Summit promotes renewable energy for Ohio economy

Columbus - More than 350 people jammed into the Fawcett Center on the Ohio State University campus Monday for the state's first renewable energy summit. The focus was economic development.

"Renewable energy is the biggest thing to happen in rural America since rural electrification," said Matthew Roberts, assistant professor at OSU's school of agricultural, environmental and development economics, and one of the summit's speakers.

He was describing the economic impact of building scores of refineries across the Midwest to turn corn into ethanol for automotive fuels.

Add to that the conversion of animal waste into methane fuel, soybean-based biodiesel, wind farms to generate electricity and solar power projects, and you have the makings of an economic revolution.

The conference is one of dozens of similar gatherings sponsored by a broad coalition of agricultural, forestry, environmental and national security groups called 25x'25, a reference to the goal of generating 25 percent of the nation's energy from renewable sources by 2025.

One specific goal is eventually to produce 60 billion to 80 billion gallons of ethanol per year, most of it from grass, corn stalk, wood chips, and other materials known collectively as biomass. The ethanol will likely be produced in refineries that now use corn.

If the technology to convert such material into ethanol were in use today, the nation could replace 30 percent of its gasoline with ethanol, said Frederick Michel, OSU associate professor of food, agricultural and biological engineering.

In the short run, though, corn is the ethanol feedstock.

This year's 5 billion gallons of production required 1.4 billion bushels of corn and pushed up the price of corn to nearly $3.50 per bushel. Next year, the industry expects to produce more than 7 billion gallons. In less than a decade, production is expected to top out at 14 billion to 15 billion per year.

The creation of an infrastructure to support ethanol production and other new renewable energies promises to rejuvenate rural America, said Tom Door, undersecretary for rural development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For example, every billion barrels of oil that corn-based ethanol replaces at today's prices represents $55 billion to $75 billion in new money, he said in an interview. "In comparison, net farm income for the last 10 years has averaged about $55 billion. This new money will create a revolution. This year the total value [of ethanol] will amount to $275 billion to $280 billion."

Already, nearly half of all gasoline sold in the nation contains ethanol as an additive to make the fuel burn more completely and cleanly, said Bob Dinneen, president of the national Renewable Fuels Association.

Other projects discussed:

Anaerobic digesters, a biochemical process that converts animal wastes into methane and other byproducts. Though not as well-developed as ethanol production, these could be another economic driver, said Door.

One proposed digester project in Iowa, valued at about $100 million, will involve 22 million-gallon digesters that will produce enough gas to power 77,000 homes. The plan is to sell the gas to a major pipeline company.

The USDA guarantees loans for digester projects across the country, and in Ohio, the agency has given a $500,000 grant to a digester project that will make gas to help power an ethanol plant.

Another developing market for digester gas is using the power to generate electricity, often with micro-turbines, and soon with fuel cells.

Fuel cells. Clevelander Benson Lee, president of start-up Technology Management Inc., told the group that his fuel cell system can use biogas, ammonia, even pure soybean oil. Lee's prototype is a 1,000-watt version, but his company hopes eventually to manufacture them as large as 30,000 watts.

Fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen from the air to produce electricity, heat and water. The problem is where to get the hydrogen. Most fuel cell makers have developed systems to strip the hydrogen from natural gas or diesel fuel. Lee's system is unique in that it can take hydrogen from bio-based fuels, making it ideal, he said, for dairy farms.

Biodiesel. It's also on the increase, though not close to ethanol levels.

Only 30 million gallons of soy diesel were produced nationally last year. But the forecast is a billion gallons by 2009, said Mack Findley, national sales manager for biodiesel producer Peter Cremere North America.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138