Biofuel Pollution From Corn, Ethanol, Biodiesel, and Aviation Fuel Production

Biofuel is not as clean as we've been told

I confess that as a lover of corn on the cob, I’ve been upset in recent years at the price of corn seed. I’ve tried growing some non-hybrid corn and saving the seeds, but so far haven’t found a variety that I like as well as the hybrids. I’ve also noticed that grocery stores now sell corn on the cob for closer to $1 per ear instead of $1 for a dozen ears.

Why is corn seed so expensive? Because 40% of corn is grown not for food, but for the production of ethanol, which is then blended with gasoline. Subsidies have made corn production so lucrative that for years, millions of acres of fields and forests have been cleared and plowed to grow corn. Ironically, those acres had been absorbing CO2 from the air until they were plowed under and cultivated and reaped by giant CO2 emitting diesel powered tractors. Now the subsidies for ethanol are even being increased with the “Inflation Reduction Act” of the Biden administration.

Ethanol plant's cooling towers ...watertechnologies.com

It turns out that ethanol production is a significant source of pollution. Biodiesel and aviation fuel production is another pollutant, also greatly subsidized. It’s made from wood and other biomass.

A biodiesel plant on Teeside North East UK

Here are a few choice paragraphs from Inside Climate News:

“The industry claims biofuels are a better alternative,” said Kira Dunham, a researcher with the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and co-author of the new report. “But what we found is that biofuels are a pretty significant source of hazardous air pollutants…

…People near Decatur [Illinois] are constantly exposed to air pollution that can harm their brains and cause dizziness and nausea,” said Robert Hirschfeld, a director at the Prairie Rivers Network, an environmental nonprofit, in a prepared statement. “ADM’s ethanol plant also emits more greenhouse gases than places like oil refineries in Illinois. On top of that, corn production for ethanol has resulted in so much pollution that Illinois residents are advised not to swim in, eat fish out of, or drink water from streams and rivers across the state…Now about 40 percent of the nation’s corn—its largest and most lucrative crop—and half of its soybeans, its second largest, ultimately end up in gas tanks… 

…Since 2000, the number of ethanol plants in the U.S. quadrupled and capacity rose eight-fold, EIP (Environmental Integrity Project) says. As of early 2024, the U.S. has 191 ethanol plants, 71 biodiesel plants and 13 plants devoted to renewable diesel…

…the carbon intensity of corn ethanol is “no less than gasoline and likely at least 24 percent higher,” according to the study. ”