On Nov. 30, 2023, the New York Occasions ran an article concerning the position bioethanol produced from corn will play in constructing a marketplace for Sustainable Aviation Gasoline (SAF). Progress Vitality CEO Emily Skor submitted the next letter to the editor in response:
A November 30 article on Sustainable Aviation Gasoline (SAF) urged that crop-based inputs, like ethanol, might expend an excessive amount of water for irrigation. The science exhibits in any other case.
The water required to supply ethanol fell nearly 50 % for the reason that early 2000s. In the present day, manufacturing solely requires 2.7 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol – in comparison with 13 gallons of water to supply one gallon of gasoline. And, in contrast to in oil manufacturing, most of that water is returned to the ambiance as steam.
Certainly, the information exhibits that U.S. ethanol is an more and more sustainable gas on a lifecycle emissions foundation. The newest Division of Vitality examine, revealed by Argonne Nationwide Laboratory in 2021, discovered that corn ethanol has 44–52 % decrease emissions than gasoline. Argonne’s analysis additionally exhibits that, with climate-smart farming practices, ethanol-to-jet SAF could be 153% much less carbon intensive than petroleum-based jet gas.
Merely put, plant-based biofuels are the one sources of fresh, renewable vitality obtainable in massive sufficient volumes to decarbonize the skies. That’s a possibility we can’t afford to overlook.
