The Shocking Truth Of Ethanol Fuels
E10 is worse for the planet than straight gasoline.
The year is 2005; Feel Good Inc. is playing on every radio station, the Iraq war has just started, and the US Renewable Fuel Standard has become law. This fuel standard effectively switched the US to E10 gasoline, which is 10% corn-derived ethanol and 90% gasoline. Why? Well, in theory, ethanol biofuels are better for the planet. You see, plants build their bodies from carbon they absorb from the atmosphere. So, burning fuels derived from plants doesn’t cause a net gain of atmospheric carbon. By blending a little bioethanol into the nation’s fuel supply, the US hoped to reduce their overall emissions, reduce their dependence on oil imports, and bolster farmers by increasing the demand for corn. But, recent studies have suggested this is far from the truth, and E10 fuel is actually worse for the planet than pure gasoline.
This revelation came from a study headed by Dr. Tyler Lark, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, and funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and the US Department of Energy. Dr Lark found that corn-derived bioethanol is at least 24% more carbon-intensive than pure gasoline. This goes against previous studies, like the 2019 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) study, which found that corn-derived bioethanol’s carbon intensity was 39% lower than gasoline’s. So why the discrepancy? Well, Dr Lark found the USDA study severely underestimated the emissions from land-use changes to grow corn, processing into ethanol and its combustion.
You see, the US Renewable Fuel Standard resulted in 6.9 million acres of land being converted to corn farming between 2008 and 2016. Much of this land was retired or part of conservation programs, which would have kept the carbon trapped in their soil locked away. Converting such land releases this carbon back into the atmosphere, so this massive drive to create more corn farmland produced a lot of greenhouse gasses. But farming corn is far from eco-friendly. The machinery used to plant and harvest has a significant carbon footprint, and the fertiliser and pesticides needed to grow the crops have famously horrific carbon footprints. What’s more, the process of turning corn into ethanol produces emissions too. The corn is ground into flour and fermented to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide, which is often released into the atmosphere.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a government agency tasked with governing and protecting farmers would overlook or underestimate these adverse side effects of corn-derived ethanol. After all, ethanol fuel production dramatically increases the demand for corn, bolstering their industry.
So, why does this matter?
Well, according to the USDA, E10 produces 4% lower emissions than pure gasoline, but according to Dr Lark, it actually produces 2.4% more emissions. This might sound like a fraction of a difference, but the US consumed a staggering 135 billion gallons of E10 fuel in 2022. This means that the US’s E10 fuel use is actually producing 19 million more tonnes of carbon dioxide each year than we thought!
You might find this figure shocking, but I don’t. Biofuels were never going to be a climate solution. They are a halfway house solution that is ineffective and already too late. Meanwhile, fully fledged, genuine planet-saving technologies, like renewable energy, nuclear power, battery-powered vehicles, and even hydrogen-powered vehicles, are already out there and ready to make a difference. We can save this beautiful planet; we just need to stop faffing around with pointless solutions like biofuels.
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