The Hays Daily News

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Ag secretary: Ethanol plants a good thing

Published on -1/9/2008, 1:06 PM

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By MIKE CORN Hays Daily News Kansas Agriculture Secretary Adrian Polansky couldn't say enough good things about ethanol plants in Kansas. He even suggested some of the plants might save some Kansas communities. Polansky's comments were the most favorable concerning ethanol production, the topic of a delayed session Wednesday on bioenergy and water in Kansas. Designed for members of the state's basin advisory committees, Wednesday's session was the last of three across Kansas. It was there that nearly 100 people attending learned 11 ethanol plants are in operation, with five more in various stages of development. The plants in operation have the capacity to produce 480 million gallons of ethanol each year, according to Ray Hammarlund, with the Kansas Corporation Commission. Those under construction will add another 317 million gallons to the mix each year, he said. The plants in operation use about 113 million bushels of grain each year, a mix of corn and grain sorghum. When the new plants come online, that use will climb to slightly more than 284 million bushels. With a combined production of 698 million bushels, ethanol will account for 40 percent of the corn and grain sorghum production in the state. Bill Hargrove, director of the Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment at Kansas State University, told people attending that the federal government's goal is to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017, and 60 billion gallons by 2030. Last year's production of 3 billion gallons of ethanol required about a third of the nation's corn crop. That use is forecast to increase to about 40 percent this year. Reaching that 35-billion-gallon goal, Hargrove said, would require more corn than what is produced in the United States. "That doesn't seem too feasible to me," he said. Instead, production would have to switch to cellulosic production, using grasses and residue from corn and grain sorghum crops. To produce just 12 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol from crop residue, two-thirds of the corn residue would have to be used. Hargrove cautioned against using Conservation Reserve Program acres, and suggested instead other perennial grasses be used, such as switchgrass. One area mentioned frequently was water use by the ethanol plants. That also has become something of a matter of controversy. Generally, said Greg Krissek, government affairs director for ICM Inc., the Colwich-based designer of ethanol plants, it takes anywhere from three to four gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol. About two-thirds of that, he said, is used for cooling. A 50-million-gallon plant, Krissek said, would require about 150 million to 250 million gallons of water a year. For comparison, a 50-million-gallon plant, such as the one in either Russell or at Campus, would require about 614 acre feet of water to operate. That's about what would be used to irrigate nearly 320 acres of corn or supply water to a town of 4,000 people. That amount of water, said Scott Ross, water commissioner for the Division of Water Resources, easily would provide water for the communities of Atwood, Oberlin or St. Francis. Speakers used many comparisons, suggesting it takes 1,500 gallons of water to produce a barrel of beer, 24 gallons to make a pound of plastic and 150 gallons to produce an average size Sunday newspaper. Special-projects coordinator Mike Corn can be reached at (785) 628-1081, Ext. 129, or by e-mail at mcorn@dailynews.net.