Pig Poop Powered Pontiacs

Last week I said:

Too bad they don't try to find a way to run a car on pig poop, something which is abundant in all of Iowa's river, streams, and lakes. Actually, Volvo has been producing a model that runs on methane since 1995. No shit.

Now there's this from Hampshire, Illinois:

Can the other white meat's manure make black gold?

They say you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, but University of Illinois researchers are working some interesting magic at the other end of the animal.

"We are the first to actually do this," professor Yuanhui Zhang says proudly of his team's ability to turn swine manure into crude oil. He's a bio-environmental engineer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has led the 10-year research project that recently announced a breakthrough in porcine petroleum.

That neat trick may sound crude.

But it also sounds good to a pork industry swamped with oceans of swine manure, and it sounds like the national anthem to those looking to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

A typical pig produces about 6 gallons of waste a day.

For a hog farmer like Pat Dumoulin of Hampshire, who has about 1,200 sows, that's enough stinky and potentially hazardous fumes that he has a pair of 500,000-gallon tanks to properly store the stuff.

Like most farmers, much of the manure from Dumoulin's hogs winds up as fertilizer.

"Most of the farmers in our area are open to taking the hog manure," says Dumoulin, whose farm has been in his family for more than 50 years. "Sometimes it's done for no cost, sometimes they pay us a fee to spread it on their fields."

Either way, scientists have agreed for years that the chemical and capital potential of pig manure, like almost all organic waste, could have other uses.

Zhang's breakthrough wasn't that he and fellow researchers had become excrement alchemists; in about 1998, he figured out how to convert some of a pig's byproduct to an energy source. Turning garbage into natural gas, cow manure into fuel for power plants, and even fast-food grease into auto fuel are other examples of recent advances in the sub-field of icky-but-renewable energy.

Zhang's big breakthrough is that he's designed a more efficient process: a continuous reactor. Instead of converting hog waste one batch at a time, Zhang's lab, which is funded in part by the Illinois Pork Producers Association, has developed a method to feed waste continuously into a reactor, which is essentially an industrial-strength pressurized oven. And, Zhang boasts, "We don't even need pre-drying."

Chemically, pig dung isn't as different from oil as one might think. In Zhang's reactor, a process known as thermochemical conversion partially breaks down hydrocarbon molecules that make up most of the excrement, and voila: porky petrol.

Similar but not identical to the black gold it took Mother Nature eons to brew, Zhang's fuel behaves like diesel.

Now the plan is to move from the lab to a full-sized pilot reactor on a farm somewhere Downstate. Zhang predicts the process could get 3.6 gallons of crude oil a day out of each pig. Illinois brings some 7.2 million hogs to market each year and the nationwide industry is about 100-million hogs strong.

Theoretically, the resulting millions of barrels of crude a day could make a significant dent in America's dependence on nonrenewable, and often imported, oil.

Governor Nussle Is Cornholio

From Agriculture Online:

Congressman Jim Nussle of Iowa yesterday introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to lower gas prices and expand the production of renewable fuels. The Independence from Oil With Agriculture (IOWA) Act calls for nationally expanded production of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel by nearly 60% within six years.

The IOWA Act would increase the Renewable Fuels Standard from 7.5 billion gallons to 12 billion gallons by 2012, and provide a permanent tax credit for the installation of E85 tanks. It would also permanently extend the small producer ethanol tax credit, biodiesel production tax credit, and renewable energy income tax credit for utility providers using electricity generated from renewable sources.

While Governor Vilsack paid lip service to E85 several months ago when he purchased a flex-fuel GMC Yukon on the taxpayer's dime to drive him from Terrace Hill to the Des Moines Airport and back, it seems Governor Nussle has a plan to spew ethanol, and especially tax credits for everything Everclear under the sun, into the tanks of all Iowans like Peter North during a gruelling schedule.

Ed Wallace in BusinessWeek says:

It started with Congress, which mandated that even more ethanol be used to extend the nation's fuel supply. From General Motors, an ad campaign called "Live Green, Go Yellow" gave America the impression that by purchasing GM vehicles capable of using E85 ethanol, we could help reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

What GM left out of its ads was that the use of this fuel would likely increase the amount of smog during the summer months (as the EPA's own attorneys had admitted in 1995) -- and that using E85 in GM products would lower their fuel efficiency by as much as 25%. (USA Today recently reported that the Energy Dept. estimated the drop in mileage at 40%.)

But one final setup for the public has gone unnoticed. At the Web site, www.fueleconomy.gov, which confirms the 25% to 30% drop in mileage resulting from the use of this blended fuel, another feature lets users calculate and compare annual fuel costs using regular gasoline to costs using E85.

But the government site's automatic calculations are based on E85 selling for 37 cents per gallon less than regular gasoline, when the USA Today article reports that at many stations in the Midwest E85 is actually selling for 13 cents per gallon more than ordinary gas. Using the corrected prices for both gasoline and E85, the annual cost of fueling GM's Suburban goes from $2,709 to $3,763. Hence the suggestion that truth in advertising should come back into play. Possibly GM could rename this ad campaign "Shell Out Green, Turn Yellow."

