Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Carbon Capture

 Crushing Ethanol's CO2 footprint: Summit Carbon launches 10MT Carbon ...

biofuelsdigest.com

Aside from the fact that using agricultural land to produce motor fuel rather than food has moral implications, capturing and sequestering carbon from ethanol production is nonsense on stilts.

Update: The North Dakota Public Service Commission has voted unanimously to deny a permit for the construction of a pipeline through the state intended to carry liquid CO2 from 32 ethanol plants in the Midwest to an underground storage site west of Bismarck.  None of the other states involved have granted permits for the $5 billion project. Minnesota has voted to study the project.

There are big arguments taking place in other states as well. Those lobbying for the pipeline complex are professional politicians looking to stick their thumb in the public financial pie. Their justification is that failure to sequester ethanol produced CO2 may lead to the closure of the plants and a decrease in the corn crop that results in less income for Iowa and Nebraska farmers. Like the many acres devoted now to corn for ethanol would be returned to pre-historic prairie. If less corn were to be planted then soy beans would simply take its place.

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