Technically Speaking

Cornstalks – Bioenergy’s Diamond in the Rough or Fool’s Gold?

By Duane Gangwish

Many publications, radio and television programs subliminally accuse (and convict) you of participating in the sudden, imminent death of this planet. Everything from what you drive to what you eat, wear, sleep on, and brush your teeth with is somehow responsible for the coral reefs dying, penguins becoming endangered, hurricanes breeding like rabbits, piping plovers not breeding, and the possibility of several metropolitan centers around the world becoming beachfront property because of melting ice.

At this point my environmental friend(s) is/are thinking I drank the “Kool-Aid.” Hold tight everybody, we need to think with the brain God gifted us and endeavor to make wise decisions in crafting good and long-lasting public policy relative to renewable energy. Renewable energy will and must be a part of our future both here in Nebraska and around the world.

In mid July, while attending the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Midyear Conference in Denver, Michael Kelsey, Lee Weide, Tamara Thiese, NCBA director of Environmental Affairs, and four representatives from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association toured the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden Colorado.

NREL materials describe how for three decades NREL has played a key role in the development of efficient, cost-effective, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Some of these technologies are already in use, generating electricity fueling vehicles and making buildings and vehicles more energy efficient. The need to continue to develop new, improved energy technologies has never been more pressing.

NREL began in 1977 as the solar Energy Research Institute in the wake of the 1973 oil embargo. Yet today, America is more dependent on foreign oil than ever. U.S. oil imports have doubled in the past three decades to more than 60 percent of the oil used, increasing our vulnerability to price spikes and supply disruptions.

NREL’s mission is to advance the nation’s energy goals. It is the only U.S. Department of Energy laboratory dedicated solely to renewable energy and energy efficiency R&D. Research spans fundamental science to technology solutions that are market relevant. The lab collaborates with both industry and university partners to create opportunities for the development of renewable energy.

Those words are theirs, not mine. I believe they are accurate and truthful. I am convinced that their research is of the highest quality and absolutely necessary. With approximately 1,000 staff, NREL is distributing resources for research into energy sources such as geothermal, hydrogen, wind, bioenergy and solar as well as technologies relative to facilities and infrastructure, weatherization, transmission and distribution, construction materials, and the reliability of distributed energy. They are even working to develop jet fuel from algae. Who would ever have thought that water, manure and a little sunlight could fuel airliners, fighter jets and Al Gore’s bizjet.

Our group had interest in one area of research, specifically bioenergy. This is promising and the lab has been successful in making alcohol from a myriad of starter material. Grain is integral but biomass needs to be part of the renewable energy equation. Biomass needs to come from many sources, woody material being a prime example.

The NREL folks are appropriately focused on technical questions. It’s our responsibility to make sure policy makers and DOE officials in Washington include other critical points in the plan to mandate 36 billion gallons of ethanol. For example, they need to address how using corn stover for ethanol could increase erosion and reduce organic matter and the availability of corn stalks for grazing. Transportation and storage would also need to be included in the cost/value economic analysis.

 Don’t take my cynicism wrong, biomass will be and should be used to make ethanol. My point is that we in agriculture must help drive the policy discussion relative to biomass to fuel or you won’t like the results.