If you can afford a Suburban, it doesn't really matter what fuel costs. Right?

Get in your H2, pump it full of E85, and then give the finger back to everybody.

Don't forget that Iowa is one of those states so under the thumb by the farm lobby that pickup trucks, 90% of which are driven by city slickers for commuting to work, still get that special $65 yearly registration fee while responsible residents buying Toyota Corollas and other gas misers get to pay $200 or more for the privilege.

Back to Governor Nussle. You can bet that he and all the dimwits in the Iowa Legislature will be passing ethanol gimmeaways like crazy in future years, despite the obvious math on the price. They'll shove it down everybody's throats and E85 will continue be a colossal failure.

Too bad they don't try to find a way to run a car on pig poop, something which is abundant in all of Iowa's river, streams, and lakes. Actually, Volvo has been producing a model that runs on methane since 1995. No shit.

Harkin and Grassley Get The Gas Face

From the Ottumwa Courier:

In a twin attack Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said he doubts the Bush administration’s commitment to investigating high gas prices and rejected suggestions ethanol supply problems are partially to blame.

And this is from a Fort Wayne, Indiana newspaper:

As a gift to the ethanol lobby, Congress last summer mandated a near doubling in the use of ethanol in gasoline by 2012, to 7.5 billion gallons a year from today's 4 billion gallons.

Ethanol is an oxygenate that reduces pollution (though gas refiners insist they have figured out a way to cut pollution without it.) Congress required more ethanol use at a time when the country is moving away from the only other oxygenate on the market, MTBE, because it has been found to contaminate ground water.

So ethanol producers are scrambling to meet demand and as a result, the price of ethanol has shot up. It's now selling for more than $2.80 a gallon (around $118 a barrel). That's up from a low of $1.35 last summer and a four-year average price of around $1.70. The ethanol mandate has caused price spikes above $4 a gallon and spot shortages at places on the East Coast.

The prices would no doubt be much higher if the federal government didn't provide a whopping 51 cents per gallon tax credit for ethanol producers. Illinois also provides a state sales tax discount that amounts to three or four cents a gallon. And did we mention the high tariffs on ethanol imports that protect the domestic industry from competition?

Gasohol, which includes 10 percent ethanol, is common in the Midwest. The cornfields it comes from are close by and, over the years, an extensive infrastructure to blend it into gasoline has been developed. But there's no comparable infrastructure in other parts of the country; one must be developed. That also adds to the expense - and the price of gas.

Perhaps that added expense would be worthwhile if ethanol substantially reduced oil consumption. But some studies have found that the production of ethanol consumes more energy than the final product saves.

Wait, there's more. You think gas prices are high now? If Illinois pols have their way, ethanol will be the alternative fuel of the future. E85, a blend that is 85 percent ethanol, is on sale at more than 100 stations.

And then factor in this from the Mason City Globe Gazette:

Iowa has one of the largest government fleets that use E85 — an 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline blend. The state has more than 650 flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on the ethanol blend or regular gasoline.

More people are buying flex-fuel vehicles that are able to use E85 ethanol.

“Having that technology out there and available gives consumers the choice,” Hartwig said, adding that the extra cost is negligible.

He said Ford Motor Co. will boost U.S. production of flex-fuel vehicles by a quarter of a million this year, while General Motors Corp. will manufacture a half million more. He expects Toyota Motor Corp. to offer a flex-fuel vehicle in 2008. While those vehicles would account for just a small slice of the 230 million vehicles on the road, it shows a growing interest in the technology, he said.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa — the largest ethanol producer in the country — has proposed a bill that would require all vehicles in the United States to have flex-fuel engines within a decade.

So..... there's a shortage of ethanol because groundwater-polluting MTBE, which was forced on consumers by environmentalist liars, is being phased out because Congress wouldn't exempt companies that use it from liability and the replacement (ethanol) costs more money, is difficult to transport, and is in short supply.

Meanwhile, every politician in Iowa is going on blindly about E-85 vehicles and flex-fuel engines while the price of ethanol, which on a gallon-for-gallon basis with gasoline has about 30% less mileage, has doubled in price in the past year and is now almost as costly as pure gasoline. And we don't have the capability to produce enough ethanol to meet demand. And we can't realistically import ethanol (yet) because of the duties imposed to protect American farmers.

What a clusterfuck!

Naturally, we have Tom Harkin giving his two cents. Here's a guy whose lifestyle was paid for from 1997 to 2005 by his lawyer wife, Ruth (now on the Iowa Board of Regents), who used to be a director at Conoco.

And we've got fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley rambling on about possibly imposing the old "windfall profits" tax on oil companies, as if that is going to give all those $35,000 Dodge Ram Quad Cab drivers some relief.

