Des Moines Register
06-10-07
Ethanol producers work hard to be green
BRUCE RASTETTER
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Many Iowans have embraced the development and expansion of the biofuels
industry because of its role in helping America achieve energy independence
while providing substantial economic benefits to the people of America's
heartland.
We have been interested observers of The Des Moines Register's continuing
coverage of the impacts of biofuels locally and around the country in its "Fueling
Iowa's Future" series. We would like to add our perspective to the debate in
relation to the Register's June 3 section on "How Biofuels Pollute."
I serve as the CEO of Hawkeye Renewables and also have the pleasure of
serving on the board of directors of the Renewable Fuels Association. With more
than 200 million gallons of production, Hawkeye is the largest producer of
ethanol with headquarters in Iowa. I can say without hesitation that the business
leaders in our industry are all proud to work in a "green" industry and strive to not
only produce an environmentally friendly fuel, but also do it in an environmentally
friendly fashion.
I would like to respond to several of the points made in Sunday's Register with
some background on the many safeguards that are taken by any company that
builds a new ethanol plant in Iowa.
The Register stated, "Plants emit higher levels of toxics than expected." New
plants like ours spend more than $6 million on a thermal oxidizer that greatly
limits the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted into the air.
Instead of smoke being emitted, it is steam that is produced. Additionally, at
every plant we have installed a CO2 scrubber, ensuring that the absolute
minimum amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. It
should be noted that any CO2 emitted by an ethanol plant is simply releasing the
CO2 that was consumed by the corn plant in photosynthesis. This greenhousegas-neutral balance is much more environmentally sensitive than, say, most
power plants in the United States.
The Register also stated, "Wastewater often pollutes rivers." We test all water
emitted from our plants, and because of a nearly $1 million methanator that was
installed that removes excess VOCs from water, the water discharged from our
plants actually meets federal guidelines for human drinking-water consumption. It
is also worth noting that our plant and many others have an ethanol-production
process called zero process water discharge. In simple terms, this means that
the plant does not discharge any water that comes in contact with corn in the
production process.
The Register stated, "Biofuel plants' thirst creates water worries." New plants like
ours spend $500,000 or more installing water cooling towers so the plant can reuse the water it takes to produce ethanol and thereby hold down the overall
gallons of water a plant uses. We are also keenly interested in the work that
biofuels experts like Iowa State's University's Robert C. Brown are
undertaking to reduce the amount of water used in the ethanol-production
process.
As the Register reports further on the biofuels industry, I sincerely hope that the
coverage reports the hard work that local ethanol producers are doing to make
their green fuels environmentally sensitive in the production process as well.
BRUCE RASTETTER of Iowa Falls is the CEO of Hawkeye Renewables.