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Ethanol Researchers Want to Cut Water Use

Posted on: Saturday, 26 January 2008, 06:00 CST

LINCOLN -- The ethanol industry continues to research ways to reduce water use and could someday use municipal and industrial wastewater to cool refineries, an industry specialist told the Nebraska Ethanol Board Friday.

Greg Krissek of ICM Inc., a Kansas engineering design firm, said technology improvements have reduced the amount of water needed to 3 or 4 gallons per gallon of ethanol produced.

The amount is about the same as needed to make a gallon of gasoline, Krissek said.

Krissek offered the board comparisons with other manufactured products. He said 1,500 gallons of water are needed to process a barrel of beer, 28,100 gallons to process a ton of beet sugar to make processed sugar, 39,090 gallons to manufacture a car and 62,600 gallons to make a ton of steel.

When all Nebraska ethanol plants are operating, including those now under construction, the groundwater needed will be less than one-half of 1 percent of the total used in Nebraska, Krissek said.

The need for water will likely increase when full-scale production of cellulosic ethanol begins, Krissek said.

"We may see water use go back up to 10 gallons (per gallon of ethanol)," Krissek said, "until we gain the scales (of production) on the cellulosic side as we have in the grain side."

The ethanol industry is continuing to research the possible commercial production of ethanol from such cellulosic material as switchgrass and corn stalks. Currently, 98 percent of U.S. ethanol is made from corn.

"This is all going to be evolving over the next five to 10 years," Krissek said.

Source: Omaha World-Herald

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