Iowa grows corn and chooses presidents

From Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post:

If you thought the Dubai port deal marked a record high in Washington cynicism, think again. Nothing can match the spectacle of politicians scrambling for cover during a spike in gasoline prices. And this time the panderfest has gone all the way to the Oval Office. President Bush has joined the braying congressional hordes by ordering the Energy and Justice departments and the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into possible gasoline price fixing.

What a disgrace.

Precisely 10 years ago (April 29, 1996) as gas prices reached a shocking $1.27 a gallon, President Bill Clinton ordered his Energy and Justice departments to launch investigations to find out why. In my column that week, I offered a wild guess as to why: "supply is down and demand is up." I offered Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary and Attorney General Janet Reno a $100 bet (I roll high on sure things) that their million-dollar probes would do nothing more than confirm my hunch.

No takers. Even Cabinet secretaries don't throw away C-notes. Sure enough, months later these perfectly pointless investigations discounted charges of price gouging and attributed the price hike to . . . increased demand and decreased supply.

Today, every time an Iranian mullah opens his mouth about nukes, the risk premium for Persian Gulf supply interruptions jumps again. Crude oil prices alone account for about $1.70 of what you pay for a gallon at the pump. So 10 years later, I'll wager again. Here's what the Bush search for price gougers and profiteers will find:

· Demand is up. China has come from nowhere to pass Japan as the number No. 2 oil consumer in the world. China and India -- between them home to eight times the U.S. population -- are industrializing and gobbling huge amounts of energy.

American demand is up because we've lived in a fool's paradise since the mid-1980s. Until then, beginning with the oil shocks in 1973, Americans had changed appliances and cars and habits and achieved astonishing energy conservation. Energy use per dollar of gross domestic product was cut by 30 percent in little over a decade. Oil prices collapsed to about $10 a barrel.

Then amnesia set in, mile-per-gallon ratings disappeared from TV ads and we became "a country of a million Walter Mittys driving 75 mph in their gas-guzzling Bushwhack-Safari sport-utility roadsters with a moose head on the hood, a country whose crude oil production has dropped 32 percent in the last 25 years but which will not drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for fear of disturbing the mating habits of caribou."

I wrote that during the '96 witch hunt for price gougers. Nothing has changed. Except that since then, U.S. crude oil production has dropped an additional 12.3 percent. Which brings us to:

· Supply is down. Start with supply disruptions in Nigeria, decreased production in Iraq, and the continuing loss of 5 percent of our national refining capacity because of damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Add to that the mischief of idiotic new regulations. Last year's energy bill mandates arbitrary increases in blended ethanol use that so exceed current ethanol production that it is causing gasoline shortages and therefore huge price spikes.

Why don't we import the missing ethanol? Brazil makes a ton of it, and very cheaply. Answer: the Iowa caucuses. Iowa grows corn and chooses presidents. So we have a ridiculously high 54-cent ethanol tariff and ethanol shortages.

Another regulation requires specific ("boutique") gasoline blends for different cities depending on their air quality. Nice idea. But it introduces debilitating rigidities into the gasoline supply system. If Los Angeles runs short, you cannot just move supply in from Denver. You get shortages and more price spikes.

And don't get me started on the missing supply of might-have-been American crude. Arctic and outer continental shelf oil that the politicians kill year after year would have provided us by now with a critical and totally secure supply cushion in times of tight markets.

In March 2000, the price of gas hit $1.80 per gallon. Scandalized congressional Republicans shamelessly pushed for repeal of Clinton's whopping 4.3-cent gas tax increase. Now that the president is a Republican, what do you think Senate Democrats are proposing? A 60-day suspension of the federal gas tax. It would cost $6 billion and counteract the only good thing that comes with high gas prices -- the incentive to conserve.

George Shultz once said, "Nothing ever gets settled in this town." But even Shultz, who has seen everything, must marvel at the perfect regularity, the utter predictability, of the bottomless cynicism of Washington in the grip of gasoline fever.

With the economy as excellent as it is today, there's no doubt that the media and politicians are looking for anything to harp on about.

On a side note to anybody who's reading this, this blog will probably come back with an occasional slice of Iowa-centric opinion. I don't read the Des Moines Register or even anything online like Radio Iowa anymore and, quite frankly, why should I? (For those who don't know, your editor here moved to Overland Park, Kansas a couple months ago.)

I Know What You're Thinking

This isn't an April Fool's Day joke, and no I'm not coming back, but it has been exciting to get the hell out of Iowa and into a land where the state legislature can whomp the ass of a veto-happy governor when trying to enact a concealed carry law.

I can't imagine the Iowa Legislature ever doing anything like that, unless Iowa turned into a total Jesusland.

You know what makes moving out of Iowa even better? Reading the gem that is the Who's Makin Bacon blog. I still peek at Ennui and Side Notes and Joe and occasionally Snow, but Bacon rules when it comes to political coverage in Iowa.



Mmmmm, I love bacon!