Water, Water, Everywhere?

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Environmental Considerations of Biofuels in
Glades Area Economic Redevelopment
John C. Capece, Ph.D. Caloosahatchee River
Citizens Association (CRCA Riverwatch)
January 10, 2009 24th Annual Everglades
Coalition Conference Miami, FL
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CRCA - RIVERWATCH U.S. Sugar Purchase in Hendry
Glades Counties
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CRCA - RIVERWATCH Southern Flow-way from Lake
Okeechobee

• CRCA debated officially endorsed the southern
  flow-way concept in 2007-2008.
• CRCA was unable to reach consensus on the U.S.
  Sugar buyout because of
• Uncertainties regarding state commitment to the
  economic redevelopment of the affected rural
  communities.
• Concerns over the structure of the lease-back
  component of the purchase agreement.
• A desire to see a flow-way based on dual-use
  lands incorporating fundamental changes in
  farming and economic compensation systems.

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CRCA Riverwatch Concerns with Energy Issues

• Energy, greenhouse gases, climate change sea
  level rise are the overarching threats to South
  Florida.
• 2006-2007 involvement in the FPL Glades Power
  Park coal-fired electric generation plant near
  Moore Haven.
• Some in Riverwatch (John Capece and others)
  advocated a coal gasification plant with carbon
  sequestration and mercury capture partially out
  of concern that pursuing biofuels, as a national
  energy policy, would result in greater negative
  impacts on the environment food supplies.

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What Are Biofuels?

• Food for People Livestock
• Energy for Society
• Biomass combustion for heat and cooking
• Biomass combustion for electrical power
• Ethanol (alcohol) from fermentation
• Biodiesel (oil) production
• Biogas (methane) anaerobic digestion
• 2nd generation (isobutanol, cellulosic, syngas)
• 3rd generation (from algae feedstock)

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Are Biofuels A Good Option?

• This presentation outlines some of the
  considerations methodologies for developing
  rational plans policies for any dramatic
  expansion of the Glades biofuels industry.

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How To Evaluate the Merits of Biofuels?

• Various criteria
• CASH FLOW
• ENERGETICS
• ENVIRONMENTAL
• NATIONAL SECURITY
• OTHER ECONOMICISSUES
• OTHER SOCIALISSUES

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Cash Flow Free Markets

• Traditionally thought to integrate all system
  costs with social costs moderated through the
  political law enforcement process.
• Includes subsidies tariffs
• Excludes externalized costs
• The low-cost producer isnt always the most
  efficient. Rather, it is often the most
  externalized.
• Tends to push systems towards high-yield
  monocultures to the exclusion of other
  considerations (natural resources depletion).

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Energetics Total Energy Budget

• Energy accounting or the flows storage of
  energy into and out of a system.
• H.T. Odum work at UF (with others including Mark
  T. Brown)
• Provides a more comprehensive analysis if, like
  traditional economics, all input, output, and
  impact categories are included.
• Like traditional economics, an energetics model
  can neglect some cost categories and social
  considerations.

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Emergy (embodied energy) Analysis of Agricultural
Production Systems
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Emergy (embodied energy) Analysis of Sugarcane
Ethanol
from Consuelo L. F. Pereira and Enrique Ortega,
2007 (Brazil)
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Comparison of Biofuels Emergy
The true value of energy to society is the net
energy, which is what's left after the energy
costs of getting and concentrating that energy
are subtracted. Odum, 1974.

• The ability to make these assessments assumes
  that consensus exists on what categories of
  impacts represent costs of the process.

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Photosynthetic Efficiencya limiting factor

• A comparison of conversion efficiency from solar
  to usable energy (taking into account the whole
  energy budgets) shows that photovoltaics are 100
  times more efficient than corn ethanol and 10
  times more efficient than the best biofuel.

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Environmental Impacts Criteria

• Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)
• Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR)
• Ecological Footprint
• Composite Sustainability Performance Index
• Green Biofuels Index

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Net Energy Output CO2 Emissions
from U.K. Dept. of TransportJan. 2008
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Requirements of Biofuels Production

• Muck Soil Subsidence
• 40 tons/ac yield with 0.5 muck loss, 10 tons C
• Fertilizers Pesticides Use
• Water Consumption
• Water Pollution
• Requirements of the biofuels refining process are
  highly dependent on the specific technology
  employed.

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Required Biofuels Inputs
Biofuel Source Water Fertilizer Pesticides Energy of land
Corn high high high high 200
Sugarcane high high med med 50
Switch grass low low low low 80
Wood residue med low low low 200
Algae med low low high 2
of U.S. farm land required to meet half of U.S.
demand.Table from Groom, Gray Townsend in
Conservation Biology.
Sugarcane and switch grass are highest among
existing technologies, but algae appears to hold
greatest potential as a future biofuel
technology.
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Other Social and Economic Factors

• LAND USE CHANGES
• Without changes in peoples diet or improvements
  in agricultural productivity, using crop land for
  fuel production simply accelerates the conversion
  of natural lands to farms, with the accompanying
  loss of habitat and other landscape functions.
• COMPETITION WITH FOOD
• The recent spike in energy costs led to food
  riots in many nations. A rapidly-growing
  biofuels industry could increase suffering in
  developing nations.

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What Does the Ag College Think?

• The UF-IFAS sponsorship announcements on Public
  Radio specifically refer to bifuel energy from
  AGRICULTURAL WASTES.
• This may not reflect any conclusion on the part
  of UF-IFAS regarding the net merits of producing
  fuel directly from crops, but it is notable.

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What Will Be Government Policy?
Obama Economic Speech, Jan. 8, 2009

• we will double the production of alternative
  energy in the next three years.
• jobs building solar panels and wind turbines,
  constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings,
  and developing the new energy technologies that
  will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a
  cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.

The speech included no direction mention of
biofuels, which could suggest that the new
administration may not provide a blanket
endorsement of biofuels. They may want to look
at biofuel options on a case by case basis.
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Conclusions

• Any subsidies for an expanded biofuels industry
  on public lands in the Glades area should target
  balanced returns (economic, environmental
  social).
• Proper assessment of biofuels costs benefits
  requires a rational, structured
  processcharacterized by transparency and
  accurate assignments of costs values.
• Total value of the landscape functions (including
  water storage, muck conservation, etc.) should be
  considered in the farming systems development,
  not simply cash flow from maximum yields of
  traditional agricultural practices.

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CRCA - RIVERWATCH www.Caloosahatchee.org