One of the first positive reports I've read on Ethanol production...Charles must have been hired by GM

Corn-Based Ethanol: The Energy Answer? By Charles Stillman, May 2006

General Motors has a new advertising campaign called "Live Green, Go Yellow" commercial. The TV commercials show young people running around handing out yellow shirts to passersby as an announcer asks "What if we could turn the whole world yellow? We'd have cleaner air and an energy source that grows back every year. Yellow is the color of corn, refined into E85 ethanol. A fuel that lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and can reduce our dependence on oil."

E85 is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol is a renewable fuel produced by fermenting and distilling crops or other vegetation into a high grade alcohol. About 90 percent of ethanol produced in the United States comes from corn kernels grown in the Midwest. Ethanol has been used as an automotive fuel for over a century. Henry Ford designed his Model T in 1908 to run on an ethanol/gasoline mixture. Over the years its popularity has waxed and waned. Ethanol was banned during Prohibition unless combined with gasoline as a mixture. Its use increased following the end of Prohibition. During World War II it helped supplement scarce oil resources.
The skyrocketing oil prices brought on by the oil embargo of the 1970s forced the United States to look to alternative fuels, like ethanol, to help power vehicles. When the oil began to flow again, ethanol was shelved and not seriously considered again until several years ago when refiners began looking for a substitute for MTBE. After several states, including New York and California decided to ban MTBE, refineries voluntarily began replacing MTBE with ethanol, fearing lawsuits brought on by MTBE’s contamination of groundwater.

The average car in the United States can run on gasoline containing up to 10 percent ethanol. Flexible-fuel vehicles, or FFVs, can run on E85, pure gasoline, or any combination of these. Phillip J. Lampert, executive director of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, estimates that there are up to six million FFVs on American roads today, though only about 2 percent of them are driving on E85. A number of companies including Ford, Dodge, Mercedes, Chevrolet, and Mazda, manufacture FFVs for the U.S. market. (For a full list of Flex-fuel vehicles, click here.)
Despite the growing number of flex-fuel vehicles, there are relatively few filling stations outside the Midwest that carry ethanol. In the entire state of Texas there is just one E85 pump available to the public, located in San Antonio. This summer, Kroger supermarkets plan to install E85 pumps at 10 filling stations in Houston. Dallas area residents will be able to fill up at eight of their local Kroger stores. To aid in the promotion of ethanol, the federal government is offering a 30 percent tax credit to fueling stations that add biofuels, like E85, to their selections. Across the country, the number of places to fill up on E85 is expected to more than quadruple to 2,600 fueling stations by year’s end. A slight drawback to filling up on E85 gas is that it provides about 30 percent less energy than unleaded gasoline, translating into 5 -15 percent decreased efficiency in miles per gallon.

Researchers used to debate over ethanol’s net energy yield. Net energy yield refers to the amount of energy that is needed to produce the fuel- i.e the energy that goes into growing, harvesting, transporting and finally converting the corn into ethanol- in relation to the energy that the ethanol itself then provides as a fuel. The overwhelming majority of recent studies on the subject have concluded that corn-derived ethanol has a positive net energy yield, generating 25 to 35 percent more energy than is needed to produce the fuel. Also, corn-based ethanol actually requires less fossil energy (i.e. energy derived from diesel fuel, natural gas or coal) for its production than does gasoline. The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model, (highlighted by U.S. Department of Energy in its assessment of ethanol), indicates that .74 million British thermal units (Btu) of fossil is used to produce 1 million Btu of corn ethanol. The production of gasoline requires 1.23 million Btu of fossil energy to produce 1 million Btu of gasoline. Scott Sklar, president of The Stella Group, a national strategic marketing and policy firm for clean energy in Washington, DC, estimates that in some cases the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil is used for every two barrels of oil extracted, and that figure does not include the energy needed to then transport or refine the oil.

The American Coalition for Ethanol reports that there are 97 ethanol production facilities in operation in the U.S. with the capacity to produce 4.5 billion gallons of ethanol. An additional 33 ethanol facilities are under construction, and at least a dozen existing plants are expanding their operations. Texas’ first ethanol plants are currently being built in the state’s panhandle. Panhandle Energies of Dumas, LP is the first to begin construction. Company officials estimate the plant will produce at least 30 million gallons of ethanol a year. The second plant is being constructed by Dallas-based Panda Energy International, Inc. Its projected yield of 100 million gallons of ethanol per year will make it one of the biggest producers in the nation. The facilities will be located in Hereford, Texas, just south of Amarillo to take advantage of the town’s massive free energy source. Hereford is home to one of the largest cattle herds in the world. Panda plans to utilize about a quarter of the 6,300 tons of daily manure produced by the cows to fully power the production plant.

There is debate among environmentalists as to how eco-friendly a fuel ethanol really is. Using E85 corn ethanol helps reduce human effects on global warming by lowering greenhouse gases like CO2 by 18-29 percent. E85 also helps reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and particle matter pollution by some 50 percent. It also provides money to farmers and strengthens the domestic economy while decreasing the need for oil from foreign, often volatile regions of the world. On the other hand, Midwest corn farming is the most chemical-intensive of all U.S. farming- requiring massive amounts of fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides. While gasoline reformulated with ethanol may reduce the emissions of some pollutants, it may actually increase tailpipe emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Advanced catalytic converters can be installed to drastically reduce these emissions. In the past there were also some pollution issues related to byproducts of ethanol production. VOCs, including formaldehyde and acetic acid, both known carcinogens and methanol, a hazardous pollutant are released when the fermented corn mash is dried to provide feed for livestock. Thermal oxidizers have recently been installed in plants to burn off these pollutants.

Corn-derived ethanol is not the panacea to the United States’ long-term energy woes. In the years to come, it can help minimally reduce our petroleum imports and limit large amounts of pollution. A better answer to our energy problems lies with cellulosic ethanol derived from crop refuse like corn stalks and grasses like miscanthus and switchgrass. Cellulosic ethanol requires considerably less fertilizers, provides a greater yield per acre, possesses a higher energy content, and has significantly lower emissions than ethanol produced from corn. The problem is cellulosic materials are costly to convert into ethanol which has limited production. Despite its drawbacks, corn-derived ethanol is a renewable fuel that provides a cleaner, more environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline. Ultimately, in our efforts to become a more sustainable society, we will need to transition to clean, renewable energy sources that do not pollute our land, air and water.