Research Type: | Basic Research |
| Funding Memorandum: | Cooperative Agree't (nonCCT) - Support |
| Project Performer | |
| Performer Type: | State Higher Education Institution |
| Performer: | Louisiana State University Department of Chemical Engineering 330 Thomas Boyd Hall |
| Project Team Members: | |
| Project Location | |
| City: | Baton Rouge |
| State: | Louisiana |
| Zip Code: | 70803-2901 |
| Congressional District: | 06 |
| Responsible FE Site: | NETL |
| Project Point of Contact | |
| Name: | Spivey, James J. |
| Telephone: | (919) 541-8030 |
| Fax Number: | (919) 541-8049 |
| Email Address: | jjspivey@lsu.edu |
| Fossil Energy Point of Contact | |
| Name: | Driscoll, Daniel J. |
| Telephone: | (304) 285-4717 |
| Location: | NETL |
| Email Address: | daniel.driscoll@netl.doe.gov |
| Project Dates | |
| Start Date: | 10/01/2006 |
| End Date: | 03/31/2010 |
| Contract Specialist | |
| Name: | Robbins, Brittley |
| Telephone: | (412) 386-5430 |
| Cost & Funding Information | |
| Total Est. Cost: | $2,684,478 |
| DOE Share: | $1,779,899 |
| Non DOE Share: | $904,579 |
| Project Description | |
| The objective of this project is to develop a catalytic process for the selective conversion of coal-derived synthesis gas to ethanol (and higher alcohols). The process will utilize a coal derived syngas feed of 2:1 H2/CO. Performance targets for the process are an ethanol yield of 45%, with greater than 95% selectivity, and a catalyst lifetime of 3 years. | |
| Project Background | |
| Project Milestones | |
| This information is currently unavailable. | |
| Project Accomplishments | |
| Title: | NEPA Approval |
| Date: | 11/27/2006 |
| Description | NEPA approval (CX-B) was obtained for all participants in the project - Louisiana State University, Clemson University and Conoco-Phillips. NEPA forwarded to the contract specialist (12/4/2006) to remove the NEPA work restriction. |
| Title: | Management Plan Approved |
| Date: | 11/16/2006 |
| Description | Louisiana State University submitted a research management plan for review and approval. The plan required no modifications or corrections and was approved in its current form. This completes Task 1.0 of the cooperative agreement." |
If it bears emphasis: A US Government-sponsored project intended to develop liquid fuels from coal, is being conducted in Louisiana, but is, apparently, being managed from West Virginia, in an office next door to West Virginia University.