Despite the criticisms that corn-based ethanol is inefficient, overly subsidized, or unrealistic to serve enough of America’s energy needs, it continues to be wildly popular with the local farmer and the giant corporation.

Hereford, Texas - the “Beef Capital of the World” – is also getting into the ethanol business, albeit a bit differently and more efficiently. Rather than an ethanol plant powered by electricity from coal, the town will soon welcome a plant powered by an abundant, renewable resource – cow manure.

The manure from the 125,000 local cattle normally gets carted off for fertilizer, but Dallas-based Panda Ethanol (a name I find hilarious, since pandas don’t jump to mind when I think of ethanol) is building one of the nation’s largest ethanol plants, capable of making 100 million gallons per year. Panda will pay to have the manure trucked in from farms, which delights area farmers. President of the Bar G Feedyard, Johnny Trotter, told the Economist that he’ll save more than $350,000 a year from not having to haul away the manure himself.

Once the manure arrives at the plant, it will be gasified with the help of sand and heat. The synthetic natural gas will be burned, making steam that will heat up the corn and help turn it into ethanol. Railroad tracks leading to and from the plant will transport corn in and take ethanol out.

Texas currently has no ethanol plants, but in the next few years at least a half dozen are expected to be up and running. That increase is expected across the country: The Renewable Fuels Association reports that the US has 110 ethanol refineries, with 73 more under construction. Once those are finished, a total of about 11½ billion gallons of ethanol could be produced each year. That sounds like a lot, but it’s only a drop in the oil bucket – Americans use almost 400 million gallons of gasoline a day.

Farmers like Trotter are also looking forward to further technological breakthroughs like ethanol from grains and plants, called “cellulosic ethanol.” The demand for corn to make ethanol is driving up prices for livestock feed (made primarily from corn), hitting cattle, hog, and chicken farmers in the pocketbooks. By diversifying our sources of ethanol, the spike in corn prices should ease.

Panda Ethanol
Renewable Fuels Association
The Economist
Maria Energia

Renewable energy and rural economies are often talked about in a “love and marriage” sort of way: you can’t have one without the…OTHer. For instance, rural, agriculture-based economies can be dependable sources of wind power, biomass energy, and biofuels – but how much can we really squeeze out of America’s farmers, ranchers, and foresters?

A University of Tennessee study examined the impacts of agriculture and forestry contributing to a national goal of getting 25 percent of our energy from renewable sources by the year 2025, without compromising the quantity or quality of food, feed, and fiber.

The study examined two scenarios. 1) The impacts of producing 25 percent of America’s electricity and transportation fuels from renewable resources (using wind, solar, etc in addition to biomass and biofuels) and 2) How agriculture and forestry exclusively could supply 25 percent of America’s total energy. Here a few of the key findings of the second scenario:

* The projected annual impact on the nation from producing and converting crops into energy would be more than $700 billion in economic activity and 5.1 million jobs in 2025, most of that in rural areas.

* With a goal of producing 25 percent of our energy from renewable sources by the year 2025, the total addition to net farm income could reach $180 billion, as the market rewards growers for producing clean energy. In 2025 alone, net farm income would increase by $37 billion compared with U.S. Department of Agriculture’s projections.

* Higher market prices means saving government payments in the neighborhood of $15 billion.

Note: These numbers assume continued advancement in technology and significant shifts in crop patters. This study was funded by the 25 x ’25 Steering Committee, the Energy Future Coalition, and the Energy Foundation.

University of Tennessee: 25% renewable energy by the year 2025: Agricultural and economic impacts

Renewable Energy Access: Renewable energy roadmap: Rural America can prosper