Page 8 RAIN October 1980 cont. tion of ethanol and a high quality protein byproduct. A research team led by Dr. K. E. Bedsen is designing processing equipment which extracts 60% of the protein from forage crops in the form of a leaf juice. The protein in the juice can be separated out and dried into a nutritious human food with leftover plant sugars ready for fermentation into ethanol. Certain tree crops could also play a vital role in the establishment of an alternative fuel network. Fast growing eucalyptus, alder, cottonwood, and poplars can be converted via destructive distillation technologies into methanol and eventually into ethanol as the enzyme hydrolysis technologies are improved. It-is these wood resources-and not the crop residues needed to maintain soil fertility-which can form an ecologically sound basis for the cellulose-based fuel industry. The overall economics of small-scale and community-scale ethanol production look quite promising; especially when biomass process energy sources are used, stillage byproducts are fed in wet form to livestock, and distribution costs are kept to a minimum. In many cases, $1.00 to $1.30 a gallon production costs for 196-proof ethanol do not appear to be unreasonably optimistic. These costs are well below the costs of importing some of the higher priced mideast oils. • Jill Stapleton Farmers who earn a substantial new income from marketing surplus ethanol may begin to find the financial breathing space needed to help them find a way off some of the more destructive petrochemical treadmills. Alternative farming techniques stressing balanced, long-term rotations, or'ganic fertilizers; and biological pest management stand a better chance of gaining wider acceptance when fanners achieve more economic stability and are willing to take a few financial risks. In the near term, the amount of ethanol produced by on-farm and cooperative,distillieries will be small enough to be consumed primarily by farmers and a few rural residents who may choose to patronize the pump in front of their local barn or food cooperative rather than the one in front of their local Texaco. In the long term, ho~ever, as the resource base broadens to include more cannery wastes, cheese whey, wood wastes, and even such off-beat energy.sources as cattails and algae (to be cultivated in new aqua-energy farms), substantial surpluses of alcohol fuels will. develop in some regions of the country. Bulk food distributors could play an important role in delivering fuels grown in an ecologically sound manner to established consumer cooperatives. While the oil industry concentrates on gaining control of the gasohol market, the alternative fuel network should concentrate on the production and marketing of the lesser proof fuels which can be l;IS'ed straight in retrofitted engines. This market is, at least for the moment, small enough that it has not aroused much serious interest on the part of major oil companies. Despite some of the more ominous trends in the emerging alcohol fuels industry detailed here, it is far too soon to issue any blanket condemnations of alcohol fuels' potential to play a key transitional role in easing the nation into a post-petroleum future. The question of the hour is not SHOULD these fuels be developed-but HOW and by WHOM. DO access "Food or Fuel: New Competition for the World's Cropland," by Lester R. Brown, Worldwatch Paper #35, March 1980, $2.00 from: Worldwatch Institute 1776 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Washington, DC 20036 In a study which has already provoked a good deal of discussion in the months since its release, Lester Brown argues that "the stage is set for direct competition between the affluent minority, who own the world's 315 . million automobiles, and the poorest segments of humanity, for whom getting enough food to stay alive is already a struggle." Brown believes that a carefully designed alcohol fuels program, based on forest and agricultural waste products, could become an important source of renewable fuel. His fear is that the promise of profits will lead instead to alcohol programs which will compete directly with food production, drive food prices upward, and dramatically underline the already large disparities in income between the richest and poorest segments of the world's people. For anyone seeking to understand the issues surrounding alcohol fuels development, this is important reading. -JF "Alcohol Fuels," special issue of Sun Times, August 1980, single copies free from: The Solar Lobby 1001 Connecticut Ave. N.W., 5th Fl. Washington, DC 20036 If you're new to the controversies surrounding alcohol fuels development, here is an excellent primer. Among the topics discussed are the economic feasibility of alcohol fuel, net energy yield, the role of Big Oil in alcohol production and marketing, federal alcohol legislation, and the "food versus fuel" debate. If you have not previously read the Sun Times, you will also be ,introdu~ed to a magazine with some of the best coverage around on renewable energy development and solar legislation. - JF
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